My New Canon 400D

luke_1983uk · Feb 6, 2007

My New Canon 400D

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Well after changing my mind from buying a Canon Ixus 850, to the Canon 400D 2 weeks ago, i bought these extra lenses EF 70-200 f/4L IS, EF 50 f/1.8, EF 85 f/1.8 USM, and am now very happy with my decision although i spent alot more then i would have, if i bought my original choice, but i am glad i got talked into the 400D.

anyway after reading, and re-reading the instruction manual, i am becoming more and more confident, although i know i still have loads to learn, and i mean loads! not even onto the 20th page in Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson!

here are a few of my photos ive taken so far, i would like some CC if possible, thanks to all that helped me buying the Canon

thanks

Luke
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44537595@N00/

luke_1983uk · Feb 6, 2007

forgot to say all the photos in the link are taken with my new setup!

vari001 · Feb 6, 2007

Hi,

first Emily's pictures had too thin DOF. Even it's artistic (to differe from p&s shooters), it should be justified. Last pictures are fine.

BTW, you have constant +0.5 ev or you apply that in post processing?

luke_1983uk · Feb 6, 2007

vari001 said:
Hi,

first Emily's pictures had too thin DOF. Even it's artistic (to
differe from p&s shooters), it should be justified. Last pictures
are fine.

BTW, you have constant +0.5 ev or you apply that in post processing?

thanks for the comments Vari001, they help alot, and i will take note, what do you mean by +0.5 ev, im still pretty new to photography (2 weeks)

balloonchasers · Feb 6, 2007

With your camera on, take a look at the back where the

-2....1...I...1....+2 is located. The little bar under the scale may be just to the right of the middle indicator. You may have accidently increase your exposure compensation by .5 Should be able to correct it under the menu function. Look for AEB in your manual for more info.

John
--

Feel free to use any of these additional letters to correct the spelling of words found in the above post: a-e-t-n-d-i-o-s-m-l-u-y-h-c

balloonchasers · Feb 6, 2007

Also wanted to add that you may want to catch yourself down on one knee when taking pictures of Emily.

Get down to her level, not standing over her and shooting straight down. You have a beautiful subject to practice on in the years to come!

Enjoy your new camera!

John
--

Feel free to use any of these additional letters to correct the spelling of words found in the above post: a-e-t-n-d-i-o-s-m-l-u-y-h-c

luke_1983uk · Feb 6, 2007

balloonchasers said:
Also wanted to add that you may want to catch yourself down on one
knee when taking pictures of Emily.

Get down to her level, not standing over her and shooting straight
down. You have a beautiful subject to practice on in the years to
come!

Enjoy your new camera!

John
--

Feel free to use any of these additional letters to correct the
spelling of words found in the above post:
a-e-t-n-d-i-o-s-m-l-u-y-h-c

john thanks so much for your comments, im taking note of everything!

whilst im at it, dont know if anyone can help but im looking for a tripod, light weight and portable, has anyone got any recommendations got 100 pound to spend on one?
i would also like to use my 70-200 F4L IS with it

thanks if anyone can!

luke_1983uk · Feb 6, 2007

balloonchasers said:
With your camera on, take a look at the back where the

-2....1...I...1....+2 is located. The little bar under the scale
may be just to the right of the middle indicator. You may have
accidently increase your exposure compensation by .5 Should be
able to correct it under the menu function. Look for AEB in your
manual for more info.

John
--

Feel free to use any of these additional letters to correct the
spelling of words found in the above post:
a-e-t-n-d-i-o-s-m-l-u-y-h-c

i will check this out too! i may have adjusted and forgot to change it back, thanks for letting me know!

wibbs · Feb 6, 2007

It may not be such a bad thing to have exposure compensation dialed in. I regularly shoot with 1/3-> 2/3+ on my 300D because I find that it doesn't expose the subject enough. If you do have it set, it's a good idea to know how to adjust it, how to turn on the histogram on your camera, and how to read the histogram and adjust exposure compensation accordingly.

I learrned a lot about histograms here:

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/understanding-histograms.shtml

Even with the histogram, there are times I intensionally blow out some of the highlights in favor of exposing the face. The histogram is just a useful tool that helps in understanding the light in the scene.

One last comment - if you're going to shoot a lot indoors, it might be worth investing in an external flash, and particularly one that can be bounced. It sounds like you just spent a lot on your new setup, so maybe this is something to think about down the road ;-)

Enjoy and keep shooting!

luke_1983uk · Feb 6, 2007

thats a brilliant site, didnt really know what the histogram was for, so thats a great help

cheers mate

Bambi Brown · Feb 6, 2007

vari001 said:
Hi,

first Emily's pictures had too thin DOF. Even it's artistic (to
differe from p&s shooters), it should be justified. Last pictures
are fine.

BTW, you have constant +0.5 ev or you apply that in post processing?

I think you're misreading the flickr properties info. All the shots I looked at look were +0.0 ev, flickr just shows 0 in an odd way. Besides, the default ev steps are in thirds. It's unlikely that was changed.

Bambi Brown · Feb 6, 2007

Nice job. You've got an excellent setup for taking great photos. Have fun!

luke_1983uk · Feb 6, 2007

Bambi Brown said:
Nice job. You've got an excellent setup for taking great photos.
Have fun!

thanks alot Bambi Brown, i am loving my setup at the moment, just have loads of more learning to do!

thanks for your comments though

luke

vari001 · Feb 6, 2007

luke_1983uk said:
vari001 said:

Hi,

first Emily's pictures had too thin DOF. Even it's artistic (to
differe from p&s shooters), it should be justified. Last pictures
are fine.

BTW, you have constant +0.5 ev or you apply that in post processing?

Click to expand...

thanks for the comments Vari001, they help alot, and i will take
note, what do you mean by +0.5 ev, im still pretty new to
photography (2 weeks)

Hi, you are getting betterand better.
IMG_1654

About that +0.5ev. If it has been set, then do not touch let it be. Exposure seems more or less ok. It was kinda tricky question. I would like to see original picture with EXIF to say more.

rgrds

vari001 · Feb 6, 2007

Bambi Brown said:
vari001 said:

Hi,

first Emily's pictures had too thin DOF. Even it's artistic (to
differe from p&s shooters), it should be justified. Last pictures
are fine.

BTW, you have constant +0.5 ev or you apply that in post processing?

Click to expand...

I think you're misreading the flickr properties info. All the
shots I looked at look were +0.0 ev, flickr just shows 0 in an odd
way. Besides, the default ev steps are in thirds. It's unlikely
that was changed.

No, Custom Function 5 let's you to select half stop step. Read the manual ;-)
Cheers!

I would say that somebody has fixed OP's camera. To say that with confidence pictures with full EXIF needed.

vari001 · Feb 6, 2007

vari001 said:
luke_1983uk said:

vari001 said:

Hi,

first Emily's pictures had too thin DOF. Even it's artistic (to
differe from p&s shooters), it should be justified. Last pictures
are fine.

BTW, you have constant +0.5 ev or you apply that in post processing?

Click to expand...

thanks for the comments Vari001, they help alot, and i will take
note, what do you mean by +0.5 ev, im still pretty new to
photography (2 weeks)

Click to expand...

Hi, you are getting betterand better.

IMG_1654

Continued...

Look at the EXIF, you took it with 1/20 and got it so sharp. Excellent! With kit lenses!

However, it's a bit risky, as you can easy to get mtion blur with so slow exposure. With kids often 1/60 is not enough.

vari001 said:
About that +0.5ev. If it has been set, then do not touch let it be.
Exposure seems more or less ok. It was kinda tricky question. I
would like to see original picture with EXIF to say more.

rgrds

wibbs · Feb 6, 2007

In all the technical spew I just posted I forgot to mention that I like the shots ;-)

Nice expressions on the baby photos. I especially like the "football" shots. Once my kids start playing "soccer", I'm going to need a nice long lens!

Green_Thark · Feb 6, 2007

vari001 said:
Bambi Brown said:

vari001 said:

Hi,

first Emily's pictures had too thin DOF. Even it's artistic (to
differe from p&s shooters), it should be justified. Last pictures
are fine.

BTW, you have constant +0.5 ev or you apply that in post processing?

Click to expand...

I think you're misreading the flickr properties info. All the
shots I looked at look were +0.0 ev, flickr just shows 0 in an odd
way. Besides, the default ev steps are in thirds. It's unlikely
that was changed.

Click to expand...

No, Custom Function 5 let's you to select half stop step. Read the
manual ;-)
Cheers!

I would say that somebody has fixed OP's camera. To say that with
confidence pictures with full EXIF needed.

I've got 3, 0ev pics on flickr that show 0/2 exp comp yet one other shows 0ev for 0ev the actually compensated ones show a fraction like -1/3 etc so I suspect its just flickr being strange.

AZak Johns · Feb 6, 2007

Nice pictures!

Question: did you use a filter or do blur in post-processing for IMG_2419? It seems to have shallower DOF than the 50 f/1.8 can give you, and IMG_2418 has about the same distance to the face and same apperture, but with much less blur.

Regarding your tripod question, I'm using the Slik Sprint Pro with 3-way head. I'm very happy with it, light and sturdy. I don't have a lens as heavy as your 70-200, though.

Other tips I thought are very useful (Unrelated to your pictures):

Flash Exposure Compensation: I rarely use the built-in flash, if I do, I usually reduce the flash with compensation. Very nice to lighten up the face, even indoors. I mapped it onto my Set button.
White balance: Custom WB is good for indoor shots that get too yellowish, the automatic WB also ruins sunrises/sunsets, use cloudy setting for this.

luke_1983uk · Feb 7, 2007

vari001 said:
vari001 said:

luke_1983uk said:

vari001 said:

Hi,

first Emily's pictures had too thin DOF. Even it's artistic (to
differe from p&s shooters), it should be justified. Last pictures
are fine.

BTW, you have constant +0.5 ev or you apply that in post processing?

Click to expand...

thanks for the comments Vari001, they help alot, and i will take
note, what do you mean by +0.5 ev, im still pretty new to
photography (2 weeks)

Click to expand...

Hi, you are getting betterand better.

Click to expand...

IMG_1654

Continued...
Look at the EXIF, you took it with 1/20 and got it so sharp.
Excellent! With kit lenses!

However, it's a bit risky, as you can easy to get mtion blur with
so slow exposure. With kids often 1/60 is not enough.

vari001 said:

About that +0.5ev. If it has been set, then do not touch let it be.
Exposure seems more or less ok. It was kinda tricky question. I
would like to see original picture with EXIF to say more.

rgrds

Click to expand...

vari001, thanks for helping and thanks for your comments, that actual picture was taking 2 days after getting the camera, and i now know how hard it is to get a good picture with that shutter speed, im shooting with a much higher shutter speed now, in that case i got very lucky,

thanks luke

My New Canon 400D

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