trying to figure out if my new camera is a hobby or job.

[Modat22]

I bartered quite a bit of work for a camera system thinking it would be a good hobby investment and in the end it seems like its more of a job learning how to use the dang thing.

well I can point and shoot it all in automatic and all but I wanna know how to use all those bells whistles, buttons, settings etc.

My wife was happy with this trade at first herself but I think she's changed her mind, complaining of headaches and flash burned retina's. My daughter has even begun hiding when daddy gets out the "Dawg!" as she currently calls everything.

Anyone else fall into a trap like this?

Oh and lenses! I figured "AHH 2 lenses would be enough.." but no, there be lenses for about every concievable type of photo a person would want to take.. and they ain't cheap.

[Tom]

Don't know what you got, but when you get into Photography, it's like getting into sawmilling.  I found that cameras do age and become unusable if not used.  I have lost my Mamiya c220 to age and my Konica auto-reflex went away a long time ago.  I've replaced the SLR, but haven't used it since all of my lenses, etc were stolen.  I still have fun with my point and shoot digital, even though it is  antique by today's standards.

If you are talking about all the bells and whistles that are put on digitals, you have to read the book. But if you are talking about f-stops and shutter speeds and lens lengths, I can help.  It's easier to read up on it though since so much information has been written.

Your family will be astonished (perhaps at a later date) at the quality and artistry of your photographs. When you get to be comfortable with your camera, try working in black and white.  Black and White is very challenging from an artistic and technical standpoint, where color tends to be more forgiving of lighting and shadows.

Your short lenses will lengthen distances.  You will notice it in long noses and little ears when the shot is taken from up close.   They are good for pictures of groups in tight quarters though.  Zooms are getting to be quite popular and are a lot sharper than zooms of the past. That means that you don't have to carry so many lenses. It's not as impressive as the statement made by professionals in the past who could be seen walking around with so much equipment hanging off of them that all you could see was their face.

Long lenses, will shorten distances.  A real long one will pack the traffic on a road so much that it will look like the cars are bumper to bumper.  Have you noticed that the TV pictures of a football game will show an official giving a call and the people in the background are huge?  That is a long lens doing that.   Long lenses of milder length are used in portrait photography because they will pleasingly shorten a long nose and can be used to sharpen the face while the ears are thrown out of focus.

f-stops and shutter speeds are just ways of controlling the amount of light that reach the film.  They can be used artistically to stop, or lengthen, time.  Have you seen pictures of a running stream where it looks as smooth as if oil had been spread upon it.  Or, the white water of rapids smoothed to a white smear on the surface of the creek?   How about the spokes of bicycle stopped dead still on a bike racing down the road.  All are done with f-stops and shutter speeds.

Most point and shoot cameras are built to use a shutter speeds of a 30th or 60th of a second.  If there is an adjustment allowed it has to be in the f-stop.  In a box camera, there is no adjustment and you must rely on the ability of the film to create a picture within a large window of sensitivity.

It's not too difficult once you understand.   The difficult part is finding the correct f-stop and shutter speed to make a realistic picture.  Once that is done, (rule of thumb here) for every shutter speed you increase, you drop one f-stop to keep the amount of light the same.  Dropping an f-stop means going from f-11 to f-8 to f-4, etc.  For each number you drop, the aperture is increased and more light enters.   But there is another thing that happens too. The more open the aperture, the shorter the depth of field.  The smaller the aperture, the longer the depth of field.  The depth of field is that portion of the subject that is kept in focus from front to back.  A wide open aperture may show a face with the nose and ears out of focus but the eyes sharply focused.   "stopped" all of the way down (stopped being a reference to f-stops) to the smallest hole, the entire subject might be in focus, as well as much of the background.

Increasing the shutter speed, stops the motion, but it also requires that you open the aperture to retain enough light.  So, you lose some of your depth of field.  That can be compensated though.  You can get film that is fast or slow.  The faster films require less light, so you can shoot at faster shutter speeds without having to lose depth of field by opening the aperture.  (today's digital cameras are very sensitive)

See how this thing works?  After awhile you begin to design a picture in your mind even long before you have the camera in your hand.

Another thing that a photo-journalist learns is that having a warm body in every picture makes for a better picture.  So, when you are taking pictures of the family picnic, or vacation, get someone in the picture, even if it's not one of your someone's.

[Modat22]

Its a canon 50d with an 18-135 kit lens, 580 speedlite (I bought this extra), 70-200 f2.8L is zoom and I bought a pretty cheap 50mm f1.8 lens for portaits.

So far my favorite people lens is the 50mm f1.8. The 70-200 is very heavy and I havn't really felt like seeking outside subjects for pictures. Most of the time I'm using tha auto settings, currently reading some books and trying a photo or 2 after I read about something in a book. Its kind of slow going.

[Tom]

50mm and 55mm are considered normal range lenses. You might be happier with portraits shot with your zoom or kit lens at 125mm.  That is a pretty common professional portrait lens and it allows you to get a little distance from your subject as well as giving you some foreshortening.

[Modat22]

these are some play photos


My daughter is almost 1 year already I rotated my flash 90 degrees straight up with a plastic diffuser on there.



I took this photo with auto settings at 200mm on the back deck where I work. I can see the depth of field you mentioned in this one.

[Magicman]

What a cutie !!!      

[SPIKER]

I have an older chinon 35mm camera with about 6 different lenses I have not taken it out of the bag in about 6 years at least.   It is a Jap camera that uses Nikon interchangeable parts from mid 1980s.  No auto focus stuff or auto wind.   It does very nice job but takes some getting used to.   I had to have it repaired once was pretty inexpensive to fix.  Mine was left in the case by my wife at time file wound ready to shoot and it caused the spring to SET and it got sticky.  needed a good cleaning and really has worked great sense.

Mark M

[Don_Papenburg]

Tom what Konica do you have?  I had a T4 that got stolen and then I got a TC but wanted a T4 finally found another . But now it is almost impossable to find film.
So I bit the bullet and purchased a cannon EOS rebel  digital .  On the lowest setting the picture size is in the 1000s
Lots of things in the wrong place after useing Konicas all these years. All in all I think it will be a good camera when I learn it.

[Tom]

I had a Konica Auto Reflex T, purchased in 1968.  It was stolen in 1983 with its 85mm Lense and a 80-200mm zoom, along with a bunch of other stuff.  I replaced it with a Konica FT-1 which I still have but haven't used in a forever.  I really should break it out and limber it up.    Without a Darkroom I don't enjoy film as much.

[Modat22]

tom what photo editing software are you mainly using?

[Magicman]

I find myself falling into this also.  I don't print pictures and make albums like I used to.  The're saved on a disc, and may never be looked at again.  In a very few years, there won't be anything available to read these disc.

I look at photos that are over 100 years old of my great-great granddad.  I can just see my great-great grandchildren squinting at a disc, and wondering what it is.

We really do need to print a few pictures.

[Tom]

Modat, I'm using Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 that my wife got for me as a present some years ago.

There are some free programs that do a good job, I hear.

http://www.gimp.org/
Paint
seriff's photoplus
pixia

[des170stihl]

You have a great camera,, I have a Canon 30 D . I do most of my shooting in the program mode which still lets me change settings as I need to. You will find the more you read your book and the more you shoot you,ll get better and better. 

[Modat22]

more practice at my daughters 1st birthday last Sat.
\


This one turned out way better than I thought, I didn't notice the accidental reflection in glass till later. Going to recrop and enhance this one a bit.
 

First horse (well rocking horse anyway)


I think someone let her taste a lemmon.

[Tom Sawyer]

A basic photography course will do wonders for you.  I took one from a local photographer about a year ago and learned many things.  $80 well spent!  Check your local community college, or local newspaper to see if they are running courses.

Tom

[Radar67]

I have a 50D as well. One thing about the lenses for crop frame cameras (which is what we have), a 50mm lens is actually a 80mm lens on a crop frame. On a full frame it is 50mm. There is a 1.6 conversion factor on all lenses, so your 200mm lens is actually a 320mm. The Canon 1D is a full frame.

Some notes about stabilization and such on these new lenses...Anything under 100mm, you don't need stabilization and it reduces weight and cost of the lens. If you use stabilization on anything over 100mm, you need a steady hand, or a tripod.

Check out my pictures of the Pig Roast, they were all taken with the 50D using a 18-55mm and a 70-300mm lens. Contact me by PM and I'll link you up to a place to rent lenses from so you can try them out before you buy. You are right about the lenses being expensive, average price for a good one is $1200.

The 580 EX flash is really a nice unit, I have the 580 EX II.

Nice pictures.

Terry