[craven_]

hi
we have just purchased a secondhand canon eos digital slr and i was wondering if anyone could give me any tips, as i've never used an slr camera before.
thank you

[Evening]

I do photography as a hobby, Im not spectacular, but what sort of tips were you looking for?

[Lostime]

Here are some good videos.

http://www.youtube.com/results?searc...al+Video+&aq=f

[craven_]

well, anything really
just any kind of help or advice you could give to a total beginner

Originally Posted by Evening

I do photography as a hobby, Im not spectacular, but what sort of tips were you looking for?

[craven_]

thank you much appreciated.

Originally Posted by Lostime

Here are some good videos.

http://www.youtube.com/results?searc...al+Video+&aq=f

[Evening]

What sort or camera do you have, i.e. what is the lens type? Do you know the aperture, and the mm? I just bought a new camera, and 2 lenses, one is a 35mm prime lens (a lens that you can't zoom in or out, it's basically fixed), and an 18-55mm lens.

[craven_]

i'll find all this out and get back to you

Originally Posted by Evening

What sort or camera do you have, i.e. what is the lens type? Do you know the aperture, and the mm? I just bought a new camera, and 2 lenses, one is a 35mm prime lens (a lens that you can't zoom in or out, it's basically fixed), and an 18-55mm lens.

[Omers]

Ask away! I am a diehard Canon Chick! Usually right now the "kit" lens is an 18-55 f4.5-6 (But that is off of the top of my very tired head!).
For now you will most likely want to stick to the green box setting (on top by the shutter button) until you get used to which ever lens you have. The green box works out all the technical stuff for you. Once you get more confidence you can move into the settings with the pictures then eventually the letters.

The specific type of canon eos should be on the bottom right as you look at the lens end.
When you hold it like you will for a picture the numbers on the lens, just past the edge of the flash will tell you it is a "prime" if there is one number or if it is one of the forms of telephoto if there are a range of numbers... let us know what these numbers are. then on the far edge of the canon lenses it should have a number like 1:4-5.6 that number will help us too. you should also be able to find those numbers on the front of the lens. If the lens is not a canon let us know what kind it is.
If you want to get different lenses I am pretty sure all the eos cameras have what is called an EF mount. Some will take an EF-S some will not.

Hmmm... not sure if I dumbed things down too much, got too complicated or both

Anyway... I have a T1i and an XSi but have worked with the XT and some others too.

If I have an addiction you just hit on it!

Oh one other BIG help... turn it on... push the menu button there should be a box with a camera in it. It is the first box on mine and it is red but may be different on yours. use the arrow buttons (around the set button by your right hand) to go down to "release shutter without card" and click the "set" button. move down to "disable" and click set. Otherwise it will let you take pictures when there is no memory card and so it isn't recording them!
For saving pictures a lot of people also like it on continuous numbering. From menu click over a couple times and there should be a wrench looking thing. It will say "file numbering" most want that set to continuous. When you do that you don't have to rename your pictures every time you put them on the computer because they will all be stored under different numbers... until you can sort them or what ever.
Depending who you got the camera from some of that stuff may have already been done.

[craven_]

i'm not sure if i'm looking in the right places, but it's a canon eos 450d slr with what i think is a standard lens which says efs 18-55 mm and image stabiliser hoya 58mm uv if any of that makes sense to you

Originally Posted by Evening

What sort or camera do you have, i.e. what is the lens type? Do you know the aperture, and the mm? I just bought a new camera, and 2 lenses, one is a 35mm prime lens (a lens that you can't zoom in or out, it's basically fixed), and an 18-55mm lens.

[craven_]

hi
thanks for all the info, i think you'll be very useful for all my questions
so far we've mostly just been taking pics on auto like you said because we don't understand the rest of the settings.
it's a 450d.
we're a bit confused as to what you mean by this part: "When you hold it like you will for a picture the numbers on the lens, just past the edge of the flash will tell you it is a "prime" if there is one number or if it is one of the forms of telephoto if there are a range of numbers... let us know what these numbers are." not sure if we're being really dumb here sorry the only thing we can see is where it says 18-55 mm.
as for the other numbers, it is a canon lens and the numbers on it are: 1:3.5-5.6 is.
you definitely didn't dumb things down, we're completely new to this and have no clue what we're doing.
one quick question: under menu, where the red camera button is, it says 'red eye on/off'. at the moment, it's set to off. is this right?
thanks so much for all the tips, i'm sure we'll have lots more questions to ask you

Originally Posted by Omers

Ask away! I am a diehard Canon Chick! Usually right now the "kit" lens is an 18-55 f4.5-6 (But that is off of the top of my very tired head!).
For now you will most likely want to stick to the green box setting (on top by the shutter button) until you get used to which ever lens you have. The green box works out all the technical stuff for you. Once you get more confidence you can move into the settings with the pictures then eventually the letters.

The specific type of canon eos should be on the bottom right as you look at the lens end.
When you hold it like you will for a picture the numbers on the lens, just past the edge of the flash will tell you it is a "prime" if there is one number or if it is one of the forms of telephoto if there are a range of numbers... let us know what these numbers are. then on the far edge of the canon lenses it should have a number like 1:4-5.6 that number will help us too. you should also be able to find those numbers on the front of the lens. If the lens is not a canon let us know what kind it is.
If you want to get different lenses I am pretty sure all the eos cameras have what is called an EF mount. Some will take an EF-S some will not.

Hmmm... not sure if I dumbed things down too much, got too complicated or both

Anyway... I have a T1i and an XSi but have worked with the XT and some others too.

If I have an addiction you just hit on it!

Oh one other BIG help... turn it on... push the menu button there should be a box with a camera in it. It is the first box on mine and it is red but may be different on yours. use the arrow buttons (around the set button by your right hand) to go down to "release shutter without card" and click the "set" button. move down to "disable" and click set. Otherwise it will let you take pictures when there is no memory card and so it isn't recording them!
For saving pictures a lot of people also like it on continuous numbering. From menu click over a couple times and there should be a wrench looking thing. It will say "file numbering" most want that set to continuous. When you do that you don't have to rename your pictures every time you put them on the computer because they will all be stored under different numbers... until you can sort them or what ever.
Depending who you got the camera from some of that stuff may have already been done.

[Omers]

Red eye on means the camera will make it so you don't see the inside of the eye (why some peoples eyes look red in some pictures... In animals it can look red or a greenish depending on the animal). So it is up to you if you want it on or off.
450d is the same thing as an XSi just in case you get people that use the other term. GREAT camera, good choice! IMO unless you are going pro it is the best set up for the price right now. The new ones have video but it is really bad and not worth the extra money.
yes, you have what they call the "kit" lens, it is the one that comes with the camera when you buy it (most of the time). 18-55mm is a great starter and all around lens until you figure things out. The "IS" means it has Image Stabilization... so if your hand is a little shaky the lens will fix that for you so your picture doesn't look blurry.

Glad you have a filter. the 58mm on that is the size of the threads on the end of your lens that it screws onto. The UV filter is great and I always keep one on my lenses. Mostly they protect the lens from getting scratched and they do help the picture some.

You might not have understood my question but you answered it right so you know more than you give yourself credit for!

What are you taking pictures of????

[Evening]

Your lens is an 18-55mm lens, though on a digital camera the sensor is smaller so it will be I think around a 33-70mm equivalent (i.e. the photos you take will be cropped to the equivalent to what would be taken if it were a photo taken on a film SLR with a lens of 33-70mm ). And the hoya uv, is that your filter?
Having an 18-55mm lens means it is a rather wide angle lens, which is good for landscape. If you also invested in a lens with a maximum of 200 or 300mm you’d be pretty set for amateur photography (though you’ll still be fine with what you have, you’ll just have to get closer to things to take photos of them).

A good way to learn photography without having to spend money is to go to the library and borrow a heap of books about photography.
It can be a bit technical at first, having to get the different settings right for the photograph you are trying to take (low light, close up, landscape, portraits, critters, etc.)/
You can start by leaving your camera on auto, or if it’s like my camera, you can have full auto, auto focus/manual exposure/aperture, manual focus/manual exposure, etc. Then when you upload photos onto your computer, right click the photo, go into Properties, and it will tell you all the details of the photo, and you can learn what exposures and apertures worked best.

For photos with a very narrow depth of field (very little in focus), you will need a wide aperture (for example f1.8). The wider the aperture, the narrower the depth of field. Different lenses will have different apertures. Remember that the wider the aperture, the more light will be allowed into the lens, and the smaller the aperture, the less light.
Think of it sort of like your eye, when it’s really bright outside, the pupil will become smaller to allow less light in, therefore fixing the ‘exposure’ of what you are seeing so that things aren’t too bright. When it’s darker they widen to allow more light in so that you can see better in the dark.
The exposure is basically how quick the shutter is open for. There is a ‘rule’ that photos slower than 1/60 sec generally need a tripod because taking a photo hand held at that exposure has more chance of being blurry.
So when adjusting the settings manually, you will need to take into account both the shutter speed and the aperture so that photos aren’t over or under exposed.
An example of why it matters. Say you wanted to take a photo of a street, and you wanted everything to be clear, but you wanted the effect of movement by having the cars driving down the street blurry in the photos. To do this you will need a slower shutter speed. But having a slower shutter speed means the picture will be exposed to light for a longer period of time, creating the risk of over exposure. So to fix that you will need to use an aperture that is smaller (e.g. f6) which will allow less light into the lens. There is a difference between the amount of TIME the light is exposed (shutter speed) and HOW MUCH light is exposed (aperture).



This photo was taken with an aperture of f1.8, which is a very wide aperture, and an exposure of 1/500 sec, which is a very quick exposure. It was in the shade, but the aperture was very wide so it wasn’t under exposed with the fast shutter. Being a close up with a very wide aperture, you can see the depth of field is extremely narrow, only the very centre of the flower is in focus.



This photo was taken in sunny conditions, with the same shutter speed of 1/500 sec,, but with an aperture of f5.6
Photos of things that constantly move, like a bee, just keep taking photos. If you take one photo, or 5 photos, chances are they may all be blurry. Set your camera to multi exposure (mine can take up to 3 photos per second, depending on the exposure time), and just hold the button down. Even if you take 30 photos, you have more chance of one of them turning out well. Also, cropping can help quite a lot, this picture was cropped down to less than a quarter of its original size.

If you have a filter, which it sounds like you do, you can use it to add more contrast to brighter conditions (the beach or a lot of sky), it will remove a lot of glare from highly reflective surfaces like water and windows (filters also work well for moving water like waterfalls), and adding a bit of saturation to photos. All this will depend on the type and grade o filter you have

Here’s an example of what a polarising filter can do-



The first picture is a photo taken without the filter, with an aperture of f5.6, an ISO of 400 and an exposure of 1/200 sec.. The second photo is taken with exactly the same settings, the only difference being that it has the filter. You can see more saturated colour, more contrast in the sky, the clouds and the shadows on the grass are more visible. Filters are good for brighter conditions like the beach, sky and flower photography on sunny days, and to create more contrast in landscape photography.

Black and white/sepia photography can’t go wrong either. It takes all the focus away from the colour so the only thing you can focus on is the picture itself, the contrasts and shapes-



When taking photos of specific things like people or objects, try placing them off centre-



It looks a lot better than if they are central in the picture.

You can also try different effects with your camera.
This picture was taken by turning the camera as the photo was being taken on a slower shutter speed of 1/13sec and an aperture of f6-

This photo was taken on a very slow shutter speed of 6.5 seconds and an aperture of f6.4-



And when you take pictures, don’t just stand there and take a picture, try different angles, or try getting down to the subjects level-




Anyway, if you haven’t fallen asleep yet, I hope that all made sense and was at least a little bit helpful.

[Visioneer]

Honestly, read the manual and try everything. Then practice. Don't be afraid to get creative, take pictures of anything and everything.

Using a digital SLR is completely different from a point and shoot, and you'll find so much more freedom to show people EXACTLY what you see - even just being able to manually focus your lenses opens a whole new world.

You're going to have a blast.

[Evening]

Originally Posted by Visioneer

Honestly, read the manual and try everything. Then practice. Don't be afraid to get creative, take pictures of anything and everything.

I don't think craven has a manual because it was bought second hand?

[Lostime]

Originally Posted by Evening

I don't think craven has a manual because it was bought second hand?

It is on the net if he wants a copy.

http://www.k-state.edu/infotech/mdc/rebel%20manual.pdf