Beginner City Ideas

[RandomlySet]

Hi,

Firstly, apologies if this is in the wrong section. I wasn't sure where else to post this.

So, I purchased an EOS 1100D a few weeks back, and need to get more practice in. Me and the Mrs are going to America for a month in November, spending time in NYC, Vegas & then Arizona. We went to NYC a couple of years ago, and I took some "decent" pictures on my point and shoot compact. We was going to have some printed, to canvas, mainly of us. We got a couple of good "selfies" and also a few that others had taken of us.

Anyway, I plan on getting some awesome pictures this year. As we are going over to celebrate both our 30ths (hers at the start of the month, mine at the end), I don't want to spend all my time messing with the camera. Truth be told, I'll probably set it to full auto for most of the pictures, and treat it as simply a point and shoot camera. HOWEVER, I would like to at least try and get some cracking pictures, either in full manual, or aperture priority settings or whatever. I will also be taking several memory cards, one just for saving in RAW.

So, any ideas or tips that I can practice whilst at home in my local town? A friend of mine gets some cracking pictures of London, and I would like similar (I'll post his examples later when I get 5 minutes). I guess my "problem" is feeling daft stood in the middle of Chesterfield with a camera and tripod - whereas in the middle of London (as my mate does), even if you live there, folk will just assume you're a tourist or something and not think twice about what you are doing.

Thanks in advance

Mat

 

[RandomlySet]

Here's some examples of my friends work (Andy Conway if anyone has him on Facebook)

I love this one

This is also very good IMO

 

[st599]

Hi,

For all of those images you're going to need a tripod.

Set the ISO to 100, Aperture to something small, say f/16 and use the self timer. You're looking at keeping the camera still for 15 secs or so.

You can do similar during daylight with a dark glass neutral density filter.

If you're going to shoot at sunset, a bit of software called the Photographer's Ephemeris is useful - shows you direction and times of sunset.

For black and white, you need to reseach how to take a colour image and mimic film.

 

[st599]

PS the self time is to prevent camera shake, you could also use a Chinese remoote release for the 1100D, about 8GBP from Ebay.

 

[ghoti]

The first one that you say you particularly like has had its colours altered significantly in photoshop or similar.

For all of them you'll need a tripod, remote or timed shutter control, a small aperture (for sharpness; it also causes street lights &c to appear as pretty "stars" rather than white blobs), and a reasonably slow shutter speed. You'll likely be unable to avoid the latter shooting at night anyway.

Getting those B&W shots is basically just a case of the above combined with quite a bit of post-production work in a photoshop type program. Local exposure/contrast adjustments, understanding how colours render as tones and how to manipulate that with photoshop or lightroom, etc. You'll be be very disappointed if you use the camera's "black and white" function.

 

[RandomlySet]

The first one was done using a filter.

I didn't want to take a tripod with me if I'm honest, but then again, I should have enough luggage space to accommodate one.

I will be buying a selection of filters next month BTW

I also have full Photoshop, so post-editing wouldn't be an issue.

Small aperture - do you mean small number or small "hole" (big number)?

 

[ghoti]

The first one was done using a filter.

I didn't want to take a tripod with me if I'm honest, but then again, I should have enough luggage space to accommodate one.

I will be buying a selection of filters next month BTW

I also have full Photoshop, so post-editing wouldn't be an issue.

Small aperture - do you mean small number or small "hole" (big number)?

Small hole, big number. Not too small, though, as sharpness starts to suffer above (as a rule of thumb) f/16. Usually somewhere around f/11 is optimal for sharpness.

You will struggle to get close to any of these photos without a tripod.

I don't think the first has been done with a physical filter. If you're buying filters I'd stick to a polariser and maybe a couple of neutral density filters (not for this sort of photography, though). I wouldn't bother about colour filters for a digital camera.

 

[Bmwjc]

If you don't want to carry around a tripod, I have a mate who takes away with him a homemade bag basically filled with rice, about the size of a hankerchief well stitched at one end. He rests it on walls, bins, posts, floors etc. works fine for him. Just shoves it in his day sack and off he goes. It's obviously more limited than a tripod but it has been very handy for him and easier than keep whipping out the tripod or carrying it around. Just a thought.

 

[Tintin124]

If you don't want to carry around a tripod, I have a mate who takes away with him a homemade bag basically filled with rice, about the size of a hankerchief well stitched at one end. He rests it on walls, bins, posts, floors etc. works fine for him. Just shoves it in his day sack and off he goes. It's obviously more limited than a tripod but it has been very handy for him and easier than keep whipping out the tripod or carrying it around. Just a thought.

And you don't need to fill the bag before you leave just buy rice from where you are going, in this case easy to get hold of rice.

 

[Bmwjc]

And you don't need to fill the bag before you leave just buy rice from where you are going, in this case easy to get hold of rice.

Forgot to mention that for flying places he just takes the bag he made with him and buys a 1kg bag of rice pours it into one on those plastic ziplock bags you get from a supermarket and sticks it in. Velcro at one end keeps it in.

 

[mrpdl]

Why not consider other major cities. Liverpool, Manchester or Birmingham all have great architecture old and new. Also have good night life if you fancy it???