Please critique

Merlin5 · 27 Jun 2020 at 00:44

So I'm new to 'proper' photography and got my first ever dslr camera yesterday. I've been spending hours playing around with it, downloaded the 260 page manual and have been thoroughly confused and overwhelmed by all the variables! But it's great fun learning. However, I'm more familiar with things today and have been snapping some random photos to try and see if I can get anything decent or not. I've just created a flickr account since that seems to be the thing to do, and uploaded half a dozen or so photos. I will probably delete them at some point as they're certainly not showcase pictures but just things that might help you tell me where I'm going wrong. They're with and without a tripod, Av, Tv, a bit of manual, just a very basic idea of what I'm doing in each mode. I stayed completely away from full auto though.

Getting good sharpness I'm finding the most difficult of anything! Raymond told me to keep my elbows in and take the picture on exhale, so I've been trying to do that. I messed around with different iso, aperture and shutter speeds. Some things look over exposed. I have no photography software yet so it's all just from the camera, apart from Flowers 1 where I brightened it and deepened the colours a bit in photoshop. Tell me what you think. Be gentle, lol.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/189053856@N05/shares/Q883K9

SDK^ · 27 Jun 2020 at 14:10

Nice images

I can see you have the 50mm F1.8 lens which is a great starter lens - allowing you to nicely blur the background. It's a perfect lens for portrait photos.

Merlin5 said:
I have no photography software yet ...............where I brightened it and deepened the colours a bit in photoshop.

FYI : Photoshop is one of the best, most used photo software packages

Raymond Lin · 27 Jun 2020 at 14:18

Tips

1 - Most of the time, don't have the subject in the middle (there are exceptions). Rules of 3rds. I use the focus points on the 10, 2, 4 and 8 o'clock positions. These are not the cross points on the 5D2 so you need to pay attention what they land on, make them to be a transition between 2 colours/light and shadows to make it easier. If its a plain single colour it will struggle.
2 - Think of negative spaces. Like music, the gaps between the notes is what makes the melody. (relates to the above)
3 - Storytelling - If you can think "What does this photo say?" before you press the shutter, you are ahead of the game already. This will turn from a snap to a photo...stride to be anyway.

Merlin5 · 27 Jun 2020 at 15:24

Raymond, thanks. Not sure I understand that first point you made, and I don't know what cross points are. Also, how do I set those 10, 2, 4 and 8 o'clock focus points? When I go into AF point selection from the LCD screen, I can scroll between manual and automatic. Automatic seems to just set all 9 points, and in manual it scrolls round to each one in turn so I just set mine to the centre point.

Also, I had the camera set on a tripod pointed at the bird feeder. I set it to AI Servo and continuous shooting, still with one single centre focus. How can I set the focal points to follow the bird where it lands instead of me moving the camera on the tripod to get the focus point on the bird before the bird flies off ?

SDK^ said:
Nice images
I can see you have the 50mm F1.8 lens which is a great starter lens - allowing you to nicely blur the background. It's a perfect lens for portrait photos.

FYI : Photoshop is one of the best, most used photo software packages

Very true! I guess what I meant was photography software such as lightroom that have been recommended to me.

Raymond Lin · 27 Jun 2020 at 15:37

First, this is a Focus points spread for a 5D3, The blue squares are the most sensitive focus points, and then the rest.

In the 5D2. Only the Centre one is like the Blue one, the rest of them are like the White ones.

On the 5D2, this is what I mean, you can manually select to either use every point lit up and let the camera detect and pick for you or focus with just 1 focus point active, with you pre-selecting which one you want to use. You can move this around by using the thumb stick (press down to reset to centre), then use both wheels to move them around. First you need to press the little button behind the shutter button then you move the wheel. I can move them to where I want them without looking because of the reset on the thumb stick. So I am walking around, when I see something I would reset the focus point to centre and depends how I frame it in my head I would turn the dial left or right and feel the click in the wheel and I know what points I am using. It's all done in 1 motion in raising the camera up to the eye.

Merlin5 · 28 Jun 2020 at 12:43

Thanks Raymond, I'll have a play around with the focus points and get more familiar with changing them.

Raymond Lin · 28 Jun 2020 at 12:58

Merlin5 said:
Thanks Raymond, I'll have a play around with the focus points and get more familiar with changing them.

Don't rush it, but it will be second nature

Merlin5 · 28 Jun 2020 at 13:21

Raymond Lin said:
Don't rush it, but it will be second nature

By the way, I tried Lightroom and it's amazing! Quite easy to use, easier for me than Photoshop, and I don't want any other similar software now. The problem is this. I really want it but in no way will pay monthly subs. Someone's selling Lightroom 5.7.1 on ebay for £169 and says
"Used, great condition, boxed, with disk and serial number". Is that a good price or too much, will 5.7.1 be lacking any features in the 'developer' section from the later versions, and is it safe to buy, ie, reusing the serial number?

Raymond Lin · 28 Jun 2020 at 13:36

Merlin5 said:
By the way, I tried Lightroom and it's amazing! Quite easy to use, easier for me than Photoshop, and I don't want any other similar software now. The problem is this. I really want it but in no way will pay monthly subs. Someone's selling Lightroom 5.7.1 on ebay for £169 and says
"Used, great condition, boxed, with disk and serial number". Is that a good price or too much, will 5.7.1 be lacking any features in the 'developer' section from the later versions, and is it safe to buy, ie, reusing the serial number?

£169?!?!

I think I paid £110? and then gave it away! to this photographer like 6 years ago.

https://www.sophiekutayphotography.com

Current LR has more than just features, current lightroom comes with Camera Raw which is needed for new cameras, without it LR can't open the RAW files. 5D2 should be supported with LR5 but if you try to put in a recent camera file into it, it won't open without a DNG converter.

In terms of feature, Dehaze is new, a few sliders are different. For the 5D2 and your purposes it will be fine but I'd rather sub for 18 months at £9 a month than to pay £170!

Prime Day/Black Friday Amazon often sell an annual plan for about £80 which works out like 30% cheaper.

GMac11 · 28 Jun 2020 at 13:37

Merlin5 said:
By the way, I tried Lightroom and it's amazing! Quite easy to use, easier for me than Photoshop, and I don't want any other similar software now. The problem is this. I really want it but in no way will pay monthly subs. Someone's selling Lightroom 5.7.1 on ebay for £169 and says
"Used, great condition, boxed, with disk and serial number". Is that a good price or too much, will 5.7.1 be lacking any features in the 'developer' section from the later versions, and is it safe to buy, ie, reusing the serial number?

From memory (although don't quote me) I think Lightroom really kicked up a notch from version 6 onwards. Personally I wouldn't go back to any version 5.
No doubt LR is better than Photoshop for simple photo editing as IMO image enhancement is not the main purpose of PS. Now, leading on from that I get why you think LR is the be all and end all - I did when I was starting out as well. However don't discount other packages and personally I just switched from LR to Luminar (I took full advantage of the UK Lockdown to do a bit of 'self improvement') and I would never go back. Luminar 3 is often on offer for FREE and for a free piece of software it's excellent - especially for someone starting out. I upgraded to Luminar 4 which again is often on offer and can be had for as little as £39 although I bit at £49. This brings me back to LR version 5.x.x. For me, Luminar is significantly better and for a much lower cost. Now for a straight up 'money no object' comparison yes the current version of LR I have no doubt is more advanced than even Luminar 4 but many of those features can be unnecessary for all but the top end pro's out there. I only work freelance for the local press so I am by no means a full time professional but if I was and was making £X per month I could probably justify a LR subscription. But for a one off cost and to a hobbyist at the end of day I think it's excessive.

Merlin5 · 28 Jun 2020 at 14:01

Thanks Raymond and GMac11. Here's the features I like that sold me to Lightroom, and are these in Luminar 4? :

The before and after buttons, two ways to do it. Either side by side or just switching between the two.

Lights out where you can turn off everything and see your image surrounded by blackness.

The radial filter thing where you put a circle round an object in the photo allowing manipulation of exposure, contrast, etc of everything outside the circle without affecting the object inside. Also, I clicked invert mask, made the circle very small around a pigeons eye and was able to change the colour of just the eye. I think that's so cool.

Clipping where you see red or blue areas.

Double clicking on a setting name to reset that feature.

Clicking on a particular part of the image, like a nose or eye, and it zooms exactly to that bit without having to move the image to find it.

Those are the ones I can think of that stand out. Maybe they're standard in other software?

Raymond Lin · 28 Jun 2020 at 14:19

What I would do is start your trial, at in the meantime look at other options, test them all out.

You can always cancel LR/PS sub any time, even on and off. Tip, if you sub and then cancel, it offers you like 2 months free to tempt you to stay.

GMac11 · 28 Jun 2020 at 14:58

Merlin5 said:
Thanks Raymond and GMac11. Here's the features I like that sold me to Lightroom, and are these in Luminar 4? :

The before and after buttons, two ways to do it. Either side by side or just switching between the two.

Lights out where you can turn off everything and see your image surrounded by blackness.

The radial filter thing where you put a circle round an object in the photo allowing manipulation of exposure, contrast, etc of everything outside the circle without affecting the object inside. Also, I clicked invert mask, made the circle very small around a pigeons eye and was able to change the colour of just the eye. I think that's so cool.

Clipping where you see red or blue areas.

Double clicking on a setting name to reset that feature.

Clicking on a particular part of the image, like a nose or eye, and it zooms exactly to that bit without having to move the image to find it.

Those are the ones I can think of that stand out. Maybe they're standard in other software?

I think most of those features are standard across the board however specifically to Luminar:

* Before/after buttons - check. In fact there's a pretty cool slider feature where you can move a divider across the photo and see before/after.
* Lights out - check
* Radial filter - check. Now I'll caveat this by saying it's just not as straightforward as the LR offering but it's literally about two extra clicks to get and it actually allows a little more control like drop off towards edges (not the same as feather).
Clipping - check
Double clicking to reset - check
Click to zoom (in the manner you state) - check

Hope this helps.