A bit about taking pictures

9 October 2014

Though I like going out and take pictures at the places I visit, I haven’t actually blogged about taking pictures before. I thought I should share some tips and experiences.

This is not a “What’s in my bag” kind of post. I won’t, and can’t, tell you what the best cameras or lenses are. I simply don’t know. These are some things I’ve learnt and that have worked for me and my style of taking pictures, and wish I knew earlier on.

Pack

Keep gear light and compact, and focus on what you have. You will often bring more than you need. If you get the basics sorted out, you don’t need much to take a good picture. Identify a couple of lenses you like using and get to know their qualities and limits.

Your big lenses aren’t going to do you any good if you’re reluctant to take them with you. Accept that your stuff is going to take a beating. I used to obsess over scratches on my gear, I don’t anymore.

I don’t keep a special bag. I wrap my camera in a hat or hoody and lenses in thick socks and toss them into my rucksack. (Actually, this is one tip you might want to ignore.)

Watch out for gear creep. It’s tempting to wait until that new lens comes out and get it. Ask yourself: will this make me go out and shoot more? The answer usually is probably not, and the money is often better spent on that trip to take those nice shots with the stuff you already have.

Learn

Try some old manual lenses to learn with. Not only are these cheap and able to produce excellent image quality, it’s a great way to learn how aperture, shutter speed, and sensitivity affect exposure. Essential for getting the results you want.

I only started understanding this after having inherited some old lenses and started playing around with them. The fact they’re all manual makes you realise quicker how things physically change inside the camera when you modify a setting, compared to looking at abstract numbers on the back of the screen. I find them much more engaging and fun to use compared to full automatic lenses.

You can get M42 lens adapters for almost any camera type, but they work specially well with mirrorless cameras. Here’s a list of the Asahi Takumar (old Pentax) series of lenses, which has some gems. You can pick them up off eBay for just a few tenners.

My favourites are the SMC 55mm f/1.8 and SMC 50mm f/1.4. They produce lovely creamy bokeh and great sharpness of in focus at the same time.

See

A nice side effect of having a camera on you is that you look at the world differently. Crouch. Climb on things. Lean against walls. Get unique points of view (but be careful!). Annoy your friends because you need to take a bit more time photographing that beetle.

Some shots you take might be considered dumb luck. However, it’s up to you to increase your chances of “being lucky”. You might get lucky wandering around through that park, but you know you certainly won’t be when you just sit at home reading the web about camera performance.

Don’t worry about the execution too much. The important bit is that your picture conveys a feeling. Some things can be fixed in post-production. You can’t fix things like focus or motion blur afterwards, but even these are details and not getting them exactly right won’t mean your picture will be bad.

Don’t compare

Even professional photographers take bad pictures. You never see the shots that didn’t make it. Being a good photographer is as much about being a good editor. The very best still take crappy shots sometimes, and alright shots most of the time. You just don’t see the bad ones.

Ask people you think are great photographers to point out something they’re unhappy about in that amazing picture they took. Chances are they will point out several flaws that you weren’t even aware about.

Share

Don’t forget to actually have a place to actually post your images. Flickr or Instagram are fine for this. We want to see your work! Even if it’s not perfect in your eyes. Do your own thing. You have your own style.

Go

I hope that was helpful. Now stop reading and don’t worry too much. Get out there and have fun. Shoot!