Couple of questions

A

AdamcMWCK

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152
Name
Adam
Edit My Images
No
Hello everyone

I have been playing around with my camera and these editing tools - the DPP Canon one for RAW images is a little over my head to be honest at this point.

I have a question about lenses (tried search but too much data and confuses me). In my kit I have an EFS 18 -55 mm lens and an EF 75 - 300mm, and being the complete novice I have no idea what lens you use for what. I am reading and trying to learn though. What are the main differences between these and what are they better suited for?

I would like to upload a picture I took and then altered for you to comment on (go easy never owned a camera before - unless it has been attached to my phone) but cant seem to see how to do this. Anyone explain how it works please. - DOH got it lol never mind lol.

thanks
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Yes you need to upload to a photo host like Photobucket or Flickr then reference them in you post like this
 
Look in the help section for posting pics. Basically you can import it into your gallery from your hard drive then once it's in the gallery attach it via posting it's URL. I managed it so it's not that hard!
Basically, the numbers you mentioned are called the 'focal length' and the smaller the number the wider the view and vice versa. That's it at it's most basic but I strongly suggest a good read through the basic section. That will answer a lot of questions for you
 
Cheers

I have just registered a flickr account so I can host some on there. I have just got to set it up tomorrow properly for security etc and then I will add the photos and attach them here.

Appreciate the advice about reading lol. So far I've read the EOS hand book, watched the DVD and read the topics on the Cambridge link for beginners. Still very confused tbh, so further reading is on the cards tomorrow.
 
My advice now would be to get out there and play, remember now you;ve got digital (apart from shutter degradation and electricity charging the battery - for you nit pickers!) its free so snap swap, have fun and just see what you like.

Now I'm no expert as many here can confirm, but give the TV and AV modes a go if you're not sure about going manual yet (I'm not sure I am!!).
 
For the moment i would leave the Canon DPP software alone and shoot your images in JPEG format. As you are just starting out you are bound to take loads of photo's, so jpegs will take up less room on your hard drive. There are less options for playing about with jpegs too, so less room needed in your head too!

A few subjects to research which will help a great deal;
- Shutter speed, what happens to a picture with fast and slow shutter speeds. When would you use a fast or slow shutter speeds.
- Aperture , this affects the Depth of Field (DOF). Don't be worried by 'f' numbers. A great way to research DOF is to lay a ruler down and take pictures along it's length changing the aperture settings.
- ISO, ISO started out as a standard of measuring film sensitivity. So research film ISO as digital ISO replicates the same thing in digital form. If you plan to take pictures outside on cloudy days ISO is important to know.

All three of the above things mesh together but understanding them in their own right is key to progressing, learn a little at a time and you will soon get the hang of it.

As for knowing what lens you need for what, there are no set rules. Photography is an art form, and as such you can do what you like. But as a guide your own vision equates to about what a 50mm lens see's. If you go lower, say a 20mm lens then you will get a wider view and things will seem futher away. Say longer, 200mm, you will get a narrow view but things will seem closer. If you like football, watch the photographers on the side of the pitch. They will use long lenses, 400-600mm, to capture action at the other end of the pitch. Then when the action gets close they use another camera with a shorter, 20-50mm, lens on it.

Take a look at flickr and search on focal lengths to see the different things that are captured. As already noted, have a play and see what happens!!
 
Thanks folks. I'm going to read the sir photography guide tomorrow. I've no used camera outside yet. Just pics of the kids and random house objects lol. Enjoying it as I'm a keen learner and love to learn new things.
 
MG TF 135 said:
For the moment i would leave the Canon DPP software alone and shoot your images in JPEG format. As you are just starting out you are bound to take loads of photo's, so jpegs will take up less room on your hard drive. There are less options for playing about with jpegs too, so less room needed in your head too!

A few subjects to research which will help a great deal;
- Shutter speed, what happens to a picture with fast and slow shutter speeds. When would you use a fast or slow shutter speeds.
- Aperture , this affects the Depth of Field (DOF). Don't be worried by 'f' numbers. A great way to research DOF is to lay a ruler down and take pictures along it's length changing the aperture settings.
- ISO, ISO started out as a standard of measuring film sensitivity. So research film ISO as digital ISO replicates the same thing in digital form. If you plan to take pictures outside on cloudy days ISO is important to know.

All three of the above things mesh together but understanding them in their own right is key to progressing, learn a little at a time and you will soon get the hang of it.

As for knowing what lens you need for what, there are no set rules. Photography is an art form, and as such you can do what you like. But as a guide your own vision equates to about what a 50mm lens see's. If you go lower, say a 20mm lens then you will get a wider view and things will seem futher away. Say longer, 200mm, you will get a narrow view but things will seem closer. If you like football, watch the photographers on the side of the pitch. They will use long lenses, 400-600mm, to capture action at the other end of the pitch. Then when the action gets close they use another camera with a shorter, 20-50mm, lens on it.

Take a look at flickr and search on focal lengths to see the different things that are captured. As already noted, have a play and see what happens!!
Click to expand...

Great advice for any novice .....understanding the basics from the get go makes for more fun in the short to medium term...:clap::thumbs:
 
AdamcMWCK said:
I have a question about lenses (tried search but too much data and confuses me). In my kit I have an EFS 18 -55 mm lens and an EF 75 - 300mm, and being the complete novice I have no idea what lens you use for what. I
Click to expand...

Whatever lens you want for whatever subject you want :cool:

There are no hard and fast rules about lens choice, there are some conventions (wide for landscapes, telephoto for portraits) but these are there to be broken :thumbs:
 
Indeed, you can get a decent landscape shot with a long lens by picking a bit out of it, doesn't work so good the other way round though ;)
 
You should get yourself outside and get experimenting, you'll feel a fool at first but nobody truthfully cares :p
 
Hi Adam, first things first welcome to TP. And the world of photography.

To answer your question about lenses, there's no hard and fast or set in stone rules for what you use for what, there's just common sense really. As you get out and about and get more experience you'll just know what's right. And with even more knowledge you'll get to know about the inherent properties of wideangle or telephoto lenses (wideangle accentuating angles and sense of depth or a telephoto foreshortening and flattening an image etc). But that's relatively advanced stuff so I wouldn't worry too much about things like that just yet.

If you don't mind some suggestions for your reading then I'd recommend a couple of books by Michael Freeman, first off have a read of Perfect Exposure. That covers all the basics you need to learn really well in my opinion. And after that I'd recommend reading The photographer's Eye and The Photographer's Mind which cover all kinds of composition, design and the like. All three books are well worth reading in my opinion and should be readily available from just about anywhere that sells books online (I got them from amazon) for £10-15 each.

Good luck, it can seem daunting at first but stick with it and you'll get there :thumbs:
 
Again thank you all very much I had a quick nose around the sirphotography site yesterday so will go through this today and practise the examples in there for Tv and Av etc.

I also looked into some courses locally but most tend to be run in the day which is no good for me as I work FT. Might treat myself to a course at a photography place later down the line.
 
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AdamcMWCK said:
Hello everyone

I have been playing around with my camera and these editing tools - the DPP Canon one for RAW images is a little over my head to be honest at this point.
Click to expand...

Hi Adam

If you look on Canon USA site, you can download the user manual for Zoombrowser and DPP - this might help as a work through for you.

AdamcMWCK said:
I have a question about lenses (tried search but too much data and confuses me). In my kit I have an EFS 18 -55 mm lens and an EF 75 - 300mm, and being the complete novice I have no idea what lens you use for what. I am reading and trying to learn though. What are the main differences between these and what are they better suited for?

I would like to upload a picture I took and then altered for you to comment on (go easy never owned a camera before - unless it has been attached to my phone) but cant seem to see how to do this. Anyone explain how it works please. - DOH got it lol never mind lol.

thanks
Ad.
Click to expand...

Are you okay about your lenses now ?

Don't forget, any help you need, just ask...
 
You may like to have a play with these simulators, can be very helpful in understanding what happens at different settings.

http://camerasim.com/
 
Joshwain said:
Oh dear, I've just found myself playing with that for over 15 minutes :bonk:
Click to expand...

It's a good job they don't have different pictures to select or you might be there all day :lol:
 
This is great, but has anyone managed a good one in dim indoor light?

...

Actually ignore that I'm going to make a new thread, this could get waaay off topic!
 
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JohnN said:
This is great, but has anyone managed a good one in dim indoor light?

...

Actually ignore that I'm going to make a new thread, this could get waaay off topic!
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In real life it's called flash ;) But on that simulator, not unless you whack the ISO up. Anyway, I'll shh as you said :suspect:
 
Adam, you said you were not getting on with DPP at present. If you want a very easy to use free photoeditor try Photoscape

http://photoscape.en.softonic.com/

It doesn't have loads of features but can do quite a bit and is really straightforward.

If you want to move up to an editor that can do almost everything and is also free try GIMP

http://www.gimp.org/

Version 2.6 is the latest stable one. GIMP is much more complicated and takes time to learn but has lots of features.

Dave
 
Cheers just managed 15 minutes out the back taking pictures using Av, Tv and P settings playing around with the ISO level and F level. I like the F setting as you can blur out the back whilst maintaining the focus on the image, which in my case was my sons red alpha Romeo model car lol.

I think apart from kids and family photos my fav will be wildlife and landscape to be honest.

Andyred. I am still trying out the two lenses I have 18-55 and 70-300 and will just keep practising. I think going forward I would buy a macro lens (if I have this correct) as they will allow me to get up closer?!

Anyone on with the learning. Happy new year all.
 
Tringa, strangways thanks for the heads up.

First software I downloaded was Photoscape and I didn't understand what to do with it lol.

I will stick with the Picaso and paint net for now and just play around with what the different things do. I'm not shooting in RAW as of yet so some of the stuff is probably wasted on a man of my limited ability lol.
 
Ah, now macro thats a different beast alltogether.

The cheapest methods I know are extension tubes and reversing the lens (often with the nifty fifty - 50mm prime) - both methods require real precision and are manual focus (unless you go with auto tubes which are more expensive).

The other option of course is to get a true macro lens, I understand the Tamron and Sigma 90 and 105's are very good - I used to have the Canon 100mm macro (non-L) and that was very nearly as good as the L I have now, in fact IQ (image quality) wise it would be hard to tell them apart.
 
JohnN macro is the lens type that allows me to get up real close though isn't ?

I read on the net you can use extensions and some form of lens that screws into the top of the actual lens you are using. I presume these will not be as good as a specific macro lens. But might allow me a cheap way to experiment without forking out for a real lens
 
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Yep that's right, non-auto tubes and reversing the lens can be a bit frustrating but will get what you want, also you could try a diopiter (I hope I got that term right) such as a raynox dcr-250
 
AdamcMWCK said:
. I think going forward I would buy a macro lens (if I have this correct) as they will allow me to get up closer?!

Anyone on with the learning. Happy new year all.
Click to expand...

For a specific Macro lens to start you off with, I'd recommend the Sigma 50mm F2.8. It's a cracker of a lens, my daughter uses ours for her flowers / still life macro work
 
Cheers Andyred not got £390 to spend at present on a new lens. I will make do with what I have for a while really can not justify more out lay on it as of yet. That's why I was thinking of one of these magnifying filters which will be no where near as good but at least I can have a play.
 
6606488327


This was about the best I could do in between the rain today out the back just messing around with the settings on the camera.

There was me thinking I had the image posting sorted. Any idea why it hasn't loaded?
 
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AdamcMWCK said:
Cheers Andyred not got £390 to spend at present on a new lens. I will make do with what I have for a while really can not justify more out lay on it as of yet. That's why I was thinking of one of these magnifying filters which will be no where near as good but at least I can have a play.
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Here you go Adam

http://www.camerapricebuster.co.uk/prod233.html

Much better prices than the £390. Don't forget, they do come up 2nd hand, so is worth a look out

Andy
 
AdamcMWCK said:
There was me thinking I had the image posting sorted. Any idea why it hasn't loaded?
Click to expand...

how did you load it up ?

I go to galleries, my gallery and upload a photo.

Keep the longest side to 1000 and max res to below 200 and it'll load to your gallery no issue.
Then click on the link below your photo, paste it to your thread / post and it should appear.
 
I did what the gentleman above said and typed in the URL from my Flickr site.


I'm on my iPad now so no use trying to mess around with it now as half the drop down boxes dont work and can't upload from here.

I will play around more tomorrow.

I appreciate all your help mate. Sorry I just cant not seem to get to grips with things at present.
 
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On macro try a reversing ring for the 18-50, abound be about three quid on eBay.
Linking pics from Flickr is just go to the pic, choose share from just above the image, select a size and bbcode from the drop down and copy the text in the box, the paste that into a thread
 
AdamcMWCK said:
6606488327


This was about the best I could do in between the rain today out the back just messing around with the settings on the camera.

There was me thinking I had the image posting sorted. Any idea why it hasn't loaded?
Click to expand...

Have you hosted the photo on another site like Flickr or Photobucket? (there are others out there not just these two)

You will then need to grab the HTML/ BBcode of the photo which will look something like this.

[u**rl=http://www.flickr.com/photos/mjkcanon/6595142709/]
6595142709_ec3a82f950_m.jpg
[/url]
Relax by MJK Canon, on Flickr

Ignore the ** in the link, i have done that to break the link and show you the text.

If the link is complete then you end up with this.


Relax by MJK Canon, on Flickr

But you need to host the photos somewhere. Then the Talk Photography site basically grabs the photo from the host site everytime this web page is loaded.

As already noted there is a tutorial somewhere on this site to help with putting images in threads.
 
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You have to have floor-less pockets to consider buying something on this forum xD
 
Well if you want the best lens etc then they cost that's part and parcel of DSLR territory.

For me at present I am in no need to spend silly money as I'm new and learning. I have ordered some cheap macro filter things from eBay for like £10 if they work then great if not oh we'll it's a tenner.

I have my eye on the 50 mm lens as from my reading that will be better than my 18-55mm for kids and family photos. Then maybe the canon lens that people have posted on here is good 55-250 mm. Both of which I will get used and then possibly down the line a good macro one for close ups etc.

All in good time.

I need to learn basics first things like loading images to the website for a start lol
 
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