Bub":7tve8l2n said:
My wife, who has an artistic eye and a background in journalism, said that you had a great eye and your photographs were outstanding.
Since I would like to take great photos, what do you attribute your success to?
Thoughts that come to mind are camera, knowledge about photography, practice, and of course Photoshop.
Since many of the pictures appear to come from slides, it looks like you have a great eye, know how to set up your camera and when to press the button.
Thank you Bub, both to you and your wife.
I would attribute any success that I do have with first of all having the camera with me. I don't mean this to sound flippant, but I've often been in situations when I've seen sights that just beg to be captured but didn't have my camera. They're the ones that got away so to speak. So, first rule, take your camera with you as much as is practicable.
Applying the simple technique of the rule of thirds transformed my images. Happy to explain if you're not sure.
Understanding ISO, depth of field and aperture and how they interact helps enormously. Of course, most DSLRs have an auto mode that turns it into a 'point and press'. This will still give excellent results but removes all control of your images. If I was to pick just two concepts that I would say made my photography turn a corner, it would be the rule of thirds and understanding depth of field. This can be achieved by using the aperture priority mode on a DSLR.
As for the camera, my current hardware is a reconditioned unit that is approx. 10 years old and only boasts a 10 mega pixel crop sensor. This is fine for me as I won't ever be enlarging and printing bigger than A3. Fact is, mega pixels sells cameras and whilst it is nice to know you have 24 up your sleeve, for most folks it simply not needed.
I do use post processing software - RAW Therapee is very good and is a free download and also Photoshop CS5 which I've only just acquired - but only use it to make the picture 'pop'; adjusting contrast, saturation and a few other tweaks. I'm not a fan of doing anything else as I believe it makes the image become artificial. Back in the days of film all processing labs tweaked images to some degree or other to make the pictures look a little more appealing. Fujichrome was a slide film famed for vibrant colours. The tweaks I do in post processing just mimics this.
You're right about a schooling with slide film (or print). This really taught me to get things right and carefully consider the image before I pulled the trigger as there was no such thing as post processing and of course film could get expensive.
And you don't need a big posh SLR either! The cameras built into phones these days are quite remarkable considering their size and the lens used. Apply the rule of thirds, shoot from interesting perspectives and you'll get great results.
So! Get out there and take some pics Mr and Mrs Bub!