Originally posted by micromacro It has been about 3 weeks since I stopped shooting.
My Lightroom catalogue is the total mess, with about 22K pictures, and about 80% of them is the total rubbish. And I still don't know how to organize it efficiently.
An easy way to organise is to do folder by date. here is what i do :
"Year - month - date - what-was-i-shooting-this-day-and-the-location"
You can name me "captain obvious" here, i know.
But, this will help you to really memorize what you shot, the purpose, and the location. obviously.
With time passing and multiple folders, you'll see what you shoot the most, what you like the most too. It will help you think "i should start this project", and create some personnal work, and challenges.
Originally posted by micromacro I can't judge my own work, I don't see where is good, and where is not really a winner.
When you see the thumbnail, if you can see quickly that there might be something interesting, then you have already selected the good pictures.
I'm back from Greenland, after 3 weeks of expedition to climb some mountains and cliffs. We have like 7k photos. If the thumbnail is not encouraging, then most of the time, the picture ain't good enought. And it also help to make the hard choices : delete the useless pictures.
Originally posted by micromacro I still don't know much, and don't use much photoshop elements, just very basics.
You use it only a little because you don't find it intuitive to use, or because you don't need to post process ?
If it's the first, have you ever tried something like Lightroom ? It can be frightening and seem very complex, but in fact it's very very well thought and quite intuitive. And the name of things are quite self explenatory.
Originally posted by micromacro I don't use my strobes, and don't use flash when I should.
Some people live and shoot well without strobes and flash. Somehow, playing with the only light available is quite challenging sometimes, but it really help to understand the next thing you listed : the lightmeter
Originally posted by micromacro I still don't understand how the heck to use light meter.
THIS is very important to understand. Because understanding how to mesure light, will help you to take photos that render what you have in mind.
You want harsh contrast ? You want an evenly lit face for a portrait ? You want to have saturated colors or muted colors ? All this depends on how light interact with things, and how your DSLR captures it.
Really, once you start to get it, you'll have a lot less difficulties with shooting things and expose it, the way you want it.
Originally posted by micromacro I don't know how to pose people.
you mean to shoot people protraits and stuff ? Because it's not only about posing people, it's also about communicating : how to gently direct them, make them relaxed, laught even, to catch a moment.
Or you mean, when you document something and want the people to look at you, are move a bit, etc ?
Originally posted by micromacro Have you ever get the similar feeling? Have you ever stopped like you needed a break to recharge and start all over? If so, for how long?
Most athlete, at the end of a sport season, just go on vacantion, and don't practice, or even speak about there own sport. Because they need to disconnect a bit, so when they come back to training, they remember why they do love what they do, and then, they can give everything for training.
Sometime photography is the same : you need to stop, to come back later super-motivated !
Reading is a great way to stop a bit. Thinking about a project*, technical problem it raise, how to overcomes it, trying to visualise the picture you want to obtain, writting it on a scratch book, is also a good way to take a break.
*I like portraits, my long term project is to shoot many friends, family, in very specific moments. Often it implied rock climbing, or snow, dust, dirt, and many other thing not really related to urban life. It will take me maybe 2 or 3 years to get the 20 pictures i want, but it's a great oppoprtunity to have fun, and getting better by solving slowly little technical problem i may encounter.