My photographs

[funaki]

As you can read from this thread i just got my Camera. Still trying to learn the ins and out of it. It's gonna take a long time. I am going to use this thread to post my pictures and to gather feedback from more knowledgeable people here to help me take better pictures.

Here is the picture i took day or two ago of a butterfly using Macro Mode. Edited in Lightroom just changed 2 properties thats all. Vibrance and one more. Do check it out and let me know if you have some information for me to take better pics.

Cheers

/Edit : Update at the bottom

Edited August 25, 2009 by funaki

[Daninku]

Lovely pic.

Now I'm not a photographer, but I would have rotated (right wording?) so that the background would be all green and zoomed more :)

But, I would never be able to take such a photo. Lovely!

[Prince Charming]

Nice photo, nice subject. Tighter crop-in would work in your favour though - the top of the leaves are cut anyways, so you're not losing anything more by going in closer.

[qdave]

something like this is probably more interesting:

[Draconian Guppy]

+1 con the crop...

[Sethos]

The plant in the background takes too much focus, on both photos

[Ambroos]

Shoot in RAW, always! And Macro Mode doesn't really do anything. Better to use Aperture Preset mode and set your aperture to a number as low as possible (= high aperture) to make your background more blurry. Usually works better on Macro photography.

[funaki]

Lovely pic.

Now I'm not a photographer, but I would have rotated (right wording?) so that the background would be all green and zoomed more :)

But, I would never be able to take such a photo. Lovely!

First try..dont think i can rotate it now. Would have to angle it properly while taking the pictures. Thanks for your comments.

Nice photo, nice subject. Tighter crop-in would work in your favour though - the top of the leaves are cut anyways, so you're not losing anything more by going in closer.

Thought of cropping it. I played with it in Lightroom but couldnt figure out how to zoom in and crop it so the butterfly is more in focus.

something like this is probably more interesting:

Thanks, any idea how i can have a crop in but with zoom on butterfly?

+1 con the crop...

The plant in the background takes too much focus, on both photos

Noted, will play more next time..if i find another butterfly.

Shoot in RAW, always! And Macro Mode doesn't really do anything. Better to use Aperture Preset mode and set your aperture to a number as low as possible (= high aperture) to make your background more blurry. Usually works better on Macro photography.

I am shooting in Raw + L...Aperture mode will be Av mode in the Canon??

Thanks for the comments guys. Did go out to shoot some more pics of buildings and all but my hands are shaky as hell and picture come out all crappy. Gonna try to buy a tripod. Need a better lense, Maybe that will be my next question.

[funaki]

Guys need you to critique pictures again. Took these pictures of my niece. She is very cute as you can see and quite photogenic aswell. I was just toying around with the camera. The pictures are taken using an EOS450D (rebel xsi) and the standard 18-55mm lense.

Pictures are available over at my Flickr page http://www.flickr.com/photos/99739131@N00/

Some pictures.

Some lessons learned, ISO Settings very important. I had it on auto ISO and it kept taking all pictures at 1600, made my camera look like a P&S. Lighting very important. Shutter Speed also Important.

I couldnt get my head around to see how fast shutter speed i should keep. Fast shutter less light in = dark photos, slow shutter more light = blurry. Still need to find a proper shutter speed that i can use to take pictures of kids etc. They move fast and i dont want them to pose. want to take picture normally.

Looking forward to hearing what you guys have to say.

Comments, Questions, Suggestions all are welcome.

Cheers

[the evn show]

for general info on ISO v Shutter Speed v Aperture, Try this thread. There were a handful of posts that you might find helpful.

As for pictures: the first (colourful girl) is well done: interesting subject & composition, good color, etc. It's a bit noisy but the concept is sound. The others are "meh": technical issues are the real killer (blur, noise, exposure, etc) get in the way.

With respect to blur: there's three kinds of blurring to worry about:

1. Improper Focus Unfortunately there's not much you can do but "focus better". Make sure you pre-focus, and you have accurately focusing lenses. Sometimes cheaper glass has a tendency to focus just in front or behind the subject. In bad light auto-focus systems sometimes have a hard time doing their job, or they focus so slowly that you miss the shot entirely (especially true for lenses that don't use a USM to drive the focus gear).
   Assuming your technique isn't the problem, there's not much you can do but buy better glass or body. In really poor lighting I usually just manually focus: it's more reliable / faster.
   
2. Camera movement/shake This is caused by your shaky hands moving the lens/camera around while the exposure is happening. The longer the exposure the more pronounced the effect is likely to be. A good image stabilized lens helps to correct this but it can only do so much. The amount of blur is dependent entirely on the photographer: I'm pretty "shakey" most of the time so I rarely manage to hand-hold a shot longer than 1/30th without getting some blur but on a good day with great stabilized glass I can go down to 1/5th.
   Some of my friends can't shoot any slower than 1/60, other's can hand-hold 1/6 with cheap-o point and shoots.
   Practice will let you know where your limits are -- once you start bumping in to those you'll need to get a stable shooting platform. A tripod is the obvious approach but sometimes just leaning against a wall or on a chair can make a world of difference.
   Best advice I can offer: Make a string tripod. It works as well as a monopod in many cases, costs nothing, and is infinitely portable.
   
3. Subject movement This is where your subject moves while the exposure is in progress. If you can keep the subject 'stable' in the frame the background will blur and that can be a really nice effect (think: keeping a runner centered and panning the camera as he moves past to blur the background and give the feeling of speed).
   Most of the time it's kid's fidgeting and just looking 'soft'. The only real solution to this issue is to shoot faster exposures which means buying faster glass (using a wider aperture), changing the lighting (strobes), or increasing sensitivity (higher ISO).
   

It looks like the majority of your blurring is caused by camera movement so getting a more stable platform might help. A bit more kit might also work to your advantage. It looks like you're using the kit lens (18-55mm F/3.5-5.6) indoors without a flash.

Getting good lighting indoors is always going to be a bit of a pain. An external flash pointed at an adjacent wall or the ceiling can help light up photos without giving that 'flash photography' look.

Because a lot of your pictures are portrait style, you should consider getting the "Nifty Fifty" 50mm F/1.8 II lens. It's field of view is about the same as your kit lens zoomed in all the way, but it has a much wider aperture so it will capture about 7x more light!

That means you could get this exposure at ISO-400 with a shutter speed of 1/50 (twice as fast). That should lead to much less blurring and noise. The background would also be much blurry so your subject would stand out much more.

[witalit]

+evn. Amazing reply, I read this myself and have taken some pointers. Its really good to hear some advice from someone much more experienced then yourself.

[Prince Charming]

Yeah, Neowin is awesome isn't it :)

great reply evn!