Improving Your Low Cost Photography; Part 2

Reflection in Sunglasses; Frankenmuth, Michigan (at lunch!)

www.dennismook.com

In the last post, I gave you four basic tips in starting the process of improving your photography, whether it is with a point-and-shoot camera, or a more expensive and sophisticated camera.  Just to recap:

1)  You have to have the desire to improve.  You have to be serious about it.  If you are not serious, none of this will help.

2)  Go find the user's manual for your camera, sit down and study it carefully.  If you can't find it, usually you can go to the camera manufacturer's website and download a PDF copy of it.  Also, it is not a bad idea to have a PDF copy on your smartphone, iPod or iPad.  You normally have one of those devices nearby and can easily reference the manual if necessary.

3)  Acquire some educational material in the form of books or articles that will give you some additional basic photographic information that you need.  Also, there are many, many websites, podcasts, RSS feeds and online articles that are available for free that will give you all the information you need to improve.


Waterfront, Hampton, Virginia

4)  Seriously look at others' photographs.  You can gain an immense amount of knowledge of what a good photograph looks like by looking at others' work.

Today, I will add to those four items.

Photography can really be broken down into two facets.  There is the technical facet in which you need to understand and become one with your tools.  Then there is the artistic and creative facet which is all about your art.  I think you have to know both well in order to better your photography.  So, as we progress through this little essay, I will continue to highlight your need to improve both aspects of your photography.

The next important advice I could give you is to go out and practice, practice, practice.  You can't be a better photographer sitting in your easy chair reading about it.  As with everything, you need to practice, experiment, fail, try, try harder and keep trying.  You need to honestly look at your work and see your failures, then figure out, both aesthetically and technically how you can improve.  As the saying goes, when you fall off a horse, you get back on it and ride.  Get back out and make more photographs to prove to yourself that you have learned from your mistakes.

Very seldom do any of my photographs get seen that have not be processed in photographic editing software.  I'm not saying you need to buy Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, Lightroom or Aperture, but you probably need to tweak your images in order to maximize their appearance as well as meet your vision of how the picture should look to you.  Almost all my images get a minimum of a) straightening the horizon if it needs it, b) brighten or darken the image depending upon the look I want or because my in-camera exposure was not good (sometimes I mess up and don't make the best exposure so I have to correct the brightness of an image), c) increase or decrease the contrast depending upon how dull or bright the day happened to be, d) increase or decrease the intensity of the color--saturation--to suit my vision of the scene, e) crop the image to improve its composition if I could not do that when making the image (you always want to get it right in the camera if possible, but sometimes you just can't), f) convert to black and white if that is what I intended and g) sharpen the image to counteract the "blurring" (just to give it an easy label) that is inherent in the digital capture process.  If you don't have an image editing program, there are some really good free ones, such as Gimp that will serve your needs.  I highly recommend improving your images through software.

Often times, a comment is made about one of my images like, "How come your photograph looks different from mine?  We were at the same place and the same time?"  Well, before I click the shutter, I usually have some idea of what I want the final image to look like.  I then enhance the image as taken with software to meet my artistic expression.  If I were a photojournalist, documentary photographer, wildlife documentarian/photographer, I would not do any of that.  It would be unethical.  But my photographs represent my vision, my art, my conceptualization of what I wanted the scene to represent and not necessary strict reality.  And, that is okay.  You should also pre-visualize how you want your final image to look before you press that shutter button so you can, at the time of making the image, have the raw material to tweak it so it meets your expectations.

Walking Under Water, Seattle, Washington

When you find something that peaks your interest, stirs an emotion in you and you want to record that scene because of that emotion, don't just take one photograph of it.  As they say, "work" the scene.  Take several photographs from different angles, different heights, using different focal lengths on your lens and with different exposures.  Step back but zoom in.  Step close but zoom out.  You will see that the effect of the foreground to the background is much different.  Take close-ups of details of the scene, medium distance shots as well as overall photographs.  You will find the more you exercise your creativity by photographing the scene in every way you can think, the better you will be.  Pixels are free!  You are not wasting film.  It is not costing you anything but some time and you are gaining an immense body of knowledge and experience.

Another aspect of taking more than one shot of something is camera shake.  I usually take two or sometimes three photographs in rapid succession.  Why?  Well, I'm getting older and I am not quite as steady as I used to be when I was younger, so sometimes I get a bit of camera movement when I press the shutter or when the shutter speed is long.  Usually, the second photo in the series of two or three is a tad bit sharper than then first.  Compensation.  We all learn to compensate in ways that counteract our shortcomings.  So, if you are older, switch the camera over to "continuous" and take a couple of shots instead of one.  Additionally, an expression may not be quite right, eyes may be half open, a blurry bird flies through the scene or something else can cause the image to be a disappointment if you only take one shot.

When you visit a place or are on a vacation or road trip, don't just make "record" shots.  Record shots are ones that say "I was here."  You know the type.  Two people lined up and standing in front of Niagara Falls or the Grand Canyon.  Try to take some time to understand how the place makes you feel.  Try to conceptualize or even verbalize what that place means to you and whoever may be with you.  Then try hard, by "working" the scene, to find a way to capture that feeling or meaning the place has to you.  It may be a silhouette of a stranger in front of those roaring falls at Niagara.  It may be sunrise with long, warm shadows at the grand canyon.  It may just be capturing a stolen moment when the person who is there with you isn't paying attention and can be seen just peering out in wonder.  Make the record shots also, but don't just make the record shots.  In the future, when you look back at your photos, you want that feeling to come back to you.  The photos will mean much more to you.


Abandoned Garage, Blackstone, Virginia

Also, I think it is important for you to find someone who you can trust, and who has some understanding or photography or art, to be your critic.  You need someone to whom you can show your work to get honest feedback on how you are doing.  Another set of eyes, along with honest critique, is invaluable to understanding, aesthetically, how you can improve.  Now don't get some jackleg amateur art critic who thinks he or she knows everything about everything to fill this role.  You don't want someone who thinks he or she knows it all and is condescending toward you.  You want honesty and helpfulness, not destructiveness.  Everyone needs constructive criticism to improve.

More next time.  I think you have plenty to get your started and I would encourage you to get started.  No need to put it off.  If you are serious, and you are since you have read this far, there is no need to not do something now to get started--even if it is reading that doggoned owner's manual.

All of the images in today's post were made with an inexpensive Canon point-and-shoot camera.  There is nothing in the previous post or this one that you couldn't do yourself.

Thanks for looking.

Enjoy!
Dennis Mook