Beginner 1st time

Antony hayward · 29 Mar 2018

Okay I've never used a camera before which is kind of odd considering I'm 47 but it is what it is I guess. I haven't edited any of these as I don't know how to. I probably should have set the tripod up but I was getting odd looks as it was. So I know that any blurring is down to me not using the tripod but any helpful hints on where I went wrong would be appreciated.

The camera was set to M for all the shoots etc when it was using the Canon Ef Lens

Exposure 1/125
ISO 100
Lens Hanimex 75-300mm - can't remember what it was at

Exposure 1/125 at F8.0
36mm focal Length
ISO 400
Canon EF 28-80MM

exposure 1//125
ISO 100
Lens Hanimex 75-300mm - can't remember what it was at

Jannyfox · 29 Mar 2018

Antony, for anyone to help you you'll need to give all the information about these, for example shutter speed, iso, aperture, what mode the camera was in (auto or one of the other modes), how it was focused etc. Known as exif data (don't ask me what exif stands for). You should be able to get it from you processing software. Or you can get it from the camera. Put the card back in, press the image playback button then I think it's the info button (I'm sitting with a 350D in my hand but no image I can look at - it's different on my workhorse 550D). But that should give you shutter speed, aperture and iso. Are you using the camera in full auto mode, or is the top dial set to something different? And what lens are you using?

Antony hayward · 29 Mar 2018

Jannyfox said:
Antony, for anyone to help you you'll need to give all the information about these, for example shutter speed, iso, aperture, what mode the camera was in (auto or one of the other modes), how it was focused etc.

Thanks I'll add the data to the original post in a little bit.

Jannyfox · 30 Mar 2018

Focusing? Auto focus or manual focus, one focus point or all?
Most of these are underexposed so I'm guessing the light was poor. I would wait for some decent light (doesn't have to be sunny) so you can then up your shutter speed. That'll give you more chance of eliminating hand holding induced camera shake as a cause of blurring. Then pick a subject (a door or a fence post will do if nothing else grabs you). You just need something specific to focus on. Autofocus is fine but use just the centre focus point. If you use all of them (can't remember how many points the 350D has as I only use mine for astrophotography) it's generally the one over the part of the frame closest to you that'll grab focus. It's much better to use a single (centre) focus point and for practice make your subject central. You can move on to focus and recompose later. If you're using manual focus (I had to Google the Hanimex lens) just remember modern dSLR viewfinders aren't designed to help. Once you've proved to yourself you can get something that looks sharply focused you can move on to experimenting with the effects of changing shutter speed, iso and aperture (remember it's apperture that defined the depth of field ie how much of the scene front to back is in acceptable focus).
Bit of a ramble but hope you can make some sense of it.

Antony hayward · 30 Mar 2018

Jannyfox said:
Focusing? Auto focus or manual focus, one focus point or all?.

Manual focusing as the Lens was being used with a adaptor ring for it to fit the camera so was unable to auto focus apart from the one shot with the canon EF lens.

Jannyfox said:
Most of these are underexposed so I'm guessing the light was poor.

Yeah, it was a really cloudy overcast day, but the cf cards had finally arrived and I was to eager to go try out the camera

Jannyfox said:
I would wait for some decent light (doesn't have to be sunny) so you can then up your shutter speed. That'll give you more chance of eliminating hand holding induced camera shake as a cause of blurring. Then pick a subject (a door or a fence post will do if nothing else grabs you). You just need something specific to focus on. Autofocus is fine but use just the centre focus point. If you use all of them (can't remember how many points the 350D has as I only use mine for astrophotography) it's generally the one over the part of the frame closest to you that'll grab focus. It's much better to use a single (centre) focus point and for practice make your subject central. You can move on to focus and recompose later. If you're using manual focus (I had to Google the Hanimex lens) just remember modern dSLR viewfinders aren't designed to help. Once you've proved to yourself you can get something that looks sharply focused you can move on to experimenting with the effects of changing shutter speed, iso and aperture (remember it's apperture that defined the depth of field ie how much of the scene front to back is in acceptable focus).
Bit of a ramble but hope you can make some sense of it.

Yeah that all makes total sense and thank you for the advice. its appreciated as the more advice I get the more I can hopefully learn..

realspeed · 30 Mar 2018

Watch out for level horizon, my big mistake every time. So I now have the grid display visible in the view finder. not ever camera has this by the way but a great help.

redsnappa · 30 Mar 2018

Jannyfox said:
just remember modern dSLR viewfinders aren't designed to help.

The Viewfinder in my DSLR camera is designed to help. It displays lots of useful information such as shutter speed, selected aperture, selected iso, exposure compensation, focus points, focus confirmation led and various grid overlays.

Jannyfox · 30 Mar 2018

redsnappa said:
The Viewfinder in my DSLR camera is designed to help. It displays lots of useful information such as shutter speed, selected aperture, selected iso, exposure compensation, focus points, focus confirmation led and various grid overlays.

You missed the point, which was they're not designed to be helpful while manually focusing, not like the old split prism in a 35mm slr................

seaodyssey · 30 Mar 2018

Anthony

I understand you are excited about your new hobby and camera and want to learn how to use it, but to get a good grounding you need to be able to see a nice picture.
I take it the pictures you have posted are just to try the camera out. Too be honest they do nothing for me.
Try and google photos of the area where you live, see what you like about them, then go out and try taking similar photos and compare what you like about them. After that go out and try taking different photos of diferent places that contain what you liked about the other photos. then go out and try to improve those photos, try leaving stuff out of them, get closer, try from another angle, another direction. That way you improve your photos, it may take a while. You can learn about controlling your camera at the same time as above, try different settings to increase of decrease exposure. Try different appatures to play with dof. Post more photos on here to get advice. There are plenty of people willing to help in all aspects of photography.

You do not need to be in manual mode to take a good photo.

I hope you don't take this the wrong way, get out and enjoy your camera and taking photos.

Pete

Antony hayward · 30 Mar 2018

seaodyssey said:
Anthony

I understand you are excited about your new hobby and camera and want to learn how to use it, but to get a good grounding you need to be able to see a nice picture.
I take it the pictures you have posted are just to try the camera out. Too be honest they do nothing for me.
Try and google photos of the area where you live, see what you like about them, then go out and try taking similar photos and compare what you like about them. After that go out and try taking different photos of diferent places that contain what you liked about the other photos. then go out and try to improve those photos, try leaving stuff out of them, get closer, try from another angle, another direction. That way you improve your photos, it may take a while. You can learn about controlling your camera at the same time as above, try different settings to increase of decrease exposure. Try different appatures to play with dof. Post more photos on here to get advice. There are plenty of people willing to help in all aspects of photography.

You do not need to be in manual mode to take a good photo.

I hope you don't take this the wrong way, get out and enjoy your camera and taking photos.

Pete

Yeah, they were mainly taken because all the equipment was bought used from ebay from various sellers and I was trying to make sure that the lenses and the camera actually worked that day was the first day I'd had the Cf Cards to use so I was trying to take pictures at a distance and close up just to check things out. I had planned on taking all the shots with a tripod but I set it up was just leveling it when it decided to start raining... So I put it away and 3 minutes later it stopped... sods law I guess