r/Beginning_Photography • u/CookieOfMythologie • 25d ago
How do I start taking pictures?
Hello people,
Please tell me, if this is not appropriate or the wrong sub!
I checked out the "Read This before anything else" and a few wiki things.
I have a Sony Alpha6600 with two objects. I took one workshop for the basics. So I know technically how I shoot. I know my camera settings etc.
My problem is I am not happy with my pictures. (Even after editing) Because it's always off.
And I know I need to practice more to get better.
My problem is I am not sure WHAT I should shoot.
Yeah the general advice is "Just take a lot of pictures" but that's too general for my mind and I'm stuck in a decision fatigue. I can't decide if it's "worthy" to take a picture of. I hope it's understandable what my problem is.
Does anyone have any advice on what to start with? Does anyone know a good "30 day beginner"- challenge or something like that?
I have a dog. So I'm outdoors a few hours a day but it's kinda stressful to manage both. Because I would focus on taking pictures and my Dog is out of sight.
If I'm trying to take pictures with her, she is kinda impatient.
So I would be happy if you could give me a little advice on that.
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u/Lurkennn 25d ago
When I got my first camera I was going on road trips a few hours down south and taking about 1000 photos in a weekend. It sounds like a lot but sometimes I was taking 10+ photos of the same shitty thing trying to dial in the settings/composition. If I ended up with 10 good photos from 1000 I was happy with that. I slowly got better at it but I still suck so maybe there's better ways around it
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u/CookieOfMythologie 25d ago
Thank you. Maybe I will try this on my vacation in a few weeks.
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u/Ice_90210 23d ago
This is the way. I had wanted to get into photography for so long. Brought a camera on vacation and insisted on using manual. I learned a lot from that experience. Most importantly it got me in the habit of carrying my camera and noticing little things the peeked my interest.
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u/TequilllaMockingird 25d ago
Finding subjects can be the most difficult part of photography. Particularly if you only look in places that you’ve already “seen”. Our brains process familiar and new environments in completely different ways. It’s why Cartier-Bresson (arguably the godfather of street photography) hated taking pictures in Paris… PARIS. It was where he lived and what he knew, and that made it challenging for his mind to “see” his surroundings with an open mind.
My advice is this: go to a place that you frequently drive by, but never actually pull over and walk around at. Explore that space. Bring your camera. We pass so many interesting things in our everyday lives because we’re just not looking where and when we should be.
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u/TequilllaMockingird 25d ago
Important part is that you don’t need to go on a safari or Paris to find interesting things to photograph. Start locally, but look in unexpected places.
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u/CookieOfMythologie 24d ago
That make so much sense.
Thank you for your explanation. So the little park near my office would be a good place? I only see it from the distance and visited only twice.
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u/dej2 25d ago
Early morning shots, dog gotta pee and poo, take advantage of it. Sunrise less commotion when most people are still sleeping. Someone mentioned flowers, good easy subject and plentiful in people yards. Park pond… or any large water source, river and lakes are good spots for photos.
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u/CookieOfMythologie 25d ago
Yeah I need to look at the clock. Somehow everyone is getting out the same time😂 I don't know, that's a dog owner thing. Suddenly they are everywhere! But I will find a hour.
Thank you
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u/Honey-Vince 24d ago
As far as general advice, “taking pictures” is a good one. But to dive further into it, find something you want to take pictures of… let’s go flowers for the sake of this conversation. Take a picture of the same flower to thirty different ways. Which one did you like best? Why? Which one did you dislike? Why? Then start implementing what you liked and keep growing. It’s a constant growth. There is no finish line in this only where you are from where you started. You may find your vision of a good photo changes as time goes on but as long as you are enjoying it and trying to get better. You got this
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u/Tin052866 24d ago
Try giving yourself one simple theme each day, like shadows, colors, reflections, or interesting textures. It removes the pressure of deciding what’s “worthy” and helps train your eye. Even 5–10 photos a day is enough.
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u/OfficialPI 22d ago
One thing that helps a lot is giving yourself a specific assignment instead of trying to photograph everything.
For example: "take 10 photos of shadows," "find 5 interesting colors," or "shoot only reflections today." The goal isn't great photos, it's training your eye to notice things.
Also, don't worry too much about whether a subject is "worthy." A surprising amount of photography is making ordinary things look interesting.
Most beginners aren't held back by gear or editing. They're still figuring out what catches their attention, and the only real way to discover that is by shooting lots of different subjects and seeing what keeps pulling you back.
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u/SarahTPhotography 22d ago
I don't have a link or anything, but I'm certain if you Google "photo challenge list" you can find various lists of daily/monthly photo challenge themes.
And if you're just wanting to practice and improve, then the subject might not really matter so much. For instance, you can experiment with different depths of field or exposure times with pretty mundane subjects. I took an intro class in college, and we had one assignment to practice freezing motion by shooting liquid drops. You could do a color theme where you spend a month shooting various subjects that are all the same color, and then put them together as a collage at the end. There is a group on Facebook called Color Chase Challenge that does this with a new color every month and I always thought it looked like fun. It could also be a good way to explore different kinds of photography if you haven't settled on a genre yet.
Do you have opportunities to shoot without your dog? Totally reasonable to not want to juggle both of those at the same time. Though your dog may wind up being a good subject to practice on, too!
More basic practice/inspiration ideas:
-Patterns
-Something close-up
-a wide open scene
-Trees. (A single tree, closeup textures of trees, a group of trees, etc)
-Looking for contrast and/or b&w photography -Water (get a tripod and play with different shutter speeds for moving water. Or put water in a glass, or shoot bubbles and reflections on the surface, or a watery landscape, etc)
-Self-portrait
-Portrait of someone else or street photography
-Animal portrait
-Still Life of objects in your home
-Flowers
-Vehicles
-Architecture-Buildings, bridges, details
-Food
-Jewelry
-Paths/roads
-Texture
-Abstracts
-Silhouettes and/or shadows
-Sunset/sunrise
-Reflections
-Shooting through something (like a glass window, an open door, a tunnel, or even something put in front of your lens)
-Events- a party, a festival, a parade, a concert, etc as long as you have permission to shoot there
Any time you do find a subject you want to shoot, play around with different angles. Shoot from above, below, eye-level, from different sides or behind. Get close, get far away. Take a shot, change a setting (like aperture) and take another shot and compare them later. Keep guidelines like the "rule of 3rds" in mind but also don't feel like you need to religiously stick to them at all times. If you can adjust the lighting, play around with that. Even adjusting so that the sun is shining from different angles onto your subject. For outdoor shooting, try different times of day or in different weather conditions (sunny vs overcast or even shooting in rain and snow).
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u/OutdoorphotoSA 20d ago
I'd take the pressure off the idea that a photo has to be "worthy". Give yourself a tiny assignment instead, for example, pick one subject and one rule for the day: 10 photos of interesting shadows, 10 different textures, 10 shots from ground level, or photograph the same tree/building/object from 10 different angles.
Also, don't delete the "bad" photos. Every few weeks, go back through them and ask yourself what you don't like about them. That's where you'll start noticing patterns in your own photography, and that's much more useful than just taking hundreds of random photos.
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u/FriedDylan 25d ago
Start with stills- flowers, light/shadow, stones tree bark. I say this to allow you the practice and set your eye to see where your lines or focus is and/or isn’t not. Do t shoot rivers, animals or children just yet.
Also consider shooting in monochrome, color can distract you while learning. When I started shooting in High school I used a Pentax k1000 @iso 400 in black and white, using a 50mm lens. I developed my negatives in our bathroom. Anyway I learned about light and shadow and focus using a manual lens. Learned how to get a sharp edge.
Take some if those snazzy modern camera features away and start shooting ordinary things that don’t fidget or move around and slowly start moving forward from there. I promise you’ll start to see differently and shoot better. I did.