How to find that decent picture?

wastedyears1981

wastedyears1981

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126
Name
Paul
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi all,

Im pretty new to photography. And I look at sites like flickr ect at other peoples work. When Im out an about, I struggle to find anything or see the things other people do. I have had the odd shot that Ive thought are ok. But nothing as emotional or even slightly inspiring as other peoples work.

Im kind of swining towards urban photography .. i love going down the dark and dingy back alleys (purely for photography reasons lol). Places like subways with graffitti, or disused buildings are the places that interest me photography wise, but when I get there, i struggle to get anything i feel is decent. I seem to take 100's of photos, and end up deleting a large majority of them.

Does anyone have any tips? What requisits do people have when considering taking a photo?
 
Hi Paul

Your discribing some great places to get some lovely atmospheric photos but i think you sound a bit too tence, relax, look at things from different perspectives, higher, lower. along the line of a graffiti filled wall rather then just straight at it. I like to take photos from a view that you dont normally see, experiment, thats the key....good luck with it.
 
there are forums,mags ,clubs all telling you how to take the perfect,but there is one thing you can't beat......practice practice and the third thing parctice.digital cameras are great for this as you just delete the rubbish shots.My photography has come on a ton since I bought a digital camera
 
The best piece of advice I have ever been given in regards to photography is finding a theme. Now when I go out with my cameras and I know I want to shoot grafitti, I'll look for humorous grafitti and spend a couple of hours just looking for stuff that makes me laugh. I end up walking round in a totally different way, always looking.

My friend and I are always on the look out for lonely benches :D
 
cheers for that salfordman, i buy all the mags, read up on the internet ect. Feel confident with the camera and all the settings, just when i get there i draw blanks. I take semi decent pics, but feel i could do better.

I think I'll try to enjoy myself more when i get to the locations and try to soak in the atmosphere.
 
The other thing I'd suggest that you do is to really analyse the work that you're looking at by other people. What is it that you like about it? What has the photographer done to elevate it from an OK shot of an alley or bit of graffiti to something that really inspires you?

Is it the time of day that it was taken, the way that shadows are falling or have they chosen an interesting focal point? Perhaps it's something in the processing they've used, the angle they shot it from or the overall composition.

There's a lot to be learnt from this type of exercise and it's all stuff that you can apply to your own photography and that will help you to look at things differently.
 
The most important thing I've learned is to think before you shoot! Find something that catches your eye. You don't have to be looking into every nook and cranny, just take your camera and walk. If something catches your eye while yo're not thinking about it, then it has some appeal, somewhere. So stop, have a look at it. Why did it catch the eye? The way light bounces off an object, the colours in a landscape, etc. That is what you want to capture. So, how are you going to get what you see into an image? Compose the image, and take plenty of shots.
 
This is very similar to the advice already given.
Find a photo you like and that you could have taken (i.e. not a photo of the pyramids if you live in Basingstoke) and try to copy it. Study the photo for camera angle, depth of field, composition, lighting etc etc and try to imitate it. The intention is not to pass off someone else's idea as your own but for this process to give you an understanding of how the various factors contribute to the image.
 
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