A few pics from last night...

[dtmcnamara]

Well i got to spend an hour with the 50D last night. I wanted to play with it some more but the humidity was too much so I had to put everything up early.

I know im no pro, but eaahhhhh not to bad, at least i dont think.

Let me know what you think. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

ENJOY :boobies:

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b230/dtmcnamara/n71106467_31883528_8652.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b230/dtmcnamara/n71106467_31882917_3832.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b230/dtmcnamara/n71106467_31882918_5342.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b230/dtmcnamara/n71106467_31882982_8413.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b230/dtmcnamara/n71106467_31882919_6809.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b230/dtmcnamara/n71106467_31882984_1478.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b230/dtmcnamara/n71106467_31883030_5808.jpg

[dtmcnamara]

I also brought the SD790 and did a single shot outside and then snapped a few of "the ugly dog" ...lol

Pretty good for a point and click

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b230/dtmcnamara/IMG_0062.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b230/dtmcnamara/IMG_0026.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b230/dtmcnamara/IMG_0034.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b230/dtmcnamara/IMG_0070.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b230/dtmcnamara/IMG_0091.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b230/dtmcnamara/IMG_0092.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b230/dtmcnamara/IMG_0094.jpg

[james]

well, they are pictures.

[DinanM3atl]

white balance is off
composition is meh
what am I looking at?


Sorry to be harsh.

[dtmcnamara]

white balance is off
composition is meh
what am I looking at?


Sorry to be harsh.

its cool. im still trying to play with it. yesterday night was the first time I ever messed with in so....plus like I said im no pro. Just bored and I have a 50D so why not experiment with it and see what happens....maybe one day I will accidentally take a awesome picture...lol

Anyways. I will take a look at WB setting and see what all it can do..

[DinanM3atl]

Shoot in RAW on Auto WB. Adjust when you get home ;)

[dtmcnamara]

Shoot in RAW on Auto WB. Adjust when you get home ;)

i do shoot in RAW and with autoWB. I guess I should play with the WB now

[EJ_Allmota]

white balance is off
composition is meh
what am I looking at?


Sorry to be harsh.
x2

[DinanM3atl]

i do shoot in RAW and with autoWB. I guess I should play with the WB now

Yes...

play with it ;)

[dtmcnamara]

what if i just throw a custom cooling filter over the pic....?

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b230/dtmcnamara/IMG_0479_edited.jpg

[dtmcnamara]

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b230/dtmcnamara/IMG_0473_edited.jpg

[dtmcnamara]

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b230/dtmcnamara/IMG_0518_edited2.jpg

[dtmcnamara]

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b230/dtmcnamara/IMG_0527_edited.jpg

[aaronfelipe]

That second picture is fucking great. Is that the moon behind the tree?

[obd1kenobi]

That second picture is fucking great. Is that the moon behind the tree?

i think thats just a street light

[EJ_Allmota]

i think thats just a street light
WORD!!!! its just a light..

[aaronfelipe]

I guess I left out the sarcasm. It was an inside comment :blah:

[A.P. Photography]

Play with the white balance, do not use cooling/warming filters.

[eViLMunkey]

Don't use any filters till you know the camera

[james]

they need sharpening.

amongst other things.

[DinanM3atl]

You need to delete these, get a tripod and shoot in RAW.

These are just bad. Sorry for the harshness. The photo is in the center of the frame on almost every single picture. The W/B is way off. The photos are a little soft.

Then shoot in Av mode(Aperture Priority). Many of the photos seem to maybe be shot at f/8? In MOST cases for a car shoot you don't want the trees behind the car to be in super sharp focus. You want the bokeh to pull you to the nice sharp car ;)

See these photos. Shoot around f/4 or sometimes even open her up some more and get down to f/2.8

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3139/3091160482_1dac993cb9.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3219/3068540371_e24e51bea9.jpg

Then sometimes the setting adds to the photo and you may want to shoot at f/4 or up to f/8.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3258/3109392358_92cbd29d94.jpg

[kerndog8]

Those were taken with a 50d? Read the manual, learn what the features of the camera do. Once you do that, play around and shoot in raw form so that what you get wrong you can fix on the computer. Try shooting in AV and like he said, just play with the F stop.

[MrBoostedCRX]

nice pics...badass s2k's..reps

[kerndog8]

nice pics...badass s2k's..reps

I hate posts like this.

[james]

Those were taken with a 50d? Read the manual, learn what the features of the camera do. Once you do that, play around and shoot in raw form so that what you get wrong you can fix on the computer. Try shooting in AV and like he said, just play with the F stop.

i was about to say something pretty rude here, but i didnt


listen OP, theres so much more to it than "playing with the f stop"....i admire you for going out and practicing, but you have a long way to go. I think this thread is the essence of beginner photographers that think as soon as they get a nicer camera, the pictures will magically be better...and obviously OBVIOUSLY this is not the case.

I agree with what most people have said. heres my input, and sorry if i am repeating other suggestions:

1. Buy a good tripod. If you don't spend at least 120 bucks, don't bother. (this is the one thing that I suggest you spend a good buck on...the sturdier the tripod the better)
2. Teach yourself photoshop, lightroom, and the RAW utility for photoshop. You won't regret it. But I don't mean using the lasso tool and little bullshit like that.
3. NEVER EVER SHOOT ON AUTO.
4. EVER

[DinanM3atl]

I don't think Matt meant to actually just play with f stop. I and Matt said to use Av Priority as it is a good setting to use. You choose your DOF and let the smart camera decide everything else...

It allows you an obviously see what is changing and really setup the photo how you want. If you want to call that 'playing with the f stop' then that is great. Play with it.

[james]

I don't think Matt meant to actually just play with f stop. I and Matt said to use Av Priority as it is a good setting to use. You choose your DOF and let the smart camera decide everything else...

It allows you an obviously see what is changing and really setup the photo how you want. If you want to call that 'playing with the f stop' then that is great. Play with it.

ok well i may have misunderstood the whole post, but there is no better way to learn the camera than by shooting full manual for at least a little while. anything is better tahn auto

[DinanM3atl]

ok well i may have misunderstood the whole post, but there is no better way to learn the camera than by shooting full manual for at least a little while. anything is better tahn auto

Sure.

Full manual is great. If you are new to a camera though why deal with it? Why not shoot in Av and let the smart camera decide the other stuff. Then if the photo is a little bright or dark. Remember the settings and switch over to manual and adjust a little bit.

[Random Hero]

You need to delete these, get a tripod and shoot in RAW.

These are just bad. Sorry for the harshness. The photo is in the center of the frame on almost every single picture. The W/B is way off. The photos are a little soft.

Then shoot in Av mode(Aperture Priority). Many of the photos seem to maybe be shot at f/8? In MOST cases for a car shoot you don't want the trees behind the car to be in super sharp focus. You want the bokeh to pull you to the nice sharp car ;)

See these photos. Shoot around f/4 or sometimes even open her up some more and get down to f/2.8
Then sometimes the setting adds to the photo and you may want to shoot at f/4 or up to f/8.


LOL - Truth 101.

[james]

Sure.

Full manual is great. If you are new to a camera though why deal with it? Why not shoot in Av and let the smart camera decide the other stuff. Then if the photo is a little bright or dark. Remember the settings and switch over to manual and adjust a little bit.

just not the way i would like to learn.

learning on a camera with memory cards, batteries, autofocus....they all make you kinda spoiled if you ask me.

[DinanM3atl]

Welcome to digital?

[james]

Welcome to digital?


exactly. bad way to learn the very basics.

[dtmcnamara]

thanks guys. I know I have a long way to go, the only reason I got the 50D was because of the price, $950.

I have been reading PS for dummies, and watching many videos on how to do things on PS. Hopefully one day it will be as easy to use at IE explorer.

With that said, I have also been looking over the Canon 50D manual and other various photography books, just trying to figure out what exactly the WB, ISO and all the others functions truely change. Hopefully once I learn what everything does I can start to apply it to my own pictures.

I will just keep doing what I am doing and learn one thing at a time and experiment with the camera a little every night.

PS thanks for all of the comments. Like I said earlier I was ready for the comments, I knew they werent great pictures.

Hopefully the next set of pictures will turn out better.

THANSK

[DinanM3atl]

exactly. bad way to learn the very basics.

Not to sound rude but you want him to learn the very basics by throwing him in the deep end with the sharks, no life jacket and he doesn't know how to swim... That is how you learn the basics?

I don't get where you are coming from at all? Your saying that even though digital is here to stay, we should all go out and buy a full manual film SLR and just jump into the deep end with the sharks?

For someone that is totally new they should just switch to manual, at a night time car shoot and just start shooting? Thus resulting in shots worse than this I would think.

I don't get your logic. He has a camera that has built in features and settings that will allow him to compose, adjust some settings and get some decent pictures.

You can shoot in Av, Tv or various other modes and still learn what ISO does, what aperture does, what shutter speed does etc. As you get better and better you will realize in certain lighting conditions what shutter speed you need at f/4 so you just shoot on manual.

In the beginning though I don't see how 'just set it to manual and learn' is really a great teaching tool. I can almost guarantee that will just leave him frustrated with gigabytes of horrible pictures.

[james]

I don't get where you are coming from at all?




no and thats cool man, believe me, im not here to try to start beef with anyone.

I just think that when you have a camera that has all those functions and you don't know what any of them to do one another, do manual like so many people have done since before you or I were born, learn the hard way, learn from your mistakes, and take some really bitchin photographs.

when you have you "smart camera" do everything for you, its just a stupid way to learn. I say that from the bottom of my heart, with deep respect for every photographer out there.

listen, I am a photography major. I took some basic classes a year ago, and at the end of them I had NO IDEA how an aperture affected things. I had no idea how to use my light meter.

Thankfully soon after, everything clicked. If it were not for a full manual camera, I honestly don't think I would have learned from my mistakes. Shooting film is just the way to go for learning, and thats just the way I feel about it.

So thanks for letting me explain my side of the story, and I hope to not offend people who are die-hard digital fanatics, and those that believe that the best way is to let something do the thing for you. I just don't think thats the best way to do it, but I understand where you are coming from. [/rant] :2cents: :surrender

[Jaimecbr900]

I agree with Dinan. No reason to jump in on the deep end if he doesn't even know how to swim.

All of the advice is fine and dandy, but if the OP has no clue what it is or how to control it you may as well be speaking in Chinese to him.

Start shooting in Auto, progress thru the various pre-set settings, and finally graduate to full manual. He has to be able to look at a pic that he takes and preferably on the display, but at the very least the computer screen, and see what (if anything) needs adjustment. If he doesn't recognize that an orange hue means the WB is off, then there is no sense in going any further until he knows what that is. Framing and composition is very important, but also very objective. Some people think a port-a-potty in the background adds to a pic, some of us don't. But WB, exposure, focus/sharpness, and bare color saturation are pretty non-subjective....they're either there or not for the most part.

I'm the worst about post-processing. Sometimes I play with some pics and get them to where I think they're good, only to look at them on someone else's monitor and think, "oh crap, that looks like shit..". It may be because I work on color calibrated monitors or it may be because I need practice. Don't know. I just know that often times pics that look great on my screen I totally understand that it doesn't on someone else's screen.

:2cents:

[james]

Start shooting in Auto


:2cents:


neh. but hey, opinions are opinions.

[dtmcnamara]

damn...i didnt want to make this into a big deal or anything..

I am just going to mess around with the camera a little with a few "Quick Lists" with me.

I found a few good sites that have little cheat sheets that state what to set things at during different conditions. I figured I could start with that, and then go from there and mess around with WB, ap, and shutter speed....Once I learn a little more about what everything means and does the little adjustments should get a little easier and almost second nature.