Topic Wiki

Quick tips on random subjects that come up in between classes (will add as we go along):

Food photography tips
Newborn photography tips

Table of Contents (I'll change each line to a link as we go along.)

Introduction

1) Choosing a camera: Point and Shoot vs. Mirrorless vs. DSLR
2) Camera specs: What do they mean, and which ones matter to me?
3) Exposure Basics Part 1 - the shutter speed/aperture/ISO triangle
4) Exposure Basics Part 2 - getting to know your mode dial, and other exposure controls
5) All about memory cards
6) Using ultra-wide lenses





Lenses 101 - technology, terminology, and specs, zooms vs. primes, basic/advanced/unique lenses

Lighting 101 - focusing specifically on easy to afford and easy to use setups
Small flash - on camera, off camera, modifiers and accessories
Studio strobes
Continuous lighting - fluorescent, LED, and halogen
Basic light modifiers - umbrellas, softboxes, gels, reflectors
Basic supports - lightstands, umbrella brackets, backgrounds, etc.

All about accessories - memory cards, tripods, bags, filters, remotes, adapters, grips, geotaggers, and more)


So I bought all my stuff - now what?

What makes a compelling photograph?
Depth of field
Composition basics - rule of thirds, perspective, framing
Advanced composition - negative space, inclusion and exclusion, compression
Light - natural, golden hour, basic flash usage.

Let's start shooting...

Kids:
In the park
Playing sports
At home

Landscapes and wildlife:
"Grand" landscapes
"Intimate" landscapes
Seascapes
Waterfalls
Cityscapes
Wildlife
Birds in flight
Shooting in bad weather

Portraits:
Babies and newborns
Single person - indoors
Single person - outdoors
Families/siblings/groups
Natural light
Artificial light - simple
Artificial light - complex
Mixed light

Others:
Close up and macro
Product photography

How do I...? (Some specific scenarios/techniques - Basic)
Shoot out of a plane window?
Shoot underwater?
Shoot compelling black-and-white?

How do I...? (Some specific scenarios/techniques - Advanced)
HDR
Long exposures
Light painting
Twilight landscapes
Milky Way
Star trails

Basic editing concepts:
Exposure
Contrast
Clarity/sharpening
Color
Layers and masking

Poll

What type of camera do shoot with?

Point & Shoot - basic (Canon Elph style) or Smartphone
122 (36.9%)
Point & Shoot - advanced (Canon S100 or G Style)
52 (15.7%)
Mirrorless
26 (7.9%)
DSLR - consumer (Up to a Nikon D5200 or Canon Rebel)
74 (22.4%)
DSLR - prosumer or pro (Nikon D7000 or Canon 60D and up)
29 (8.8%)
P&S, but I plan on getting an SLR or Mirrorless in the near future
28 (8.5%)

Total Members Voted: 275

Author Topic: Learn Photography Master Thread  (Read 357820 times)

Offline davmtl

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Re: Learn Photography Master Thread
« Reply #460 on: February 13, 2014, 01:41:38 AM »
just read some of your articles, they are great! thanks a million!

on the topic of memory cards and their brands, i was always under the impression that Lexar is a low end company, after loosing connection abilities (can't connect to pc) of a Lexar USB stick some time ago, and hearing horror stories from others too. also price is usually way lower than Sandisk.

Offline Something Fishy

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Re: Learn Photography Master Thread
« Reply #461 on: February 13, 2014, 01:49:25 AM »
just read some of your articles, they are great! thanks a million!

on the topic of memory cards and their brands, i was always under the impression that Lexar is a low end company, after loosing connection abilities (can't connect to pc) of a Lexar USB stick some time ago, and hearing horror stories from others too. also price is usually way lower than Sandisk.

My pleasure ;).

Re. Lexar, my article was about memory cards and the actual chips, which Lexar is tops at. The issue with USB sticks is something physical with the USB plug, so it has no bearing on the quality of their memory cards. Also, their memory cards are priced just about the same as Sandisk.
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Offline davmtl

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Re: Learn Photography Master Thread
« Reply #462 on: February 13, 2014, 01:51:58 AM »
that was fast!
looks like you're a night owl

Offline Something Fishy

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Re: Learn Photography Master Thread
« Reply #463 on: February 13, 2014, 01:54:05 AM »
Hi

I just got back from Hawaii and would like to share a few pics.
Lemme know what you think.
(taken from my awesome camera. My LG G2 phone)

Not bad for a phone!

I like the sunset ones a lot:





I can't decide between the two; both are nice in a different way. I'm leaning a bit toward the second one, I love the simple and mysterious black and white color scheme in the foreground and the clouds beneath the mountain.

Now about the others - here's the deal: they're nice snapshots. Meaning that all of them capture a 'moment' - the pool one captures the awesomeness of the hotel, the field captures the feeling of serenity (in fact the Windows background you mention is called "Bliss"), and the splash captures the action of the ocean in a great way.

From a photographic standpoint, they're not amazing. The light is harsh and flat on most of them (the wave does have some nicer light - looks like late afternoon?). The composition could also be better. For example the handrail in the pool shot is very distracting, and moving a bit to the left would have revealed more of the waterfall in the center:



I also wish that you had left a bit more space on the bottom of the wave shot, so that I could see more of the foreground rocks, instead of just getting a hint of them:



Imaging this field in the late afternoon - the grass and fence would have been glowing in beautiful sunset light. Moving a bit closer would have made the fence more prominent in the frame, and would have minimized the relatively boring sky. It would have been a completely different picture:



So overall, the sunset pictures are quite nice - I like them both a lot. The others are great snapshots - they encapsulate your memory of the time and place very well. A bit more fineness in the composition and some better light would have taken them to the next level, though.

Reminder: I'm not trying to criticize - only critique. There's a big difference ;) :D.
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Offline Lou Bob

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Re: Learn Photography Master Thread
« Reply #464 on: February 13, 2014, 01:55:31 AM »
Not bad for a phone!

I like the sunset ones a lot:





I can't decide between the two; both are nice in a different way. I'm leaning a bit toward the second one, I love the simple and mysterious black and white color scheme in the foreground and the clouds beneath the mountain.

Now about the others - here's the deal: they're nice snapshots. Meaning that all of them capture a 'moment' - the pool one captures the awesomeness of the hotel, the field captures the feeling of serenity (in fact the Windows background you mention is called "Bliss"), and the splash captures the action of the ocean in a great way.

From a photographic standpoint, they're not amazing. The light is harsh and flat on most of them (the wave does have some nicer light - looks like late afternoon?). The composition could also be better. For example the handrail in the pool shot is very distracting, and moving a bit to the left would have revealed more of the waterfall in the center:



I also wish that you had left a bit more space on the bottom of the wave shot, so that I could see more of the foreground rocks, instead of just getting a hint of them:



Imaging this field in the late afternoon - the grass and fence would have been glowing in beautiful sunset light. Moving a bit closer would have made the fence more prominent in the frame, and would have minimized the relatively boring sky. It would have been a completely different picture:



So overall, the sunset pictures are quite nice - I like them both a lot. The others are great snapshots - they encapsulate your memory of the time and place very well. A bit more fineness in the composition and some better light would have taken them to the next level, though.

Reminder: I'm not trying to criticize - only critique. There's a big difference ;) :D.
ah, thanks  :)
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Offline askmoses

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Re: Learn Photography Master Thread
« Reply #465 on: February 13, 2014, 09:45:32 AM »
Cambridge In Color has some phenomenal articles digging into the science behind all this. Check out some of the articles on this page.
Thank you. Website looks intriguing! Will be adding it onto my desktop bookmarks. Much appreciated!

Offline wayfe

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Re: Learn Photography Master Thread
« Reply #466 on: February 13, 2014, 10:58:44 PM »
Is there a name or term for the quality of lighting or style in the photos on this blog? http://lingeredupon.blogspot.com/

There is something that I really like about them, yet I can't put my finger on it.

Is it just that the photos are naturally lit and very sharp?
"I would rather have questions that can't be answered than answers which can't be questioned."
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Offline SamKey

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Re: Learn Photography Master Thread
« Reply #467 on: February 13, 2014, 11:35:09 PM »
So @SF these (I believe I posted them before) were taken from a Motorolla Droid RAZR M


Offline HP58

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Re: Learn Photography Master Thread
« Reply #468 on: February 14, 2014, 04:06:06 PM »
Those are real nice! Wow!

Offline Something Fishy

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Re: Learn Photography Master Thread
« Reply #469 on: February 16, 2014, 10:42:23 PM »
So @SF these (I believe I posted them before) were taken from a Motorolla Droid RAZR M



Love 'em. It's amazing what phones could do these days.

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Offline Something Fishy

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Re: Learn Photography Master Thread
« Reply #470 on: February 16, 2014, 11:18:49 PM »
Went to shoot some birds today...

All pictures shot with a Nikon D800 and 200-400 f/4 lens.

Northern Red Cardinal:













Female:



White-Throated Sparrow




And then some different species:

Aeroloneas Argentinas A330 (flight 1301 to MEX):


Aeroflot CR9 (flight 1432 to ORD):


Cargolux 747 (flight 778 to MEX):


American 737-800:


United 757-200:
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Offline Myccrabbi

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Re: Learn Photography Master Thread
« Reply #471 on: February 16, 2014, 11:24:41 PM »
Went to shoot some birds today...

All pictures shot with a Nikon D800 and 200-400 f/4 lens.

Northern Red Cardinal:













Female:



White-Throated Sparrow




And then some different species:

Aeroloneas Argentinas A330 (flight 1301 to MEX):


Aeroflot CR9 (flight 1432 to ORD):


Cargolux 747 (flight 778 to MEX):


American 737-800:


United 757-200:

gorgeous pic's!!!!
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Offline ari9

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Re: Learn Photography Master Thread
« Reply #472 on: February 16, 2014, 11:37:17 PM »
WOW

Offline moish

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Re: Learn Photography Master Thread
« Reply #473 on: February 17, 2014, 02:31:10 AM »
they look alive to me... (couldnt resist)

Offline CS1

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Re: Learn Photography Master Thread
« Reply #474 on: February 17, 2014, 02:36:23 AM »
they look alive to me... (couldnt resist)
+1
Yes, I thought of the pics on this thread of these birds (planes) when they used the "squawking" term in the airline hijacking articles this evening:

http://jpupdates.com/2014/02/17/breaking-hijacked-ethiopian-airline-landed-in-geneva-airport/
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Offline Fan of Dan

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Re: Learn Photography Master Thread
« Reply #475 on: February 20, 2014, 09:28:39 PM »
Is it just me or are other people also seeing the recent posts with pictures in full size only that I can't seem to minimize? Makes the thread hard to read.

Perhaps we should start posting our pics in the thread for pics that you took (can't seem to find it), photography questions here and camera related questions in the which camera thread.


Offline Mordy

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Re: Learn Photography Master Thread
« Reply #476 on: February 21, 2014, 10:45:16 AM »
Haha, the second pic of the Cardinal looks angry. I can hear the Hitchcock music as I stare at it.
Good stuff.
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Offline Something Fishy

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Re: Learn Photography Master Thread
« Reply #477 on: February 21, 2014, 11:16:50 AM »
Haha, the second pic of the Cardinal looks angry. I can hear the Hitchcock music as I stare at it.
Good stuff.

LOL. While I was shooting that I was actually thinking that all I need now is a slingshot and some nasty piggies :D.
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Re: Learn Photography Master Thread
« Reply #478 on: February 21, 2014, 12:08:06 PM »
LOL. While I was shooting that I was actually thinking that all I need now is a slingshot and some nasty piggies :D.

Wow, that's a much better reference! Embarrassed I didn't go with that one. ;)

He even looks like the red bird!
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Re: Learn Photography Master Thread
« Reply #479 on: February 22, 2014, 07:54:57 PM »
@ SomethingFishy how far away from the birds were you? It's incredible how much detail you captured.