I just received my first SLR camera and lenses (total paid for camera, extra lens and 16gb card was only about $630.

Camera:
Telephoto lens:

This is my first foray into anything more than a high-end point and shoot (which I basically kept on automatic most of the time and was recently stolen).

Any quick and easy suggestions for taking my first photos of my car?

Thanks for helping a newbie both to photography and to Jaguar ownership.

Darin

 

That's good starting gear you've got there. What do you like to shoot?

You should read Bryan Petersen's "Understanding Exposure", as it's a really good primer on the exposure triangle that really allows you to take creative control of your shots.

 

Mostly my kids and such. Will be going to a swim meet tomorrow so I'm hoping the telephoto lens will give me much better shots than I've had in the past. I imagine I will figure out what I like to shoot as I play with my new camera more and more. Seriously, I've only taken a dozen or less photos with a SLR camera in my life. I'm starting at ground zero.

Thanks for the input.

Darin

 

OK, well, the key to photography is in understanding how to get the right amount of light onto the memory card. Too much light, and the image is over-bright, blacks are washed-out and you lose detail in bright areas, which come out as solid white. Too little light, and you lose detail in shadow areas, and whites go grey.

To get light onto the memory card you need to remember the following formula:

(Shutter Speed) / (Aperture) * ISO = Exposure.

ISO basically acts like gain on an amplifier. It makes the sensor more sensitive, but sometimes this can cause a pixel to register something that isn't there. This shows up on your image as noise. Experiment with different ISO settings to work out what you view as being an acceptable amount of noise in an image.

The "Shutter Speed divided by Aperture" calculation is doubly confusing, since both are actually dealing in fractions.

Aperture is described as, for example, F/4. The "F" here is "focal length". But what it means is that as you crank the aperture numbers UP, the size of the aperture is decreasing. This comes back to help if you think of the aperture in the following way: The higher the F number, more of the shot will be in focus, but the longer it will take to shoot.

Shutter speed is also a misnomer, and you'll note on your mode dial that it's not denoted with an 'S' for speed, but with a 'T' for time. Literally, the amount of time the shutter is open. The number shown in the display is also "one-over". So if it shows "500", the shot length is one-fivehundreth, or 0.002s. (Note: with a dSLR you can shoot for more than one second. These values are shown with a " character next to them).

Two more points: When shooting people, never shoot longer than 1/80th of a second. People always move. Sometimes you can get away with 1/60th, but any slower than that and you're in trouble.

When you're hand-holding the camera, try to keep shutter speed at 1/FL, so 1/250 for your 55-250 when it's zoomed in.

Now, with the theory out of the way, you'll probably want some tips for your swim meet. I'd probably go in with the 55-250 mounted, with an ISO at around 800. Set the camera in Av mode, and set the aperture to F/5.6. Look at what shutter speed the camera picks when you point it at the pool and half-press the shutter button. You should be aiming for a shutter speed of around 1/250th to freeze the motion in the pool.

Don't try to use flash: The built-in flash isn't powerful enough to make a difference, and it slows the shutter speed to 1/200.

Good luck, and keep practicing. Remember that the camera records the settings of every shot you take in the shot, so you can look back and review those settings later, and see if you may have done something differently. Taking a brand new dSLR to something like a swim meet is a challenge, so don't expect to get more than 10% of your shots as "keepers".

 

practice, practice, practice...and try to understand why one image is better than another you took. Don't leave it up to luck and the camera doing most of the work. Know where to focus, how much depth of field you're getting, and where the camera is measuring for correct exposure. a proper exposure is the trickiest part of photography.

 

My photos came out fairly decent at the swim meet. As I basically had little idea what I was doing, I simply set the camera ISO and let it do the rest. Overall, the shots are fine for viewing on the computer and I'm just happy I was able to get some pictures. I was at the University of Tennessee aquatic center so my kids were pretty far away and required the 250mm lens for most of my shots. Even though far from being great shots, they are still better than what I would have been able to get with my old camera. Also, it was nice that I was able to get some decent video simply by switching the dial.

With tonight being Halloween, I'm interested to see how I do. What I really need is a day of just messing with it and trying to figure out all the settings. Hopefully I'll be able to continue to read up and practice. I'm really liking this new hobby.

 

Darin,

I've only recently made a similar move to you.

I had a twelve year old Olympus and, looking at the available options from Canon and Nikon, went with the D5100 kit.

The manufacturer's User Manual wasn't a great help in getting to grips with all the options and settings. Most of the photography books in the library were way beyond my understanding or needs in taking the first steps with a proper camera.

Although not a huge fan of the Dummies series, I purchased their book for my Nikon and spent a weekend getting to know the camera and accessories. (they also do one for the Canon Rebel T3i)

Now I know what all the buttons are for, all I need to do is spend a few years learning how to take photographs anywhere near the standards of Giles and Matt! (check the links below their signatures)

Graham

 

dsmith, i am going to go against the grain here. I am a big fan of shooting in ISO 100. I feel that this makes my pictures a little sharper and the colors seem to be a bit more refined and deeper. The only time that I move up the ISO is when I am shooting indoors and I need the faster shutter speed. Also keep in mind that you have image stabilization on both of your lenses (should have the 18-55 and the 55-250). This allows you to shoot 3 steps of shutter speed slower with it on and get the same clarity. The downside is that it takes the camera a moment longer to take the picture. so, in the case of the swimming meet, if you are trying to get the launch, you may find that the picture will be taken as they are hitting the water.

If you are doing night shots, I have found you pretty much have to put the camera into full manual mode to get anything worth while. This will take some playing, but once you figure it out, some of the pictures that you can get are simply amazing. I am currently playing with taking pictures of the moon where you can see the individual craters and whatnot (just picked up a 500mm lens).

Another thing that you may want to initially start out with is setting your white balance (WB on the back of the camera body) to AUTO, but as time goes on, look at the lighting and figure out the white balance mode you need to be in. This helps with getting true colors in your pictures. Granted, it can also be used to help accent a sun set by making certain colors more prevalent than they really were.

The best advice that I can tell you is to go out and just play with the camera. Take the same shot 5 times. Do it once with the F stop at 4, then 8, then say 16, then 22, then 32. See how the image looks different. The effects of F-stop are really only noticeable on close up pictures (say within 6 feet or so). Beyond that, F-stop really has no effect other than slowing down your shutter speed (which can be neat to play with if you want a blurred person in your pic).

Wish you were closer to me. i would take you out and show you what I know. I am still learning and I push the limits of what most say can be done with a camera. But, that is me. Some of my pictures come out really neat, some, well, lets just say I learn a lot from them.

 

So, are you just setting the ISO speed and letting the camera figure out the rest? I think that is the "P" setting on my Canon.

Darin

 

dsmith, for the most part, yes. I use the lens to frame the picture I want then I press the shutter. Normally I will do an initial setting of the camera based on conditions (ie, inside picture taking, outside sunny, outside cloudy, night time, etc), but from there, I let the camera determine the shutter speed (except for night time shooting, then I take multiple pictures of the same thing with shutter speeds I select). The camera is automatically adjusting the F-stop setting based on the amount of zoom I am using since I am using the lowest number F-stop possible.

IF you want a lot of information to try and digest, check out Canon Digital Photography Forums - Powered by vBulletin. There is a canon section and there is more info there than you can shake a stick at. Lots of professionals there too that are more than willing to answer your questions.

 

On your canon, yes set the ISO to what you have for available light...100 for daylight, maybe 400 for overcast/early evening, and up to 1600 for a dimly lit (think restaraunt lighting) scene, then choose A (aperture mode), select your F-stop as thermo mentioned, and let the camera select the proper shutter speed for the exposure. I like to be at widest aperture possible for most of my work, f2 for portraits or f2.8 for sports, f8.0 for landscapes.

I just helped my cousin purchase a camera and a couple lenses, she's learning everything from a DSLR, and i've sent her several links to 'online' tutorials and reading.

Try these if you like, and when your photography gets compliments, its very enjoyable work.

BTW, if you haven't signed up for that Canon forum thermo linked above, you definitely should! Loads of good information and community.

Canon DSLRs and Lenses 101 - Canon Digital Photography Forums

-=FAQ=- EF LENS FAQ -READ FIRST- Before asking "What Lens?" - Canon Digital Photography Forums

Basics of photography

Basic Photo Tips: Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO - photo.net

Understanding Camera Lenses

 

Once you get the basics down, you might find this website very useful. Car Photography Tutorials - A CHRONOLOGICAL OVERVIEW OF ALL OUR TUTORIALS

when taking pictures of cars, i find that i tend to like pictures with large f-stops (small numbers), where one-part, or the whole of the car is in focus, while the background is more out-of-focus, and simply becomes about color, and simplified forms. i also always shoot in manual, and generally almost always at 200 for the ISO

play around with the f-stops and shutter speeds like suggested, and once you understand that, play around with the metering too. you can set your light meter to where it will recommend an f-stop or shutter speed based on a specific spot, the center of the image, or the entire image in general. using whatever exposure your camera recommends with these different settings can often produce some very different results.

is it safe to assume you know about shooting in RAW format?

 

Darin - all are good advice/recommendation.

For me - when I started out my photo 'bug', one rule that I always hold dear is the rule of third. Rather than trying to explain what it is, here is a real tutorial:

Rule of Thirds

I used to do a lot of paintings, so to me (may not be for everyone) - the most important thing is the composition. Once I get a good composition, I am halfway there. The rest is technique to improve the end-result of the picture. And as far as technique, I learn by self-discovery (read: take lots of pictures with different settings/setups and just find my preferences).

You have a digital gear, which means that you can practice practice and practice until the cows come home, and not having to worry about wasting film etc. So now .... go practice some more ....

Lately I've been using Aperture Priority mode; for auto-bracketed shots, Action mode; for airshow pictures - since my zoom lens is rather slow and fairly old, and Bulb mode; for ultra long exposure shot with remote shutter. My next year's resolution would be car (moving) and star trails photography.