Photography... Time to tune up and dust off all the equipment!

A short beginner lesson on shooting better pictures ...

A few things to think about before you even start taking pictures.                 
What type of natural light are you shooting in?
Indoor or outdoor?
Will the "subject" of  your shots be...
(1) Indoor / Outdoor stationary? As in a portrait.
(2) Indoor moving fairly quickly? As in an indoor event.
(3) Outdoor moving fairly quickly? As in a wedding or party.
(4) Indoor or outdoor moving very quickly? As in a child's birthday party. A sporting event, animals moving about unpredictably.

Preparing for the type of situation with some simple rules eliminates some potential problems!

While these photos are of interesting or familiar subjects, the execution of the photo was all wrong and looked less than flattering. The overexposed shot above, the face is pale and the stripping on the shirt is enough to blind you, even in black and white! There is no contrast between dark and lights and not too much detail in the face. A flat snapshot for remembering, kinda, what he looked like.
To the left , the dance... this shot can be seen with two different goals in mind. A silhouette shot, where the faces are not important, used to represent an event.It is not a bad shot with that in mind.
Another way to see it is a low lighting nightmare. If you wanted to remember who came to the event, no one's face is visible because of too little light in the photo.
The above examples can be prevented with simple steps to keep in mind!  I will let you know what went wrong, as I interpret it.It might be something completely different in actuality!

The top picture of the young man, I will refer to as Smitty. I do not know this person and give all photo credits to the taker of the picture, it was not me!

Smitty's face is very washed out, meaning that there is too much light bouncing off of his face. This is most likely caused by a highly lit room, a flash was forced to go off because of one of many reasons.
(1) If on total automatic, I am surprised...
(2) The ISO is too high for the lighting. High ISO = low light; Low ISO = high light.
In Digital Photography ; ISO measures the sensitivity of the image sensor. The same principles apply as in film photography – the lower the number the less sensitive your camera is to light and the finer the grain. Higher ISO settings are generally used in darker situations to get faster shutter speeds (for example an indoor sports event when you want to freeze the action in lower light) – however the cost is noisier shots.By noise, I mean spots of unreal color.. color that was not there, but was created by light bouncing off of particles in the air. How a smokey room looks foggy when photographed. Light bounces off the smoke particles to make a "white" haze in the picture. You want to avoid this. Especially if you to enlarge a print. If enlarged, the particles will show up!
Back to the topic! So, it is a balancing act between letting in enough light and not too much light! Fortunately, there is somewhat of a range that is forgiving that most good prints fall into.

So what should you do about ISO? I suggest shooting at the lowest possible ISO all the time.
In ordinary conditions, stick with the camera's lowest ISO level, since that'll give you the least digital noise. But when you notice that the camera is recommending a really slow shutter speed (less than about 1/30 second for hand held shots with a point-and-shoot camera), crank up the ISO. Just remember to drop it back down to the lower value when you're done, so you don't accidentally capture a month's worth of pictures at ISO 800. ISO 100 - 200 is a range for slow to moderate motion photos, taken in good lighting. Not full sun only, but fairly bright lighting. 200 - 400 is for later in the day or earlier in the morning shots, moderate light available... you need a faster shutter speed in this light to prevent blurs and low saturation of light / color. 400 - 800 is slow action low light or fast action high light, as in full sun conditions. If you wish to take night shots of the city or moon, lower ISO's, such as 1/64 is recommended. I took moon pictures in my front yard, using this ISO. I took these pictures with some very thin clouds covering, intermittently, my view.
Here is the series of photos that run up the ISO settings.

Click the picture to view larger.
In this image, the ISO was aperture was1/60th @ f5.6 and ISO 400. The moon of course was not moving very quickly, but I was using the moon's reflected light as the only source. This is considered low light. So, slow to moderate, low light = moderate ISO... ISO 400.
You can see a bit of detail from the surface of the moon with this circumstance.

You can see in the photo to the right, there is not a detail to be seen on the moon surface. This is the same problem as Smitty above, only a low light over exposure. The ISO was set to 400, F 4.5, so the iris was too open, I needed  to make it smaller, and it was shot at 1/60th, which was OK. I should have reduced the ISO , the higher the f-stop, the smaller the iris that let's in light. The length of time the iris was open, 1/60th of a second was fine.


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Garden Valley, Idaho - May/ 2010    Designated a National Scenic Byway, "The Wildlife Canyon Scenic Byway", hosts exceptional wildlife viewing, hot springs and picturesque mountain scenery.
This beautiful Idaho road winds through country  so striking that it has achieved this special status.  It passes through breathtaking scenery, historic places, and intriguing landscapes.  It offers incomparable glimpses of wilderness, yet is easily and safely traveled on a completely paved road.   There is also abundant wildlife along the way.  Soaring eagles, as well as, chukkers, wild turkeys, ospreys, cougars, bears and wolves frequent the valley.  Herds of elk, nearly one hundred strong, can be seen in their winter range at the Danskin Station river access. With many campgrounds dotting the river, spend a day, week or month among some of the most diverse areas of the country.... Garden Valley Chamber of commerce .

The shots in this series were taken along I-17 with my 2009 Canon Xsi with a 55 - 250 IS lens in most cases. The above shot was taken just east of Garden Valley, Idaho on a somewhat cloudy day across a road and up about 200 feet from where I was. It is local granite and sandstone across the river from a basalt canyon.

Fractured sandstone cliff with a shelf that had a lone wildflower peaking its early head. There were so many veins of different rock, jutting in different directions all fractured from upheaval, pressures or glaciers that ran through the area. It will be a favorite destination as the intensity of light increases towards summer. I am even contemplating an early morning series as the canyon is so different from 1 side to the other. Its almost 2 places in one    : ) , if you know me, that's saying a lot! As I am NOT a morning person !!

Here is an example of what I am referring to as this one canyon has so many different rock veins! Here is a huge sandstone area mashed against a basalt area!
Click to enlarge image.

Click to enlarge

The South fork of the Payette river is just below the above spot. This is where the canyon wall and river meet.

The rapids provide many opps to photograph interesting close or far off shots.... Click to enlarge.
If a sportsperson and a photographer, this should be your own private spot of enjoyment!! (I did not go there... with the own private Idaho thing ) The rapids are world class and even if your significant other or kids like to raft/Kayak and you do not.. there's still nice spots to sit and hear the wondrous sounds of birds and water. I highly recommend the trip.
From Boise, its about an hours drive, all roads are well maintained and open year round, unless weather blocks temporary access... Beautiful year round.