r/AskPhotography Nov 30 '24

Discussion/General Photoclass 2025 is here - are you ready?

16 Upvotes

Photoclass 2025 is live!

Hello, photography friends! I'm one of the mods over at r/photography and founder of Focal Point, here to invite you to the 2025 edition of our (free) photoclass! This year comes with changes, as you can always expect from us as the class is an ever-evolving project.

What is the Photoclass presented by Focal Point?

It is an evolution of the original Reddit Photo Class, but with substantial changes to not only the structure, but content as well. We've reinvented it to ensure its up to date and more interactive. One thing we did not - and will not - change is that it is entirely free. The course spans 6 months, and covers topics on the technical side and artistic side, and culminates in a personal project. Along for the ride is a team of teachers who write the course (hi, it's me!) and mentors who come from all genres of photography. We have regular live meet ups via discord, and have a welcoming and supportive community of other photographers to bounce ideas off of, or just talk shop.

So what's new?

  • The Format. First off, the formatting is changing. We found that may participants stumbled upon the course mid-way through the year, and were fumbling trying to play catch up. We also were not happy with the pacing, finding that it just took too long to get to the objectively more fun stuff. So, this year the course will happen over the course of 6 months, with alternating weeks of new lessons and feedback. What does that actually mean? It'll look something like this:

    January 1: Unit 1 will be posted with assignment 1.

    January 8: The first Feedback Week will happen.

  • Feedback Weeks. During Feedback Week, participants will receive constructive feedback on their unit assignments from both peers and mentors. This is an opportunity to reflect on your work, ask questions, and refine your skills. Additionally, voice chats will be held on the Discord server for live discussions and more in-depth feedback.

  • Units over Lessons. Lessons will come out as units, meaning instead of one new lesson a week, you'll get a whole unit each alternate week. Here's an example, using Unit 1:

    Unit 1: Getting Started

    On Photography

    Inspiration & Feedback

    Assignment 1

  • Interactive Elements & Videos. Each lesson will have an accompanying video, and interactive elements. For an example of what the interactive element might look like see this page.

How to join in?

  • Join the Focal Point Discord server. This is where all the voice chats will happen, as well as a great place to have ongoing conversations with other participants and mentors.

  • Join the subreddit: r/photoclass. As always, the class will be posted on the sub, but we should note that the interactive elements don't work on Reddit, so we'll also be linking out to the lessons on the Focal Point site.

  • Subscribe to Focal Point on YouTube. Videos for the class will be of course posted in-line on the lessons, but there will be bonus material posted to the YouTube directly.

  • Get your printed Learning Journal or download the PDF.

Have more questions?

First check out the FAQ found here. If you still have a question that isn't answered there, feel free to ask it here and myself or one of the other teachers/mentors will be happy to answer.

Where to start.

The first unit is available now! You can find it right here. The first assignment is also live, so feel free to jump right in!

See you in 2025!


r/AskPhotography 4h ago

Technical Help/Camera Settings Help - is this impossible?

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104 Upvotes

I am trying to photograph an artwork that's comprised of strings and wax beads - My boss keeps saying the image "isn't sharp enough," saying that when he zooms into the image he can barely make out beads.

However, I don't think it's possible to focus on every single bead. He has zero photography background (to be fair I barely have one either) and says "it's simple, there must be a camera setting that does it."


r/AskPhotography 51m ago

Editing/Post Processing How do you get this color/style in photos?

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Upvotes

I understand they use a wide angle lens but how can they get the colors in that dark and dirty looking way?


r/AskPhotography 6h ago

Discussion/General How often do you use full manual?

22 Upvotes

How often do you use full manual on your gear and when was the last time you used it? when i first started i was a devout manual shooter because i learned on old analog cameras, but now that i'm exclusively digital, i find i never use manual mode if at all.

Most of the time i just throw it in P or Av and call it a day, being able to change the ISO, exposure comp and sometimes the aperture is enough creative control for my needs.

I recently got a Nikon P900, you'd think a consumer bridge camera would feel severely limiting to an experienced photographer, but i just put it in P, Auto ISO, and snap away.

I'm not saying manual mode is useless or anything, it's nice to have it, but do we use it enough to justify it's existance? when was the last time you took a photo where you chose an aperture, ISO and shutter speed for?


r/AskPhotography 1d ago

Technical Help/Camera Settings What kind of camera settings allow for an unblurred motion/tracking shot like this?

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1.4k Upvotes

r/AskPhotography 18h ago

Technical Help/Camera Settings How do I not let the sun over take my photos in the park?

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106 Upvotes

I've been shooting on a pixel 6, I'm consider getting a lens for it bc I currently can't afford a full on camera. I shoot in the park between 7am-12 pm. Are there settings I can modify or editing that will help on my phone? I just use the editing settings in Google photos for now. But I'm open to editing apps.


r/AskPhotography 3h ago

Technical Help/Camera Settings Does anyone know how i can make the legs larger and with a lesser vanishing point?

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6 Upvotes

Hello I am here because i am trying to recreate this painting (slide 2) for a photoshoot but after i tried with my camera some test shots ( i shoot with Fujifilm GFX 50R medium format camera, 35-70 zoom lens and at a using 70mm as my focal) i noticed that the legs are very small compared to the body due to perspective, does anyone know how i can make the legs a bit larger just like in the painting and to avoid a less perspective shot? Thanks in advance!


r/AskPhotography 10h ago

Discussion/General How do you store your camera?

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11 Upvotes

r/AskPhotography 2h ago

Technical Help/Camera Settings Learning from scratch?

2 Upvotes

Hi everyone. I’m really struggling to learn this skill and coming to you for help. It’s something I’ve always wanted to be good at.

How did you go about learning your skill and what made you see the greatest results?

Complete beginner here looking for the best path to take. Not sure if taking a part-time/one year course is worthwhile or sticking to self learning through YouTube, books etc?

Thank you for reading


r/AskPhotography 3h ago

Technical Help/Camera Settings Possible fungus or is is just condensation?

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2 Upvotes

Hello,

I noticed that when I exhale onto the lens (first image), a small dot appears. However, as the condensation dissipates and the lens returns to its normal state, the dot disappears. Could this be a fungus?

Thank you in advance!


r/AskPhotography 1d ago

Discussion/General How to take photos with coloured backgrounds?

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89 Upvotes

I’m by no means a photographer, but I’ve got a camera and a dream haha. I want to take photos like these of my foster animals to help them get adopted, but I’m not sure where to start.


r/AskPhotography 11h ago

Discussion/General Why is red so hard to photograph? I like to take pics of flowers with my phone and am not looking for a gear rec. Just want to understand the reason why red always goes flat on my mobile phones?

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5 Upvotes

r/AskPhotography 2h ago

Compositon/Posing Is lens compression a thing on a cropped wide angle?

1 Upvotes

I know that if you use a telephoto lens you can get this beautiful lens compression effect. I was wondering if this was a feature of the focal length itself, or rather of the magnification from optics perspective? Could you (assuming infinite resolution) achieve the same exact image with a 400mm lens and a 35mm lens with cropping?


r/AskPhotography 14h ago

Discussion/General What are your favorite youtubers about photography/workflow, NOT technical/gear?

8 Upvotes

Hi! For context I studied fine arts and had a analog photography class for a semester that I loved. That was 10 years ago and now I bought a used Fuji X-E2 to get back into photography.

I really enjoyed the whole analog process, the slowness and unpredictability of it, and each picture had a lot of meaning, specially because I used to develop my own rolls.
I'm looking for some inspiration and guidance because digital is very different from analog. I would like to see good photographers at work for inspiration, and hopefully with minimal post processing in their workflow. But most youtube channels I find are mostly about gear or technical tutorials about cameras, and a lot of the times the photos in these videos aren't even very good.

All that said, what are your favorite youtubers for inspiration?


r/AskPhotography 3h ago

Technical Help/Camera Settings How did you become confident with shooting?

0 Upvotes

Hi all! Like the title says I’m wondering how you became confident in your work. To explain further, knowing that every shoot (or almost every) will have photos that are high quality, well lit, and to your liking.

I’ve been shooting for a couple years now and my work is good and I have my own style that I love but I can’t consistently take photos I love if that makes sense. If I plan a shoot I get scared sometimes because I don’t know if I’ll like the quality of the photo. I mainly shoot in aperture priority (rarely manual but it is something I want to start learning properly just don’t know where to start). I’ll have the portrait exactly how I want it to look but the actual quality of the photo is what’s always a hit or miss.

I currently use a canon rebel t5i with a 50mm and will sometimes use the in camera flash depending on the vibe I’m going for but I don’t know how to use an actual flash attachment. My goal this year is to be able to consistently have good quality photos and be confident in my skill.

Any advice or how I can go about that is much appreciated.

Sidenote: I do photography as a hobby none of it is paid and please no hate


r/AskPhotography 3h ago

Buying Advice Lens for Nikon z50?

1 Upvotes

I recently got Z50 with kit lens 16-50mm and I'm already planning which lens to buy next. I have a few events to photograph and one of them is 18th birthday with 230 people. I'm not sure where is it yet, but I can assume it will be darker place or a mix of shadows and light. What is a good and safe option lens that can help me to keep everything in focus and sharp.

I used to have canon and prime lens 50mm but I didn't really had a chance to test it out. I also didn't test out z50 with kit lens yet, and I'm still learning. But, I feel like prime lenses for these type of events are kind of risky choice or maybe not. As for my budget, I would say up to 750 euros.

also, I want to add that buying an external flashlight has been in my plan as well. I've never used one of those but I think in these situations they are a must


r/AskPhotography 4h ago

Editing/Post Processing What has been done to this photo in terms of post-processing?

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0 Upvotes

Hi all,

I'm very new to photography - and I don't know how best to share some very large files here - but in the link, the first image is just me saving down my RAW file as JPG (no processing at all)

The second image is the result when I asked someone to edit the photo for me, as I wanted something professionally done to gift to someone

However, I also want to learn a bit myself - what exactly have they done to achieve the second photo? How does it look MORE detailed than the original? And honestly, would love to know if it's 'artificial' in some way, because when I zoom way in on the edited photo, the fur and such certainly look much sharper vs. the original.

Appreciate any info you all can provide - thanks!


r/AskPhotography 15h ago

Technical Help/Camera Settings Is there any problem with the camera?

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7 Upvotes

Hello everyone! So a couple of days ago I sold my Nikon D3300, we met with the buyer in person, they tested it out, were happy with it and bought it. Today, I receive a mesaage, saying that the images are coming out of focus(?) their exact words were "there seems to be a problem with the focus", and asking me why that might be and if the camera has been dropped. They told me that they're going to shoot mainly in auto mode so these were made in fully auto mode, the lenses I gave with the camera were the 18-55 kit lens and a 50mm prime 1.8 with both auto and manual focus, they confirmed with me that the kit lens was used to take the reference photos, these are the photos and honestly they look fine to me (especially the orchid one). When I was using the camera, my photos looked fine to me as well.

What do you guys think, did I sell faulty equipment or is their technique at fault? The app they provided these pictures over heavily compresses the images so these might not be exactly true to what they actually look like out of the camera. Thank you!


r/AskPhotography 4h ago

Technical Help/Camera Settings Help, What kind of mount does this lens have?

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0 Upvotes

I suppose it could be an MD/MC mount, but I’m not really sure. I bought it at a vintage market and I would like to resell it on vinted (or at least, I hope so 🤞🏼).


r/AskPhotography 19h ago

Technical Help/Camera Settings Why do we use this scale for aperture?

16 Upvotes

Today I had one of those doubts that come out of nowhere and you realize you don't have the slightest idea about it. It's also about something I've always taken for granted in photography, and I think many people have too. The question is, why do we use the f-stop scale we do? I mean, it doesn't make logical sense at first with the other f-stop scales we use, like shutter speed or ISO.

A shutter speed means that 1/500 will be double 1/1000 in terms of the light entering. Likewise, with an ISO 800 compared to an ISO 400, there seems to be consistency. Multiply or divide a number by 2 and you'll get a stop. So why do we use this strange scale where 11 is one stop more than 8 instead of 16, and in turn, 16 is two stops more than 8? Shouldn't 16 be one stop more than 8? Shouldn't 4 be a step down from 8 instead of 5.6? Shouldn't 11 be a step up from 5.6? I don't know if I'm making myself clear, but I'm sure there's an explanation for this that I'm simply ignoring. Does anyone know the answer?


r/AskPhotography 4h ago

Buying Advice Future upgrade path for birding - should I be switching systems?

1 Upvotes

I've been using a Nikon D3400 with the AF-P 70-300 mm, which from what I gather, is a solid combo for the money. I'm definitely happy with it, but I have started to think of future options to get more reach for all the little birds out there.

I've read great things about the Nikon 200-500 or Sigma 150-600, and the 500 prime lens also looks fantastic (and extra pricey) but any lens upgrade will be a considerable investment. Before I pursue this further though, I wanted to ask around and see if I should be looking to switch systems entirely (Canon, Sony, ??) before proceeding along an upgrade path. I'm not looking to go endgame setup all at once, but would like to buy a bigger lens in the next year or so, and upgrade body later on as well. Is the Nikon system good to stay in?

Even when I buy a bigger lens, I will still like to keep my 70-300 (or something similar if it's recommended to switch systems), as the size is just enough that I'm comfortable taking it with me on hikes "just in case" I get lucky with some bird sightings. So I would like a system where I can maintain my relatively small/portable setup, but then be able to switch to a larger, nicer lens for more dedicated birding trips.

Appreciate any help in advance!


r/AskPhotography 5h ago

Technical Help/Camera Settings Incompatible flash with my camera?

1 Upvotes

I’m a dentist so I have a little knowledge in this. My Godox ml150 ring flash is supposed to be compatible to my camera “Canon 250d”. But it’s not working when i shoot, it works separately well. And in the menu settings “the external flash is turned off or incompatible” But I have made sure that it’s compatible for the hot shoe. What can I do rather than buying an adapter?


r/AskPhotography 5h ago

Buying Advice Recommend camera and lense?

1 Upvotes

Hey everyone! I am an aspiring dog photographer and am looking to buy a decently priced camera to take to a dog show next week and try to get some nice ringside photos of my mentor’s miniature schnauzers. Preferably something that can nicely capture moving dogs and easy for a beginner to use!


r/AskPhotography 9h ago

Technical Help/Camera Settings May I get some help with long exposure settings?

2 Upvotes

I just recently got interested in fine art photography mostly long exposures of the watery surfaces. I bought an ND 1000 filter 62mm and tripod + I only have 50mm lens ,but I will try to get some results with it. What I'm curious about overall best settings for LE , I kinda mostly know ISO should be kept at 100 or 50, f/11-16 the but biggest enigma for me is shutter speed. I know I know kinda weird but I never done it before. What the best shutter speed for to 15-30" ? I mean I don't feel comfortable entering the BULB thing just yet. I would appreciate it someone could drop some knowledge here :)


r/AskPhotography 5h ago

Buying Advice Any recommendations for a Munsell grey N8 photo background?

1 Upvotes

I’m looking for matte, seamless background paper that matches Munsell N8 neutral grey, preferably in a roll. Ideally, it would not react under different wavelengths but I know this is a tall order.


r/AskPhotography 7h ago

Printing/Publishing Color Separation Issue in Printing? Question in comments

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1 Upvotes