Canon 400D?

gimp is very very powerful, but (I find anyway) a little non-intuitive to use. If you can get to grips with it though.

I would second shooting in Av mode, also I would suggest using Automatic Focus, unless you eyesight is perfect.
With the 18-55 kit lens, I would not recommend having it at f/5.6 or lower. It gets a little soft there (I find).
Also, with my 400d, before I updated to the latest firmware, I was really, really, unhappy with ISO 400 or higher. There was so much noise, it made things look a little soft.
 
coldpenguin said:
Also, with my 400d, before I updated to the latest firmware, I was really, really, unhappy with ISO 400 or higher. There was so much noise, it made things look a little soft.
Click to expand...

Can I check which is the latest? I've got ver 1.1.1 - is this the newest one? :shrug:

Personally I've found that ISO 400 is the absolute limit on my 400D - anything higher than that and it gets way too noisy.

As another aside, I've found that AF (on both the nifty fifty and the 18-55 IS newer kit lens) gets distracted really easily and hunts a lot (even when the light's good), so I usually switch to MF... is there a 'best' setting for this ie centre-weighted?
 
I think mine is 1.1.1, yes.
With my 50mm, it seems OK to lock. I don't use that one with AI servo, only AI Focus and single. With the 100-400 I find it sometimes goes for a wander, with the 70-300 it is generally happy apart from when I have it on an extender. Generally I have my camera set to a single focus point.
 
so if Im shooting a person say in front of a brick wall or trees are these set ups any good...

<P>
ISO 400
Standard
Sharpness + 3 or 4
And some sort of high F number?

or

<Av>
ISO 400
Standard
Sharpness +3/4
F number?? Hight/Low?

I just don't know!

Manual or AutoFocus?

Because I find with autofocus, it doesnt ever seem to focus on the face where I want it too. AND ITS NEVER SHARP lol is this coz of the lenses I have?

:(:shake::shrug::shrug:
 
I was too lazy to read through all the other posts so will probably re-iterate other advice to a degree, but here are my thoughts for what they're worth..

Having looked at your images on Flikr you seem to have absolutely no problem with composition; the ones I looked at were all very good.

While manual focus can feel more creative, there's usually no reason to use it over autofocus; which will be, for 99% of the time, faster and more accurate.
As others have said set the camera to use the single centre AF point, focus by placing it over the desired area of focus, holding the shutter button halfway to lock it, recompose and shoot.

Lack of sharpness is most likely due to your lenses, which are - no offense intended - pretty cheap and nasty. The 400D should have no problem resolving good detail as long as the lens is up to it.
If you've got the time and botheration to test the lenses you can set the camera up on a tripod, focus on something detailed (like text) and shoot with the timer or a remote. This will remove any human error you may be introducing through camera shake etc. You may also want to google how to test the A/F accuracy of your setup.

You're lacking background blur at large apertures because none of your lenses can really provide a decent aperture size - f/3.5 is pretty slow. As an example, a 50/1.8 wide open will give you more than 3 times the background blur of your 18-55 at 50mm and its largest aperture (f/5.6). The 50/1.8 is an excellent value lens to work with and I'd certainly recommend one; it is significantly faster and sharper than anything you have at the moment.

As you mention yourself you need to learn more about the technical side of photography (the relationship between aperture, shutter speed and ISO, the effect of aperture size and subject/background on depth of field etc), which is explained countless times on the interweb - google is your friend..

Post processing can do an enormous amount for an image (even if it's just adjustment of contrast, saturation and colour balance), so it's worth trying to get to grips with a decent image editing package (photoshop, gimp, picasa etc).

Finally, don't worry about shooting your mate - I assume you're doing it for nowt so they won't be getting poor value for money if you cock it up :p
It's all good practice for you and you're probably far more critical of your own images than they will be, so they'll probably like them even if you don't :)
 
Are you getting multiple points of focus in the viewfinder, Kira? If so, you may need to change the autofocus mode so that it discounts the outer points and focuses only on the single point at the centre of the viewfinder.

Aperture setting will depend on what depth of field you want - low (wide) aperture if you want the background blurred, high (narrow) aperture if you want it all in focus.

ISO will depend on how much ambient light there is - my understanding (albeit as a complete DSLR n00b) was that 100 or 200 is the "standard" setting as a rule of thumb.
 
I'd say if the light's OK, use ISO 100 or 200, 400 can be slightly noisy - I'd only use ISO 400 if the light is starting to go.

If AF is hunting a lot and having trouble locking, then you could switch to MF... I think ColdPenguin's advice of setting the camera to a single focus point would be also be useful.

I tend to favour a mid-range F-stop (8-11), if the subject is against a wall then there's not much of a depth to your scene. I'm favouring DoF shots recently, so I'd take a range of shots right down the scale and see how that effects the background etc. The higher the f-stop, the less light is being let in to the lens, meaning that to keep your shutter speed above 1/60sec you'd need to go to a higher ISO... putting your f-stops lower down the range frees up your ISO. I'm pretty sure that I've read on this forum that lenses tend to perform best at their mid-range of f-stops, and might not perform quite as well at either extreme end of the scale. I'm sure someone will put me right either way.

I tend to use Av mode, letting the camera handle the shutter speed and still giving me control over DoF and ISO.

The fun in this is experimenting, once you've got shots you like, you can refer to the exif information and see what's working for you.

As I've posted before, I'm a noob, so there are much more capable folk out there... I'm still experimenting with my camera to see what works.
 
kira said:
<Av>
ISO 400
Standard
Sharpness +3/4
F number?? Hight/Low?
Click to expand...
I prefer those settings, set the f to be f8, point at your subject, and then see what the shutter speed is, I think you want it to be 1/100 or faster, for a good test. If you can, try ISO 200

kira said:
Because I find with autofocus, it doesnt ever seem to focus on the face where I want it too. AND ITS NEVER SHARP lol is this coz of the lenses I have?
Click to expand...

I don't mean to be rude, but, have you worked out how to change focus points? As someone else said, you have a good eye for composition. I assume that you are holding the camera in portrait mode such that the shutter button is at the top? Press the button on the rear that is the magnifying glass with a + in it. Then use the scroll wheel such that only the rightmost box is selected (this will be the top box in portrait mode).
Then try the shot. I find this more accurate than re-composing, especially if you are at a low depth of field (low f/x). Also, I would remove any filter that you might have on the front of the lens. For this test at least.
Try selecting RAW+JPEG for a test. And have a quick go at Digital Photo Professional. If you do not object, change your profile to allow edits, and upload one of the raw files somewhere, then we can see if there is some post-processing which might make things sharper? (I usually add +3, and shoot on neutral, for some reason it seems different to using standard, which should be neutral+3)
 
i think your shots are fine, but im also quite new to this so... one thing i do know is that when i use my tamron lens that i got with the camera, however you manually focus it can come out a bit wrong , so when using that lens i always try to use auto
 
coldpenguin said:
I don't mean to be rude, but, have you worked out how to change focus points? As someone else said, you have a good eye for composition. I assume that you are holding the camera in portrait mode such that the shutter button is at the top? Press the button on the rear that is the magnifying glass with a + in it. Then use the scroll wheel such that only the rightmost box is selected (this will be the top box in portrait mode).
Click to expand...

Thankyou for that... I'm such a noob! :bonk:

Awesome, I've been getting frustrated by the AF on the 400D myself. My previous SLR off of the olden days was a Minolta XG-M with split-prism focusing, call me old-fashioned, but I still find it an easier way of doing things, don't know why you don't get split prism with DSLRs? Much easier to focus that way, no? :shrug:
 
coldpenguin said:
I don't mean to be rude, but, have you worked out how to change focus points?
Click to expand...

Hey
Yeah I do know how to change the focus point, I didn't actually do that in my photos of the girls but I did use it on the ones with the flowers.

I find that even with the autofocus (even just in one spot) composing and then moving the camera can still blur the image.

It's all the shutter speads and apature settings and what goes well together in what surroundings that I'm just struggling to get to grips with.
 
kira said:
Hey
Yeah I do know how to change the focus point, I didn't actually do that in my photos of the girls but I did use it on the ones with the flowers.

I find that even with the autofocus (even just in one spot) composing and then moving the camera can still blur the image.
Click to expand...

I think you should give it another shot. The reason why I asked whether you were holding your breath in image 5466, is that it looks to me like you moved forwards around 6" after focusing and before taking the shot.

I cannot be sure, but after a quick search, I think that the XXD cameras support pentaprisms, and have replaceable focus plates.

If the shutters and apertures are causing issues, then I reckon leave the camera in Av mode, set to f/8. After a while, I think you will get the hang of the shutter speeds you want.
As far as surroundings (and models) go, you are doing a lotter better than I can.
 
Lol, thanks for the help everyone. I've been watching some tutorials and like I keep saying, I guess I just need to read and practice! Plus in all honesty probably get better lenses. I just can't afford too now, and annoyingly enough, sounds like I just waisted money on the 2 lenses I have. I just didn't know enough about them and thought that they would been good because they were zoom.
 
kira said:
Lol, thanks for the help everyone. I've been watching some tutorials and like I keep saying, I guess I just need to read and practice! Plus in all honesty probably get better lenses. I just can't afford too now, and annoyingly enough, sounds like I just waisted money on the 2 lenses I have. I just didn't know enough about them and thought that they would been good because they were zoom.
Click to expand...

No you haven't wasted any money.
Learn to make the most out of what you have.
And more importantly, ENJOY IT!!

(Worry about better glass later ;) )
 
If you can afford it, there is a relatively cheap lens, the 50mm f/1.8
This would be perfect for you for your portrait shots I think. It gets to be sharp at around f/2.2 on average from what people say. This can be got for around £60-80 (try sending a PM to kerso for a price). If you are at that small an aperture though, you will have to be very careful not to move after focusing.

Good luck, and enjoy it. The pictures you have taken are very good. And if you hadn't said they were not sharp, would have passed my first inspection.
 
You don't have 'allow edit images' in your profile, so I will delete this image if you give the word.
This is a screenshot of one of your images, set up as a before and after comparison using the Digital Photo Proffesional software which came with your camera. There have been many comments made about the over-enthusiastic anti-aliasing filter in the 400d, if you use the DPP software, you can counter-act many of the effects.
I think you would be happier with the image to the right?

 
coldpenguin said:
You don't have 'allow edit images' in your profile, so I will delete this image if you give the word.
This is a screenshot of one of your images, set up as a before and after comparison using the Digital Photo Proffesional software which came with your camera. There have been many comments made about the over-enthusiastic anti-aliasing filter in the 400d, if you use the DPP software, you can counter-act many of the effects.
I think you would be happier with the image to the right?

Click to expand...

whats the DPP software? lol just found it...it's very good!
 
also the OP sounds just like me 1year ago, myadvice is read the manual then do it again! and then read a book called Understanding Exposure by some guy called brian....
 
jackbauer said:
whats the DPP software?
Click to expand...

Digital Photo Professional.
It comes FREE on the CD with your Canon Camera (with a license code)

Updates can be downloaded from the Canon website, but they require you to have installed a licensed copy of the program first.
 
jackbauer said:
also the OP sounds just like me 1year ago, myadvice is read the manual then do it again! and then read a book called Understanding Exposure by some guy called brian....
Click to expand...

Oh and one more thing even if it maybe frustraiting use the Manual mode as much as possible. also a tripod might help too even if it is a cheap £19.99 from maplins.
 
coldpenguin said:
You don't have 'allow edit images' in your profile, so I will delete this image if you give the word.
Click to expand...

I will have to put DPP on my laptop then, I don't remember even using it before!

coldpenguin - I didn't want my pics edited but, I see what you mean about the sharpness of the second image which is what I was aiming for so thanks for showing me!

The friend who asked me to take some shots of him has now made me panic! He actually wants to use them for work related reasons - for clients to see. (No preasure then!!) I said, look, I'm really not that good mate but he just said don't worry im sure they'll be fine and he'd appreciate it if I just tried. So I guess it's good practice anyways. But I really gotta try and do some good ones now and I'm a weeee bit nervous!!
:exit:
 
I have deleted the image from the system. Once the page is refreshed it will disappear.
Good luck with your photo-shoot
 
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