DSLR - All the gear but no idea!!! :(

[Yeti_Man]

Hi guys,

Simple question really; how did you all learn to use your DSLR's properly?

Over the last 12 months Ive built up a good collection of kit but more times than not I get equally good photos (or even sharper!) from my Canon Powershot G9 compact!

My kit bag comprises of:

Canon 40D

10-20mm Sigma lens

17-85mm Canon USM IS lens

70-300 Canon USM IS lens

430EX II Speedlite external flash

Battery grip

Verba Tripod

Im presuming the kit itself is good solid kit as I spent a long time reading the 'expert' reviews before purchasing the components and even playing with the camera itself before purchase....

... so how comes I can get better/quicker results from a £300 compact! :(

Sadly enough, my new years resolution is to improve on my hobby - one that I really enjoy doing but am usually not totally happy with the results of. :(

Any help or advice would be much appreciated,

Lee

Edited 9 January, 2009 by FocusZtec

[Mort]

Practice, perhaps a short evening course?

Best bet would be to find someone with the knowledge and have some tutoring. Once you get some of the theory down you can experiment with settings whist knowing what they do and you'll be able to translate what you want in to what you get. Aside from that it's your own personal creative flair and experience that makes a good photo.

If you're a total newbie then have a google search for Aperture, Shutter Speed, ISO and Depth of Field (should be mentioned in Aperture). Once you understand how changing any of the first three affects the others you'll start to be able to experiment.

Good luck with it. It's fun when you get into it

[Allams Skoda]

Can you give us an example of why you think you have no idea?

What photos have you taken that you have been unhappy with?

[ap0gee1978]

As well as practice, I'd recommend getting used to the fact that probably less than 1% of your shots will actually come out how you want. Take loads of shots, varying depth of field, exposure etc. etc. from shot to shot, and the Law of Averages will kick in (mostly). This is why professional photographers would take about 10 shots at a time - more obvious in the click-click-click days of celluloid...

For instance, this album of our honeymoon photos:

Chris + Emma's Honeymoon - Shared photo album - Photobox

...contains the only pictures I'm happy to show anyone out of the 4GB-worth of shots I took. And if I'm honest, probably only a handful of them are actually what I'd call 'good'. So that's a success rate of somewhere in the region of 0.2%!

[Yeti_Man]

As well as practice, I'd recommend getting used to the fact that probably less than 1% of your shots will actually come out how you want. Take loads of shots, varying depth of field, exposure etc. etc. from shot to shot, and the Law of Averages will kick in (mostly). This is why professional photographers would take about 10 shots at a time - more obvious in the click-click-click days of celluloid...

For instance, this album of our honeymoon photos:

Chris + Emma's Honeymoon - Shared photo album - Photobox

...contains the only pictures I'm happy to show anyone out of the 4GB-worth of shots I took. And if I'm honest, probably only a handful of them are actually what I'd call 'good'. So that's a success rate of somewhere in the region of 0.2%!

Ahhhhhhh!! Now that sounds exactly what Im having to do. For every 10 - 20 photos I take, I'll think one is good!

I take the same shot (10 times!!) but varying the camera settings between the TV and AV modes (depth of field based settings I think?), auto and program etc Hopeing one will be right!

Most common failures are images just lack sharpness and images are either over or under exposed (but I have yet to experiment with the external flash).

Great advice though from the above posters - I think I need to understand the terms and what they equate to. My hope is that I could then see something I want to shoot; choose the right lens and then in program mode, have the knowledge to set the correct WB, ISO, apature, shutter speed etc.

Just simply putting the 40D in auto mode gives very unsatisfactory results compared to my compact in auto mode but I guess that could be expected.

Lee

[ap0gee1978]

TV varies the exposure time, and so will influence whether the shot is under- or over-exposed. AV varies the aperture, which is what affects the depth of field. The trick is that a smaller aperture widens the depth-of-field, but generally requires a longer exposure time to increase the amount of light that hits the film / CCD. ISO mimics different film speeds, but TBH, I don't know what effect it has on a DSLR. Likewise, the white balance allows you to compensate for different kinds of light (sunny, cloudy, indoors) a bit like filters on an old-skool camera.

But that's about the limit of my experience! There's plenty on here and the internetz in general (and probably your camera's manual! ), so just have a root around!!!

HTH

[Mort]

The wider your aperture (lower the f number) the more light you are letting in, so the shorter time you need to expose. The higher the ISO the more sensitive the sensor so the less time you need (though sensitivity comes as a tradeoff against increased noise in the image).

So if you want a large 'depth of field' then you need a narrower aperture (higher f number) - this will then increase exposure time (less light) so you need to compensate (unless it's very bright) by increasing ISO if you want a properly exposed shot.

As for sharpness you need to experiment with the Auto Focus modes - Evaluative, Spot etc. This will depend on what you're shooting and how you're shooting it though.

When I do stage stuff I (usually) leave it in Av, keep the widest aperture the lens has and knock the ISO up (keeping it as low as possible to avoid noise) until I have an exposure time that is fast enough to hide any motion blur as there is usually terrible lighting. For focus I keep it on centre-weighted or spot (as I want to expose the face, not the background) and I limit the camera to the centre auto focus spot (two reasons; it's more sensitive on my lens and generally my subject is in centre frame).

But shooting outdoors in the sun requires very different settings (low ISO, narrower aperture, high shutter speeds).

So if you can say what you're shooting and why they're not good enough (some examples would be good) then I'm sure people can give more specific advice?

Edit: unsharp images will be either:

a) bad quality lens (need to blow your savings) (probably not your issue here though)

incorrect focus / shallow depth of field (need to aim better / change to smaller aperture)

c) camera shake / motion blur (need to shorten exposure time)

Edited 9 January, 2009 by Mort

[Allams Skoda]

Couldn't agree more with the take as many photos as possible option.

I went to a meet on Sunday and took 283 photos and only 49 where good enough. I was also using a 40D on Sunday and I found it a very nice camera to use but I found the auto mode pretty useless I just kept it in manual mode and adjusted as I went along, also found it very good at taking photos at high ISO. The autofocus was quite annoying when it was on it's inteligent mode as it never seemed to pick out the right thing.

[MoggyTech]

One thing to watch out for is the camera will have an 'image quality' setting. This sometimes defaults to minimum quality after you change/charge the batteries.

I get this on my Finepix S7000. It reverts to one megapixel after battery charge, and I need to reset it to six megapixel using the options menu.

Just a thought.

[ap0gee1978]

One thing to watch out for is the camera will have an 'image quality' setting. This sometimes defaults to minimum quality after you change/charge the batteries.

I get this on my Finepix S7000. It reverts to one megapixel after battery charge, and I need to reset it to six megapixel using the options menu.

Just a thought.

Or, as happened to me, you start to notice distortion at 'superfine' so switch to 'fine' and then one day, this happens:

:eek:

[MoggyTech]

I'm not sure what I am looking at in the above image, but I suspect my medication needs adjusted

[ap0gee1978]

I'm not sure what I am looking at in the above image, but I suspect my medication needs adjusted

It's the dash of my car, interpreted through the medium of a FUBAR charge-coupled device! Still, fixed for free with no grumbles, so hooray for Canon!

[MoggyTech]

Thank God for that .

I used to service CCTV equipment for the banks, and used to see that sort of fault when the CCD or Process PCB went belly up.

Why not print the picture, sign it as Andy Warhol and make a fortune.

[GAFF]

Canon 40D

17-85mm Canon USM IS lens

70-300 Canon USM IS lens

This is kit that I have, after issues with Sharpness Canon took mine back and found the focus needed adjusting. Does seem better although haven't used it too much since.

[Sonic_Vrs]

Also - dotn forget that the 40D is a semi-professional camera. It is hard to use correctly and get the most out f it. One the appeals tbh as you will learn to love it.

I have a 30D and as you've said - auto mode is bad. Not nearly auto enough for a starter.

The beauty of DSLR is huge memory cards. 4Gb + and you can take hundreds of photos whilst learning.

Also - look at my sig Whf — Whf protection is our passion. Its a charity, and runs on things like photo days. If you ring and say you are a novice wanting to know more they'll book you in, take you round the linons, tigers etc and give you instruction on the way round. They aren't cheap but a great day out...

There are also lots of help forums on net - Photos of the Year - Digital Photography Services for all Photographers

And loads of books. This depends on what you like photographing...

PM Me if you want more info on anything as I am a novice still, but gaining experience after 2 years of dabbling...

[slider]

some tuition might be a good idea. SWIMBO is about to start a 10 wk "night class" run by teh local college and I have also seen gallery's offering this service.

[Yeti_Man]

Thanks very much to all the contributors of this thread. Some great advice (and encouragement!)

I think I'll try to swat up on the terms and their meanings more, put it into practice and then try to get onto some sort of course. I really enjoy the hobby but I guess I just get disheartened when I see others getting consistently good results hence my post.

Many thanks again,

Lee

[steve75]

Buy the book Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson It'll help you get out of green box mode and start using full manual and AV/TV modes.

This book helped me heaps when i started. Also join up at photography-on-the.net forums, and do plenty of reading in the 'Sharing Knowhow' section and post up some photos to get some feedback as that will help you improve no end.

[Yeti_Man]

Buy the book Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson It'll help you get out of green box mode and start using full manual and AV/TV modes.

This book helped me heaps when i started. Also join up at photography-on-the.net forums, and do plenty of reading in the 'Sharing Knowhow' section and post up some photos to get some feedback as that will help you improve no end.

Ahh, now that looks very good...

...now ordered!

Thanks,

Lee

[GAFF]

This is good and shows the differences with different settings

Enjoy! Digital SLR camera