Help with better pictures....

[WendyZ]

Hello everyone....
I'm a looking for help in trying to learn how to take better photos. I am a novice to say the least. I have a Olympus C-750 camera. I know my camera can take awesome pics because I've seen them, just never taken them. Someday I'd like to step up to a SLR camera. I've those photos...amazing!!!
I did try to take some senior photos of my DD this year. I know alittle late to learn. Some were good, some ok. Just lucky on the good ones.
What's the best way to learn how to do this better??? Any good books I can read, that I could understand? I have no clue where to begin, but am eager to learn.

Thanks for anything you can offer!

 

[princessreilly]

I'd like to know too. I have a Cannon EOS and have had one photography class before DD was born. Don't have a lot of time to get good shots myself.

 

[Master Mason]

I would suggest starting with Understanding Exposure, work though it with your manual, so you understand the concept and then how to perform that on your camera.

Then get something about posing etc

 

[WendyZ]

Thanks...I'll start with going through the manual again. Any suggestions for good books to help a beginner?

 

[boBQuincy]

Look at photographs. I mean *really* look at them, try to figure out what the light was doing and how the photographer captured it. If you have access to the photographer (like on this board) ask them how, when, and why they took the photo. Ask what they saw and how they interpreted it, and how successful they feel the result is.

Camera settings control the exposure but light controls the photograph. Study light, it's texture, brightness, color, hardness, direction...

To me the technical stuff, the manual and settings, are the easy part to learn. It's the artistic part that is difficult. Without that we can take a perfectly exposed photo of a boring subject, or as Ansel Adams described it "a brilliant image of a fuzzy concept".
There are plenty of books on the "rules" of composition: lines, patterns, horizons, simplify, thirds, etc. Read them and use some of the ideas as guidelines for your own interpretations but remember to work on your own style as well.
A lot of us have really good photos of Cinderella's castle that look just like a lot of other really good photos of Cinderella's castle!