Sailing photography advice (DSLR)

Those are the OKish ones.  Hit rate is rubbish, but thanks for the compliment!

Those pics are looking good. Remember that the AF setting affects the depth of field. Try setting to AF mode then the camera will sort out the shutter speed. Take a note of the results and settings.  From there you can switch to full manual replicate the settings and adjust to suit. For example faster shutter speed but adjust AF for more light, or change ISO. 

A lot of my pics are indoors in poor light, so I tend to shoot at 400.  It was nice in Cornwall to get to outside  and shoot at 100 for a change. Just wish I had remembered to change it back.

Don't worry about the hit rate, most pics are personal.

Plenty of info here but it does take a bit of sifting through  http://digital-photography-school.com

I am more of a film camera than a digital camera so technqiues such as holding back the exposure of part of a picture while over exposing another part in the dark room are kind of obsolete. But other technqiues are not such as composition are skills that you can transfer. The best think to do is to get yourself on a course where you can learn about the operations of the camera, not just the intereface but what happens inside and deals with composition. Then get out and practice lots. Also good books are a must. I have usually found that the oldest books are the best. the ones you pick up form a second hand shop that were published 30 years ago are great. This is because they talk about the fundermental basics and once you have those you can build on them. Also look at proffessional books and ask yourself "Why do I like this shot? Where's the subject? What is the foreground doing?" and so on.

Traditionally one of the best tips is that you can never be close enough to you subject. Since this wil mean using a simple lens. Once you start using telescopic lens the picture quality does go down becasue the light is having to be refracted through more optics.

If you are taking portraits use a lens that is the same photo length as the human eye. This is will give a much better looking /human result when you look at it (it fools the brain as to thinking it is real face). The human eye comes in around 58mm. So in any keen photograper arsenal is a fixed focal length lens of 55mm.

Remember shots that are not personal are the easiest to do. eg landscapes, then action/sport shots are pretty easy becuase the human subject is busy and it just a matter of positoning yourself, but the hardest are natural human shots.

The more you practice the better. soon you will be looking at the light and you will be able to judge yourself the EV of the shot. Oh yes I have always used spot metering as all the other types will only produce a compromise picture and if you are taking action shots you can always crop off what you do not want, so you want to be very specific on your metering.

With film I would never use anything more than a 200ISO film as the results are too grainy (unless you want it for effect in which case infra red film is great). You can "push" an ISO 100 up to 400 and a 200 up to 800. so there is no need for any faster fims. You do this by underexposing the shots and thnen you can over expose in the dark room.

Controll your breathing. It is like shooting a rifle. take two breaths, hold your brettah for five seconds and the take the shot. That way you will be still you you take the shot.

Use the heavest tripod you can find. This will reduce the shake of the camera. Reducing the physical camera shake before taking the shot will be a million times better than the shake reduction systems many cameras now have.

Use the timer - even to take landscapes. This will stop you from moving the camera when pressing the shutter release.

Just a few tips but get yourself on a good course or join a camera club.