Help, whats the first thing you do at a shoot?

[ColinP]

Well, I've been shooting for about 3 years now and after reviewing my work I see a few things that need work on. Some things that can make my photography much stronger. I'm curious as to if anyone would give me some tips on what I should do on location to improve these things:

1.) Framing
When I start at a place I choose to shoot... I often just make a cool angle out of my viewfinder and snap a photograph. This leads to mistakes almost 90% of the time. Something that definitely needs improving because I need to learn the best way to frame subjects and keep everything in good order. Often I get lots of negative space, over exposed parts of the photo and other problems that need fixing on location.
2.) Composition
Like I said, I don't feel like I take my time to really look at the shot before I take it. What is a good rule of thumb to get good composition in a photo rule of thirds, subject placement ect ect.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2714/4414870153_84ae06b269.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4040/4426532308_3dfaf862ac.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4010/4425766629_e2c7692956.jpg

Help please. Here are some photos that show examples of what I'm talking about.

[hover]

Sounds like you just need to think more before you release the shutter. Try shooting film for a bit. Paying for every exposure will make you think about each one a little more.

[TristanCardew]

Buy yourself a big, heavy, solid tripod with a big, heavy, solid head, and keep the camera attached at all times.

It'll teach you to think about your framing, composition, negative space, light, etc. The longer you spend looking through the viewfinder the more you'll pick up in the scene, and overall your shots will improve.

[neilwood32]

When you raise the camera to your eye DONT press the shutter button.

Move the camera around, try different levels (above, below and level).

Another tip would be to get an art book on composition. Artists use it all the time to place subjects where they will have most impact.

Taking your examples, I would have the following comments.
1) Do cars appear at an extreme angle when viewed by eye? If the car was level, it would appear more natural to the eye. Also you have shot pretty much at eye level (appears to be but difficult to tell given the angle), try getting low on the ground and closer to give the car a more imposing look. Try using the background better - there is too much distraction within the background that leads the eye away from the car.

2)The house looks unnatural because it doesnt appear to be on anything. Try shooting it with the transition between ground and sky 1/3 up (rule of thirds). You also have two potential subjects in the picture which provide conflict - where are you trying to draw the viewers eye? Once you have decided which is the subject, place it on the intersection of a third.

3) As there is only one subject in the frame and it is of a fairly symetrical object, place the subject centrally in the frame. also be wary of converging verticals when shooting this. If you extend the lines of the door frame in your shot, the door would eventually meet at a point which is not natural. Make sure you shoot straight on with the camera level (you can always crop out distractions later (such as the window above)

Always try to analyse the scene before shooting- why, what, how?
Why am i shooting this? - helps decide the subject matter.
What is the best way to emphasize the subject compositionally (rule of thirds, golden rule etc)
How - what can I do to best capture the image. This is where the technical aspects come in (aperture, shutter speed etc)

[SkipD]

1.) Framing
When I start at a place I choose to shoot... I often just make a cool angle out of my viewfinder and snap a photograph.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2714/4414870153_84ae06b269.jpg
In my opinion, Neil's comments above are right on.

If the shot above is typical of your "cool angle", then I'm sorry you think this way. In my opinion, most tilted images like this one that have a very visible reference to real-world horizontal and vertical alignment (the background, edge of the road, etc.) are horrible to view. There is absolutely no compositional advantage to the tilt that would make it a better image than one made with the camera held level. Also, the background in this shot does nothing whatsoever for the image of the automobile.

The doorway shot was apparently taken with the camera too close to the doorway (and a very short lens used to frame it). I think the shot would have been better if made from a greater distance with a longer lens, helping to avoid the very visible "perspective distortion". There's also a tilt to the camera for that shot that does nothing beneficial.

To answer the title of this thread, the first thing I do is visualize what might make an interesting image. I might use my hands to create a frame for me to look through to help the visualization - much like the scope that I've seen movie makers use to select the framing of a shot. In addition to merely looking at framing, I will work on perspective visualization. Note that changing the position from which I view the potential image changes the perspective. Then, I'll drag out the camera and see how things look through the viewfinder.

I often use a handheld light meter to make my measurements rather than depending on the camera's meter. Why? It's because my handheld meter can measure the level of the light falling on the scene rather than trying to analyse the light reflected from the scene. When there is a variety of color and reflectivity in the scene, a reflected-light meter - especially one built into a camera with programming controlling its operation - can be easily "confused". Using a handheld meter (with the proper training and experience) and shooting with the camera set for manual exposure control allows me to get the exposures that I want far more often than letting the camera "think" for me.

You could benefit from understanding how to control perspective in your images. You can find a lot of good information if you read our "sticky" (now found in the General Photography Talk forum) tutorial titled Perspective Control in Images - Focal Length or Distance? (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=672913).

[PhotosGuy]

1.) Framing
When I start at a place I choose to shoot... I often just make a cool angle out of my viewfinder and snap a photograph. This leads to mistakes almost 90% of the time. Reminds me of the old joke:
"Doctor, it hurts when I do this!"
Doctor: "Stop doing that!" ;)

Composition Articles library (http://photoinf.com/)

Load your image & see how it works in the Composition Adjuster. (http://photoinf.com/Tools/Composition_Adjuster/Java-Composition-Adjuster.html)

[LauraSB]

If you are going to do the tilt shots tilt only slightly. I do the tilt shots and have learned that less is better.

[Mike]

Re: Help, whats the first thing you do at a shoot?

Take my lens cap off...:p

(sorry, couldn't resist!)

[oaktree]

Well, I've been shooting for about 3 years now and after reviewing my work I see a few things that need work on. Some things that can make my photography much stronger. I'm curious as to if anyone would give me some tips on what I should do on location to improve these things:

1.) Framing
When I start at a place I choose to shoot... I often just make a cool angle out of my viewfinder and snap a photograph. This leads to mistakes almost 90% of the time. Something that definitely needs improving because I need to learn the best way to frame subjects and keep everything in good order. Often I get lots of negative space, over exposed parts of the photo and other problems that need fixing on location.
2.) Composition
Like I said, I don't feel like I take my time to really look at the shot before I take it. What is a good rule of thumb to get good composition in a photo rule of thirds, subject placement ect ect.



Sounds like you just need to think more before you release the shutter. Try shooting film for a bit. Paying for every exposure will make you think about each one a little more.

Sound advice about slowing down. But you don't need to go to film to do that. Just slow down.

Try envisioning what you're trying to get out of your shots. For the car shot, what were you trying to show? Since you tilted the frame, you must have wanted a "dynamic" look which you decided you could not get if the car was parallel to the bottom of the frame. If it's your or friend's car, you could have someone drive it and shot it while panning. You can then get a more dynamic look without tilting the frame.

BTW: 90% of my first shots are also "bad". The important thing is what you do right after you look at the LCD and decide the shot was "bad". AV, Tv, ISO need adjustment? Lens needs to be changed or just zoomed in/out? Do I need to get closer/further away, move left or right, get a lower or higher point-of-view? The list goes on. However, what you actually do should be guided by your vision of what the shot "should" be like.

Negative space and over exposure are not necessarily bad. It depends on what you envisioned before you take a shot. I review my 2000 OK to very good photos ALL the time to see why I liked one photos over another. And it's never just one thing. Sometimes it's the color or the lines or the light or the simplicity or the chaos, etc. If it was only one thing that makes a photo great...it would be too easy for all of us.

I know I'm bad at "filling the frame" with my shoots. But I know I am very good at cropping. So I crop all the time. And all my "practice" at cropping has made me way better in composing shots in the camera! So take any of your shots and crop it 10-20 different ways. You'll eventually see why the composition in one crop looks better than another. You can then use that knowledge on a shot.

Main thing...keep shooting :)

[PhotosGuy]

oaktree: Sound advice about slowing down. But you don't need to go to film to do that. Just slow down. Years ago when I was typically shooting 40-60 rolls of 36 a day, I went to the zoo on the weekend with 1 roll of 20exp Tri-X & a long lens. It made me visualize & predict what might happen for each shot, but I still had to decide fast to shoot or not when/if something happened.
Try taking only a 128MB CF card & shooting RAW. See if that challenges you enough to "ThiMk" before hitting the shutter?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/PhotosGuy/Samples%20-%20General/Zoo-Tiger_01.jpg

[Wilt]

Do some reading on composition. The places where you put your horizons, or strong edges (fence bottom exactly on the frame edge), and how your photos do (or don't) lead the eye around the frame to dynamically draw the viewer's eye around the shot...are the most noticeable elements. You're not too guilty of bullseye framing in the shots, although the front wheel of that auto certainly is pretty guilty of that placement.