PalePictures Loc: Traveling

1) Go to 500px.com
2) FInd the types of images you love and try to create similar images.
3) After you try and fail repeat the process.
4) And this is the most important advice of all.... Don't lie to yourself.

When you can consistently score in the 90's on 500px.com you have arrived... Otherwise see rule number 4.

The bottom line is everyone learns differently. The biggest problem people have is being objective with their images. You can find out as much about your image by a lack of response as much as a full critique.
The more rules you impose on how things are(and should be)the less likely you are to create great images.
Everyone gets lucky now and again. The idea for me is to produce consistent quality.

For anyone that has gotten on page one of popular on 500px.com or made editors choice...Please PM me. I promise I will be all ears.
Also let me know if you win a ViewBug contest(Even if you make the final cut .. Top 25) . Chances are that's a world class image.
Still working on that 500px.com editors choice..........

Maybe, in the end, it just comes down to some sweet mix of attitude and humility.

One other rule I forgot to mention.
5) Never go to Walmart and ask the guy stocking the shelves
how to get rich unless your just looking for a conversation.

lowkick Loc: Connecticut

Check out www.Lynda.com

It is a bit expensive, but there is a large number of photography courses and new ones being added all the time. The videos and instructors are excellent. The courses have a wide range of material from composition to post processing. I am a big proponent of Lynda.com.

Bloke Loc: Waynesboro, Pennsylvania

I'm in Waynesboro, about 10 miles north of Hagerstown MD. I googled, and found nothing. Most things seem to be around Philadelphia or Pittsburgh - both well over 100 miles away.

I just took out subscriptions on a few different photo magazines, so there is a chance I will see something listed in one of those, but if there is a group within a reasonable distance, they are "internet-quiet".

Bloke Loc: Waynesboro, Pennsylvania

I joined Lynda. There are thousands of training videos there for just about any subject you can name. I am working my way through a list of Lightroom and Photoshop stuff. When (if) I ever run out of stuff on there, Scott Kelby has a load of stuff too, for the same price $25 per month. I can't afford both at the same time.

photoman022 Loc: Manchester CT USA

UHH
Youtube, I
mprovePhotography.com podcast,
practice,
practice,
practice.

Bloke Loc: Waynesboro, Pennsylvania

I had never come across 500px... Wow! There are some real nice photos on there. Trouble is, I don't feel that my stuff compares with what is on *here*, much less what they have posted on there... Thanks for the tip.

lowkick Loc: Connecticut

I love Kelby. I've read several of his books and I'm reading one right now on studio lighting. But I love the diversity of Lynda's courses and teachers. I've never looked at Kelby's on-line lessons. Does he bring in a bunch of different photographers to present each subject, or does he do it all himself?

Bloke Loc: Waynesboro, Pennsylvania

I haven't signed up with him, but from the promotional blurbs he sends out, there are different people presenting at least some of the courses.

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

The OP had actually asked WHAT HELPED YOU and WHY!!
What to try is NOT personal experience.
I think the OP's question was a good one. He was not asking for suggestions, we've seen those a 100 times, same ones, over and over. If they've actually helped you, then be concise.
Of course, I'm not the OP, but real life experiences, would be refreshing. ;-)
SS

lowkick Loc: Connecticut

Sorry, Sharpshooter, but you're off target on this one. The courses on Lynda.com have given me a great deal of knowledge, many new ideas and, as a personal, real life experience, this is exactly one of the kinds of answers that should be posted here. You may have heard these ideas a 1000 times, but some people are new to the forum and have legitimate questions they haven't yet seen posted here.

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

Lowkick, I agree 100%. To tell us that Lynda.com has helped you and how, is exactly what he asked. You may even tell us which specific courses have helped the most and why, that's even better info.
But to come on here and just say shoot, shoot, shoot is completely meaningless to me, but maybe I'm unique in that sense. It's like saying to be a millionaire, you need to work, work, work, and consider that sound financial advise!
Like I said, I'm not the OP, but as a beginner, I would want tried and true personal experience with at least some supporting statements.
It would give the discussion some teeth.
Lowkick, I apologize to you or anyone that may have thought I was signaling them or anyone out, I was NOT. ;-)
SS

lowkick Loc: Connecticut

No apology necessary. But I think that the advice to shoot, shoot and shoot some more is also valid advice. I think a lot of new photographers get in the rut where the only time they take the camera out is when they have something "worth" shooting. That stunts their growth. Instead, shoot a lot and carefully review what you've shot. The subject matter isn't important, but the results are. See what you like about your photos and what you don't like. Re-shoot photos that didn't come out the way you wanted until you get them to where you want them.

Give yourself silly assignments - even if you discard the shots when you are done. One great thing on UHH is the photo contest. Use it as an assignment each week and then enter your best photo. Then review the other entries and make sure you see the winners. Seeing other entries will give you ideas, you will see what others have done and you will see what you like and start gearing your work in that direction. In fact, one weekly assignment for yourself could be to try to reproduce the shots you liked the most from the last contest. It's all good practice. Just shoot, shoot, shoot - but shoot with a goal of learning, even if the photos are ones you won't care to keep.

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

Lowkick, again, that would be sound advice, I would agree. But that shoot, shoot shoot, was given with a carefully given assessment of how to go about it.
Put that way, it would be usefull advice to someone starting out.
So I still stand by my original assessment that the advice can be any, as long as it has careful, personal experience that is supported in some way to be meaningful. ;-)
SS

RichardQ Loc: Colorado

I'd like to add another couple of suggestions. First, check out a library book on the rules of composition, memorize them, then start breaking them deliberately. Try organizing each photo foray as if it was a magazine assignment: decide what the "story" is, take a couple of long "overall" shots, some medium shots, some closeups, even some semi-macro shots, and finally an "arty" or "sexy" shot. For example, if you're "covering" your family reunion, shoot a view of all the cars in the parking lot (think of how interesting that will be 20 or 30 years later), closeups of individual license plates to show how far some have come, the oldest and youngest person together, the oldest and youngest married couple, group shots of each individual family, the cooks who prepared the meal, closeups of some of the dishes, if games are played, look for antics, show the winners (including a pie eating contest), sleeping babies, sleeping elders ...you get the picture (I hope). Everybody will want a copy of that album.

Another thing I use is to review my shots of years past to note what I could have done better, criticizing my own work with the knowledge I've picked up in the meantime. We didn't have the comraderie of the Internet or the time to attend scheduled meetings of clubs because my photo assignments were too demanding.

I wish I had been able to take a detailed darkroom course when I got into photography back in the mid-1940s (one of my "mates" in the Army Air Force in Germany in 1945-46 was Peter Gowland, who trained at the AAF photo school at Lowry AirForce Base in Colorado, but I was an artist and sometime photographer at the time,so I missed out on darkroom techniques). Later at college (GI Bill) I studied
Advertising Design and won a prize in the 1951 LIFE magazine contest for young photographers. But I was still basically an amateur, until I bit the bullet and became an assignment photographer, cruising the nation for industrial advertising clients. I rarely got into a darkroom -- in fact, I rarely saw my photos except when I opened a magazine and ran across them in ads (or occasionally on an editorial page). I simply mailed my films back to the office and moved on to the next asignment, which usually lasted only a few hours before I jumped on the next plane.
It was very exciting but I don't recommend it as a career, especially with today's airport restrictions.

lowkick Loc: Connecticut

First, check out a library book on the rules of composition, memorize them, then start breaking them deliberately. Try organizing each photo foray as if it was a magazine assignment: decide what the "story" is, take a couple of long "overall" shots, some medium shots, some closeups, even some semi-macro shots, and finally an "arty" or "sexy" shot. For example, if you're "covering" your family reunion, shoot a view of all the cars in the parking lot (think of how interesting that will be 20 or 30 years later), closeups of individual license plates to show how far some have come...

I agree, check out a book on composition. But don't memorize them - practice them until they are second nature. Once they are second nature, then look at how you might break them to make a photo more interesting.

If you are going to photograph an event, see if you can find other similar events that have been chronicled by good photographers and use them as a guide to what to shoot and perhaps how. Taking pictures of the cars in the lot, or the license plates on the cars can be a good idea, but 20 years later they could be just unengaging shots of cars and license plates whose only value may be historical. Now, if you can figure out how to shoot the cars and license plates so as to engage the viewer with something that is fascinating to look at, you will have both a record of the day and a good picture.

One thing I like to do is to give myself assignments that make me think. For example, I went to an antique and hot rod car show (a picture rich environment) and assigned myself to take interesting photos of components of cars, but no pictures of a complete car. This will help to force yourself to train your eye to see more than the obvious. After a while, you start looking for different ways to shoot mundane shots. Here are a couple of examples.