I am the worst photographer...

[TLD1]

I suck at taking photos. Boom...there it is. :crying:

I've sucked at taking pictures on every iPhone I've ever had compared to some people I've seen...and now that I have a hotshot new dual-lens iPhone 7 Plus, I suck at taking good photos worse than ever. Why?

I think I need to see if my local Simply Mac store (Apple Store in St. Louis is 300mi away!) has any photography classes or something because it's ludicrous how poor my photographic skills are with this phone, and I know it's supposed to be the best ever.

So...be honest...does anybody else here really suck at taking shots with the 7+?

 

[Just_Me_D]

Nope......Having said that, in what way do your pics suck? I mean, are they blurry or something?

 

[Almeuit]

The force is not with you... .

 

[MizWylie]

Same boat. I get mostly decent pics, but I get the best ones on accident.

 

[LDYNREDD]

I used to take terrible pictures until I figured out what the problem was: I was using a Blackberry

 

[msm0511]

I suck at taking photos. Boom...there it is. :crying:

I've sucked at taking pictures on every iPhone I've ever had compared to some people I've seen...and now that I have a hotshot new dual-lens iPhone 7 Plus, I suck at taking good photos worse than ever. Why?

I think I need to see if my local Simply Mac store (Apple Store in St. Louis is 300mi away!) has any photography classes or something because it's ludicrous how poor my photographic skills are with this phone, and I know it's supposed to be the best ever.

So...be honest...does anybody else here really suck at taking shots with the 7+?

Are you having trouble with lighting, composition, framing, etc., or is there lots of noise, blur, artifacting, etc.? In other words are your photos artistically bad, or just bad photos?

 

[RHChan84]

We need a bit more info then just what you said. Do you have a photo we can look at and help you improve?

 

[metllicamilitia]

Photography, like any skill, takes practice. I had a benefit that many don't have the chance to have. I worked in a photo lab for 4 years, most importantly that photo lab specializes in color. On top of that, I purchased the photography course from The Hollywood Art Institute that iMore Digital Offers had a while back. It's somewhere in the neighborhood of $2,600 for the course and the offer was to get it for $20. I jumped on it, still working my way through it. Another thing to note, I hear this from every photographer I talk to. Photo editing is where all the real magic happens. Yes you have to take shots you like, then you edit them. Really, just think of the photos you really like, think about how it looks and play around with getting angles like those shots and start from there until you can kind of see the angles outside of the camera before you take your shot.

 

[Not Quite Right]

There's a lot of videos on You Tube on this very subject ...

 

[Jeroen7]

You can even find a few tutorials on iMore, more focussed on the camera app.

Maybe what would help is turning the grid lines on, if you know about the rule of the thirds. That could help making your pictures more interesting.
But that ofcourse depends on why you think your photo's are bad.

Is it a technical or a compositional issue?

 

[drummerjb]

I don't always edit with a filter, but when I do I use Visual Supply Co (VSCO).

 

[DarlaMack]

I don't think I take the best pics... but I'm addicted to the editing and filters. Lol

 

[Chemy JMHT]

Patience my young padawan

It's not easy to take a good picture, I suck in those spontaneous pictures in parties of trips and things like that.

But I have enough time I can do better pictures, just by taking a lot and practicing with the same image to maybe do a good picture.

My instagram has like 7 pictures because of that and 3 are from a Drobo promotion

instagram.com/__Chemy most taken with really old phones and not the best in camera tech.

 

[Matty]

I suck at taking photos. Boom...there it is. :crying:

I've sucked at taking pictures on every iPhone I've ever had compared to some people I've seen...and now that I have a hotshot new dual-lens iPhone 7 Plus, I suck at taking good photos worse than ever. Why?

I think I need to see if my local Simply Mac store (Apple Store in St. Louis is 300mi away!) has any photography classes or something because it's ludicrous how poor my photographic skills are with this phone, and I know it's supposed to be the best ever.

So...be honest...does anybody else here really suck at taking shots with the 7+?

Im definitely a 'noob' photographer. I most just point, focus and shoot. Sometimes i include HDR when its a bit dark. but i think my photos come out fairly well. As a suggestion, maybe take a couple photos of the same thing and see if you can get that 'one good shot'

 

[Alanhd]

Think about what your trying to say with the photo and take a moment to study the composition.

The camera does not make a good photo, that's the eye of the photographer.

Don't be scared to self critic, but don't beat yourself up about it. Some of my photos I wrote off as not good enough look different after a few months.

 

[Ledsteplin]

Many of the iOS 3rd party cameras have great tools now. Presets, editing, etc. Play around with that some. Experiment with different settings, angles, lighting, exposure, etc. Once you get a feel for what works best for you, it gets easier. Most of my photos are simply point and shoot. Some look ok, and some don't.

 

[TLD1]

Thanks for the support. I guess I figured with all the hype and hoopla about the 7 Plus camera, that it would pretty much make even the worst photog look amazing. Most of my stuff is point and shoot too...and I've never had or taken the time to figure out all the "toys and bells" that have to do with focusing and the like. Oh well...

 

[Ledsteplin]

Thanks for the support. I guess I figured with all the hype and hoopla about the 7 Plus camera, that it would pretty much make even the worst photog look amazing. Most of my stuff is point and shoot too...and I've never had or taken the time to figure out all the "toys and bells" that have to do with focusing and the like. Oh well...

I always found all that photography junk a bit overwhelming. So it was point and shoot. But I started taking things one at a time to see what they did. I've learnt how to make a better photo, but I still do point and shoot most times. Everything doesn't have to be wedding pictures.

 

[pkcable]

Perhaps your local Community College offers classes.

 

[worldspy99]

It takes a while to develop an eye for taking pictures that are worthy of "shot on iPhone" quality. My spouse is a phenomenal photog with an SLR but mostly tends to produce mediocre pictures with her iPhones. On the other hand, I take barely average pictures with the SLR but allegedly take excellent pictures using a smartphone according to her and that is using her iPhone or my Lumia. It took me I would say about 2.5 years to get to a stage where I started to get really good pics using a smartphone. So I think patience is key. Look at some good accounts on Instagram (#nofilter) and Flicker and see how they frame the subject in the picture. There are tons of post processing apps that will help you clean up really average looking pictures and make them stand out!

Hopefully this will help. Good luck.