Toronto Photography Meetup Group

Stealing what Ken said and his analogy of the carpenter. Taking two pieces of wood and nailing them together doesn't make you a cabinet maker or woodworker. You have the tools but you need to learn the logistics/rules of the trade and set your foundation. I've met so many new photographers who don't know how a camera's meter works etc. They take the odd nice pic and what they can't accomplish, they rely on Photoshop to save the image and when all else fails, they convert the pic to B&W and call it art.

If you are totally green about what is an f-stop, how to control motion or use it to enhance a photo based on shutter speed, the rules of lighting, basic guidelines and rules of a good framing/composition. Read, read, read some more and better yet, sign up for a intro course at your local community college.

Everyone says to shoot LOTS and this is true BUT if you don't know what makes a photo stand out from others then you're basically just playing the odds. Learn the technical side first and then everything will fall into place but that's not to say you should shoot less. If you want a harsh critique, don't ask your close friends. The majority of them will tell you that it's good to avoid disappointing you! As others have mentioned, YOU be THE most critical judge of your work but this can only go so far if you don't know the basics that make up a good shot from a great shot.

Once you know the basics and "rules" of photography, break 'em! Think outside the box. Develop that artistic eye. If everyone is shooting straight on with the subject, pick a different angle and get a totally new perspective. This will grow on you in time as your experience grows.

Don't worry about gear for now. You've got some good glass. When I show up for a shoot and I've got multiple camera bodies and a bunch of lenses etc. some people think that they need ALL that gear to get great shots. That's 15yrs of me collecting gear but I started out with a cheap film SLR and 2 lenses. I'm in no way implying that I'm the bee's knees and THE next Avedon. Far from it. I'm just laying out what experience has taught me.

As for me, my dad was quite the shutter bug and I've managed to kill almost all the cameras he owned (and got my share of spankings in the process) as a kid growing up. First camera I mucked around with was my dad's 120mm twin reflex Yashica when I was 10. Then my first camera was a 110mm point and click. The bug never hit me until I won a Kodak sponsored photo contest from a landscape shot I took with a simple 35mm point & shoot film camera. A few months after that I bought my first SLR and the rest is history.

To address one of the original questions, how to get better at photography....

being a member here is a great start!

I just joined recently and there is a wealth of knowledgeable, courteous and great photographers here. I'm learning just by the reading now. I can't wait to go to an event.

My advice for anyone, keep what gear you have, and keep practicing different things and interacting with other fotogs. The next piece of gear is always going to be there.

Know your camera inside out. Know how it will respond before it responds. Take the time to think about your composition. Never stop taking pictures. Get, and don't be afraid of, critiques.

Nicely said Carlton. One thing I will add is that photographic talent is a combination of technique, hard work, a good eye and creativity. If you are lacking in any one or more of these areas you can still be a competent photographer but it will be difficult to be a great photographer. The last two traits are very difficult to improve upon but not impossible.

I have met many technically sound photographers and some creative ones but very rarely truly talented ones.

Personally, this is exactly why I find photography so challenging and enjoyable. You are only as good as your last photograph. It is a life long journey of knowledge, creativity, wisdom and passion.

A piece of advice from a fellow newbie, don't bother shooting in RAW or even the highest res JPEG. All those less then perfect pics will eat up your hard drive space in no time. To use the carpentry analogy, you wouldn't practice with oak, mahogany or cherry, you would use some crappy rough cut pine to make mistakes on. As you see yourself progress and taking pictures worthy of the higher resolution, make the adjustment at that time.

Hummm, not sure if I subscribe to this. What if you happen to shoot that once in lifetime award winning shot that you only had THAT very instance to shoot it and you captured it.... in low res JPEG? Bye bye poster prints. Bye bye detailed photoshopping.

My theory is this... memory is cheap; the opportunity of a lifetime is priceless.

I'm not sure I completely agree with you. If you are interested in post processing then RAW is the way to go, if not then jpg.

What I found that was difficult is throwing out stuff that I will never use. Develop a work flow where you sort your newly taken photographs into piles of yes, no, maybe. The next day go through the no and weed through the maybe pile again and throw out all the no pile.

Memory is cheap .. no need to skimp there.

I did recover some old photos and turned them more interesting with the 2 years of photoshop experience that I gained afterwards. I regret not shooting those old photos in RAW.

Assuming you're a beginner, let's say 15Megapixel camera, that's 15 megabytes / picture in raw.

Approximately 500 pictures/ 8gb card.

Now, assuming you do not delete, one shoot assuming 500 pictures is reasonable.

Let's just assume a cheap USB chassis for an external hard drive is 50 bucks (30 actually), and 150 bucks for 1 terabyte drive (which is actually 100 if you go for cheapest.

200 bucks. That's 1000 Gbs. That's 125 shoots.

Assuming you have 1 shoot / week with 500 pictures each...That's 2 years.


2 years for 200 dollars.

Given how much photography equipment is, why wouldn't you invest in some space for your photos. Taken in the carpenter's analogy, it's like buying the most expensive power tools, but not remembering to allocate money for good wood.

If you're shooting JPEG, why don't you go back to an advanced point and shoot? One of the biggest reasons why people switch from point and shoot to DSLR is the ability to use RAW. Like PotatoEye said in another thread, people have to learn to process digital negatives some time.

That I disagree with. The reason why people (who know photography) switch to dSLR is CONTROL...I can take pictures with a dSLR that I just couldn't take with my bridge camera (or with a P&S) due to the limited control those cameras offer. There are P&S/bridge cameras out there that do RAW, so that's not a valid reason.

Those who know little about photography switch thinking they will instantly get better pictures (including by using RAW).




As someone who's edited digital images since the 80's, you have to decide for yourself if using RAW is worth it...personally I think it isn't unless you are doing fine art prints; I've tried RAW, and found JPEG was more than sufficient for my workflow which I've developed over many years. See the six myths about digital photography at:
http://www.nobsphotosuccess.com/

I never said it was the only reason. I said one of the biggest reasons. If you want to list them out, there's the interchangable lenses, like you said, control, the ability to use RAW that's on every DSLR (I have yet to see one that doesn't have one), the larger sensor. There is no one single reason, but a multitude of them. Likewise, there are bridge cameras that offer A&S just like DSLRs. You're either arguing semantics or you didn't read the qualifying statement of "one of the biggest" not "the biggest".


These are the same type of people that buy better lenses and expect better pictures.

RAW offers the same thing as better lenses. Versatility. Unlike expensive lenses however, memory is cheap and should almost be a non-issue.


Sure. But you are not dismissing RAW because of the lack of disk space are you? Likewise, if you find that you don't need the extra info stored in RAW, you could always incorporate a convert to JPEG and delete the RAW in your workflow, after the shoot for storage.

But to tell a beginner not to use RAW even given how cheap memory is, is like telling someone not to use autofocus because it uses extra electricity driving the autofocus motor.

Part of being a good photographer is composition and discrimination of your own work between good and nondescript. While any workflow is OK, consider if you have to go into your achieves to tart up an old photograph that you didn't really like in the first place maybe you should be going out and taking new photos with your current knowledge and tastes. Learning to discriminate is useful and valueable in photography as it is in most things.

As Ken keeps stating, you gotta shoot. All theory and no hands on won't get you anywhere. One thing I would suggest is find some photos that you truly like, and try to reproduce them yourself. I would keep it simple in the sense of keeping it things you can actually have everything you need to reproduce it (ie. lens, location, lighting, etc.). Maybe even limit it to just 5 photos. So, try to reproduce the same results yourself in Aperture priority. Once you are able to, then try to do it all over again in Manual mode. This will help you understand how your camera works as a tool, and when having more control over it works better for some situations and less control applies to others.