Photography: 25 things to think of as a photographer. Par 1(3)

Good read below:

1.
Do not fully trust the light meter in your camera (this does not mean you should get a external light meter). But do look at the image and see if YOU like it, the camera can not read your mind

2.
Use the histogram, i can not emphasis's this enough. This histogram tell you how much detail your image will have, the more of an even histogram you have the more detail you will get in your image, if you overexpose the histogram will show more detail (or a higher graph) on the right hand side if you underexpose the left hand side of the histogram will have the most graph so to speak. Now i have previously stated that its its better to underexpose then overexpose, this is merely because its easier to fix underexposed photographs in post processing softwares. The reason for this is that its easier for the camera to remember darker details then the very bright ones.

Here is an overexpose histogram:


Here is an underexposed histogram:


You want something along that is in between these two histograms.


3.
Yes the histogram is important, but do not obsess over it. Use it as a guide merely, you also need to be thinking about lining up your next shot. The histogram is important to a certain extent, but if you like the way your photograph turns out and the histogram reveals something that doesn't look good, its doesn't matter. Just let it be. Know when to use and how to limit it

4.
Make sure to take sharp pictures. Its very easy to think you can just draw your camera on A mode and and having the camera on ISO 100, and it tells you that its going to use a shutter speed of 1/60. This means that you will want to hold sharp, if you cannot manage to get a sharp shot take several of the same and bump up the ISO to 200 or 400 to bring down the shutter speed or adjust the appreture, to balance things out. I have learnt to hand hold at a slowest shutter speed of 1/6 and this took me alot of practice, but if i m going to take a shot at that i need to be stationary and its not going to be one of those spontaneous images. It will be a planned one. But i tend to use my mini tripod alot, just to be sure that i m getting the sharpest image possible.

5.
Find the juicy spot of your lens when it comes to appreture. What does this mean? Well some lenses just have a spot where they will perform the best optically, and where they will give you the sharpest image. If i m not mistaken i have read that the f/8 seems to be a very common juicy spot for alot of lenses, but it may vary so try to find this out.

6.
Try MF (manual focus) out. Why would you want to do this? Well there are just to certain occasions your camera will not be able to focus, this could be because your too close, then switch over to MF and see what can be done. Often this is something i find myself doing in rather "dark" ambients, the AF (auto focus) will just not do it sometimes. I also recommend for candid (set up) portraits that you use MF, and try to get it as sharp as possible on the subjects eye's. When ever i shot portraits i use MF, and when ever i m doing self portraits i use MF as well, tho when i m shooting self portraits its takes a bit of time to adjust the MF so i get it spot on.

7.
MF can also offer a quite nice "artistic" result. You can blur things out so it leave the subject that is looking at the photo to think out what is it that i m looking for. I personally love to MF out of focus when it comes to light at night, or when there is any light around the results are quite interesting.

Below are some links to some quite creative out of focus pictures
-Image 1
-Image 2
-Image 3

8.
Using AF during sports events can be quite tricky if your lens isnt fast enough you might miss the action. The only type of sport that i shoot is skateboarding, or at least thats the one i m doing right now. And i just stand at one spot and watch the skaters go by and then i MF on the sweet spot that they are going to do the jumps on etc. By doing this i m cutting down on the time it takes for my camera to focus and actually open the shutter.

Below are some examples of my MF and skateboarding.
-Image 1
-Image 2
-Image 3

9.
Try out M mode, i was reading on the internet that some photographer stated that M was for masters and P was for pathetic, i though that was quite funny, because i know that most people start out on Auto and move their way to M. You have to start at the base if you don not you will not understand whats going on in your camera. The sweet thing about using M mode is that you can control the shutter speed and the appreture at the same time. And the results are quite rewarding. Often i get OK results in A or Tv mode, but when i chose to go M mode i get some what more what i wanted (of course i wont use M mode when i m going to shoot a spontaneous image). You often need more time when your taking the pictures in M mode, so take your time practice at home, and see what each combination does, after a while you will discover some settings that are great for certain conditions.

10.
Have fun, i m a bit of a photo geek (nerd) to be honest but i just love it, there is nothing more rewarding to me then to get a really nice photograph. The perks that come along with this is when people see your photos and they compliment you.

Side note:

I m an active member on a great forum called Camera Labs, and there the members are just great i suggest you take a look at the website and become a member of the forums if you have some detailed questions that i cannot answer. There are some very talented photographer on that forum willing and able to help you out!

Feel free to leave a comment, would be interesting to see what you the reader has to say about how i m bloggin, what you would be interested to read about, comments and critique please!

Have a good evening,

Alex