dennis2146 wrote:
I am a bit surprised that not one person has commented on the PHOTOGRAPH. After all that is why I submitted the picture to begin with, to hear comments regarding the quality of the picture, not the plum jam.
Dennis
I do have a question.
Where was your focal point when you took the shot?
When I expand (blew up) the shot, I don't see anything in sharp focus. Even at the original size, it appears to be a bit out of focus.
That should be your first objective when taking photos, getting something into focus in the shot. Do you know how to set your focus on your main subject by partially holding down your shutter release button, then moving your camera to recompose the shot, then fully depressing your shutter button?
I also viewed your dandelion shot, and felt that your main subject in that shot wasn't sharp enough to jump off the page as a "wow" shot. The boken in the shot was acceptable, I have to disagree with the person who didn't like it and commented about the cost of your lens.
Knowing how to work your equipment to it's best advantage is a learned skill.
After decades of shooting a variety of equipment manually from point and shoot, to range finders, to SLR's to DSLR's, I find it difficult to shoot in any setting other than manual where I control the ISO, shutter speed, white balance, and aperture settings. Knowing what effect I'm after, but letting the camera try to decide the settings has resulted in very disappointing shots every time.
The last photography class I took was an exercise in frustration for the first few weeks until we got past the basics of settings for the rest of the class.
There were several assignments where the instructor had us run through experiments using priority settings to learn what worked best for some situations.
Each week we were told to shoot a subject of our own choice at a specific priority setting, and to shoot at each pre-set setting for that "priority". Then we had to review the results.
Some of the folks in the class learned a lot from those exercises, while others had a hard time grasping the concepts behind the exercises. The ages ranged from just out of high school to near or at retirement age, and the skill levels ranged from rank beginner to very experienced. Unfortunately, the instructor might have been a good photographer, but she was a terrible instructor. I'll have to give her a slight pass, she was a last minute substitute for the professor who was originally assigned to teach the class.
Also knowing how to supplement available light with an external flash or speed light, and how to bounce that supplemental light to get the best results is a skill which many can benefit from learning.
Experimenting with new techniques is the best way to learn.
Developing an eye for composition sometimes comes naturally and at other times it takes years to get comfortable with.
For me it took years to understand and develop only because it was never taught to me until recently. I've been known to "stage" a nature shot by removing some debris from the shot, or to hook an errant shoot or branch behind something to remove it from the shot to obtain a better result.
For others, composition is a natural skill like with my, now high school upcoming Junior, photography student who've I've been working with for a few years now. He out shot me on the second and third times out to shoot, using my older camera and lenses.