[john0213]

don't worry too much about forcing yourself to improve. the more information you read and the more you learn, improving will just be a by-product for you in that learning curve. the most important thing to do is really apply what you've learn into your photo. take the time to examine the surrounding and use every possible chance to apply what you've learn to the photo. through time, you will see that big jump gradually once you look back to your early batch.

When i begin my photography hobby 2 months ago, I've learnt in this procedure:

1. Mastering your exposure: know what you need and want when adjusting the 3 factors: Aperture/Shutter Speed/ISO. don't get turn off by the M-mode, use it and practice.

2. Manipulating Focus: There is this stage that i went through using hell lot of manual focus to practice. going manual will give you a very good understanding on what and when you need certain thing to be tack sharp and what to do in different situation.

3. Picking correct composition: once you are comfortable with the above two points, you are probably very comfortable with working your camera. now, it comes to the very important part of the picture, composition. what makes an image stunning is the composition. take extra attention to how you are composing an image.

4. Advance Composition:
- take notice of Angle of attack, and lead in line etc
- worry about foreground/mid-ground/background object creating depth in the image
- usage of direction on light source and shadow, manipulate this natural phonemenon and create the 3-dimenionality for your image
- choosing background, use background to set off your contrast of the object. an object contains 360" of different background, each side will yield a different effect to the object


LOL i am at work now so i can't comment too much more. definitely ask for lot of help and critique to your work. through trial and error, you will find the pattern!