HELP! Piffed off with my photography

Andrew33

Hi all, I need some C + C on my photos,
I'm relatively new to photography but I enjoy it (most of the time).
I'm using a Canon 450D and have had various lenses over the last 2 years, Canon, Tamron etc. I recently decided to invest in a good lens and went and bought a Canon 55-250 IS. I ended up returning the lens cos the image quality was so poor so I've bitten the bullet and bought a Canon 70-300 IS (new) a few days ago and initially thought it was a good lens. However, my photos are still lacking sharpness and overall look dull, dirty and lifeless so I can only conclude that it's me thats at fault and not the lens. Could my camera need a professional cleaning? Any advice welcome. Thanks.

Tallon

I don't think the day helped you. Looks crap out, very hard to get a good clear photo in that.

You really just need practice. I recommend either picking up some books ( I think "understanding exposure" is the main one people suggest) or else just getting out and practicing.

Try and join a camera club or at least go to a meeting or two.

There's only so much advice you can get off books and people online. The main thing is experience and hands on

magicbastarder

C&C on the shots in general - given the subject you've chosen, it's going to be hard to get a good shot because you've little control over them; where you can photograph them from is heavily restricted and the backgrounds aren't inspiring.
all you're going to get from the side of the runway is 'record' shots. the shots themselves seem grand from an exposure point of view, i imagine they're a decent enough representation of how it was out there, as tallon said.

one minor change i could suggest is to park at the western end of the runway when they're landing eastbound and shoot from underneath. will give a different perspective on them.

Promac

The colours look a bit pale to me. Are you using any custom settings with the saturation turned down? Maybe they just need a little punch in PP.

Are the images cropped later or did you frame them the way they are? They're a little close for my liking. The framing just seems a little restrictive. Look up (or recap on) the "Rule of thirds" and see if that gives you more satisfying images.

For some nice photos on a dull day like that, you might consider zooming in to specific parts of a plane, like an engine or wheel or cockpit, so that you can cut out the dull background and create some atmosphere. If the zoom allows it of course. On other days, try to get there for sunset or sunrise to get some more dramatic backgrounds.

What are your AV and TV settings? Which mode are you shooting in? You're essentially shooting portraits of planes so you could open up the aperture (smaller number in the AV dial) so that more light gets in and you blur the background a bit. As long as your shutter speed is still fast enough to capture the moving planes correctly. A shallow depth of field in a portrait is a great way to emphasise the subject and keep the eye away from distracting background elements.


There's quite a bit of noise in the sky on the last pic as if the ISO was cranked way up. I know it was a dull day but it shouldn't be so high that it's causing noise like that during the day. Check your EXIF data to see what it was set at (if you don't know off hand) - from the look of it I'd say it's up at 1600 or so. If so, you're probably missing something on the metering. Make sure you meter for the main subject in your photo (generally, not always) and not the dark sky in the background. Mess around with the different metering modes to see how the results differ.

If you've faffed around with settings and aren't really sure what they've done then a factory reset is always a good idea. If you know what you're doing then you'll be able to get back any settings you feel you need but you won't be suffering from weird settings you put in by mistake (I've done it several times at this stage).

Andrew33

Tallon wrote: »

I don't think the day helped you. Looks crap out, very hard to get a good clear photo in that.

You really just need practice. I recommend either picking up some books ( I think "understanding exposure" is the main one people suggest) or else just getting out and practicing.

Try and join a camera club or at least go to a meeting or two.

There's only so much advice you can get off books and people online. The main thing is experience and hands on

Thanks Tallon, I'm not a complete novice, I have numerous books on the subject including "Understanding Exposure" (over rated in my opinion).
I just know I've taken much better photos with an inferior 3rd party lens than the shots above.
www.irishairpics.com/photographer/andrew_weir/

Maybe it was just the dull weather. Keep shootin' I suppose.

Tallon

Andrew33 wrote: »

Thanks Tallon, I'm not a complete novice, I have numerous books on the subject including "Understanding Exposure" (over rated in my opinion).
I just know I've taken much better photos with an inferior 3rd party lens than the shots above.
www.irishairpics.com/photographer/andrew_weir/

Maybe it was just the dull weather. Keep shootin' I suppose.

I didn't mean it in a novice way, appologies if thats what it seemed.

I meant your a newbie with that particular camera. Maybe pop along to one of the events boards has like Charleville

Andrew33

Promac wrote: »

Are the images cropped later or did you frame them the way they are? They're a little close for my liking. The framing just seems a little restrictive.
What are your AV and TV settings? Which mode are you shooting in? You're essentially shooting portraits of planes so you could open up the aperture (smaller number in the AV dial) so that more light gets in and you blur the background a bit. As long as your shutter speed is still fast enough to capture the moving planes correctly. A shallow depth of field in a portrait is a great way to emphasise the subject and keep the eye away from distracting background elements.

Pics are cropped down tight to make uploading easier without resizing as I wanted C&C on as original as possible pics. I am shooting in manual mode and know my way around the basic settings and am starting to play with aperature and shutter speeds to imply motion etc but the above shoots were just done "record" style which should have presented me with the least technical challenges and therefore possibly the easiest/best pics?
I dunno:(

Andrew33

Tallon wrote: »

I didn't mean it in a novice way, appologies if thats what it seemed.

I meant your a newbie with that particular camera. Maybe pop along to one of the events boards has like Charleville

You're grand, I didn't take it that way, I was just saying I know how to take the lens cap off:D

Crispin

Try boosting the saturation, so the colours pop out a bit more. It seems like from your site you are just documenting these planes so you may not be bothered about composition but I find the composition dull; a lot of side on shots of planes. I can't really comment on the sharpness though, the images are too small

keep shooting

Ricky91t

You say you invested in a good lens, To be honest for a tiny bit more than the 70-300 is usm you could( and should ) get the 70-200 f/4 USM , It's meant to be one of canons sharpest L lenses and is definetly worth considering, I know it's not going to help with the C&C of your images but I thought I'd mention it.

dave66

I do think the light on the crappy day really screwed you.

You could try some PP to try get some detail into the dull clouds or saturate the colours of the aircraft - but some times the light is just plain ****e, which ain't your fault.

The next time, when you are shooting in manual, it might worth alternating between full manual (I take it that's what you were trying) and either Aperture/Shutter priority and let the camera help with exposure. That way afterwards you can compare your manual shots against the shots from the priority mode to see the difference in exposure.

Thecageyone

For the conditions, you got your subjects pretty clear and detailed. Do you use any post-processing programs? It would be easy sharpen/clarify/boost contrast on them to make the planes stand out a bit more from the bland backing. Minor tweaks.

The cropping is way too tight though, something in motion should be given room in the frame, as if to fly into, basically. These could just well be on the ground [second 2] - there's no sense of height or space. Just my opinion I think they'd be a bit more exciting from a different perspective. In the third, the wing on the ground is a distraction.

milos

Hi Andrew

I loved shot no 2 but you are doing what all of us did at one time ot the other. You are thinking of the plane not the photo.

What I mean is everyone can get that shot.
Think what will make that shot different. If I stand on a fence , if I take the shot while lying on the road, ( mind the bus ), if I take it over the other side it will be different.
But all is not lost on the shots. With a little PP you can make a difference.

I know, its not what came off his camera, I know its PPed to hell, I know its not right but I like it and I enjoyed doing it.

Anzac_11

Andrew33 wrote: »

You're grand, I didn't take it that way, I was just saying I know how to take the lens cap off:D

What lens cap? :eek: