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konadora
Singapore66156 Posts
I've finally gotten my hands on a camera, a second-hand Canon 400D with the standard 50mm f/1.8 lens, plus a few other accessories (additional batteries, remote, vertical grip, etc) at around 500USD. Buying it from my friend from school so I can slowly pay in installments XD
This is my first time actually attempting to take good photos and also my first time using a DSLR hehe. Slowly picking up on the basics of photography and stuff, though I have go to through some sort of audition this Friday (photo shoot of a Rugby event, oh god) so that I can join my school's photography club 
I've got to play around with it today as I visited my secondary school and my Scouts juniors. Some of them didn't really turn out the way I wanted though >_<
Hoping for some tips for a beginner photographer here! :D
(P.S: Try to comment on the photo itself, not the people in it lol)
EDIT: I used a 17-40mm f/4 to take these photos.
+ Show Spoiler +Moving object, too blurred . What settings should I be on in this kind of situation? Was on Av mode. I wanted to place a bit more emphasis on the guy on the left, but I think the light from the left (it was on an open area with the edge just behind the guy, and it was an extremely sunny day) kind of ruined it. Lower ISO? I think this one was pretty okay. A LOT of noise in here. One problem I seemed to face often is that I can't get good pictures of clouds and the sky... they always appear as a white piece of foggy mist One example: My shoe, very random.
Also, some random blurb about today. I finally decided to start exercising once again. The last time I had some real exercise was waaaaaaay back in July, so yeah I've gained some weight as of late
After watching the Will Smith video, I was really motivated to stick to a decision I made. I would always just procrastinate and tell myself, "Oh, I'll just exercise tomorrow."
But today, I told myself this can't continue and that I have to start taking charge of my life once again.
So I went out, ran and did some workout for like an hour.
I felt so tired and out of breath, but oh boy, I have never felt this happy about myself in the past few months.
Now I intend to do this every day ^__^;; Hope everyone here finds some motivation to do something good about your life (no matter how insignificant it may be) slowly but with determination and decisiveness.
  
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I liked the photos. I'm interested in the solutions to your problems since I dig the whole design, photo stuffs as well.
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Yay a long post from kona! Christmas comes early in tl 
the photos look rather fine, though from my untrained eye all that I can say is that you need to work on perspective and composition more
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Well I'm just gonna dump some stuff I know here lol.
Practice using manual settings. Learn about apertures and shutter speeds.
Learn rules of photo composition.
wider lens(zoomed out) = more dramatic images
narrower lens(zoomed in) = more flat images
Lower ISO = higher quality pictures,bigger file size, less noise, requires more light
Higher ISO = lower quality pictures,smaller file size, more noise, requires less light
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kona if you want to get into skateboarding as a sport i can help you get started, i operate a skatepark/skateshop in central singapore. i also know a thing or 2 about photography/videography. also skateboard photography is something you might be interested in. why run when you can skate amirite.
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the problem with av and the xti is you don't have spot metering, and the first image, the camera is prolly in a evaluative meter and is taking the whole scene into consideration.
i would say keep your iso at one place the whole day, learn to shoot changing the aperture and shutter speed. iso changing is a drug youll always want more and cleaner.
also shoot closer, you can never be too close, the 50mm will help you out a lot with framing and composition and it forces you to move as well.
2nd shot, more emphasis on guy on left, get closer be like nevergg on progamers, you want to isolate the person, the other stuff is just fluff and distracting, its something youll learn to develop. for now as a beginner just learn to capture one thing at a time, make each shot count
3rd shot is pretty good, imo maybe a little more on the head and ear
4th get maybe get slower, and you can get a dept of field shot of all the shoes in line
just keep shooting, its lots of fun, youll be wanting new bodies, new lenses and all that jazz soon enough, just don't get into lighting and off camera strobes that a whole other can of worms
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i almost always shoot with either shutter or apeture priority or full manual.
1st pic: if you wanna freeze motion u need high shutter speed, like that guy moving, probably at least 1/250.. 1/500 or 1/1000 would be best, but its probably too dark in that classroom to shoot so high.
taking the dark classroom into consideration, what you would do is this,
1) up your iso to something that is sensitive enough yet not too noisy.. maybe 800..
2) set to shutter priority and set your desired shutter speed, maybe 1/250
3) take a few pics to adjust for the right exposure. use exposure compensation. if you are metering the whole scene, it will probably underexpose your subject cos the background is full of bright windows so be sure to overexpose, or use spot metering on your subject.
4) that is a hard pic to do cos it is backlit, to properly expose your subject without washing out the windows you will need to fill flash. its much better to have your back to the windows and shoot into the room.
2nd pic:
like you said you had too strong a light source from the left, i think its fine to be side lit but if you wanted stuff to look more evenly lit, you will need a reflector or use an external flash to fill from the right.
if you lower the ISO you are just lowering the sensitivity and everything will just look darker. you should always use as low an ISO as possible to ensure the best pics. higher iso = more noise & less dynamic range.
when shooting indoors or at high shutter speeds you will always be limited by light, you can either get a camera that performs well at high ISO or get expensive lenses with big apertures.
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Looks pretty awesome for a first try, not that I will pretend to know anything about photography, but they look nice.
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Very nice start Kona and a good decision to work out and do different things to enjoy life. I truly hope your new hobby will make you relaxed enough to do also well in school :D
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+ Show Spoiler +In low light like that you're going to have to open up the aperture as much as possible, which won't get you far with an f/4 lens. Don't worry about it, it was just a crappy situation to take a photo in. Indoors during the day is never fun. It'll be easier with your 50mm f/1.8. Always try to have the lowest ISO possible. Do everything in your power to use the lowest ISO possible. The tradeoff in color and noise is never worth it unless you absolutely need it, or are going for some specific effect. Keep it at 100 at all times. Most of your photos seem blown out, and having a lower ISO could definitely have helped. For this photo, the composition is off to begin with. It can be seen you wanted the guy on the left to be the subject...the problem is that the angle you took it from doesnt show his face. He draws the eye, but you can't really see/identify with him, making it awkward. Try for different angles in similar situations, like maybe from the side of the people lined up. Not bad, however, the depth of field is too much in this one. The composition is good, too. What was your ISO setting, btw? This one still looks a bit blown out, but that could just be because you haven't processed it through photoshop or something similar yet. Definitely too much, and the photo is overall a bit dark. Not bad, but there's a lot of negative space. In addition, I would try bringing out the colors a bit more. It seems a bit blown out, which can also give photos a slight burnt feeling in terms of colors (it can also make photos seem very cold, however). This is my favorite one from the set so far. Good composition and I like the tilted angle you shot it from. It gives the feeling of excitement and movement. The colors also somehow came out better in this one than most of your previous ones. This one suffers from a lack of DoF. The photo looks somewhat flat because of how clearly the building behind the subject came out, so he lacks emphasis. In addition, the blaring light kind of muted the colors again. Again, this is something you can band-aid in photoshop. This would have been a great photo, but it suffers the same problems as the one before last...the lack of depth in the photo...:\ Neither of the people are in focus, and the eye gets drawn to both. That's kind of disorienting for a viewer. Clouds are harder than you can imagine to take photos of. They always turn out boring, or lack contrast. Mess with the curves and levels of this one and you may be able to bring out the gradations and shapes a bit more. I've given up taking pictures of clouds, but there are a lot of great ones out there. One example: This is the best photo here. This is the one your school would use on the front cover. Actually, it'll probably use the other more action-oriented shot further up I commented on, but this one is great in its own way. The composition in this one just works out really great. The colors just need to be touched up. Another good shot. The colors are muted, however...very cold looking. Not a bad shot. (: It's pleasing to the eye. Another good one...these last set are definitely the best ones in the whole set. What happened? lol. The building is blurred out, making the photo less flat. The subject really looks like he's popping out of the background. The only thing I can complain about is the color, which is also very blue and cool.
Good start. I wrote all of my criticisms constructively, so I hope you don't take them personally.
Good luck!
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My advice is to take hundreds of photos to start. It'll help you learn what settings and range you should use when in a particular setting. Always shoot in .raw format and using programs like Adobe Lightroom and Microsoft Expression Media helps handling (organizing) your photos and quickly adjusting them much easier.
Good luck with your excercise though, it's one of those things that are really hard to stick to developing as a habit. School, work and other things just make you feel like, 'ugh i'm gonna nap.' instead of working out.
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Welcome to the canon club =)
PH already gave a lot of good advice.
Although I disagree with him about the "keep ISO100 at all times" part, of course it's optimal to have it at 100 but in my experience that's just not gonna happen, at least indoors and I'd rather have some noise than a blurred picture.
But still try to never ever have a higher ISO than needed.
Oh btw, I think PH you made a little mistake, when you say
"This one suffers from a lack of DoF" I think you meant to say the opposite, that it has too much depth of field and that it would look better if the building in the bg was less sharp.
Just in case youre not clear about this, kona:
small F-value -> small DOF, only your object will be sharp
high F-value (=small aperture) -> large DOF, entire pic will be sharp
So if you wanna change that and let the shutter speed be changed by the camera automatically go to av-mode.
in pic #1 you should have set it to tv-mode so you could have set your desired shutter speed.
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Wow are those the epic friends of the epic Konadora?
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On January 20 2010 04:52 7mk wrote:
Welcome to the canon club =)
PH already gave a lot of good advice.
Although I disagree with him about the "keep ISO100 at all times" part, of course it's optimal to have it at 100 but in my experience that's just not gonna happen, at least indoors and I'd rather have some noise than a blurred picture.
But still try to never ever have a higher ISO than needed.
Oh btw, I think PH you made a little mistake, when you say
"This one suffers from a lack of DoF" I think you meant to say the opposite, that it has too much depth of field and that it would look better if the building in the bg was less sharp.
Just in case youre not clear about this, kona:
small F-value -> small DOF, only your object will be sharp
high F-value (=small aperture) -> large DOF, entire pic will be sharp
So if you wanna change that and let the shutter speed be changed by the camera automatically go to av-mode.
in pic #1 you should have set it to tv-mode so you could have set your desired shutter speed.
Yeah, unfortunately, ISO100 isn't always going to happen. I was more trying to get him into the mindset of keeping it as low as possible. Personally, I always at least try at 100, then bump it up only as need be. For most nighttime indoors situations, I can generally pull it off at 1/50 or 1/60 depending on how my hands are that night at f/1.2 on my 50mm lens. Or if I'm using an f/2.8, I may just sacrifice brightness in the capture and try to compensate for it in post processing. That's a bit self-defeating, though, since I end up losing a lot of detail -_-
In any case, I very rarely go above 200. If it's too dark to shoot below 400, I just don't shoot. It's not worth it at that point, with how garbage the photo is guaranteed to turn out (unless, of course, I'm being paid or am volunteering at an event or something lol).
And yeah, I never really caught onto which way means what in terms of DoF. I hope my meaning was at least clear, even if I switched the terms up. I meant to say the image is too flat, and could use more depth. I'm completely self taught as far as photography goes...I never learned anything formally, and was just helped out by old coworkers and whatnot. :X
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On January 20 2010 04:18 Amarxist wrote:
My advice is to take hundreds of photos to start. It'll help you learn what settings and range you should use when in a particular setting. Always shoot in .raw format and using programs like Adobe Lightroom and Microsoft Expression Media helps handling (organizing) your photos and quickly adjusting them much easier.
Good luck with your excercise though, it's one of those things that are really hard to stick to developing as a habit. School, work and other things just make you feel like, 'ugh i'm gonna nap.' instead of working out.
I'm going to disagree with you very strongly about raw.
I don't recommend raw. Raw is great, and allows for a lot of control at the start, but it's way too much for someone just starting out. I'm a huge tech dork and even I don't bother with raw anymore.
I'm generally making gargantuan prints where every bit of detail counts, and if you're only posting to the internet, or god forbid, printing to a newspaper, those minute details won't matter to anyone but you. Peoples' monitor settings are too varied and too inconsistent for colors to really matter, and no one compute from a 60" HDTV. Newspapers print like absolute garbage, and 70% of your detail and color integrity is lost and out of your control anyway.
Even despite all that, though, I would still use raw were it not for one...just ONE thing...its ridiculous, overbloated, and just plain stupid file size. They're on average what...like six times larger than a L fine JPEG? My computer's photo folder is large enough as it is with just JPEGs and a few raws, lol.
Sorry...that came off as an angry rant more than anything else, but I hate raw now -_-. I'll shoot with it again when I'm messing around with single capture HDR or something, but short of that, L fine JPEG is just fine, imo.
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konadora
Singapore66156 Posts
@Amarxist:
lol I don't have Lightroom so I took all these in JPG format They are all unedited too haha.
@all:
I didn't realise this until a bit later on, but I was on a rather high ISO (800 or 1600 most of the time, with some 400s) which I guess is the reason why some of them came out rather badly.
@iceburn:
Spot metering?? What's that??
+ Show Spoiler +
For a shot like this, how can I make it have more DoF (in this case, the guy?)
Well thanks for the advice (especially PH :D), will keep on trying and take better shots ^__^;;
Currently just experimenting around and learning to get used to my camera before Friday T__T
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To get less DoF (as 7mk would correct ), you would extend your lens to its longest focal length (you said you were using a 17-40mm, so you'd lengthen it to 40mm), and widen your aperture as much as possible, so at f/4.
Depth of Field basically refers to the entire area of the composition that will be in focus. The more "depth" you have in the image, the more of it that will be in focus. The less DoF you have, the less that will be in focus. If you play around with this, you'll see that it shows up as a sort of strip of focus. Try taking photos of objects on a table with as much DoF as you can muster. You'll see the foreground and background blurred and a little zone of focus where you were focused on.
Your shot of your shoe has very little DoF, and you can see why that is often advantageous. Your shoe sort of "pops out" of the image. The background is blurry, drawing the eye more strongly to the shoe, and gives the image an overall sense of depth to it (using depth here in an unrelated and nontechnical way).
In the photo you just asked about, the image lacks depth. There's no real sense of distance beyond what one would apply by common sense in the image. Relatively speaking, everything is in focus all at once, and so you have no real subject, as the photo as a whole draws the eye.
The 50mm lens is actually an 80mm lens on your camera (and actually on most DSLRs), but is still a great focal length for general picture taking. You won't be able to take anything even remotely wide angle (like landscapes or sky shots or anything like that), but it's very good for journalism and head/upper body portraiture. As it's a prime lens, you won't be able to play with DoF with focal lengths, but only with the aperture. This can be frustrating, especially when figuring out lighting and all that, but...we cant really do anything about it :\
And...time for class.
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Holy fuck lol
I read the thread title as "Getting into pornography + some random blurb"
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