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Digital SLR / DSLR Camera Question / DSLR Thread 2

Nice work guys!! :cool
 
it would take 4 minutes at iso200 instead of 30 sec at my iso1600. lower iso would give cleaner image and more star trails
 
yep, I second what steve's saying.

Really, just start by playing around with what you've got. That way you start to learn the process, without spending any new cash.

I'll also suggest, for your first times, to pick nights with a full (or near full) moon. The stars get muted. But it's easier to get brighter images at lower ISO's. I also just use the self timer mode to trigger the shutter. That way you don't jostle the camera when you press the button.

So the pics I posted above were taken with either a Nikon D40, or a rebel Xti.
But the first camera I started playing with was an olympus Point and shoot that only had a 16 second max shutter timer.

Which would have worked better, if the camera didn't have such poor "higher" ISO performance.
(pic above was ISO 160) Click on that pic and you will see loads of red white and blue spots.
This was just one of the shortcomings of that camera.
It's performance was tolerable, however, if I kept the ISO to 80 or below. (like this pic)


So.
Since I quickly hit the limit of my camera... I learned a new technique... "painting" with light (and for the first time, got to play with a DSLR, and a 30sec. shutter. ISO 100)


So I guess what I'm really trying to say is, "Just get out there and start shooting". You just might be surprized at how much you can actually do. :thumbup
 
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My tripod should be here in a couple days so I'm gonna give it a shot as soon as I get it...I'm actually kinda exited :laughing what do you guys do about white balance? I usually just keep it on auto but recently I've been changing the settings to try and learn what works best and I read that putting it on daylight will give the best results but I shoot in raw anyways so idk if it really even matters
 
Most of mine were auto white balance. Though, I'll change it after reviewing a pic if I don't like it, of course.
 
Auto wb has no clue what it's doing in pitch black. Shoot raw and adjust wb later. If you don't have photo editing software play around with different wb presets, make note of it, and check on computer what works best. Different night lighting will need diff wb though... Light only from moon? Maybe light from nearby city? Will change wb
 
At Looking Glass in Berkeley, played around with a Leica S Digital medium format. Pretty sweet for a $27k camera... I really loved the simplicity of it, not cluttered with 100 buttons. Huge viewfinder, love the DoF you get with such huge sensor.

Still playing around with my Mamiya, real fun to use. Waiting for 15 rolls of film to come in monday...
 
found a couple warm deals on the T3i setup, as a noob if i got the kit would it hold me back on my learning curve? don't wanna hop on a literbike off the bat :p
 
That would be great first camera. Now the higher end cameras really only give more fps and better high iso (barely) and stronger build/water proof
 
I'll also wander through www.deviantart.com on a near daily basis. Even the "non-photgraphy" submissions (like 'sculpting', and 'dolls') have some pretty creative photos.

I also come from a Volkswagen background, so I check out the photography forum on www.vwvortex.com at the same kind of interval. In particular, http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?3204387-unOFFICIAL-A-Photo-A-Day-Thread and http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?4230747-Post-a-picture-related-to-the-one-above-you.

The first, started (back in 2003, now at 31,000 posts and 1.5 million views) with the idea of each contributor taking and posting a picture every single day. The mentality of course, is just to motivate yourself to actually shoot each day. With the eventual involvment of several semi-pro and pro photogs, some of the pics are REALLY great in my eye.

The second is your basic, "post a pic related to the one above" thread. With many of the same contributors as the first thread, I enjoy watching what they see in a pic, and how they 'relate' one of there own. It also makes me think about my own pics.
With some, it makes me review what I've already shot, and whether I feel it's "up to my standards" for me to contribute. And for others, they trigger a thought of, "Ooh! I'd like to contribute a pic like ________!" so I'll go out and try to create/capture the image I think would be appropriate. (Due to the progression of the thread, I don't always post those though)

Through the Vortex site, I've also seen works of several other Pro artists that are really neat, and make me want to "practice, practice, practice".
Like Andy Julia http://andy-julia-photography.com/home.htm
parisaxe1.jpg
 
im on devart but it seems like alot of ppl just use a point and shoot and most of the pics are just normal pics, nothing close to "art"
 
Part of what I'm doing is mentally separating, "snapshot" from "well composed image". It's the mental exercise of, "What did that snapshot need to make it better?" And, "Why do I like this one?" That I use these types of sites for.

After that, I'm mainly just observing the various components in a shot. I'll see a certain background, a certain lighting, or something, and that gives me ideas to try myself.
I keep my camera with me all time while I'm riding. So I tend to take a lot of landscape, flower, and "urban decay" type shots. So I always keep an eye out for how others do those things as well.

Here's one of the DA users who's style I like. http://justeline.deviantart.com/
And Sugarock99 has stuff that makes me REALLY, REALLY want to buy a rig for underwater stuff! http://www.deviantart.com/#/d3dcl37
 
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Messing around in my front yaad yesterday trying to capture a bee in mid flight. These dudes are hard to catch I tell ya!

5608542662_b68e81ba8c_b.jpg
 
Do you guys think if I use a flash that I could freeze the wings in mid flight?
 
Flash is good for freezing action. You'll need to use real small aperture and low iso, way underexpose, and use flash. On my nikon d90 with a speedlight I can shoot at faster shutter speed than my sync speed. If you have that feature I'd use it.
 
Thanks Steve, I'll give that a shot next time and see what I come up with. Not sure if I can set the shutter faster than 1/200 with the flash but I'll check the manual.
 
Normally you can't but on newer cameras with newer speedlights you can sorta fake having higher sync speed. The flash uses a lot more juice but good for freezing action/killing ambient light
 
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