I got a new camera a Canon EOS T3i . Now I just have to learn how to use it. While the power was out yesterday I went down to the deck to take some pictures. As luck would have it a barge was heading up the Mississippi towards St. Louis. (You can click on the photos to enlarge them)
Good luck with that learning curve Jon. My Canon G9’s manual
is some 260 pages deep. Someday I’ll get there and do more than just point ‘n shoot with it.
I don’t know how much I’ll be able to learn. I’m an old dog and you know what they say about old dogs. It’ll be on Auto a lot, but I’ll mess around with some different settings. I got a book about the model and will try to pick up some things from that. The manual that came with it isn’t the greatest.
WOOOHOOOOO, Road trip. Leaving in 3 hours. Staying overnight in Prince George BC, Bella’s hometown. Then to Edmonton Alberta for a couple nights. Then we think Calgary for a few. After that, not sure where or for how long. We just wake up and decide. Wife has to be home for the 8th for an appointment, then on the road again. Maybe North to Alaska for a week or 10 days. By the way John, pics look great.My sister has a Canon and has 3 picture blogs that are all taken with her Canon. She loves it.
The sun is shining for maybe 5 minutes today Steve. I hope you have a good trip and you take lots of pictures, you’re in God’s country. 🙂 Not much to do here on a Sunday except hit the Casino, win lots of money there if you do go. Food at “The Crave” next door is really good.
The three important things on your camera that make a photo: ISO (how sensitive your camera is to light), aperture (the size of the hole in the lens where the light comes through), and shutter speed (how quickly the shutter captures the photo).
ISO – 50,100,200,400,800, etc. Just like film “speeds”. Low ISO number, lets less light in. High ISO number, lets more light in, but makes a granier, less “smooth” looking photo
aperture – these are the “f stops”…f/2, f/8, f/22, f/5.6, f/4, etc that you see on the front of the lens. small “f” number, BIG HOLE and lots of light. big “f” number, small hall, very little light. A side effect of changing this number other than more or less light is making the background more blurry (small “f” number) or less blurry (big “f” number).
shutter speed – this is a simple concept. fast shutter (1/1000 for example) will freeze motion, but lets in very little light, so it can’t be used at night usually. slow shutter (1 second for example) will let in a lot of light, but anything moving will probably be blurry, especially if you’re not using a tripod.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aperturo/sets/72157623590587185/ 1 pair of photos for each concept. when you’re shooting completely manually (M mode), you get to change any of these 3 things up and down to let in enough light, get the kind of background you want, and to make the photo as smooth or as grainy as you’d like.
enjoy! 🙂
…or – “AUTO“. 😐
Thanks Charlie!
or auto. that works, too. 🙂
Jon,
I recommend DP Review site for all your camera questions. They have a fantastic forum full of very helpful people. It is where I go when I want to play with my camera gear.
Thanks, Ron.
seconded. some great in-depth equipment reviews and a lot of instruction and education.
If you’re going to do a lot of outdoor photography get some polarizing filters, they work wonders that you can’t see with your eyes!
Play around with ISO settings, low ISO (100) is better for bright while higher ISO (1600) is great for shooting at 1/60 in a dimly lit room, but the higher the ISO the more noise you experience.
Play around with your Aperture and do some Depth of Field work.
I have the same camera among several others. The auto on that camera is actually an intelligent auto, it does more than just regular auto on other cameras. However, I’ve never used the auto on this camera. I like the HD video mode. As far as places to go online, I’m kinda partial to the forums at digital-photography-school.com only cause I’m a mod there, lol.
Cool site, Sander (& John). I just signed up for the RSS & tabbed several articles to read. Thanks for the tip!
(Nikon D-40, w/55-200)
Good luck with that learning curve Jon. My Canon G9’s manual
is some 260 pages deep. Someday I’ll get there and do more than just point ‘n shoot with it.
I don’t know how much I’ll be able to learn. I’m an old dog and you know what they say about old dogs. It’ll be on Auto a lot, but I’ll mess around with some different settings. I got a book about the model and will try to pick up some things from that. The manual that came with it isn’t the greatest.
WOOOHOOOOO, Road trip. Leaving in 3 hours. Staying overnight in Prince George BC, Bella’s hometown. Then to Edmonton Alberta for a couple nights. Then we think Calgary for a few. After that, not sure where or for how long. We just wake up and decide. Wife has to be home for the 8th for an appointment, then on the road again. Maybe North to Alaska for a week or 10 days. By the way John, pics look great.My sister has a Canon and has 3 picture blogs that are all taken with her Canon. She loves it.
The sun is shining for maybe 5 minutes today Steve. I hope you have a good trip and you take lots of pictures, you’re in God’s country. 🙂 Not much to do here on a Sunday except hit the Casino, win lots of money there if you do go. Food at “The Crave” next door is really good.
The three important things on your camera that make a photo: ISO (how sensitive your camera is to light), aperture (the size of the hole in the lens where the light comes through), and shutter speed (how quickly the shutter captures the photo).
ISO – 50,100,200,400,800, etc. Just like film “speeds”. Low ISO number, lets less light in. High ISO number, lets more light in, but makes a granier, less “smooth” looking photo
aperture – these are the “f stops”…f/2, f/8, f/22, f/5.6, f/4, etc that you see on the front of the lens. small “f” number, BIG HOLE and lots of light. big “f” number, small hall, very little light. A side effect of changing this number other than more or less light is making the background more blurry (small “f” number) or less blurry (big “f” number).
shutter speed – this is a simple concept. fast shutter (1/1000 for example) will freeze motion, but lets in very little light, so it can’t be used at night usually. slow shutter (1 second for example) will let in a lot of light, but anything moving will probably be blurry, especially if you’re not using a tripod.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aperturo/sets/72157623590587185/ 1 pair of photos for each concept. when you’re shooting completely manually (M mode), you get to change any of these 3 things up and down to let in enough light, get the kind of background you want, and to make the photo as smooth or as grainy as you’d like.
enjoy! 🙂
…or – “AUTO“. 😐
Thanks Charlie!
or auto. that works, too. 🙂
Jon,
I recommend DP Review site for all your camera questions. They have a fantastic forum full of very helpful people. It is where I go when I want to play with my camera gear.
Thanks, Ron.
seconded. some great in-depth equipment reviews and a lot of instruction and education.
If you’re going to do a lot of outdoor photography get some polarizing filters, they work wonders that you can’t see with your eyes!
Play around with ISO settings, low ISO (100) is better for bright while higher ISO (1600) is great for shooting at 1/60 in a dimly lit room, but the higher the ISO the more noise you experience.
Play around with your Aperture and do some Depth of Field work.
I’d recommend http://digital-photography-school.com/forum/digital-photography-assignments/ as a place to challenge yourself, see what others do and even get some good critique.
I have the same camera among several others. The auto on that camera is actually an intelligent auto, it does more than just regular auto on other cameras. However, I’ve never used the auto on this camera. I like the HD video mode. As far as places to go online, I’m kinda partial to the forums at digital-photography-school.com only cause I’m a mod there, lol.
Cool site, Sander (& John). I just signed up for the RSS & tabbed several articles to read. Thanks for the tip!
(Nikon D-40, w/55-200)