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Brand new to Photography and looking for pointers.
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Jan 12, 2019 10:32:31   #
tdekany Loc: Oregon
 
Photography is like poker (I don’t play), takes little to learn the basics, but a lifetime to master.

What separates great photos from snapshots are: composition, light and subject matter. Not the technical mambo jumbo.

For those car shots for your dealer, put your A6000 on a tripod, use aperture priority, f8 to make sure that the whole car is in focus. Use the exposure compensation dial to get the right brightness (this is the easy stuff). This is just an example with good available light, within the dealership.

So now you can focus on the creative part which MOST people lack. I know that you will be limited as far as where the cars are going to be photographed. Watch out for stuff behind the car. Busy backgrounds are what you want to avoid.

Here is more eye candy.

https://jalopnik.com/the-30-auto-photographers-you-have-to-follow-1052164107

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Jan 12, 2019 17:04:28   #
jak86094
 
It's great that you're having fun with the new equipment. I think that's the most important thing. As you begin learning about cameras and photography, keep it fun. If you're not getting a result you want, make the process of finding answers part of the fun. When you get something that works, it should be a happy time.

Now, in all the books and videos you may use to learn new skills, it all comes down to some pretty easy concepts about light. Whether using film or digital camera with an electronic sensor, a picture is always made by a certain amount of light hitting the film or sensor. If the picture will be dark you need less light. For a brighter picture, you need more light. You can have a bright scene, but you can make it look darker by letting less light hit the film or sensor. You can make a dark scene lighter by allowing MORE light to hit the film or sensor. That's the most basic lesson to learn.

The "exposure triangle" is talking about how you determine the amount of light being captured. One corner of the triangle is the Aperture (f/stop)...a hole of varying sizes. To get more light, you open the Aperture. It's like the difference between a thin nozzle on a hose and a wide nozzle. With a wider nozzle (Aperture), more water (light) can get to the sensor in any amount to time. The second corner of the triangle is the Shutter Speed. How long do you open the shutter for light to come in. Slower shutter speed means the shutter is open longer for light to come in. Faster shutter speed means the shutter is open for a shorter amount of time. Combining these two factors, if you use a fast shutter speed with a small Aperture, less light gets in and the image captured by the sensor is darker. Slow shutter speed and large Aperture means more light reaches the sensor and the image is brighter. When you mix these, however, you get several of combinations that can allow the same amount of light to reach the sensor. A large Aperture (lots of light) with a fast shutter speed can allow the same amount of light to reach the sensor as a smaller Aperture with a slower shutter speed...so the image would have the same exposure either way. The third corner of the triangle is ISO, which is a way of amplifying the electronic signal produced by the sensor when struck by a certain amount of light. So you can use a high ISO setting to amplify the light received from a low light situation.

So your challenge is to use the settings of these three factors...Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO...to tell the camera how much light to record from your subject. Now, the three factors do affect other aspects of your photograph. The Aperture affects the depth of field that appears in your image. For example, do you want the image in focus from nearby to far in the background? If so, you would need to use a small Aperture, and that may mean you have to change the Shutter Speed and ISO settings to get the right amount of light to the sensor. Alternatively, you may want only a thin sliver of the picture to be focused and the rest to be a beautiful soft, unfocused image...really stressing your focused subject. For that you would use a large Aperture. As for the Shutter Speed, it can freeze action or allow the movement of the subject to blur. A fast shutter speed allows less movement to occur while the shutter is open, which freezes that action. A slow shutter speed allows the subject to move more (blur) while the shutter is open. But remember, if the shutter is open a longer time, more light will reach the sensor unless you either close the Aperture to compensate or reduce the ISO to lower how much the light signal is being amplified by the camera and its sensor. The effect of increasing the ISO relates to how much interference of distortion is created as you amplify the signal captured by the sensor. At lower levels of amplification, there's not much interference or distortion and the picture looks smooth and crisp, but as the level of amplification (ISO) goes up, the signal can become increasingly distorted, which shows up as "noise" and lower quality photos. So that's sort of the fun you will be learning about...if you double the amount of light coming through the Aperture, you have to adjust the Shutter Speed, the ISO, or both to compensate. You could set the Shutter Speed to a faster speed to end up with the same amount of light at the Sensor or amplify the light less, or a combination of both.

These are factors you can experiment with on your own. Take lots of pictures. Try changing one factor and see how you have to change another to get the same exposure...and at the same time see what the compensation does to how much of the photo is in focus and how much interference appears in the resulting photo.

The other fun parts of photography involve finding interesting subjects to photograph, composing your picture in a compelling way to present your subject well, and learning what you can adjust and how to adjust parts of the image to strengthen the result. Good luck. Share your photos and questions with this group and keep having fun.

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Jan 12, 2019 18:01:11   #
Pstrykacz
 
www.dpreview.com This helped me to transition from analog to digital

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Jan 12, 2019 23:13:46   #
rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona
 
I'll second maggiemae's suggestion. There are some good youtube videos specifically addressing photographing automobiles.
--Bob
Ajgrav wrote:
Hello, I just joined and like the topic says I'm looking for any resources I can to better myself. For some background I've been taking pictures of vehicles for 9 months now using a smartphone for a dealership. I finally talked the owner into getting a high quality camera to shoot better pictures without taking up all my storage and cloud space. We settled on the Sony alpha a6000 mirrorless since all the reviews we looked at said it was great for starting out and it was one of the very best out there for under $500.

Fast forward a week and I'm having a ball with this thing. most advanced camera I've ever used (they were using a cheap point and click type camera before I worked here and showed them how much better my phone was taking pictures. My phone up until now was the best camera I'd ever used.) This camera I can honestly say has lit a fire in me and I want to master all the ins and outs of it. Let me just say that I'm a complete amateur, I know nothing of the terminologies yet or how to harness anything better than the auto modes, but now I find myself looking at online photography courses and how to guides and it's all so jumbled seeming. Kind of like assembling a puzzle with pieces missing.

So what do you guys think I should do to start out? what resources can I use to break out of auto mode and start branching into the other features? I was looking at this very compelling dslr guide linked on this website but since my camera is mirrorless I don't know if I'd get much out of that, I'm not sure how well one translates to the other.
Hello, I just joined and like the topic says I'm l... (show quote)

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Jan 12, 2019 23:37:21   #
Shutterbug57
 
This video explains the exposure triangle and the secondary aspect of each leg very well. It’s free and worth half an hour.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LUtlZ3sahz8

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Jan 13, 2019 00:53:59   #
wgraburn Loc: Chicago
 
I've been using the Sony a6000 for a year and like it a lot but it is a complicated device. The manual that comes with the camera is not very useful. I suggest spending the $40 to buy David Busch's manual for this camera and spend a lot of time studying it but doing so in small bites.His manual is excellent and detailed but there is an extraordinary amount of information to absorb.

For auto settings you don't need to worry much about anything but composition but its not the best way to improve your photography skills. You need to learn about many of the settings and then going out and experimenting, with them. Based on my experience I would emphasize mastering white balance, metering, exposure compensation and how to use the histogram. The three important shooting modes are aperture priority, shutter priority and manual. It's important to when to use all three. I've generally keep my camera on aperture priority as a default preference but am trying to adjust to manual mode.Some photographers insist it's the best way to learn how to use the camera. I suggest avoiding automatic.

Going out and shooting as often as possible and with purpose is one of the best ways to accelerate improving photography skills. Taking photography classes and going out and practicing with others is extremely helpful.There are a lot of excellent tutorials on photography on the internet, some free some not. I get a lot of excellent free information from dps Photography School even though I don't sign up for classes. However, one of the best way to improve photography skills quickly is to use your camera frequently, learn how to use the important settings and how to locate them quickly.

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Jan 13, 2019 03:54:16   #
gessman Loc: Colorado
 
Ajgrav wrote:
Hello, I just joined and like the topic says I'm looking for any resources I can to better myself. For some background I've been taking pictures of vehicles for 9 months now using a smartphone for a dealership. I finally talked the owner into getting a high quality camera to shoot better pictures without taking up all my storage and cloud space. We settled on the Sony alpha a6000 mirrorless since all the reviews we looked at said it was great for starting out and it was one of the very best out there for under $500.

Fast forward a week and I'm having a ball with this thing. most advanced camera I've ever used (they were using a cheap point and click type camera before I worked here and showed them how much better my phone was taking pictures. My phone up until now was the best camera I'd ever used.) This camera I can honestly say has lit a fire in me and I want to master all the ins and outs of it. Let me just say that I'm a complete amateur, I know nothing of the terminologies yet or how to harness anything better than the auto modes, but now I find myself looking at online photography courses and how to guides and it's all so jumbled seeming. Kind of like assembling a puzzle with pieces missing.

So what do you guys think I should do to start out? what resources can I use to break out of auto mode and start branching into the other features? I was looking at this very compelling dslr guide linked on this website but since my camera is mirrorless I don't know if I'd get much out of that, I'm not sure how well one translates to the other.
Hello, I just joined and like the topic says I'm l... (show quote)


Welcome. It sounds like you may have a natural eye for good balance and positioning, something we refer to as composition, but I would agree that would be a good starting point, so anything that you would do in that regard would be where I suggest you go from here. Shooting the a6000 in auto will get you a usable picture around 85% to 95% of the time without you having to know anything else technical about the camera. A book on the subject and watching videos on youtube.com will either confirm what you already know or teach it to you if you don't. That will allow you to do the work you need to do now before you start confusing yourself with all the technical stuff. From there, I'd say the Brian Peterson book on learning exposure would be the next step. Just don't let yourself get discouraged if it starts to be a little confusing. This forum is a good place to seek answers. Good luck.

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Jan 13, 2019 08:10:18   #
alggomas Loc: Wales, United Kingdom.
 
Ajgrav wrote:
Hello, I just joined and like the topic says I'm looking for any resources I can to better myself. For some background I've been taking pictures of vehicles for 9 months now using a smartphone for a dealership. I finally talked the owner into getting a high quality camera to shoot better pictures without taking up all my storage and cloud space. We settled on the Sony alpha a6000 mirrorless since all the reviews we looked at said it was great for starting out and it was one of the very best out there for under $500.

Fast forward a week and I'm having a ball with this thing. most advanced camera I've ever used (they were using a cheap point and click type camera before I worked here and showed them how much better my phone was taking pictures. My phone up until now was the best camera I'd ever used.) This camera I can honestly say has lit a fire in me and I want to master all the ins and outs of it. Let me just say that I'm a complete amateur, I know nothing of the terminologies yet or how to harness anything better than the auto modes, but now I find myself looking at online photography courses and how to guides and it's all so jumbled seeming. Kind of like assembling a puzzle with pieces missing.

So what do you guys think I should do to start out? what resources can I use to break out of auto mode and start branching into the other features? I was looking at this very compelling dslr guide linked on this website but since my camera is mirrorless I don't know if I'd get much out of that, I'm not sure how well one translates to the other.
Hello, I just joined and like the topic says I'm l... (show quote)

Apart from other suggestions I would go on a begginers photo course, preferably over a number of weeks. Say 2/3 hour session a week. Some organisations offer reasonably priced fees. One advantage of this is that it is " hands on" and using your own camera. Also a great opportunity to ask questions and interact with other people.
I wish you luck and enjoyment!

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Jan 13, 2019 15:15:35   #
kktim Loc: Zachary, La
 
Besides the camera and cars, a dealership has PEOPLE.. Customers; some with the joys of buying a new car, mechanics working hard or earning diplomas, faces in the service center (the misrey of defeat), salesman on phone banks, the lone salesman...on a bench... looking for that next client, children all over the new car, sometimes sad faces at the loss of the old car; so you need to learn how to do these. Then there is the DEALERSHIP itself...wide angle at sunset or a stormy cloud, grab the sky too, a wide angle shot from down the street, a zoom shot from far away. Catch it during a flood or rebuilding expansion. How about capturing all the COMMUNITY SERVICE DONE BY THE DEALERSHIP...CHARITABLE CAR WINNERS. Is there a National Program that yall go to once a year, what kinds of pictures would best show off your dealership. How about how the cars get there and where do they come from???? Hope this helps. Keep your shutter eye open!

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Jan 13, 2019 15:26:10   #
rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA
 
maggiemae wrote:
Also, I forgot to say above...read the manual that comes with camera. Super hard to read and boring but worth it to get to know your camera.


The camera manual is not that hard to understand if you take your time... a chapter or two a day, with the camera on hand to immediately try out the various points made in those chapters. And one can always use the internet to further research anything that isn't quite clear.

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Jan 14, 2019 00:26:05   #
DelRae Loc: Oregon
 
Great pictures wish I was half as good as you but what camera and what lenses and what setting you use? no one wants to tell what they use and so on
maggiemae wrote:
YouTube is a great resource to utilize. The first thing you should probably do is learn the exposure tringle (apeture, ISO, and shutter speed) and how it works. Google it, you will find tons of articles or YouTube videos. Have fun learning. I love my 📷 (a DSLR).

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Jan 14, 2019 02:18:19   #
tdekany Loc: Oregon
 
DelRae wrote:
Great pictures wish I was half as good as you but what camera and what lenses and what setting you use? no one wants to tell what they use and so on


The settings are the least of your problems

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Jan 14, 2019 16:49:57   #
DelRae Loc: Oregon
 
ya you are right :)

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Jan 14, 2019 21:28:26   #
Bipod
 
Ajgrav wrote:
Hello, I just joined and like the topic says I'm looking for any resources I can to better myself. For some background I've been taking pictures of vehicles for 9 months now using a smartphone for a dealership. I finally talked the owner into getting a high quality camera to shoot better pictures without taking up all my storage and cloud space. We settled on the Sony alpha a6000 mirrorless since all the reviews we looked at said it was great for starting out and it was one of the very best out there for under $500.

Fast forward a week and I'm having a ball with this thing. most advanced camera I've ever used (they were using a cheap point and click type camera before I worked here and showed them how much better my phone was taking pictures. My phone up until now was the best camera I'd ever used.) This camera I can honestly say has lit a fire in me and I want to master all the ins and outs of it. Let me just say that I'm a complete amateur, I know nothing of the terminologies yet or how to harness anything better than the auto modes, but now I find myself looking at online photography courses and how to guides and it's all so jumbled seeming. Kind of like assembling a puzzle with pieces missing.

So what do you guys think I should do to start out? what resources can I use to break out of auto mode and start branching into the other features? I was looking at this very compelling dslr guide linked on this website but since my camera is mirrorless I don't know if I'd get much out of that, I'm not sure how well one translates to the other.
Hello, I just joined and like the topic says I'm l... (show quote)


Michel J. Langford, et al. Langford's Basic Photography. 10th Edition. New York: Routledge, 2015.
ISBN-13: 978-0415718912
https://www.amazon.com/Langfords-Basic-Photography-Serious-Photographers/dp/0415718910/

James Mann. How to Photograph Cars. 2nd Edition. Auto Focus, 2017.
ISBN-13: 978-0995624603
https://www.amazon.com/How-Photograph-Cars-James-Mann/dp/0995624607

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Jan 15, 2019 16:19:40   #
Ajgrav
 
wow, so much feedback. thank you everyone for all the tips and references. I've begun studying up on the exposure triangle and for now have changed my camera to aperture priority. I'm going to experiment with that for a little while until everything clicks. All the free online resources have really helped my basic understanding, I'll be focusing on one aspect of the exposure triangle at a time and then I'll try to integrate them all together. Baby steps till then. There's no shortage of cars to shoot here so I'm really looking forward to seeing all these different changes in action as I go along.

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