Photography Break Through

What are some of the things that helped you put pecies of the puzzle together?

For me it was understanding that ISO, shutter speed, and apature all kind of fit together like a puzzle.

When you add or subract from one you usually have to adjust one or both of the others to get your correct exposure.

Mine has come from the few photos I took at the beginning of me getting into photography that made me say "Wow, I shot that?".

Then I started taking my and others shots apart composition wise, lighting, camera settings, etc, to figure out how to make all my shots that amazing.

One of them for me is that you really have to visualize your shots before you take them.

You need to think about what aperture you "NEED" to get the DOF you want, then what shutter to freeze or blur any motion thats in the sceen, and finally what ISO to maintain the DOF and shutter speed. Sometimes you need to compromise, but it's always better to intentionally make the compomise than just shoot w/o thinking about it.

Focal length is important as well how large do you want items to appear compared to others; you need to make a concious decision about this as well otherwise your photos will suffer.

Vacation wrote in post #5912443
What are some of the things that helped you put pecies of the puzzle together?

the importance and understanding of light.

azpix wrote in post #5913275
the importance and understanding of light.

That, and understanding how to meter that light and also understanding that your meter dosen't always "see" the light like you do.

The understanding that with a DSLR, I am the person in control of what comes out of the camera and that if its a bad shot, theres no one to blame but myself!

The realisation that I should REALLY LOOK through the viewfinder, rather than just poke my eye at it for some basic framing.

Many years ago my boss and then mentor taught me to look square (or rectangular), forget about my peripheral vision and have a good look around the extremities of my viewfinder.. Good advice and I still use it..

azpix wrote in post #5913275
the importance and understanding of light.

Same here. Learning how the light hits the subject from what height/angle etc. produces the most brilliant shots. Learning DOF, aperture ISO shutter speed etc. was all the basic learning of photography more like "mini" break throughs.

Definitely learning how to meter properly, where to put colours in whatever light is available, on your cameras meter. After that, you decide what is needed, eg, fast shutter for sports, and adjust aperture and iso appropriately.

Honestly when I started out I thought it was mostly in the camera.
Got my first SLR and learnt that lens length is highly important in my circustances.

Aperture and Shutter I'd say are very very important details, but I started off in Manual mode, so I learnt reasonably quickly how it all comes into play. I'm starting to move onto Manual once again because I got my first "real" camera my 40D, and I can't rely on automated features at all any more

The most important thing, ideally, is the concepts. What does the aperture setting actually do, the shutter, the ISO. You need to understand the concepts and features of your camera. Think of it this way:

"Wow, amazing shot!? How the hell did he do it?"
I take on this attitude to every photo that interests me with interesting effects. Such photos usually are taken at nightclubs - the light in these photos compells me!!

If it's "wrong", not much else matters.
A few Car Lighting Tips - Updated

fubarhouse wrote in post #5914482
Honestly when I started out I thought it was mostly in the camera.
Got my first SLR and learnt that lens length is highly important in my circustances.

Aperture and Shutter I'd say are very very important details, but I started off in Manual mode, so I learnt reasonably quickly how it all comes into play. I'm starting to move onto Manual once again because I got my first "real" camera my 40D, and I can't rely on automated features at all any more

The most important thing, ideally, is the concepts. What does the aperture setting actually do, the shutter, the ISO. You need to understand the concepts and features of your camera. Think of it this way:

"Wow, amazing shot!? How the hell did he do it?"
I take on this attitude to every photo that interests me with interesting effects. Such photos usually are taken at nightclubs - the light in these photos compells me!!

"Wow, amazing shot!? How the hell did he do it?"

LMAO!!!

I remeber doing that too!

PhotosGuy wrote in post #5914727
If it's "wrong", not much else matters.
A few Car Lighting Tips - Updated

If it's "wrong", not much else matters.

VERY TRUE statement!!!

It's SO much about the light. Figuring out how the camera 'sees' the light and knowing the difference of how the human eye sees the light. That was key for me. Once I figured out that the camera really can't see detail in all highlights and shadows at the same time that was the first step. Next was knowing what to do about it. Either knock down the bright areas, fill in the dark areas, or both (if needed). Learning how to 'feed' the camera the proper dynamic range of light was the big break through to me.