Addicted to photography

I find myself addicted to photography. I come home from work or school and I come on these forums and read all night until bed and wake up and read them until I go to work or school.

I just feel like there is SO much to learn that I don't have enough time to learn it in. I just recently started learning about off-camera flash systems, which is huge! I never knew how much difference good lighting made. I think I have finally crossed that threshold of caring about lighting over everything else.

I still feel like my biggest deficit is post processing. That is one area where I feel extremely overwhelmed because there are thousands of techniques that I don't know. I usually spend about 5 minutes PPing a photo, if that. The power of post processing is ridiculous and I feel like I need to learn more techniques because if I don't my photos will be lackluster. I know that if you take a good photo to begin with it shouldn't need much PP but I have seen some very drastic improvements to photos from the original.

Anyway, anyone else relatively new to photography have the same experience?

I have been at this DSLR photography hobby/job for about a year and half now and I went through the same thing.
I do feel overwhelmed with all the information there is on everything. It seems that every little niche of photography has its own techniques and ideas on what makes a good image.
Then comes the gear. Im constantly rethinking my gear and what I could do different and if I need an upgrade.
Post processing is simply a beast to master. I am somewhere in between understand the basic adjustments of curves, levels, saturation... to being able to greatly imporve an image using masking, layers,...

I am not really worried about any of it. I will probably always enjoy posting and reading on here. With time I will fully understand ocf and good lighting practices. And the PP will come with practice. Practice, practice, practice...

Good Luck!

Morlow wrote in post #8996568
I never knew how much difference good lighting made. I think I have finally crossed that threshold of caring about lighting over everything else.

It amazing how long it takes for most of us to learn this, isn't it? I mean, you can have $4000 worth of camera and glass around your neck and guess what? If the light is wrong you are out of luck. It's a concept that is amazingly simple and for some reason takes a long time to soak in.

For me, part of the joy of photography is the nearly endless opportunities to learn. But I also think that there comes a time when we should stop worrying about what model of camera or what lens we want and just go out and shoot with what we already have and simply enjoy the hobby.

James P wrote in post #8998874
For me, part of the joy of photography is the nearly endless opportunities to learn. But I also think that there comes a time when we should stop worrying about what model of camera or what lens we want and just go out and shoot with what we already have and simply enjoy the hobby.

Well said!

I feel exactly the same Morlow. I've been interested in photograhy for years now, but never really bought a dslr because I simply couldnt afford it. Altho i've always had an appreciation for great photos. Its only recently, as in a month recently that i decided to take the plunge and finally get a dslr and start reading about photography. And like you, i'm now addicted to forums like this. I will be on the forums during the day while I'm working, then i'll get home and be on the forums until i go to bed. I use to read the theories behind photograhy, until i found this forum and now i just read this. There is so much to learn, i'm abit overwhelmed and not really sure whether I will ever get there. I've tried taking photos etc but the shots just dont look that great. I dont know why, but i keep telling myself its because I dont have the better lenses. But then again, i've seen amazing photos taken with crappy lenses and cameras. So now i'm starting to think its just me,i just dont have the nack for photography!
I'm still enjoying photography and trying to learn more through other people's advice.

OMG I know exactly what you mean with regards to PP. There are SO many techniques out there. But i'm taking it one step at a time and following alot of youtube tutorials. Atm i'm just trying to remember the techniques that i learn before moving onto a new technique. With regards to curves, saturation etc, I just play around with the sliders and see what i like. The hard part is trying to figure out which dial/slider i need to use to improve the photo. So much to learn!!

But i am trying to enjoy the hobby, its a very expensive one tho!!

James P wrote in post #8998874
For me, part of the joy of photography is the nearly endless opportunities to learn. But I also think that there comes a time when we should stop worrying about what model of camera or what lens we want and just go out and shoot with what we already have and simply enjoy the hobby.

This is so important. Photography is one of those tech hobbies where you can spend as much money as you can get your hands on, but it all begins with the original image. For a beginner the hours spent lusting for L glass or honing your PP skills might be better spent in studying composition.

As a young guy with 5 years of enthusiast photography to show, a newspaper took a chance on me. I thought I was pretty good. Wow, did I get blown out of the water!!! Fortunately the wise old, soon to be retired chief photographer took me under his wing and showed me the right way to take pictures. Funny thing, he was younger than I am now.

I see some amazing technical photos on this website every day--much better than I could ever do (plus, I don't have the patience), but I often think how much better they could be if they were cropped differently or maybe the angle was lower. I'm not stepping on toes here. I love looking at the photos, and I learn every day. Just food for thought.

To the OP, the basics of PP can be kept fairly simple.

My workflow (i shoot RAW only but the majority still works for Jpeg):
Import to ACR
Adjust white balance (using the eyedropper or presets as required)
Work down the sliders (exposure, recovery, fill etc)
Then saturation/clarity.
Open in PS.
Clone out spots etc (for some reason i find it easier in PS)
Use Curves layer to fine tune contrast
Sharpen to suit output.

Done!

I only use selections/masks etc if there are areas that i feel will be adversly affected by the adjustment.

However, getting the original image right is very important

Yeah I have found I can get some results that I really like with very basic PPing if the original shot is done correctly. One thing I still need to work on is remembering to expose to the right. Obviously this is dangerous in certain areas (I have heard portraits are particularly dangerous) but it is something I need to always keep in mind.