Wallen Loc: Middle Earth

If you want to take good pictures but knows next to nothing about photography then this post is for you.

Instead of formulas and computations and all that jazz, Lets break it down to a process that works most of the time. So instead of rolling dice and waiting for luck, we will be off to a logical direction and adjust/fine tune to reason as needed.


Step 1. Have something to shoot with.
For now, don't bother with what camera you have. Anything that shoot is good and we shoot this "whatever" camera until we learn what it can not do. Then that would be the time to choose your system. (*Note to future self; "System" not camera. You will know by then)

Step 2. Have something/somewhere/someone to shoot at.
Something has many other names, Somewhere is also known as landscape and someone is a portrait.

Step 3. IMAGINE & DECIDE how the photograph will look like (Composition 1).
3a. Imagine, Have a goal and aim to achieve it. IE if i want to have a picture of runner as he breaks the finish line, then prepare by visualizing what could happen and position yourself where you can capture that moment.
3b. People stand upright so in reference, we call upright composed images as portraits and Landscapes in reference to horizons, we call horizontal pictures a landscape
3c. Look with one eye- The camera see with one plane and when we close one eye and look at things, we replicate it making us imagine more clearly what the outcome will be.

Step 4. FIND A HERO and emphasize it (Composition 2).
A hero is the main focus/element of your photo. It might be a object. group of objects, a color, a person, a group of people, emotion, story ...sky is the limit. No matter what your hero is, it is imperative that it stands out and that everything else in the picture supports it. Emphasize, make it greater than life. So that when others look at the final photo, they see exactly what you envisioned.

Step 5. NO RULES (Composition 3)
You might have read or heard of certain rules like reciprocals, rule of thirds etc. The thing is, they are not rules. They are guides. They are like maps or words and just like those, a person needs to read and understand them fully to make the best out of them.
As a beginner, set them aside for the moment and follow your instinct. IF it looks good, it probably is. Because even if each persons sense of beauty is partially biased by their experiences, we all have this innate sense of looking for harmony and balance. Let those be your guide for the moment & learn the others in its own time.

Step 6. Adjust camera for the ambient light Color Cast & Intensity (WB - White balance & ISO - Sensor amplification)
As a beginner you may want to put both of these on Auto, hope for the best & proceed to step 4.
If you have something else in mind then remember first that color cast affects mood. bluish cast feels cold and lonely while reddish/warmer tones feels alive and homey.
6a. Our brain has its own white balance and automatically adjust the color we see so do not trust your eyes. The camera tells the truth.
6b. If you have manual WB in your camera, each settings produce the opposite in effect. If the ambient light is white and you adjust the WB to cloudy or shade (going to blue), the picture will become reddish. IE white minus blue=red
6c. If you adjust to incandescent lamp (going to red) and the ambient light is white, you photo will have a blue cast.
6d. So if the ambient light is cloudy and you set WB to cloudy, then the bluish ambient light will be normalized to white in the picture. IE blue minus blue=white
6e. High ISO numbers brightens the image but makes all underexposed areas dirty(Noisy)

Step 7. FOCUS IN FOCUS.
Give plenty of effort to focus correctly. What is in focus gets emphasized so it is good practice to put focus on what you intend to hero or to natural attention grabber, such as the nearest eye.
7a. How much element remains in focus is called Depth Of Field. DOF is dictated by Lens FOV, aperture size (f/stop) and your distance from the subject.
7b. Smaller f/stop number (actually bigger iris opening) and smaller distances (macro) makes small (narrow)DOF.
7c. A lens's FOV (Field of View) or the amount of space you can capture also affects DOF. Lens with wider FOV (low mm number) has a wider(deeper)DOF than those with high mm numbers (telephoto lens)
7d. Elements outside the DOF will be blurry. The amount and quality of blurriness is called BOKEH.

Step 8. DO NOT BE A JERK.
Movement unless intentional will wreck a picture with motion blur and streaks so learn to be a smooth operator.
8a. Support the camera properly and Refrain from jerking the trigger.
8b. Use a proper tripod and remote trigger if needed.
8c. Fast shutter speed will freeze moving objects but also make the image darker so Use the lowest shutter speed you can get away with.
8d. Slow shutter speed can be used intentionally to creates fancy movement blurs, invisibility or softness.
8e. Give the everything in view a quick scan including the exposure meter and if everything looks ok, then click away.

Step 9. CHIMP
Let us recap;
Have camera & Subject OK
Composition OK
White balance & ISO OK
Focus point OK
Aperture/DOF OK
Shutter speed/Motion blur OK
Smooth clicks OK
CHIMP - Check Cast, Histogram, I (eye - some may have their eyes closed, re do the picture) & Manipulate the Process. You may need to adjust the subject themselves, not only your camera settings.
As you get better, you will chimp less and less.

Step 10. ADJUST
Chimping allows us to see if we did right. As a beginner, this is one of your best tool. Hopefully your problem by now is only about exposure. If then, the exposure compensation button, is our first goto adjustment. Shutter speed & Aperture will be adjusted depending on our need for Motion Blur or DOF.
Since we have chosen our aperture and shutter speed deliberately, we will then adjust ISO to compensate for over or under exposure. If Adjusting ISO is not enough, then keep ISO up and adjust Aperture to allow more light. If not enough the we lessen shutter speed for more light. We set Shutter speed first on our first shoot and adjust it as our last resort.

Step 11. SHOOT UNTIL RAW
Shoot again and again. Do not be a sniper unless that is all that can be done. Change composition, DOF, Exposure etc. Make good adjustments and keep shooting. Shoot a variety of situations and subjects. Each one has their own challenges. From JPG, shoot and learn until you know and become comfortable with RAW. By this time, you will know enough of your tools that you can decide your for your system.

Step 12. ANALYZE EDIT SHOW
Study your images and see how it can be improved. Study other photographers images. Swap stories, Print your favorites etc. Learn editing soft-wares but most of all, keep the fire burning.

Photography is not a burger that can be downed in a single bite. It is a more like a pizza, whose little slices need to be nibbled and enjoyed. It is about seeing thing in another light and capturing that so others may see it too.

lonewolf456

Very good advice. Intend to 're read often. THANKS from a novice.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

I have a really simple formula to success.

There are several components - not steps - that I use to communicate this to all photographers at all levels looking to improve their "game."

As Wallen suggest a camera is important, but not as important as you might think. And it's a technique used in movie production - storyboarding. But, in the context of still photography, it is referred to as previsualization.

This requires that you look at your scene, decide what is important and what isn't, and asking yourself why am I taking THIS picture.

Forgetting about fstops, metering, autofocus, and all of the techno-babble often brought up in discussions like these - just take the picture. But don't just take one - take several, changing your position each time. If possible change the time of day - early AM/PM, night, cloudy/sunny, etc. You will end up with widely different images. The goal is to "study" your subject in all ways possible.

You then compare your previsualization with the outcome. And this is perhaps the most important component that will help you advance your knowledge and improve your result. Ask yourself "how close did I come to my goal?" and if not very close, "what could I do to improve the result?"

There is not enough said about self-critique in these discussions. It is intangible, uniquely personal, and difficult to pin down, as it is constantly changing.

The answers can be simply making different exposure and camera setting decisions. It could also be things you can do in post processing. It could be lighting choices. Most of the time it is all of the above.

There are many "false prophets" that claim that getting an image to look "right" straight out of the camera is the only way to go. My heart goes out to them, since no photographer, especially digital, gets perfect images in typical random settings. That notion is a golden rule for commercial and product photography where you have 100% control over lighting, but such is seldom the choice.

When I teach this, I ask everyone to bring their cellphones - nearly everybody has one. And I assign themes to shoot, then we have a group review and discussion. My first questions to each photographer is what were you trying to record, what do you want me to see, how successful do you think you were, and what can you do to improve the results. This then becomes the subject matter for future assignments.

I also strongly encourage budding photographers to look at lots of pictures taken by others, and decide what makes some pictures memorable and impactful, and others not. Then they should revisit their own work with the same goal. It's important for every person with a camera to understand that the camera is a means of recording stuff, but more importantly, it is a communication tool. How the person viewing the image you make is probably even more important than how you view your own work - the more empathy a photographer has, usually the more effective a photographer is.

It's not about the camera - I can teach a chimpanzee to take snapshots. It's all about thought, previsualization, self-critique and constant improvement.

I wind up a semester with two quotes - One from Ansel Adams who wrote, “Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop.” And my own take, "you are improving your skills as a photographer if you can look at your work from year to year and see improvement."

I share a bunch of links to "contemplative photography" and the one below, for inspiration.

https://shuttermuse.com/42-inspirational-ansel-adams-quotes-photography/

All the technical aspects of photography are more easily learned once you have a purpose for learning them.

JasonC Loc: Houston, Texas

Thank you Wallen and Gene51 for the excellent suggestions/advice on how to successfully compose a photograph!

I struggle with composition; hopefully after studying the above my "previsualization" will improve.

Jason

RichardTaylor Loc: Sydney, Australia

Good post.

Heather Iles Loc: UK, Somerset

Thanks for starting such a thread. You are a brave person. How much time have you got?

H

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Nice post.

catchlight.. Loc: Wisconsin USA- Halden Norway

... Again, not any type of introduction or back round information up front.

Are you an instructor? Who is Wallen? Are these your words that contradict most introductory training ? Here we go again...

Quote revised: If you want to take good pictures but know next to nothing about photography then, this post is for you.

olemikey Loc: 6 mile creek, Spacecoast Florida

Good stuff folks, and practical especially for the newbies who may be struggling with the terminology, never mind the techno/electro/optical/computer/mechanical aspects involved....might help some who might otherwise drift back out of real photography, rather than embracing the learning!

DonB Loc: Port Royal , Tn

Thank you Wallen and Gene51 for posting these!!! I'm trying to get my grandkids more focused on seeing the shot instead of speed shooting and hoping. They now want to learn "all about photography" and want a "professional camera like you use." I'm still using a Canon T2i. Does all I want. With your permission, I would like to use what you have written as a class handout.

Blaster34 Loc: Florida Treasure Coast

Outstanding posts, both Wallen and Gene, a person, pro or amateur is never too old to review basics. Definitely going to read and re-read both of these posts, thanks a bunch

araia

Thank You Wallen, that was simple and clear. Appreciations

aellman Loc: Boston MA

Next time leave a little space for the rest of us.

Bill_de Loc: US

Does any of that matter? If it doesn't look beneficial for you, skip it. Some folks will benefit no matter who Wallen is.

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srt101fan

Bill, I think it does matter. It's the old "consider the source" thing. But in this case, a quick look at Wallen's other posts shows you he's the real thing!