Soldato
I'll stress again the importance of checking settings. I thought I was all ok to go, and apparently I nudged the dial to TV mode from AV... Whole set of shots at 1/200 and various f-stops that I didn't want. Gutted.
Your 3 Top Tips for a Novice
- Thread starter cbarker118
- Start date
1) Before you buy your camera, make sure it fits properly in your hands. An uncomfortable camera is very difficult to shoot with
2) Learn to photoshop. It's a fact of life, knowing composition/exposure etc will only got you so for these days
3) It's you that takes the good pictures, not the camera
*Can I have a 4?*
4) Make sure you enjoy what you do!
2) Learn to photoshop. It's a fact of life, knowing composition/exposure etc will only got you so for these days
3) It's you that takes the good pictures, not the camera
*Can I have a 4?*
4) Make sure you enjoy what you do!
Soldato
- Joined
- 3 Mar 2008
- Posts
- 2,566
most important is:
METER
METER
METER
Learn to meter correctly, meter at the part of the frame you want correctly exposted and lock it, compose then shoot.
METER
METER
METER
Learn to meter correctly, meter at the part of the frame you want correctly exposted and lock it, compose then shoot.
Soldato
- Joined
- 19 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 3,164
Get into the habit of checking your gear before you leave, nothing worse than taking your camera out only to find the battery is flat or you've left your memory card in the card reader.
Don't be fooled by the preview on the LCD, an out of focus or too low a shutter speed may look fine so always zoom in on the subject matter and check, re-shoot if its not up to scratch.
Don't scrimp on glass, a good lens on a cheaper camera will be better than an all singing camera with cheap glass.
Above all practice and experiment.
Don't be fooled by the preview on the LCD, an out of focus or too low a shutter speed may look fine so always zoom in on the subject matter and check, re-shoot if its not up to scratch.
Don't scrimp on glass, a good lens on a cheaper camera will be better than an all singing camera with cheap glass.
Above all practice and experiment.
Crop factor doesn't apply. 200mm is 200mm regardless of your sensor size.
Soldato
Apart from the field of view isn't the same, which IS due to the crop factor. It has a very evident effect which is easily seen. The shutter speeds I quoted are only guidelines, good technique / steady hands will obviously enable slower speeds to be used. Time and time again you see posts where people are unhappy with results due to soft images where too slow a shutter speed has been used.
Soldato
Well it's only a guide. Just a starting point, until you work out where you stand in the whole handholding technique etc. I use my 70-200 @ 200mm 1/125 quite a lot now.
But your point wasn't related to field of view and your post was unnecessarily confusing to a beginner. It was also incorrect.
Don't patronise those with less experience. It's a steep learning curve when we start and is only hindered by being given excuses for failure.
Soldato
I'm not the one being patronising or confusing the issue.
1) Learn the relationship between aperture, shutter speed and ISO and the effect they can have on your picture
2) Practice as much as possible so that adjusting any of the above becomes second nature and review your results against what you hoped for.
3) Always check these settings before shooting
2) Practice as much as possible so that adjusting any of the above becomes second nature and review your results against what you hoped for.
3) Always check these settings before shooting
- Joined
- 1 Sep 2009
- Posts
- 112
Well I did get said camera and was given the 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 IS lens with it (slightly better than the one you get as a kit I'm told). Quickly filled the 4GB card it came with, shooting RAW. Ordered a 16GB card too. Ill post some of the pics up when I've seen them on a proper monitor rather than a laptop and maybe had a fiddle in photoshop.
Ill be going to a Digital Art festival in the new year doing a lot of indoor photography so I was thinking of investing in a wide(r) angle lens but would my 18-55mm lens actually be ok for this sort of thing?
Ill be going to a Digital Art festival in the new year doing a lot of indoor photography so I was thinking of investing in a wide(r) angle lens but would my 18-55mm lens actually be ok for this sort of thing?
I'm with Rojin on this one - the crop factor does apply and should be taken into account.
That being said, I've always found the '1/focal length rule' to be hugely misleading. Technique is the key to successful handheld shooting.
Shooting RAW already? I'm not sure if that's brave or stupid, but good luck either way.
It won't be as good as a load of other lenses that you could buy, but it's easily the best lens you own and more than adequate for the job in hand.
Forget about buying anything new for now. Concentrate on learning to use what you've got and how to get the absolute best from it.
- Joined
- 1 Sep 2009
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- 112
So far I'm selective enough about what I'm photographing I've actually had enough space to store RAW pictures. I guess when I'm using the 16GB card I might get a bit more shutter happy. Size is the only downside as far as I can tell? I'm fairly Photoshop literate as a result of the Uni course I'm on so any necessary changes before compression shouldn't be beyond me.
Man of Honour
RAW will require photoshop work to look it's best basically, if you don't intend to process then don't shoot RAW, the out of camera jpegs with sharpening and saturation tweaked by the camera will look better than unprocessed RAW files 95% of the time.
I still recommend you shoot raw because, well, what's the point in having a DSLR if you're not taking the time to process your images properly? But some people disagree I guess and if you don't want to put that time in then you're better off in jpeg mode.
wrong, the FOV changes and that is what is important in estimating motion induced image blur
As the highly-knowledgable chap who replied to your post first has already pointed out, processing time is the major downside of shooting RAW and it's a slightly different ballgame to working in Photoshop itself.
But if you're not averse to sitting in Camera RAW and tweaking your way around your photos, it's certainly a good way to learn the ropes at an early stage.
The reason I'm slightly hesitant to recommend shooting in RAW to someone who has just bought their first SLR is that it's not strictly necessary at first. There's plenty to be getting on with before you start worrying about having to edit every single image that comes your way, not least understanding exposure and composition.
I guess I'm just an advocate of not putting too many eggs in one basket. It's a steep enough learning curve already, without giving yourself yet another thing to get your head around.