Need encouragement & advice

John Thomson

Senior Member
howdy again

As some already know I am very new to this hobby, my new lens came the other day so have been out to give it a quick try, I already know its a cheap lens (Tamron 70-300) no VR so I knew I would struggle a lot but thought it would start me off for now (if you know what I mean) so anyway you know whats coming next, yes was quite disappointed with the results, I know I wouldnt go straight out and take perfect shots but was hoping for a little better, have read a lot on here regarding settings and tried to follow some of the advice, struggling with birds, static not flying as that's out of my league, photos seem to lack detail, please tell me where I am going wrong, I am not giving up, but is it a combination of things? Me combined with cheap lens and don't know what I am doing, go easy on me lol

Thanks
John

(Been shooting in RAW, Says NEF file too large to upload, how can I upload them? , everything is against me lol)
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
howdy again

As some already know I am very new to this hobby, my new lens came the other day so have been out to give it a quick try, I already know its a cheap lens (Tamron 70-300) no VR so I knew I would struggle a lot but thought it would start me off for now (if you know what I mean) so anyway you know whats coming next, yes was quite disappointed with the results, I know I wouldnt go straight out and take perfect shots but was hoping for a little better, have read a lot on here regarding settings and tried to follow some of the advice, struggling with birds, static not flying as that's out of my league, photos seem to lack detail, please tell me where I am going wrong, I am not giving up, but is it a combination of things? Me combined with cheap lens and don't know what I am doing, go easy on me lol

Thanks
John

(Been shooting in RAW, Says NEF file too large to upload, how can I upload them? , everything is against me lol)
So you're shooting in RAW... Are you doing any post processing on these shots using Lightroom or Photoshop or something like that?
....
 

Skwaz

Senior Member
Hi john
im not up on post processing but I know Raw needs it , your shots will look flat and lack definition without it
If you desperately want to see some decent shot right away shoot some JPEG see what you get
If you are sticking with Raw they need to be converted to JPEG to post on the forum
Hope this helps a little , I'm sure more experienced users will add to this
good luck
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
When I learn how yes, I got them in Photoshop, saving them as JPEG, will lose detail? even more?
Well... If you're going to shoot in RAW then you need to learn how to post process those files. RAW files come straight out of the camera and have not had any of the processing JPG's get automatically; it's still "raw", as in "uncooked" if you will. What you might want to do is shoot in RAW + JPG, at least for now. This way, you'll wind up with RAW files to learn how to post-process on using Photoshop, but you'll also have JPG's which will be fully processed for you. Then, once you're fully up to speed on how to post process, you can decide if you want to keep shooting RAW + JPG or simply shoot in RAW.

There are things you can do to improve your JPG's, straight out of the camera as well if you want to adjust a setting or two.
....
 

John Thomson

Senior Member
was only about 10 yards away
DSC_0611.jpg

test2.jpg

best out of a bad bunch lol
not too bad.jpg
 

Daz

Senior Member
When I learn how yes, I got them in Photoshop, saving them as JPEG, will lose detail? even more?

So the advantage of shooting RAW is so that you can tweak them and make them "Pop" in post edit, when you have done your edits you then export them from Lightroom/Photoshop as JPEG to the size you want (this is what I do)

Can you save one as Jpeg and upload it ?
 

John Thomson

Senior Member
I did about 100 photos with various settings, none seemed to stick out more than others when it came to detail, Metering had me confused, AF area had me confused, focusing had me confused, tried different combinations, all I wanted was a good quality photo of a bird 10 yards away, Just tell me its me and my messed up settings and not my cheap lens
 

Daz

Senior Member
So here is a shot I took withmy Tamron yesterday (its a 70-300 non VR but it is Macro)

As you can see its "Flat" before edits (I was zoomed right out to 300mm but on a DX Camera) I was a couple stops down on light

Before edit-0034 by Darren Fellows, on Flickr

After edits I took the shadows down, brought the contrast up and clarity and it looks better, I can still play with it to get the bird to come out a little more

This is an advantage to shooting in RAW

DSC_0034 by Darren Fellows, on Flickr

Its a borderline out of focus shot but I wanted to show you what can be done in Lightroom
 
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paul04

Senior Member
if you have the same 70-300mm tamron lens as I have, just don't push it to its limit of 300mm, keep to 270mm or less, and your pictures will be a little sharper.
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
... Just tell me its me and my messed up settings and not my cheap lens.
In all honesty, from what I've seen... It's you and your lack of understanding how to best use your camera; not your "cheap" lens. Seriously.

I think you should spend some time reading the manual for your camera and/or getting a copy of David Busch's book on the D3200.

You should also start learning the basics of photography, starting with camera exposure. That website, Cambridge in Color, has a lot of tutorials that will help get you up to speed with your camera and photography in general.
.....
 

Daz

Senior Member
In all honesty, from what I've seen... It's you and your lack of understanding how to best use your camera; not your "cheap" lens. Seriously.

I think you should spend some time reading the manual for your camera and/or getting a copy of David Busch's book on the D3200.

You should also start learning the basics of photography, starting with camera exposure. That website, Cambridge in Color, has a lot of tutorials that will help get you up to speed with your camera and photography in general.
.....

That was going to be my next post !

Your settings all seem to be on the high side, ISO way higher than you need for outdoors which means you need a fast shutter speed (faster than is really needed) which means your bringing grain into the photo when a slightly slower shutter speed and the ISO dropped would give you a better quality image

Do you have a Tripod / Monopod ? at the max focal length any movement you make is greatly magnified, if you had a Monopod or Tripod this would give you a more stable platform
 

John Thomson

Senior Member
That told me, and compared to most lenses that I have looked at then yes £90 is a cheap lens, yes I agree its 100% user error and not the equipment, feel like I just been spoken down to by a Moderator, anyway thanks guys for your friendly advice
 

Its Just Me

Senior Member
What everyone else said and one other thing.

QUIT BEING SO DAMN NEGATIVE ON YOURSELF!

Do you honestly think that Ansel Adams came out of the womb being a world renowned photographer?

Everyone that expects to mess up will mess up!

So knock it off! Look for the good in your shots and build on that.
 

Daz

Senior Member
That told me, and compared to most lenses that I have looked at then yes £90 is a cheap lens, yes I agree its 100% user error and not the equipment, feel like I just been spoken down to by a Moderator, anyway thanks guys for your friendly advice

Dont think of it as "Speaking Down" but helping you out, we all started somewhere (and some of my eartly shots were a lot worse than what you have taken there !!)

I found Jared Polin's (Froknowsphoto.com) video guides were good for me to learn my way into photography, but everyone is different :)
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
That told me, and compared to most lenses that I have looked at then yes £90 is a cheap lens, yes I agree its 100% user error and not the equipment, feel like I just been spoken down to by a Moderator, anyway thanks guys for your friendly advice
You asked to be told it was you and not your cheap lens. I told you it's you and not your cheap lens. I'm sorry if you now feel you've been, "spoken down to".
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Blade Canyon

Senior Member
You can take many good pictures with that lens. Birds are a tough subject because they move so quickly, giving you no chance to shoot the same exact subject with different settings for comparison. Practice on a statue or a flower or something, changing all of your settings and taking the same picture over and over. That's one way to learn how each setting will affect the final picture. For example, using a high aperture (like the f14 you used above) will put more of your photo in focus (a bigger "depth of field"), but that's not always desirable if you want your subject to stand out from a busy background. And, depth of field is not the same as sharpness. Most lenses are sharpest just a few notches above the widest aperture. So try f5.6 and compare it to f14.

For outside use, your ISO was way too high. It was 4,500 in those pics. Try to stay around ISO 400 when outside on a sunny day, or even ISO 100, which should give you the best image quality. That will improve the quality of your shot right there if your shutter speed doesn't drop so low. Higher ISO means more noise in the picture. If you use a lower ISO and let more light hit the sensor (because the shutter will be open longer or the aperture will be wider), the picture quality will be better. You can see this yourself by taking the exact same photo with two different ISOs.

Shooting RAW does have advantages, but for a beginner there is no reason you cannot shoot JPEG only. You can adjust your picture settings in your menu to Vivid, Natural, Portrait, etc. and see the differences between shots right on your camera.

As for metering and auto-focus, the only way to understand those is to read the manual or watch some Youtube videos. But feel free to shoot in Auto or P mode and let the camera will make some of those decisions automatically.
 
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