One lesson you've learned.....

Marcel

Marcel

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Marcel
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Yes
Right.

We're all here on TP to discuss our love for photography.
We're all also here to help each other learn and improve our shooting.
In order to encourage everyone to think about their own learning and how they've grown as a photographer, I've started this thread.

I want you to take a look at your photos, however early or old, and think about the things you've learned...preferably from TP.

Now, choose ONE photo that reflects a particularly important photography lesson that you've learned. It could be, for example, one that shows you now understand the rule of thirds, or maybe an important processing technique. Even work flow perhaps, or how to bounce a flashgun from a nearby wall.
It can be a simple lesson, or a big lesson, but it has to be something that improves your photography.
Choose your one best image that shows your understanding, and tell us what you learned.

This is a chance to show off. Show us your good stuff (y)

I'll start with this :

050902_1548.jpg


When I took this, I took loads of shots at the same time, and every single one, I had the rule of thirds in mind. I tried some that broke it too (subject central). Some worked, some didn't.
The trick with any rule is knowing when it can/should be broken :)

Ps. Dont be afraid of repeating what other people have learned! (So if someone else has learned the rule of thirds...please feel free to show us :))
 
From the Manchester meet last December and my first TP meet other than the conference in York. I hadn't done any landscape/urban architectural stuff at all and with some great advice from DD about using symmetry I took this one which I'm really happy with.


Symmetry works when it is accurate, if it's a touch out it will show.
 
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That's a cracking shot Marcel.
 
One thing I have very much learnt from TP and it's members is not to be frightened to use flash when its needed. Whether it's a simple strobe to multi studio lights, and everything in between. When I joined TP I hated even popping the onboard, now I flash away with gay abandon.
I am using a picture I took today, dead simple shot of a friends dog, didn't 'need' the flash for exposure, plenty of natural light, but putting the catch-lights in the eyes woth the flash has brought the image alive for me and they wouldn't be there without some artificial light intervention as his brows were shading his eyes from the naturally available stuff.

YWP_0202-Edit.jpg

Thankyou to you guys that have helped me along the way, you know who you are, your brains are probably still aching (y)
 
To be honest I did 4yrs at college for art, painting/sculpture and photography, so I did my learning there, for settings, composition/dev and printing, and what makes a good image,

Until digital DSLRS came out then its woo like relearn everything, camera wise, then finding friends on TP/meets helped a lot, so I couldnt say just one thing but many things Ive learned

Can we start a thread what "I would Like To Learn", I for one would like to learn studio work but have no access to one or models and cant buy stuff, is way out of my budget,



Thanks TP (y)
 
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Not really a massive thing but some people cleared up some stuff about shooting in manual mode which i am using mostly now. Also brought my attention to the sharpness on some of my insect photos which helped a lot with this shot.

4828125943_5a6969b7e3.jpg


Also thanks to everyone here, so friendly and helpful :)

Tyler
 
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I dont have any particular pic to show but my lesson learned is to shoot RAW..... so much more flexible in PP should you make a slight mistake.
Also, I have shot manual since about month 2 of being on here but you do need to understand the effects made to a shot when changing F number or speed. Manual is the best way to learn but to start with there's a lot of duds
 
Stunning picture Marcel (y)

I have learnt a great deal from my time on Talk Photography. I have been taking pictures as a hobby now for a little over three years and in that time it has taken over most of my free time. I ask a lot of questions and I try and answer a lot of questions too. I find that I get a better understanding by breaking things down and explaining them to others which might explain why I keep doing tutorials!

When I first started I found that Mrs_C would just say that all my pictures were rubbish but now she doesn't so there must be an improvement somewhere.

I have definitely picked up most of my photography knowledge directly or indirectly off TP so any of my photographs would count here. I have sold quite a few pictures this week and the last one I was working on was this one. I picked up all the basics of the white background from TP and then ..MD.. Dave came round and really helped me with some techniques both for the shoot and PP.

studio-117.jpg


Thank you Talk Photography's creators, moderators and members (y)
 
Just Dave said:
Can we start a thread what "I would Like To Learn", I for one would like to learn studio work but have no access to one or models and cant buy stuff, is way out of my budget,

Thanks TP (y)
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Dave,

You can always pop round to my studio and one of the girls will pop in as a model over people have. You can give me some developing tips at the same time as I actually have the B&W film and all the chemicals etc now (y)
 
Hope you would reply Darren, Pleeeeeease can I come do a shoot in your studio, and learn me about lighting and such afraid I have no model, shush well maybe if my sons GF will go for it, for nice portraits,

TP rocks, a whole new digital learning (y)

and not to forget all behind the site team :clap:
 
Just Dave said:
Hope you would reply Darren, Pleeeeeease can I come do a shoot in your studio, and learn me about lighting and such afraid I have no model, shush well maybe if my sons GF will go for it, for nice portraits,

TP rocks, a whole new digital learning (y)

and not to forget all behind the site team :clap:
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Absolutely! You can go through the developing process again with me. I have added a raft load of stuff to that which I bought off you and have now got the film and chemicals. We can help each other out !
 
Just Dave said:
LOL Darren we posted same timeish, thanks very much for the offer that top, is it OK for eosjohn to come as well
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We'll go to PM rather than taking this thread off topic but that is another thing about this place. Lots of really helpful and friendly people about. I have made friends with people locally, nationally and internationally. This place is great.
 
Thanks Darren may run some BW film through my pentax to dev and print, fancy doing a shoot on film, waterfalls, landscapes or what ever, did you not try the chems the lithe printing and sel toner and Kentmere paper,

should be good have you used any of the reems of paper you bought from me, be sparing with the vintage bromide paper, love that how you can pull colour from it
 
Rather than pick one of my favourite (or what I think of as decent) pics to talk about.............I'm going back to basics with - what does the ISO button do ?

For about aherm years the only 'type' of photography I was really interested in was Landscape photography and with a particular ASA film loaded for what I thought was suitable - I had the task of juggling just two variables - Aperture & Shutter Speed.

After digital - the third variable (ISO) never left 100 or 50 for the simple reason that it gave me the best IQ and if my chosen aperture required a really slow shutter speed to get the correct exposure then so be it - the tripod kept the ship steady.

When I started to dabble in different kinds of photography I began to realise that unlike landscpes - certain subjects move - and faster shutter speeds (regardless of 'fast glass') simply aren't viable with the maximum aperture available.

That's when I dusted off the ISO button and realised how much more you can manage by upping the ISO.

To this day I still fire off test shots to make sure I'm shooting at the lowest possible ISO I can get away with but I guess as cameras continue to improve I should perhaps think of ISO more as a third option rather than a last option.

As per the point of the thread - It aint the greatest bird shot but I chose it as it was taken around the time that the penny dropped. The light was low, maximum aperture on my lens at the time was only 5.6 so instead of packing up I decided to play with the ISO and suddenly realised that needing to shoot at 1/1000 or more was in fact OK providing you could live with a little noise.

4863454899_3fb4f7a8d2.jpg
 
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Processing for me, im not that good at taking pictures, so making the ones I do take look better! Matt, who used to mod here(hes popped to the lav, no-one has seen him since - possibly in camoflage gear hiding in a bush with an 800mm - was ace at processing and showed me how to make my images look less flat and sharpen them up. I was so impressed I did a tutorial with it, thats here
 
I have learnt that there are still some great people in this country and they will go a long way to help you out. Also that vignette and HDR isn't all bad. :D Thanks for the Skomer 2009, the Scotland 2010 trip and all the other smaller ones I've meet people at, Organisers you know who you are :clap:.

3725769827_7a7ee8400c_o.jpg
 
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could have sworn I put this bit in last night, so edited my post , So I couldnt say just put my finger on one thing, but rather many things Ive learned
 
Finally getting the hang of CLS for routine 'work' images (as opposed to personal stuff) and not being afraid to use flash...

Corporal Danny Rees, 261 Signals Squadron Quartermaster's Department, checks inventory in one of the many ISO containers dotted around the Main Operations Base at Lashkar Gar, Helmand, Afghanistan, Wednesday 14th October, 2009.
Lit with three SB900 and triggered by SU800.

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I hope it's OK to put 2 images here, but I wanted to show a before and after.

The "before" image is one of the first that I ever posted here. TBH I'm totally embarrassed by it now, but I remember being quite proud of it at the time :LOL:
The second formed part of my 52 this year, and it was taken maybe 8 months after the first. The same chess set and b/g, both have minimal PP, but in that time I learnt so much about how to set up and light a shot!!!

Not my best photograph ever. In fact I think that if I shot it again now there'd be another big improvement, but it illustrates what I've learnt here.


Before TP

Chess3V2.jpg


After TP

​
 
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I have learned that not everything in an image has to be sharp - this might sound strange but most of my photography skills have come about via shooting for stock where everything has to be clean and sharp, well lit and noise free so I have had to go back to the beginning with a lot of things and learn that movement blur and noise can be acceptable :)

IMG_7135.jpg



Composition could have been better but I have not yet learned where to find the replay button during live matches
 
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I mostly concentrate on Landscapes and most of the time it is like Christmas morning when I arrive at the destination.

But, through experience I have a conversation with myself at what I think is the end of shooting, and I ask myself two questions.

"What did I get"? And "What didn't I get". This allows me to take a moment away from the process just to re- assess before I move on.
 
Kerioak said:
Sara, if you can make a big improvement on that second image I would love to see it as I cannot imagine how, as the lighting is superb
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Thank you Christine.
I tend to be very critical of my own photographs, so it's always nice when somebody else can see past the flaws.

This is one I want to revisit because as a concept it's something that I'd have printed and framed. But there are a lot of things I'd change next time round :

- Basic housekeeping. I wiped down the board for dust with a damp cloth before shooting and there are a couple of smears still showing.

- Lighting. I'm happy with the light on the chess pieces, but towards the front of the chess board there is some ghosting visible on the clear glass squares where they're sat on the black cloth. I'd reduce the light in this front area with some card to minimise it.

- Camera angle. This isn't lined up quite straight. I'd like more symmetry in it. It's particularly visible with the left and right side knights.

- Camera angle again. I'd pay more attention to the reflections of the chess pieces in the clear glass squares and tweak the angle to maximise the impact of this.

Told you that I was critical didn't I? :LOL:

BTW you are absolutely right about your lesson learnt on yours. It wouldn't be half the shot that it is without the blur. Perfectly sharp where it needs to be, but the blur brings it to life. I like it a lot (y)
 
Probably that just because I have a big fat empty memory card doesn't mean that I should rush to fill it as quickly as possible... stop... think... shoot. Rather than shoot, shoot, shoot and then think ah ****** none of those turned out how I wanted!

When I first started out with the DSLR (and was overenjoyed by the newfound responsiveness to my trigger finger) I'd probably have snapped about 20 versions of this pic. In reality, I took about 3, trying slightly different compositions but overall I was pleased with the outcome.

The best thing about this lesson is that it's so good I'll now pass it on to other people at any given opportunity as I think it's totally spot on.


Sailing August Bank Holiday 2010 (14 of 28) by CCSawyer, on Flickr
 
The thing I have learned is do not be afraid to try things, and that includes using imaging software.
Also if your image please's just you then that is ok too!

This is the one photo I am most proud of:love:

BW_adam.jpg
 
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