Colin

[Graelwyn]

Day 2 with new camera. Decided to ask my friend to sit there and let me take a few shots as he sat opposite me in a bar. It was appalling lighting in there with low light in the interior and light coming in from a window to his left, but done the best I could :)

Colour or mono?

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y141/graelwyn/IMG_0194mono3.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y141/graelwyn/IMG_0194.jpg

[Graelwyn]

Ok, judging by the number of views and lack of replies, I must assume these are utter crap. Lol.

[EdinburghGary]

PAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATIENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

How many times!!!

Anyway, crops are too tight for me, although Mono I feel works better :) A teency bit faster shutter speed, and pop his eyes using the tutorial floating about the forum...

Gary :D

[EdinburghGary]

PS - good natural looking pose.

[Graelwyn]

I don't have patience *sigh* I feel as if I am too rubbish to merit having an slr and only deserve a point and shoot with my lack of ability heh. As to crop, I had no choice. He was sat right opposite me, really close and he wasn't really in the mood to pose etc, so I did what I could with what I had basically. I have another but it isn't as sharp. Besides, over 40 people viewing and not feeling inclined to comment is a sure sign the shot is too crap to merit wasting time typing.

[Graelwyn]

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y141/graelwyn/IMG_0199.jpg

The other one.

[EdinburghGary]

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y141/graelwyn/IMG_0199.jpg

The other one.

That to me is 100x better, and an excellent crop :) BUT shutter speed is definately too slow I think? Due to camera shake.

Please don't be negative, all us novices can only improve and get better. Enjoy the ride!

Gary.

[EdinburghGary]

I don't have patience *sigh* I feel as if I am too rubbish to merit having an slr and only deserve a point and shoot with my lack of ability heh.

Load of old tosh, your photos are not bad, keep coming here and keep learning - its fun, and seeing an improvment yourself makes it all worth it :)

CHIN UP SOLDIER! :D

Gary.

[Chillimonster]

A lot of people tend to miss threads due to only looking at the front page, and if it drops off there......... well out of sight, out of mind :shrug:

I'm guilt of this during the week when browsing in work :nono:, but tend to have more time to have a proper dig through the forums at the weekend.

Anyway, gotta aggree with Gary, the B&W is best but could do with a loose crop, and maybe a bit of a sharpen. If you got any motion blur in there due to slow shutter speeds, i find that going for the grainy / gritty look helps to disguise it.

Chris

[Graelwyn]

That to me is 100x better, and an excellent crop :) BUT shutter speed is definately too slow I think? Due to camera shake.

Please don't be negative, all us novices can only improve and get better. Enjoy the ride!

Gary.

Eh, it was taken in very tricky lighting as said. Very dimly lit bar. Light from one side. It was a struggle to get him visible at all, to be honest, as I don't have a flashgun, just the camera's inbuilt flash.

[EdinburghGary]

Eh, it was taken in very tricky lighting as said. Very dimly lit bar. Light from one side. It was a struggle to get him visible at all, to be honest, as I don't have a flashgun, just the camera's inbuilt flash.

Try ramping up the ISO a little next time. You could also tell your camera to under expose allowing you to re expose in PP - however, that MIGHT be bad advise. I have one friend who says point blank, NEVER EVER under expose. I do it to increase shutter speed, but only if I know I can easily recover the hidden details from raw.

In short both:

1 Higher ISO
2 Exposure Compensate downwards

Should result in faster shutter speeds, and sharper images.

I think.

Any pro's? :help::shrug:

[Graelwyn]

I don't think the 40D is very good in low light...and no nikon comments, lol. Have no idea if this machine is capable of taking anything usable in low light without a good flashgun, unlike the d300.

[EdinburghGary]

I don't think the 40D is very good in low light...and no nikon comments, lol. Have no idea if this machine is capable of taking anything usable in low light without a good flashgun, unlike the d300.

Only one way to find out ;)

Download Noiseware Community Edition to remove ISO noise as much as possible, if you are worrying about it.

If you use the popup flash, and then arse about in PP, you should have nice sharp images, and with the PP, a nice natural (as much as flash allows) light?

Gary.

[Graelwyn]

I am so new to the pp stuff. Before, I only ever really messed with contrast and sharpness. Elements is a whole new game, as will cs3(which I got for free ;) ) be once I have a pc to run it on (don't want to overload my laptop) All the cloning, layers etc... I am clueless on. I always like to get good shots straight out of the camera. Isn't happening yet with this canon. I shall see...

[AliB]

Just found this one so I'm going to reply :)

Now I've read a fair few of your posts and I realise that you consider yourself one of the half empty club but the only one who is going to come up with some good pics is YOU! And this one is not half bad. Composition is actually OK (especially considering the range you were at) So that's the main part done, get that right and you are definately going in the right direction so you don't need to be looking at a point and shoot OK?

Now for the techie bit. I've had my camera for over a year now and I'm still learning, you have had yours, oh..... lets see..... all of two days! I'll tell you a secret.... I would never have posted what came out of mine for about a month!! So please don't despair.

Where was I? Ah yes techie stuff. I've had a look at the Exif and Gary is spot on. You are shooting at f4 in low light at 70mm. I have to tell myself this all the time... shutter speed/focal length rule of thumb? 70mm= 1/70 sec. You have shot at 1/15 so it's always going to be a little shaky unless you have locks on your elbows, wrists and fingers! So in order to get the shutter speed up a little, up with the ISO!

The fact that you have got it as sharp as you did at 1/15? That's a positive!

Take your time and just keep going. I'm two years into my digital journey and have been snappin' for more than 20, (Lord, that makes me feel really old!) and constantly striving to take better pics, it never really ends, so get used to the ride would be my advice. Hope it helps. :)

[Flashman]

I can't add much to the excellent advice the others have already offered but perhaps, as your shutter speeds on both shots are only 1/10 and 1/15, a monopod might help reduce some of that shake? They can be quite discrete and practical to use in situations like that.

Flashy

[Graelwyn]

Just found this one so I'm going to reply :)

Now I've read a fair few of your posts and I realise that you consider yourself one of the half empty club but the only one who is going to come up with some good pics is YOU! And this one is not half bad. Composition is actually OK (especially considering the range you were at) So that's the main part done, get that right and you are definately going in the right direction so you don't need to be looking at a point and shoot OK?

Now for the techie bit. I've had my camera for over a year now and I'm still learning, you have had yours, oh..... lets see..... all of two days! I'll tell you a secret.... I would never have posted what came out of mine for about a month!! So please don't despair.

Where was I? Ah yes techie stuff. I've had a look at the Exif and Gary is spot on. You are shooting at f4 in low light at 70mm. I have to tell myself this all the time... shutter speed/focal length rule of thumb? 70mm= 1/70 sec. You have shot at 1/15 so it's always going to be a little shaky unless you have locks on your elbows, wrists and fingers! So in order to get the shutter speed up a little, up with the ISO!

The fact that you have got it as sharp as you did at 1/15? That's a positive!

Take your time and just keep going. I'm two years into my digital journey and have been snappin' for more than 20, (Lord, that makes me feel really old!) and constantly striving to take better pics, it never really ends, so get used to the ride would be my advice. Hope it helps. :)

Thanks. To be honest, I am a perfectionist...very critical of myself.
I don't know why I am expecting so much, as if I am totally honest, I have used digital for a grand total of about 3 months. And in the 8 years since I first picked up a film slr, I have only spent about 2-3 of them shooting on a regular basis... 2 of them for my A Level. Added to that, I have only now started working manual and setting everything myself, so it is 100% new to me. In film, I usually worked in aperture priority, and on the d200, I experimented a bit with setting some things, but overall, I am only now learning how to do all the other stuff... just makes me feels like a bit of a dimwit when I don't achieve good results quickly, lol.

Learning what settings for what situation...the combinations and how they work together, is proving quite difficult in one go.

[fletch5]

the 40d copes well with lowlight from what i seen, there photos on here at iso 1200 without much noise!!

i feared the higher isos through the noise problems ive heard of, dont worry, iso 800 is fine. and you did well to get such little movement at 1/10th second and 60mm length.

try uping the iso, and increasing the shutter speed, also lower the f stop if you can as well(let you increase the shutter speed more). would improve image greatly

[Janice]

Yes, you must learn to be less critical of yourself when maybe its just things that you dont know are the problem. Its not your bad ability if you just DONT KNOW something.

What struck me when i first looked was perfectly ok pic with camera shake.

Just get that speed up to about 1/the focal length and you will have much better results.

Any else wrong........come to us lot, we will sort you out!! :thumbs:

[AliB]

Learning what settings for what situation...the combinations and how they work together, is proving quite difficult in one go.

Which is exactly why it takes time. My Dad used to have loads of really irritating sayings when I was a nipper, one being that you can only gain a years experience in a year. It's true though, why not try just using some more familiar settings, like aperture priority and then introduce colour temp, ISO and shutter speeds one at a time. It might give you a better appreciation of what they do.

BTW:amstupid: I've forgotten to up the ISO on more than one occasion I blame coming from film!

[sawman]

I too have just found this.

I agree with the others about the techie stuff but I would say you have an eye for a shot & no matter how good you get with a camera if you dont have an eye then you will never get a good un.
Take the advice offered. I did from that photographic bully Janice!!. I actually struggled with the change from film to digital but feel I am getting somewhere now. With a bit of time & TLC from the experts on here you will soon get the hang of it.