| any expert in digital photography? canon rebel XT
Posted: 12/30/2005 10:14:21 PM | | Is anyone on this forum is expert with digital photography? I just bought the canon rebel XT so I can use for new year party. I want to know what aperture and ISO setting can I shoot for ballroom setting. Should I set it to automatic AF? | |
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| any expert in digital photography? canon rebel XT
Posted: 12/31/2005 2:27:01 AM | Should I set it to automatic AF?
Yup. Also make sure your Flash is set to 'Auto" as well.
You could also set your Aperature to the lowest F-Stop Setting, as well as your ISO to 400+ to get to most 'Flash-Punch' Distance possible.
Highly unlikely the built-in flash will go much beyond 25 feet. | |
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| any expert in digital photography? canon rebel XT
Posted: 1/3/2006 11:17:54 AM | I too have a digital rebel xt. I actually wish I would have saved up a little more and bought the 20D instead. Oh well, there's always ebay. Hopefully your new year pictures turned out great. If you have any questions about photography Ticket is the man with the plan.
Learn all you can about your new camera. There are tons of great information out there on the web right at your fingertips. Here is one I found that helped me understand my EOS camera a little better: http://photonotes.org/articles/beginner-faq/
I ordered a couple of "L" lenses online and cannot stress how much of a difference they have made as far as quality goes. I'm not saying go out and buy one of these lenses but investing in a good "prime" lens will make a world of difference. Try adding filters to your lens. A GND & Polarizing filter will make a huge difference as far as contrast between subjects goes while shooting in the daytime.
Good luck!!!! | |
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teluk
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Joined: 4/5/2006
Msg: 6 | |
| any expert in digital photography? canon rebel XT
Posted: 11/15/2006 5:14:55 AM | I have a canon 350D "same as the rebel XT", I am not the best photographer in the world and will say that i dont know it all when it comes to taking a perfect picture. But i have learnt about the camera setting i.e Iso, aperture, white balance and so on by just simply messing around and trying different settings.
My advice is that you set your camera to auto then take a few shots then when your done, open them on your pc and flick through them one by one looking at the porperties and setting on the camera which are all embedded within the picture. Compare and notice the differences.
Try basics first... Aperture, Set your camera up on a tripod then find a subject "something close" such as a pencil a foot away,use the startard 18-55mm lens which comes with the rebel in macro mode. manuallly focus on any point of the pencil. Then set the camera F- stop to 2.4 then 2.6, 2.8 and so on till you have covered the full range that the lens allows. Taking a picture each time you change the setting like this will show you when you view them on the pc what this setting does. You should see that the depth of focus is changing as the setting do. Just fiddle, each lens and each subject is different too so practice is the key to working out which f-stop you'll be needing.
ISO... The iso level is very importent. What it does is, sets the senitivity level of the cameras censor that captures the image. So at iso 100 the image qaulty will be more fine but the range of the flash will be lesser. As you move up the iso to 200. 300, 400, 800 the image quailty become more grainy and patchy but the colours will become more vivid and the flash range greater! again this is something you have to play about with and learn to get the picture you want.
White Balance... your camera needs to no what white is to be able to balance out the colours in the picture! Using the auto setting is fine but it will not always get the colours right as it is set by the computer within reading averages! manually setting the WB is the best way of achieving good results. DO NOT use a white sheet of paper to manually set the WB as this will not work how you think "try it" Instead get a 95% grey card.
Ok so i could be wrong in the way i explain some of the above but im still learning, Please give me some feed back on this.
Terry | |
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| any expert in digital photography? canon rebel XT
Posted: 11/30/2008 6:27:25 PM | Hi Picard...
Educate yourself and read your manual 500 times (lol) and shoot a few thousand pics by new years........have some fun and take some pics in all light sources -if you can get into the hall where the new years party is going to be -check out the lighting....know your light source for your white balance...you will read about this too....
One must be prepared for a darker hall too.....the onboard popup flash might not cut it....talk to your camera store and they will give you some insight as to a nice flash system that might soften up the flash... If the hall is too dark and you have a slow lense you might have to resort to manually focusing your camera too...so be prepared....
Remember blasting off a flash in everyone's face is at times a nuisance.....lol... Umbrellas are good too with a steady light source....nice to have another person too...:))
Lenses are key -get a good one that is geared towards your sensor size -there are arguments out there that state canon L lenses are geared towards the full frame sensor and soften with smaller sensors.... just some food for thought....
http://www.fredmiranda.com/reviews/ interesting site..... of course it would be wise to study up on how to take pics with digital slr camers...... the above recommendations are nice too.....
I am sure you could of got a canon 30d body...with a nice fast L lense...
Try to keep your ISO in a respectable range for usuable prints.....food for thought....hope that helps a bit....
O:)
PS there are a few pros around that will check this out for you before new years....so get yourself educated.....familiarize yourself with your specific camera... | |
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| any expert in digital photography? canon rebel XT
Posted: 12/1/2008 2:42:37 AM | luckily, canon lenses are fairly cheap. get a 50mm 1.8 lens, and set the iso to as high as you can (though, i don't print above 800 normally).
if you use a flash, make sure its an external flash. the flash on the camera is just going to allow to to capture images, but they are most likely going to be terribly over exposed where it matters, and under exposed where you thought it wouldn't matter.
dslr's are an expensive hobby. but if you want to do the job right, you're going to need the equipment. there's no substitute. experience can't be substituted with good equipment either, so you're going to have to get used to the camera.
i would use auto focus if there's enough light for it to work properly, but put it in program mode, so that you can adjust settings as the situations arise. you're going to want control over the white balance because its indoor lighting, as well as iso. if you do decide to buy a lens suitable for the task, put it in shutter priority so that you can handhold the camera (at least 1/30th or above), otherwise the auto settings may drop you down to a shutter speed too low to bother taking pictures at if the available lighting isn't anything decent (which is probably won't be).
the faster the lens, the less light you need to take a picture. 1.4 = fast 5.6 = slow
and.. i always meter the white balance off of a white object in the lighting i plan on shooting in. this doesn't always work in dimly lit situations where the iso is 800+, but for normal conditions its fine. that's probably the best way to do it. using the onboard white balance presets is usually not a great idea, and auto in anything less than daylight usually doesn't help much either and can actually ruin pictures (though, you could just convert them to black and white lol). | |
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| any expert in digital photography? canon rebel XT
Posted: 11/3/2009 7:54:01 AM | Glad I found this post.I also have Rebel XT and I have taken many pictures with it. I posted them on my website and got many remarks.I never took any course in photography, but it comes natural and based on remarks ,I wish I had taken time to learn more about it.A friend of mine who works as photographer for Boston Globe, said, the best way to learn is keep taking pictures .To know how to use it, either one has to take the course or use the guide book and practice while reading it.
I wish we could post our web sites here and get some good advice from those who know better in digital photography. | |
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| any expert in digital photography? canon rebel XT
Posted: 11/3/2009 9:27:09 AM |
this is my first digital camera. I am gadget freak.
Gadgets on a camera don't help with photography. Sometimes they get in the way like the auto-bullet feature in MS Office.
I want high quality camera so I don't have to buy second camera at later time.
That's a flawed approach. There really aren't any low quality DSLRs to begin with. It's already an enthusiast's camera. Buying last year's model can save a messload of money and this years model will be just as obsolete in 12 months. It's like saying I'm going to get a top of the line computer so I'll never have to buy another one.
Far better off getting last year's model and skip the kit lens with the savings, as the glass is more important and retains value because it isn't continually obsolete like the bodies. | |
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| any expert in digital photography? canon rebel XT
Posted: 11/3/2009 11:21:11 PM |
I have a canon 350D "same as the rebel XT", I am not the best photographer in the world and will say that i dont know it all when it comes to taking a perfect picture. But i have learnt about the camera setting i.e Iso, aperture, white balance and so on by just simply messing around and trying different settings.
My advice is that you set your camera to auto then take a few shots then when your done, open them on your pc and flick through them one by one looking at the porperties and setting on the camera which are all embedded within the picture. Compare and notice the differences.
Try basics first... Aperture, Set your camera up on a tripod then find a subject "something close" such as a pencil a foot away,use the startard 18-55mm lens which comes with the rebel in macro mode. manuallly focus on any point of the pencil. Then set the camera F- stop to 2.4 then 2.6, 2.8 and so on till you have covered the full range that the lens allows. Taking a picture each time you change the setting like this will show you when you view them on the pc what this setting does. You should see that the depth of focus is changing as the setting do. Just fiddle, each lens and each subject is different too so practice is the key to working out which f-stop you'll be needing.
ISO... The iso level is very importent. What it does is, sets the senitivity level of the cameras censor that captures the image. So at iso 100 the image qaulty will be more fine but the range of the flash will be lesser. As you move up the iso to 200. 300, 400, 800 the image quailty become more grainy and patchy but the colours will become more vivid and the flash range greater! again this is something you have to play about with and learn to get the picture you want.
White Balance... your camera needs to no what white is to be able to balance out the colours in the picture! Using the auto setting is fine but it will not always get the colours right as it is set by the computer within reading averages! manually setting the WB is the best way of achieving good results. DO NOT use a white sheet of paper to manually set the WB as this will not work how you think "try it" Instead get a 95% grey card.
Ok so i could be wrong in the way i explain some of the above but im still learning, Please give me some feed back on this.
Terry
I use a camera for my living. The only auto settings I use are aperture priority which is set at f/8 or f/11 if I am shooting a larger group. I get the same result for every shot. I only use aperture priority if I am shooting people at an event. If I am shooting just a couple people and the background does not need to be in focus I open up to f/5.6 or even f/4. I never have and never will use a on the camera flash except on my Canon G-10 and most of the time on it I use a Q flash fired with a pocket wizard and have an assistant hold and direct it. You will never get the control to get consistent shots using auto settings. If you get a flash like a Canon speedlite you set the desired f stop, desired aperture, desired iso and just shoot. You will quickly learn the range and limitations of the flash. The newer cameras allow you to use a higher iso setting so if I am shooting a Canon for an event and I don't have to do a print over 8x10 I use iso 400 or 800 and shoot. Higher iso settings on the newer Canon and Nikon cameras are fine as long as you take the print size into consideration when you set it. The lower the flash power you use and the higher the iso the faster the flash will recycle which means you get the cool expression that you would normally miss shooting low iso. One more thing with a on camera flash, it's the leading cause of the dreaded red eye. It is better to buy a higher output flash and dial it down on power to get a faster recycle.
f/8 is called the who cares f stop, on a normal lens which would be from about 50 up to a 80mm lens f/8 is a damn handy f stop that will get you close every time. It is a good compromise for shooting events and people. It will get you decent depth of field and if you need more go to f/11. If you are using a 100mm or longer lens for people just remember that depth of field is very limited and would best be used for groups of only a couple people.
Most people shoot raw and fix the color in photoshop which is easy in most cases but when lighting or adding lights to other light sources it is better to shoot a white balance for every single shot if you need correct color every time. I white balance for every shot. The link I have put in below is the fastest and easiest way to do it. I use these when shooting anything from a landscape to a home interior, it is dead on accurate and if you are not happy with the look you can tweak it by balancing off another color. I balance 90% of the time off the grey box. For shooting people I use a grey a black and a white dot custom made for me that is placed on the persons clothing. If I am shooting a group I do this on each end of the group. I clone it out in photoshop. 18% grey is the one you want to white balance off of, not 95%.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/286667-REG/QP_Card_GQP101_Qp_Calibration_Card_101.html | |
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| any expert in digital photography? canon rebel XT
Posted: 11/3/2009 11:25:11 PM |
Glad I found this post.I also have Rebel XT and I have taken many pictures with it. I posted them on my website and got many remarks.I never took any course in photography, but it comes natural and based on remarks ,I wish I had taken time to learn more about it.A friend of mine who works as photographer for Boston Globe, said, the best way to learn is keep taking pictures .To know how to use it, either one has to take the course or use the guide book and practice while reading it.
I wish we could post our web sites here and get some good advice from those who know better in digital photography.
Best way to learn is to assist a local pro. You will learn more in three months assisting than you will in a years college course. To learn lighting find a local pro who does seminars complete with models where you see how the lights are set up and you get to shoot the models yourself. | |
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