How did you learn to take better photos?

[GetCarter]

Like everything, it's a continuum. As long as you want to learn more, you will.

[droopsnoot]

The_Jackal said:

Remember 99% of the tutorials in magazines are published free on their respective websites, so dont waste money on a subscription.
Plus the Youtube and blog tutorials these days are of a very professional quality.

Good point. Personally I find it easier to look through a magazine article than sit through something on the web, but there is a lot out there. The nice thing about a magazine dropping through the door is it might have a tutorial on a technique you hadn't thought about. So I guess it's an inspiration as much as a tutorial.

[...Mole...]

From my position as a Landscape Photograpger, Don't get hung up on gear a better camera wont make you a better photographer, practice using manual mode, Learn basic guidelines of composition and how to work the light and that doesn't just mean go out in the "golden hour" etc get out in overcast weather, rain, snow etc.

Experiment and push yourself outside of your comfort zone and you will soon find what works for yourself.

[rob0r]

I bought a canon 30d for cheap off MPB and a few lenses and it was a really steep learning curve. I don't like using the flash that often in poor light and the auto mode doesn't have a flash-off mode. I played around in manual mode until I was starting to get the hang of taking viewable photos. I was finding that although the photos were getting better it took ages to get the right settings for each photo I wanted to take, so anything I needed a quick response for it was back onto auto.

I then tried using the A aperture and P mode. It took a while to get a hang of the ISO as the camera is older it only has manual ISO on these modes. Now I just whack it onto an aperture of my choosing, guess the right sort of ISO and hope for the best. I've practiced and practiced and I can kind of take OK photos now which are mainly sharp.

So far I'm only working on aperture, ISO and shutter speed so I'm sure I have loads more to learn.

[Jollyclub]

Play around in Manual mode.

It may seem daunting at first, but you'll soon start seeing things in terms of f number & shutter speed.

Much easier/quicker with digital to identify badly exposed & poorly composed shots and learn from your mistakes.

+ what Getcarter said. If you stay keen to learn & practice you WILL improve.

[Slyjoe]

The "Dummies" book is really good so far - so much more info than the manual itself.
One more question - this is the type of look I like - obviously massively processed, but any idea what this guy is using to produce this effect - I guess they are HDR of some description.

http://500px.com/uxio

[14-7]

cteagles said:

What helped me most was Flickr, you quickly build up a stack of images you really like and you have a look at the EXIF that most flickr users post - this tells you what settings they used and then you apply that to your own image. So for example you want a photo of a car panning with a lot of space around the car with a blurred background. So you check out some panning shots and look at the exposures and program modes used and apply it to your own shots.

But most importantly. Take loads of photos, you learn by doing and photography is a great example of this.

This a thousand times. Look at what others are doing and more importantly what YOU like then try to copy it. Once you are happy with how to use the settings start playing around.