Can any one give me some genral pointers on how to take a good, interesting photo?!
Other than point and click, thats about as good as my picture taking gets, and i understand that the picture will only be as good as the camera taking it, (and mine really is not a professional one, its just a standard, hand held digi one, a 10.2 MP Kodak EasyShare M340 actually!) but i just cant seem to get a photo of interest, or quality unless it purely by accident! You can alter some of the settings to compensate for light conditions, also the focus and zoom, and alter the 'iso' up and down, whatever that means!
Usually, when I want to plan to get a good photo, its of my car, and the ones i have taken that i like, have somekind of backdrop in, i.e sunset, hill, rockface to name a few examples, or focus on a certain part of the car, but i just cant seem to get it right when i actually set to with the intention to photograph.

Can any one offer any tips or am i simply limited by the camera?

 

I dont think the camera would limit your pictures too badly, with most close ups when using the SLR's you obviously can focus and set the camera up just how you want, post some of your pics of what you would consider to be plain, maybe then it would be easyier to sugest where and what you could improve

Cheers, Ad.

 

Have a good read of all the photography 101 stickies in the pictures,video room, theyre very very helpful indeed. Dont get in to the mistake that better cameras mean better pictures, its not like that at all, well not until you get to a very demanding level. Practice makes perfect and all that, just get out there and try different things. Once you understand how it all works with each other i.e. aperture,shutter and ISO you'll get much more control on what you shoot. Other thing I can suggest is look at other peoples work and see what pictures you actually like, then try repeat, not saying copy peoples work to the letter but as far as learning goes its nice to have something to work to. HTH
Steve

 

Practice practice practice, and when your bored, pissed off or twatting your head against a brick wall, practice some more.
A camera is only as good a tool as the tool using it.
You could go out and buy a soooper doooper top of the range dags danglies camera's, but if you dont know how to use it then you may aswell used a snotter from a Xmas cracker.

Have a good slow read of the stickies in the photo room, and have your camera in your hand when reading so you can play as you go.

 

have some foreground and some background interest.

narrow the depth of field so that not everything in the pic is in focus so that you concentrate on the in focus object.

cars are a very difficult thing to make interesting in a picture. you can maybe get a nice reflection in the bodywork or mirror or something. or use a line of the bodywork to carry your eye towrds something in the background.

 

One tip is use a proper camera not the camera on your phone. I tried taking a pic of a car going up the strip on Sunday and by the time the bastard had self focused the car had crossed the finishing line so all i got was a section of track with nothing happening in it.

Many years ago i took a complete fluke of a picture of a helicopter coming in to land at a race meeting at Silverstone. The rotors just seem to be frozen in time and because the helicopter was low it looks as if it's plunging out of the sky. Unfortunately this was in the days before digital cameras otherwise i would have posted it up.

 

Avoid the tendency to put the subject in the center of the photo; offset it to one side or the other.

 

read up on the following:
Aperture
Shutterspeed
ISO
White balance
Rule of thirds
Lead in lines
Histogram
Composition