what to do with my canon 5d mark ii ?????

i have spent loads of money buy better lenses good camera but my pics are not very good. when i took pics indoor or outdoor i still non the wiser about how to take good pics. either it come too dark or too bright. all the people who has loads of experience taking pics please help what am i doing wrong.

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Permalink Reply by Jared Weaver on December 27, 2011 at 7:12am

Bracket your exposures if youre having a hard time with lighting. Also, as everyone suggested, drop some money on lots of reading material! Also, Im assuming you're following what your light meter. Be cautious, because meters are easily fooled in complex lighting situations. If all else fails, shoot in live view mode and adjust exposure according to what you see on your screen.

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Permalink Reply by nathan mccreery on December 27, 2011 at 7:47am

Bracketing is almost never the answer, in terms of getting the correct exposure. It's best use, really, is if you are needing to use HDR, which is highly overused and mostly used incorrectly. Learn to get the correct exposure on the first exposure. It can be done. We've done it for years and years with film. When a sheet of film costs several dollars, and processing it costs several dollars, bracketing is not practical, unless you're as rich as Bill Gates.

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Permalink Reply by Jared Weaver on December 27, 2011 at 10:08am

Im not saying to use it every time. Just to learn how to properly expose certain scenes. From my personal experience, it helped me greatly for learning how to properly expose in varied lightning situations.

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Permalink Reply by nathan mccreery on December 27, 2011 at 10:21am

I've used this exercise to teach good exposure. Take your camera and make 24, or more, different photographs. Limit of one exposure per subject. Do what the camera says to do and ignore the monitor panel, at least for now. Write down the exposure information and any other notes that might be relevant for each exposure. Take the photographs and download them to your computer and figure out which ones were over, which were under, and which were just right. Figure out why. This exercise will help to teach, and to learn, how exposure works.

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Permalink Reply by nathan mccreery on December 27, 2011 at 7:43am

It's almost never the camera. It's almost always the person behind the camera. Cameras cannot think for you, in fact, in my experience the more elemental the camera, the better the photographer will be, because you have to learn fundamentals. Modern, do everything for you cameras, allow you to bypass the things we all had to learn to make photographs in a pre-digital age. Buying a new camera or lens will never solve the problem, if the problem is you. Paul Strand once said, and this is a very loose quote; ..."isn't it interesting how our equipment has improved and our pictures have not?" Work on seeing light. Work on personal vision.

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Permalink Reply by Papa Rotzzi on December 27, 2011 at 7:50am

There is no "Like" button for replies.. or I would press it.

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Permalink Reply by Jalexa Photography on December 30, 2011 at 5:12am

Well said, Nathan.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Keddy on December 27, 2011 at 9:44am

I agree with nathan, learn your camera see what it can do then work on how you see the world and thats how you get the good photographs. In my experience so far there is no safty settings to get perfect photo's every time, vision the photo the way you want it then make ajustments till your vision is in the lens.

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Permalink Reply by Jalexa Photography on December 30, 2011 at 5:13am

To add to this, don't be afraid to make mistakes. Experiment and practice before spending a small fortune on equipment that won't do anything for you until you learn the basics.

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Permalink Reply by Dora Williams on December 30, 2011 at 12:44pm

Papa is right. I have seen amazing work come from a P&S. You gotta be willing to learn photography and then the equipment or gear will enhance that. I have not looked at your work so I am saying this blind but I hear a lot of people say "my shots aren't very good" or "they don't turn out the way I want them too" and then I find out that they have never shot on anything but auto mode. LEARN YOUR CAMERA'S MANUAL MODE!! Will you take a lot crappy shots? You bet, I have/do. But I learn something new every single day. Read, read, read. When you think that you just can't read any more, watch videos. There are tons of them out there. Tackle it one step at a time. You will not understand it all right away and when you think that you are getting a grip, something else will come along and remind you of how much you don't know. So, you take another small bite. If it is a passion, it will come to you. Don't give up.

I just looked at your work and read some of the posts here. There really is some excellent advise here from some great people so I am not going to go on about that. Let me say in glancing at some of the pics in your portfolio you might want to look up some articles on lighting. Learning this might help to renew your confidence. Picture Social has Picture Correct photography tips that will come right to your e-mail and they are archived as well so that you can go back and research different things.

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Permalink Reply by nathan mccreery on December 30, 2011 at 4:10pm

One of the things I really try to pound home in my classes; both film and digital. It's all about light. It' all about vision; the way YOU see things. It's finding a way to transform your personal vision into a printed image. It's what painting is about, it's what photography is about. Also, recognize that vision is a product of your genes, your life experience and the way you were raised. There are some folks that, as long as they work, and as hard as they try, will not be great visual communicators. If someone is tone deaf, or has a bad quality voice they'll never rival Pavarotti, or Sting. Peoples capabilities lie in different areas. Digital camera makers would have you believe that anyone can be a great photographer if you use their camera. That's not to say you will or won't be; that you are or are not. I haven't looked at your work so I don't know. Find work you like and try to find the difference between what your work looks like and what it looks like. Photography for me was a natural as breathing, from the start. Accounting? Not so much. Everyone is different.