New Camera for Christmas??? Let's learn it!

[Jennifer]

All you new Christmas DSLR and point and shoot camera owners as well as those stuck in auto mode on your old camera, let's learn a little bit together and move out of our comfort zone! Read this thread here: http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15172
and then post some photos :)

[Emma]

can I count my SB800 flash from last Christmas? I've been trying to move beyond "turn it on" and it's kicking my butt.

[Marriedin79]

My new Canon 50mm/1.4 lens arrived today. I used a check that my MIL gave me for Christmas to buy it. I'll have to get working with it to take some shots. Look for 'em soon!

[Melissa]

My new Canon 50mm/1.4 lens arrived today. I used a check that my MIL gave me for Christmas to buy it. I'll have to get working with it to take some shots. Look for 'em soon!

I can't wait to see what you do with that lens!!! :D

[Jennifer]

My new Canon 50mm/1.4 lens arrived today. I used a check that my MIL gave me for Christmas to buy it. I'll have to get working with it to take some shots. Look for 'em soon!

Funny you should post this on THIS thread as those test shots I posted in the above mentioned thread were taken with my Canon 50/1.4!

[Penny M]

I want to join in even though I didn't get a new camera for Christmas, but I did get a new lens last Christmas (and I bought myself one before this Christmas!). Does that count!? Really, I think I am finally ready to learn more than just the auto settings. I just hope it all doesn't go over my head!

[Jennifer]

Yay!!! We have a few takers :) Be sure to read the original thread mentioned in my OP to learn a bit about Aperture Priority mode. Then post some examples here :) It's really important when you're learning that you learn one thing, practice, and master the technique and then move on.

[Margie]

oh, you mean it can move off the A? i wondered what that dial and all those letters were for. :D i've bookmarked and may tackle this soon! well, attempt anyway!

[Melissa]

I definitely want to make sure I am understanding everything I've learned so far. So I'm in, too. Be back tomorrow with my results of the Av experiment!

[Marriedin79]

Yay!!! We have a few takers :) Be sure to read the original thread mentioned in my OP to learn a bit about Aperture Priority mode. Then post some examples here :) It's really important when you're learning that you learn one thing, practice, and master the technique and then move on.

Oh, and that's where I have so many problems! I want to know how to do it all NOW! Can you say that I am the queen of instant gratification?

[Penny M]

Yay!!! We have a few takers :) Be sure to read the original thread mentioned in my OP to learn a bit about Aperture Priority mode. Then post some examples here :) It's really important when you're learning that you learn one thing, practice, and master the technique and then move on.

I've printed it off so I can read it over and over. I probably won't get to practice much this weekend because I will have family coming here by the time I get home from work tomorrow. And I have to play with my 3 mo. old granddaughter!

[Jennifer]

oh, you mean it can move off the A? i wondered what that dial and all those letters were for. :D i've bookmarked and may tackle this soon! well, attempt anyway! YES! You paid for those other modes, now let's get to it!!! ;) You're not too busy to play are ya? LOL!!!! One baby step at a time, you'll get there. This is a simple, quick, and EFFECTIVE exercise that will really jump start your understanding of those other modes. A lot of people don't even go beyond AV mode and it makes a HUGE difference in the end result.

AV or Aperture Priority mode, really helps you understand depth of field, blurring out those backgrounds, and/or sharpening them up for different effects as well as LETTING IN MORE LIGHT to help with lower light situations. :yahoo: creating, for a lot of folks, the first 'ah ha' moment of photography.

[sammdc]

count me in I got my new camera just before christmas and I really want some direction in how to learn how to use it and to take me out of my comfort zone
I got a Canon EOS 400D

[sammdc]

ok so the challenge is to take photos of the same thing using different aperture right?

[sammdc]

ok so here is my 3 different shots any CC please
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y87/sammDC/f56web.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y87/sammDC/f10web.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y87/sammDC/f22web.jpg

[sammdc]

oh on that I jsut set the dial of my Canon to Av then used the other dial to change the Aperture the largest it would go was 5.6?

[sammdc]

how do I get my aperture to go as low as Jen did on her boot pic f1.4?

[Melissa]

I'm not Jennifer, and I could be very wrong, but I think it may also have a little to do with your lens. What lens are you using? Mine is the kit lens(18-55mm-f/3.5-f/5.6). My aperture won't go as open as the 1.4 either.

[sammdc]

Melissa thats exactly what lens I am using the 18 - 55 mm one

[sammdc]

but I also got the 75 -300mm one with it as well

[Melissa]

Melissa thats exactly what lens I am using the 18 - 55 mm one

I'm just guessing here, but if you and I had either the 1.4 or 1.8 lens, we'd be able to really open the aperture up. The 1.8 is approximately $70 here and it's definitely on my wish list! :D

[Jennifer]

Melissa is correct! I guess I should mention that this exercise should be three photos with these apertures:

1- widest aperture AVAILABLE to you on YOUR lens ;)
2- middle of the road aperture
3- smallest aperture

Carolyn, did you learn anything from the exercise?

*Did you notice how changing the aperture and making the hole smaller (f/22) required a longer shutter speed to let in the same amount of required light to expose the photo correctly? The color and exposure looks almost identical on each photo. So, if A+B+C = correct you can change all three of those variables to always equal 'correct' (A, B, and C are aperture, ISO, and shutter speed... the 3 Kings :) )

*Notice the depth of field changing as your aperture got smaller? Notice the beam of wood gets sharper or blurrier depending on how large or small the aperture.

[Melissa]

Yay! :clap:

[maryjos]

ok so here is my 3 different shots any CC please
Jennifer has explained pretty well the difference you should see in the shots...the blurring of the background, etc. So do you know which one you would likely use in this situation? The items you are taking the shot of are all pretty much the same distance, so you'd want to use the settings in the first shot, to make the background less distracting. This isn't really part of the exercise itself...but ideally when framing a photo you want to watch out for things like that post as they can really mess up an otherwise good picture. How often do we see photos with things appearing to come out of someone's head?! :lol: We often don't notice such things on first glance, particularly if they are far away...but particularly when shooting with a telephoto which tends to "flatten" the image such that things in the distance appear a lot closer, you have to watch out for them in your pictures and train yourself to readjust the angle you are shooting at to move them away from your subject.

[sammdc]

mary when I went on a trip to Washington Dc we ended up with several photos where the Washington monument seem to be coming out of my head or the top of the capital building was a hat on top of my head so definitely I prefer the shots to blur out the bg

[sammdc]

Melissa is correct! I guess I should mention that this exercise should be three photos with these apertures:

1- widest aperture AVAILABLE to you on YOUR lens ;)
2- middle of the road aperture
3- smallest aperture

Carolyn, did you learn anything from the exercise?

*Did you notice how changing the aperture and making the hole smaller (f/22) required a longer shutter speed to let in the same amount of required light to expose the photo correctly? The color and exposure looks almost identical on each photo. So, if A+B+C = correct you can change all three of those variables to always equal 'correct' (A, B, and C are aperture, ISO, and shutter speed... the 3 Kings :) )

*Notice the depth of field changing as your aperture got smaller? Notice the beam of wood gets sharper or blurrier depending on how large or small the aperture.

ok well i used the widest and middle aperture but not the smallest not sure what it would be as I took it too 22 and stopped and yes definietly is a good learning experience taking the same shot using different settings but also keeping track of the settings too so you can start to begin to learn and remember what settings take good photos in what lighting situations


tonight is my daughters 21st birthday party we will be in a restaurant with low lighting maybe candles as well with my lens and keeping in mind ppl will be moving around what would be the best possible settings to use without using a tripod

[maryjos]

Do you have something like the 50mm f/1.8 lens? The kit lens you mention is not likely to do very good in that situation unless you add an external flash. It just can't pick up that much light.

[maryjos]

mary when I went on a trip to Washington Dc we ended up with several photos where the Washington monument seem to be coming out of my head or the top of the capital building was a hat on top of my head so definitely I prefer the shots to blur out the bg
LOL, yup we've all done that. Just takes experience and practice to recognize it in the shot and adjust yourself (or your subjects!) Do you ever watch Jay Leno when he does Headlines on Mondays? He often shows funny examples of this so fun to see how even somewhat professionals mess up!

[sammdc]

sounds like i need to buy myself a new lens

[sammdc]

wow Mary just looked at your website and your video on animal planet that is so amazing and your photos are awesome

[sammdc]

Donn and i tried to take photos of the dog show at the Texas state fair and all we got was some very blurred colour pictures so you must have an amazing lens to capture the dog in action photos

[Meryl]

I can't believe how long it has taken me to get this ready lol!!! First off I seemed to take a gazillion photos of my duck, then I got confused as to which was what, and then putting this together I am using my brand new, used first time PSCS3!!! Thanks Jennifer for the great challenge - I have learned a lot :)

My Ducks are here (http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=235087) - hope right place? otherwise I will move them?

all look a tad dark to me?

[Penny M]

Here are my photos.

f/5.6 http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=235465&ppuser=32292

f/10 http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=235466&ppuser=32292

f/22 http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=235467&ppuser=32292

[Jennifer]

Here are my photos.

f/5.6 http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=235465&ppuser=32292

f/10 http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=235466&ppuser=32292

f/22 http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=235467&ppuser=32292

Very nice! Perfect example of DOF and also seeing how that shutter speed really slows down as you raised up that aperture.

[Jennifer]

I can't believe how long it has taken me to get this ready lol!!! First off I seemed to take a gazillion photos of my duck, then I got confused as to which was what, and then putting this together I am using my brand new, used first time PSCS3!!! Thanks Jennifer for the great challenge - I have learned a lot :)

My Ducks are here (http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=235087) - hope right place? otherwise I will move them?

all look a tad dark to me?

Meryl, these are great. They do appear a tad dark but they are all exposed to achieve the exact same exposure even though the settings changed. Your background really shows the DOF changes. Thanks for participating and getting off Auto mode :)

[Meryl]

Here are my photos.

f/5.6 http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=235465&ppuser=32292

f/10 http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=235466&ppuser=32292

f/22 http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=235467&ppuser=32292

These look great :)

[maryjos]

Donn and i tried to take photos of the dog show at the Texas state fair and all we got was some very blurred colour pictures so you must have an amazing lens to capture the dog in action photos
Actually, it's not so much the lens (although I do have some nice ones) I can get some pretty good shots with just the 50mm lens if I'm close enough. The trick with shooting most dog sports is knowing how to use the focus...very seldom is the camera fast enough to keep up with them, so I usually have to pick a spot, lock focus and then take the shot when the dog gets there (which requires a lot of practice to get your timing right!) Depends on the sport though, some like lure coursing I can use the camera focus tracking better. Indoors is tough though...you definitely have to use ISO 1600 and I often have to bump all the way to ISO 3200 depending on how bad the light is...and fast the dogs are going!

[Audrey]

Great thread, Jennifer! I'm going outside in a minute to go take some pictures. I'll post them as soon as I can. :)

[sammdc]

this was a great lesson Jennifer I hope you will set us another one like this to do as well as I learnt a great deal about Aperture by doing this and how to achieve the diff bf effects with the focus and blur

[sammdc]

oh and I wanted to say how truly gorgeous your little baby girl photo is in your sig it makes me smile every time I see it

[Audrey]

Well, I FINALLY managed to get done! First I went outside with my camera and 70-300mm lens and walked through the snow to get to a spot that I wanted to take pictures--I didn't realize till I got out there that the snow was more than knee deep!! By the time I got inside I had to get changed since I was covered to my waist with snow! I tried a few just outside my door and some inside. Finally, when I was ready, my power went out for about 1/2 hour. Then I had to go to town and just got back. So I'm finally doing this as I'm making supper ready. :)
I posted my examples in the DOF_AperturePriority Thread (http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/forum/showthread.php?p=404659)

[Marriedin79]

Well ... I had a chance to take photos the other day, but just now had the time to play with downloading them,getting the info, creating the layout, etc. It's sometimes hard to find something of interest to photograph, at least for me! This is part of my neighbor's mailbox stand. I love how this lens (Canon 50mm 1.8) blurs the background ... almost making it possible to take a shot of anything in a less-than-desirable setting. See how the tree trunk fades into an unrecognizable blob in the middle shot?

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b370/CompooperTeacher/newlens.jpg

[Jennifer]

Perfect example! Was this something you were already familiar with or did you learn something? Pretty cool how the detail in the 1.8 photo just jumps right out at you and looks like abstract art. The f/22 shot is confusing and boring. Very good!!!

[Penny M]

I think I am finally getting a better understanding of aperture. I've read over and over about it and taken more pictures to help. It still seems strange that more light causes less focus (seems backwards to me) and the lower the f stop number the wider the opening of the lens. But the wider the aperture the more light comes in & less is in focus. The lower the f stop number the wider aperture. Correct?

[Marriedin79]

Jennifer, I assume that you were responding to my post. Yes, it was something that I already knew, but didn't practice very much. (I wish that I had the time that Missaboo has to play! I always feel that I have to get all of my "work" done before I can "play" at something fun!) Just like Penny, I really have to get all of the confusion about small number:large opening, etc. burned into my brain!

[Melissa]

I wish that I had the time that Missaboo has to play! I always feel that I have to get all of my "work" done before I can "play" at something fun!

I am just so adimant(spelling?)about learning to use this camera and to learn how to take great photos. Today I am really frustrated with all of it today and feel like throwing my camera and lenses out the door, but that's probably the PMS making me crazy! Now granted my house is a bit of a mess(it's been that way eversince I started digital scrapbooking, though! :lol: :shocked: )

[Meryl]

Well ... I had a chance to take photos the other day, but just now had the time to play with downloading them,getting the info, creating the layout, etc. It's sometimes hard to find something of interest to photograph, at least for me! This is part of my neighbor's mailbox stand. I love how this lens (Canon 50mm 1.8) blurs the background ... almost making it possible to take a shot of anything in a less-than-desirable setting. See how the tree trunk fades into an unrecognizable blob in the middle shot?

These are just fabulous examples :) well done :)

[sammdc]

wow that last series of photos really reinforces the effect aperture has