What can a newfag, shit-tier photographer do to improve themselves? Anything I can read or do to make myself better? Is there anything more than just practicing, if not, how do you practice better?
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>>3057318
>What can a newfag, shit-tier photographer do to improve themselves?
Do you mean anything specific? Do you feel that you are lacking something?
> make myself better?
You should get interested in something. Noone can become master of something what he is not interested in.
>>3057318
My best advice: stay away from /p/.
>>3057318
analyse what can be improved in your current photos
read up on ways on improving in that area
put it into practice
repeat
Same as any other hobby, and due to the sheer volume of people that do photography, to make your way from "anyone could have taken this shot" to something that's identifiable as yours and good is a long, long road, no different to learning the guitar or how to draw.
A good starting point for reference with the operation of the camera (as opposed to post production) is the 35mm photographers handbook, it's been printed in various versions for decades and you will find it in any thrift store, my favourite version is the hardback one from the 80's filled with dodgy fashion shoots and depressing looking holiday destinations. Not only does the book cover the technical basics but it nicely presents a massive variety of scenarios and opportunities within those scenarios. Just having a flick through can be a great way to garner inspiration on where to study next.
There's no such bible for lightroom, it's all a bit too arbitrary, just practice, practice, practice. Experiment with all the sliders, understand how they are altering your image, make sure you are au fait with RGB curves, learn about colour profiles.
>>3057321
Well at the moment anything I do ends up just looking like I just took a picture for the sake of taking a picture, they look bad and generally I can't manage to capture a moment well at all. See pic related.
>>3057322
Is /p/ that bad?
>>3057323
I'll make sure to pick that up next time I get a chance, and I'll keep up pracitcing. Hopefully that'll give me some sort of idea of what I'm doing. Also yeah, lightroom is fairly confusing, I think I'm getting the hang of it though.
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>>3057318
>>3057323 This.
Don't get draw in to gimmicky post-processing of mediocre photos to 'enhance them'
Get the fuck outside and shoot whatever interests you.
Learn how to operate your camera in different lights intuitively so that you can worry about composition and subject, not fucking around with your camera.
Shoot as often as you can and always always have your, or any, camera on you when you go out. You could see something amazing tomorrow when you go pick up your suppositories from the pharmacy and have nothing but your dick in your hands. We've all done it and it feels crappy, cause you'll never get it back.
Also this >>3057322
>>3057318
>realize that light is everything, look at how light works and use it. Seems stupid or vague, but that's like 80% of what people get constantly wrong: the light.
>and about lighting, ignore flashes until you've grasped how natural light works. You like portraits? Buy a reflector and learn to use that before using flashes.
>do you over edit? under edit? Well, stop. take your photos and edit them sticking to curves, colours and contrast. Go for more complex stuff when you've mastered the basics. Don't leave your photos as they come out of the camera.
>keep those horizons straight and your compositions uncluttered, keep it simple.
>don't abuse shitty trends like street photography if you can't do it well.
>are you lazy? Do you rely on your zoom to compose? leave that at home and buy a fast fixed prime in the 35-50mm range
>LOOK AT OTHER PHOTOGRAPHERS! And then go outside and shoot.
>>3057329
>ends up just looking like I just took a picture for the sake of taking a picture
Why do you think that it's not what you should do now?
>I can't manage to capture a moment
What was the definition of "moment" which you wanted to capture with picrelated? Was there anything specific what you were feeling at that moment?
Any advanced photography is psychological modelling combined with your perception. One possible way of creating outstanding photograph:
1) you experience something what can interest your audience
2) you use artistic methods to express what you feel about the photograph
3) you use artistic methods to make photograph appealing to your audience
The proportion of 2) and 3) varies depending on what you want to accomplish. An artistic metod in photography is selection of perspective, framing, lighting, exposure parameters, editing and probably modification of the scene.
This way requires finding something what can be interesting and using artistic methods to make it more interesting if it's not amusing by itself. Any subject can be muted by it's surrounding, and what you are searching for is combination of subject, lighting, scenery.
You can only find out what is interesting for your audience by studying the images which they like and copying artistic methods which were used. This is the easiest way of starting making appealing images.
If you want to be able to recognize artistic methods you should experiment with perspective, framing, exposure parameters, lighting, editing to see what difference they introduce.
So, given that you are complete newfriend now, you:
- RTFM
- experiment with every thing which makes up final image to find out it's importance
- view images while analyzing them to find common artistic methods
- copy few images to find out how to apply artistic methods
- read some blogs like https://petapixel.com/ (but skip gear reviews)
And then you will know better than us what to do next.
>>3057329
Yeah, /p/ will sometimes wax useful such as ITT. Leads you to not expect the drama and gearfaggotry that flares up like a geyser every so often.
>>3057333
> when you go pick up your suppositories from the pharmacy
ey lmao
Make images that have meaning. Don't take picture just because "it looks pretty".
Shit-tier advice:
>Read Ken Rockwell and /p/