These were all taken on my 50mm f/1.8 lens with shutter speeds ranging from about 1/200-1/400, f/2.2-2.5, and ISOs at 200 (I think 400 for the fireplace shot). Are you starting to learn who the easiest person to photograph in the family is?
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
This Week's Favorites
These are some of my very most favorite shots. I took these all just over the past couple days. Although I did have to make just very minor white balance and exposure tweaks in Lightroom, all of these shots came straight out of the camera looking pretty good. What a great feeling. I think everything is finally starting to make more sense. I feel like I've learned a lot in just the past 2 1/2 weeks (I hope my pictures show some kind of progress). Now if only I could shoot this quality more consistently!
These were all taken on my 50mm f/1.8 lens with shutter speeds ranging from about 1/200-1/400, f/2.2-2.5, and ISOs at 200 (I think 400 for the fireplace shot). Are you starting to learn who the easiest person to photograph in the family is?
These were all taken on my 50mm f/1.8 lens with shutter speeds ranging from about 1/200-1/400, f/2.2-2.5, and ISOs at 200 (I think 400 for the fireplace shot). Are you starting to learn who the easiest person to photograph in the family is?
Friday, April 16, 2010
Should You Buy an SLR Camera?
Several people have asked me lately if I think they should get an SLR camera. Here's what I would tell you if you are considering getting your first SLR camera...
Everyone is on a different level concerning their photography skills and knowledge, but as a rule of thumb I would not recommend you get an SLR camera until you are fully comfortable using your point-and-shoot in full manual mode (where you set your own aperture, shutter speed, and ISO). Generally, you should never buy new photography equipment until you are feeling limited by the capabilities of your current equipment. Just buying new equipment will not make you a better photographer.
I first started getting into photography about 5 years ago. I just wanted to be able to take better pictures that looked a little more professional. I wanted to be able to shoot in natural light without a flash, even indoors, to get softer images that didn't have such harsh shadows from a direct flash. So I started reading everything I could, got books from the library, spent hours on website tutorials and online class videos, and learned how to really take advantage of all the manual features on my point-and-shoot. I continued to learn how to set things manually on my point-and-shoot and practiced composition, until I really started feeling limited by my point-and-shoot. Like most point-and-shoots, mine only had 2 f-stops (2.8 and 5.6), a rather small range of shutter speeds (only up to 1/1000--not terribly bad), and a small ISO selection (100, 200, or 400). I wanted to create more depth of field and get more into portrait photography, so I finally felt like I knew enough and was ready for an SLR and "portrait" lens (50mm f/1.8 to really be able to narrow my depth of field). Point-and-shoots also don't come with aperture priority or shutter priority modes, which I really wanted to be able to shoot in, so again, I felt ready for an SLR.
If you have no knowledge of exposure and how to set aperture, shutter speed, and ISO to all work together under a variety of circumstances, I would suggest you first learn how to do all that on your point-and-shoot in manual mode because it only becomes more necessary on an SLR. SLRs do have an automatic mode, but SLRs in auto mode will still only give you the same quality of pictures as a point-and-shoot in auto mode.
As for how difficult it is to learn how to use an SLR camera, even once you have a knowledge of how to use aperture, shutter speed, and ISO to get a correctly exposed picture, it still took me a good 3 hours or so to learn how my specific camera works. There are lots of features that are just a bit different on each camera, so I had to learn exactly how to set my white balance, toggle my focal points, set my method of focus, meter for light, etc, in addition to just learning how to set and quickly change aperture, shutter speed, and ISO.
So if you really want to improve your photography skills, first learn how to take full advantage of your point-and-shoot, gain all the knowledge you can about photography, and then once you feel your point-and-shoot is limiting you, take the plunge and get an SLR camera. Then, once you're feeling limited by your standard kits lens, go ahead and get a new lens that will let you do more with the area of photography you're interested in, whether that's a large aperture lens for great depth of field in portraits like I got, or a long telephoto lens for wildlife or anything in between. But just remember that new equipment alone doesn't make for better photos--you've got to know how to use it to it's full capabilities!
Everyone is on a different level concerning their photography skills and knowledge, but as a rule of thumb I would not recommend you get an SLR camera until you are fully comfortable using your point-and-shoot in full manual mode (where you set your own aperture, shutter speed, and ISO). Generally, you should never buy new photography equipment until you are feeling limited by the capabilities of your current equipment. Just buying new equipment will not make you a better photographer.
I first started getting into photography about 5 years ago. I just wanted to be able to take better pictures that looked a little more professional. I wanted to be able to shoot in natural light without a flash, even indoors, to get softer images that didn't have such harsh shadows from a direct flash. So I started reading everything I could, got books from the library, spent hours on website tutorials and online class videos, and learned how to really take advantage of all the manual features on my point-and-shoot. I continued to learn how to set things manually on my point-and-shoot and practiced composition, until I really started feeling limited by my point-and-shoot. Like most point-and-shoots, mine only had 2 f-stops (2.8 and 5.6), a rather small range of shutter speeds (only up to 1/1000--not terribly bad), and a small ISO selection (100, 200, or 400). I wanted to create more depth of field and get more into portrait photography, so I finally felt like I knew enough and was ready for an SLR and "portrait" lens (50mm f/1.8 to really be able to narrow my depth of field). Point-and-shoots also don't come with aperture priority or shutter priority modes, which I really wanted to be able to shoot in, so again, I felt ready for an SLR.
If you have no knowledge of exposure and how to set aperture, shutter speed, and ISO to all work together under a variety of circumstances, I would suggest you first learn how to do all that on your point-and-shoot in manual mode because it only becomes more necessary on an SLR. SLRs do have an automatic mode, but SLRs in auto mode will still only give you the same quality of pictures as a point-and-shoot in auto mode.
As for how difficult it is to learn how to use an SLR camera, even once you have a knowledge of how to use aperture, shutter speed, and ISO to get a correctly exposed picture, it still took me a good 3 hours or so to learn how my specific camera works. There are lots of features that are just a bit different on each camera, so I had to learn exactly how to set my white balance, toggle my focal points, set my method of focus, meter for light, etc, in addition to just learning how to set and quickly change aperture, shutter speed, and ISO.
So if you really want to improve your photography skills, first learn how to take full advantage of your point-and-shoot, gain all the knowledge you can about photography, and then once you feel your point-and-shoot is limiting you, take the plunge and get an SLR camera. Then, once you're feeling limited by your standard kits lens, go ahead and get a new lens that will let you do more with the area of photography you're interested in, whether that's a large aperture lens for great depth of field in portraits like I got, or a long telephoto lens for wildlife or anything in between. But just remember that new equipment alone doesn't make for better photos--you've got to know how to use it to it's full capabilities!
Thursday, April 1, 2010
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