You have to start somewhere!

Danny & Helen

We are newbies to photography. Well not new to taking photos but new in the sense that we want to take better photos!

Until now we have never really thought much about our shots, simply point and shoot for the sake of having the area or moment for memories.

We have a Canon 300D DSLR and several cheapy point and shoot digital camera's. We use the cheaper ones for use on our motorcycle riding trips and sometimes we take the DSLR to get nicer photos. Neither of us really know how to use the DSLR camera so we simply leave it in auto mode a shoot away!

However having said all that we are at amazed at some of the photography on this site, being rank amateurs like we are, we really want to be able to take nicer shots.

It has occurred to us that the shots we see here, although the equipment used would be quality, it has a lot more to do with being able to recognize a good shot and knowing where or when to take it.

So I guess what we are here for is to learn. Once again all we have done in the past is simply get off the bikes, grab the camera and click the button. There has been no thought go into how the picture will look or how we could make it better, we simply just capture the image for memories sake.

We were wondering if one of you kind people could check out our blog at www.dannyandhelen.com and take a look at our pathetic photos and start to give some advice on what we should be doing to start getting better photos.

It is slightly embarrassing showing our photos on a site like this, but feel free to be amused as we know there is a large scope for the road ahead in improving our photography

We were hoping someone could grab a few photos and put them here and give advice on say, if you had of used this angle, or cropped this area out etc etc this particular photo would have been ok.

Thanks for any help. Here are a couple of photos from our blog, as you see we simply point and shoot...at anything at any given time!

David_S85

Welcome to DGrin, Danny and Helen!

Danny & Helen

Thanks for the welcome. Any takers on giving a dummy some advice?

mehampson

Welcome to DGrin. I think the first thing to say would be never, ever use the full auto modes again. Start shooting in Aperture Priority (Av) mode, and experiment to see how large apertures, with lower numbers, look compared to smaller apertures, with higher numbers. You'll want to compare how it affects the depth of field (the plane of what's in focus) and the shutter speed in particular. Once you have a handle on that, you'll have about a billion times more control over your images, and it's a great stepping stone to more advanced technique later.

You're absolutely right about gear coming in second to vision. Gear is important. Thinking about what you're doing with it is even more so.

Before I say anything specific, by the way, a lot of people misunderstand the purpose of critique -- I don't mean this as a reflection on anything you've said, just that it's something that's often overlooked in how-tos and tutorials. It's not about being flattering or cruel, or about encouragement per se -- ignore any useless 'feedback' from people who don't get that. It's about developing your ability to articulate what you like and dislike about an image, so you can better visualize a shot before you take it. You should always be your harshest, pickiest critic -- self-critique is by far the most important skill a photographer can develop, and it's good practice to think critically about *every* picture you see, anywhere. And look at every photo book in the library, making notes about what you find interesting in the work of the photographers you admire.

Now, of the four images you've posted, the first one is my favorite. It's a bit abstract, and I like the enclosed green space among the canopy with the lines of the trees beneath. It's overexposed from the sky and you're losing detail there, but not enough to invoke a mood or atmosphere; this is something that a different metering mode or exposure compensation, could address in the future, but I wouldn't worry about those things yet. Something is a little too purple in the ground and stones, which may be related to the exposure or white balance, or just the size of the posted image. But the green in the foliage is great, it's the perfect shade of green to suggest life and growth. The wood in the lower left corner isn't part of the composition, and I'd have stepped forward or to the right until it was out of frame -- depending on the composition that looks better.

So I hope that's the sort of feedback you're looking for. There's a learning curve ahead of you, but it's a really rewarding one, and it says a lot that you're interested in moving forward on it. Keep having fun with it, show off what you're proudest of, and when you get discouraged, remember the saying that everybody's first ten thousand pictures are their worst