SLR Newbie

Ashish06 · Aug 5, 2009

Hi,

I recently purchased Canon T1i with the 18-55 IS kit lens. I am a newbie in the world of dSLR's and am quite amazed at all the possibilities it opens up over P&S. I am posting a few shots and would love to have your comments.

shot indoors, but there was plenty of light coming through the roof.

On a cloudy day. I felt in this pic the monument itself is slightly underexposed and the clouds are over exposed. I did use the cloudy white balance while taking the shot.

There was a little more orange tinge to the clouds than whats seen in the pic. Not sure what I could have done differently while taking the pic to highlight the orange color in the clouds.

I would welcome any kinds of comments and criticisms. Only way to improve is to listen and I am ready. Thank you.

Shutterbugin · Aug 5, 2009

The first picture looks like a very cool place...where is that?
--
'87.6% of all statistics are made up on the spot'

ShutterBugin

Ashish06 · Aug 5, 2009

The National Portrait Gallery at Washington, DC.

Leejay Wu · Aug 5, 2009

1 -- could use a bit of clockwise rotation; possibly some perspective control tweaking.

2 -- exposure issue is pretty much inevitable given that weather, sunlight and position. Tweakable in post-processing (fill light, highlight recovery) where intensities aren't so extreme they're recorded as 0 or 255 for given colors. Might be worth considering some vertically-oriented crops depending on what interests you.

3 -- Color temperature is tweakable in PP; you could also have set a custom WB off a known neutral surface, say.

James Cafferty · Aug 5, 2009

You may want to try a Polarizer filter or Skylight filter. Either should result in more saturated colors and improved results. Perhaps you could borrow one from a friend or pick up a set at WalMart for ~$11 + $.97 cents shipping.

All the best,
Jim
--
Photographers take pictures, not cameras.

Ashish06 · Aug 5, 2009

I was thinking of buying the Tiffen filter kit which has the CPL. But then I started reading about filters and a general consensus seems to be to buy filters individually and of better quality. I am still not sure.

was thinking about this:

http://www.amazon.com/Tiffen-58mm-Photo-Essentials-Filter/dp/B00004ZCKZ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=photo&qid=1249528430&sr=1-1

Thanks for replying.

Ashish

James Cafferty said:
You may want to try a Polarizer filter or Skylight filter. Either should result in more saturated colors and improved results. Perhaps you could borrow one from a friend or pick up a set at WalMart for ~$11 + $.97 cents shipping.

All the best,
Jim
--
Photographers take pictures, not cameras.

Ashish06 · Aug 5, 2009

Thanks Leejay

Leejay Wu said:
1 -- could use a bit of clockwise rotation; possibly some perspective control tweaking.

I am still getting used to shooting through the viewfinder. As of now, I tend to shoot with a slight bias, resulting in pics that are not completely straight. I guess it would improve with practice.

Leejay Wu said:
2 -- exposure issue is pretty much inevitable given that weather, sunlight and position. Tweakable in post-processing (fill light, highlight recovery) where intensities aren't so extreme they're recorded as 0 or 255 for given colors. Might be worth considering some vertically-oriented crops depending on what interests you.

Yep I gotta try PP. Seems a lot depends on it.

Leejay Wu said:
3 -- Color temperature is tweakable in PP; you could also have set a custom WB off a known neutral surface, say.

That is something that I didnt try yet. My next assignment.

Thanks.

KALEL33 · Aug 5, 2009

Ashish06 said:
I was thinking of buying the Tiffen filter kit which has the CPL. But then I started reading about filters and a general consensus seems to be to buy filters individually and of better quality. I am still not sure.

was thinking about this:

http://www.amazon.com/Tiffen-58mm-Photo-Essentials-Filter/dp/B00004ZCKZ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=photo&qid=1249528430&sr=1-1

Thanks for replying.

Ashish

Yes you are correct in what you hear. Buy a nice CPL once, instead of buying cheap and end up buying a nice one later. Here's a better option for you.

http://www.amazon.com/58mm-Circular-Polarizer-MRC-Filter/dp/B0000BZL5B/ref=sr_1_17?ie=UTF8&s=photo&qid=1249528664&sr=1-17

James Cafferty · Aug 5, 2009

Ashish06 said:
I was thinking of buying the Tiffen filter kit which has the CPL. But then I started reading about filters and a general consensus seems to be to buy filters individually and of better quality. I am still not sure.

was thinking about this:

http://www.amazon.com/Tiffen-58mm-Photo-Essentials-Filter/dp/B00004ZCKZ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=photo&qid=1249528430&sr=1-1

Thanks for replying.

Ashish

James Cafferty said:

You may want to try a Polarizer filter or Skylight filter. Either should result in more saturated colors and improved results. Perhaps you could borrow one from a friend or pick up a set at WalMart for ~$11 + $.97 cents shipping.

Click to expand...

You can try the cheaper filters from WalMart for $12. If you don't like their performance return them for a full refund.

Meanwhile you will have the opportunity to decide if you will make the effort to screw-on the filters while outdoors --- and remove them when moving indoors --- and replace them when again moving outdoors.

Does a $80 filter perform any better than a cheap filter? Does your budget allow $80 for a single filter? You know the answer to that question better than any of us.

All the best,
Jim

--
Photographers take pictures, not cameras.

Ashish06 · Aug 5, 2009

yeah worth a try Jim. $80 is out of my budget right now. A quick question though, would screwing the filter on and off damage the lens? (I mean usage over a longer duration)

Thanks.

James Cafferty said:
You can try the cheaper filters from WalMart for $12. If you don't like their performance return them for a full refund.

Meanwhile you will have the opportunity to decide if you will make the effort to screw-on the filters while outdoors --- and remove them when moving indoors --- and replace them when again moving outdoors.

Does a $80 filter perform any better than a cheap filter? Does your budget allow $80 for a single filter? You know the answer to that question better than any of us.

All the best,
Jim

--
Photographers take pictures, not cameras.

KALEL33 · Aug 5, 2009

Ashish06 said:
yeah worth a try Jim. $80 is out of my budget right now. A quick question though, would screwing the filter on and off damage the lens? (I mean usage over a longer duration)

Thanks.

James Cafferty said:

You can try the cheaper filters from WalMart for $12. If you don't like their performance return them for a full refund.

Meanwhile you will have the opportunity to decide if you will make the effort to screw-on the filters while outdoors --- and remove them when moving indoors --- and replace them when again moving outdoors.

Does a $80 filter perform any better than a cheap filter? Does your budget allow $80 for a single filter? You know the answer to that question better than any of us.

All the best,
Jim

--
Photographers take pictures, not cameras.

Click to expand...

You might read this thread first. People actually showed the difference between the shots with a cheap filter and no filter. The other people say they don't have a problem with multi-coated(more expensive) filters. There's a link to another thread, within that thread, showing the same problems that someone else had with the filter, bad bokeh and ghosting.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1029&message=31830547

You could try your luck at a cheap filter and you might not notice the difference, especially coming from a point and shoot. If you buy it, take some photos with and without the filter and compare. The thing I've always believed is that you pay all that money for good glass and a good camera and then cripple it with a lesser piece of glass on the front.

ARShutterbug · Aug 6, 2009

The first example is a nice composition, but it could be better with some fill-lighting and other adjustments.

http://www.bibblelabs.com/products/bibble/perfectly_clear.html

In your second example, you can expose for the clouds or expose for the building. If you expose for the building, you will lose all details in the clouds. It looks like you used Evaluative metering, which averaged the exposure areas and returned the exposure as in your example. If the lighting conditions are bad, there is nothing that you can do to fix it, except to wait for better conditions.

--
http://www.pbase.com/arshutterbug/

kalniel · Aug 6, 2009

My comments:

1) Is a very nice shot. Exposure is spot on, distortion is your only enemy. You could correct this in software, but in terms of taking photos differently you need to make sure that wider angle shots are taken with the camera level and not pointing up or down.

2) Very common to blow cloud highlights in this kind of shot - but each camera model is different so you have to get used to what your camera is likely to do in each circumstance. In camera you can add some negative exposure compensation to counter the effect. You could also shoot raw which will give you more room to pull down the highlights in software afterwards and boost the brightness of the monument.

3) Again you'll probably discover more colour in the clouds if you apply some negative exposure compensation.

I would not suggest any kind of filter at all until you're more familar with the camera and post processing. Only once you've exhausted what you can do with those tools should you consider a filter IMHO.

mackey1001 · Aug 6, 2009

Ashish06 said:
I recently purchased Canon T1i with the 18-55 IS kit lens. I am a newbie in the world of dSLR's and am quite amazed at all the possibilities it opens up over P&S. I am posting a few shots and would love to have your comments.

Hey, congrats! Nice camera. You have the world before you, and a wealth of creative options.

Ashish06 said:
I would welcome any kinds of comments and criticisms. Only way to improve is to listen and I am ready. Thank you.

Are you shooting JPEGS or RAW? Do you know PP'ing? The images need little more "pop." With many DSLRs, a little sharpening really is needed. And, some levels adjustment. For the first pic, I would have underexposed a little more for the highlights, and then brought up the shadows in PP.

For example, my shot of the same location (different perspective) with my LX3 compact, which I shot JPEG but next time might have shot RAW

Other tips: composition is always important. For the bottom pic, what was your area of interest you were focusing on? Seems a bit vague. I would have liked to see more or less walkway.

Have fun, get a book on composition (use rule of 3rds, foreground/background objects, etc....) and shoot alot of pics!

Ashish06 · Aug 6, 2009

mackey1001 said:
Hey, congrats! Nice camera. You have the world before you, and a wealth of creative options.

ty ty

mackey1001 said:
Are you shooting JPEGS or RAW? Do you know PP'ing? The images need little more "pop." With many DSLRs, a little sharpening really is needed. And, some levels adjustment. For the first pic, I would have underexposed a little more for the highlights, and then brought up the shadows in PP.

I am shooting with RAW+JPG. I am still playing with all the options in PP'ing. The RAW format really amazes me, you can change/correct most of the things.

mackey1001 said:
For example, my shot of the same location (different perspective) with my LX3 compact, which I shot JPEG but next time might have shot RAW

Nice shot. I guess it always pays if you shoot in different perspective than the routine.

mackey1001 said:
Other tips: composition is always important. For the bottom pic, what was your area of interest you were focusing on? Seems a bit vague. I would have liked to see more or less walkway.

I agree. I was more interested in capturing the color saturation in the clouds correctly.

mackey1001 said:
Have fun, get a book on composition (use rule of 3rds, foreground/background objects, etc....) and shoot alot of pics!

Any recommendations for a book on composition?

Ashish06 · Aug 6, 2009

KALEL33 said:
You might read this thread first. People actually showed the difference between the shots with a cheap filter and no filter. The other people say they don't have a problem with multi-coated(more expensive) filters.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1029&message=31830547

Yes, I do see the difference. I think I will settle for middle ground and get Hoya's CPL. Its about $33 on amazon.

Do I need a UV filter? What are its advantages other than it protects the lens?

Thanks.

Ashish06 · Aug 6, 2009

kalniel said:
1) Is a very nice shot. Exposure is spot on, distortion is your only enemy. You could correct this in software, but in terms of taking photos differently you need to make sure that wider angle shots are taken with the camera level and not pointing up or down.

Thanks. Yeah I tend to do that often and looking through the viewfinder does not help.

kalniel said:
2) You could also shoot raw which will give you more room to pull down the highlights in software afterwards and boost the brightness of the monument.

I have the pic in the RAW format, I will try some PP'ing.

Thanks for your comments.

David Hughes124436 · Aug 6, 2009

Hi,

Before spending your cash on a dear filter, try using the EV down by half or a third stop, it might bring in the cloud detail a little better.

For what it's worth I'd tilt the camera down and lock the exposure before pointing it back upwards and then the buildings will have more "weight" than the sky.

Regards, David

KALEL33 · Aug 6, 2009

Ashish06 said:
Yes, I do see the difference. I think I will settle for middle ground and get Hoya's CPL. Its about $33 on amazon.

Do I need a UV filter? What are its advantages other than it protects the lens?

Thanks.

UV filter doesn't do anything, but does make it easier to clean the lens and keep out dust and sand. I have one, but only use it if the wind is picking up really bad. Your front lens element is a hardened glass that isn't going to be protected by an extremely this piece of glass. If you want to protect your lens, then get a lens hood. A lens hood protects the glass and reduces flare.

mackey1001 · Aug 7, 2009

Ashish06 said:
Any recommendations for a book on composition?

Well, I could give the "typical" recommendations by Petersen, Scott Kelby, Rick Sammons or others ...and if you want to go that way, visit a good bookstore and see what strikes you and the format and style you like.

However a non-traditional recommendation of a book I enjoy is:
Travel Photography: A Guide to Taking Better Pictures

http://www.amazon.com/Travel-Photography-Taking-Better-Pictures/dp/1741041848/ref=ed_oe_p

Why do I like it?

it's a small paperback "field guide" size you can take with you on travel (read on the plane or at the coffeehouse), and it'll fit in a side pocket of your camera bag
it's a good beginner to intermediate "idea book", meaning it has a ton of pictures with brief explanations of what went into composing and taking the picture
it's fun to just flip through, and look at some good pictures
hey, it's only $14 at Amazon! what a deal.

Don't expect a comprehensive masterpiece, but something convenient you might actually have with you, something that sparks your creativity and imagination, and read when you have some spare time.

Good luck.

SLR Newbie

Member

Veteran Member

Member

Veteran Member

Veteran Member

Member

Member

Veteran Member

Veteran Member

Member

Veteran Member

Veteran Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Member

Member

Member

Veteran Member

Veteran Member

Senior Member

Similar threads

Keyboard shortcuts