Reply To: Fauxtogs are overwhelming!

[fstopper89]

@Soaringturkeys: I usually don’t adjust shutter speed first. Typically, I find the f-stop I want to shoot at, given the number of people/situation. I prefer the style of shooting wide-open as possible, in most situations (of course not landscape photography though). I feel like portraits are best done wide-open. I initially set the ISO to the type of available lighting. On a day with plenty of light I do keep it at 100 (But, thank you for the reminder, I was told once about the least amount of grain when at 160 etc… I had forgotten and now I will remember to do that when shooting on my 40D, unfortunately, when I use my Rebel, it only goes in increments of 100). If a lower ISO then compromises a decently fast shutter speed when handholding, I adjust accordingly. For portraits I don’t like to go below 1/100 but have gotten by just fine slower, but handholding when I have a heavier lens I often get some camera shake even with IS lenses. I do not like using a tripod, though I have one.

If you’re wondering why I sometimes prefer my Rebel T2i over the 40D, it is because the Rebel is 18 megapixels and the 40D is only 10. While this often doesn’t matter, I’ve wanted to make very large prints from images on the 40D and according to size charts, at the number of ppi the images are at by default, I don’t want to risk pixelation. Please, give me some insight on this if you have some. I’ve done some research but haven’t come up with a solid reason to use the 40D more. I believe it has more image sensors and is better with autofocus, and the CF cards save much quicker the SD cards the Rebel takes. It is also easier using the dials to change the f-stop and the joystick to change autofocus points without having to take the camera away from my eye, whereas the Rebel is clunky and you have to press buttons and go through menus to change some of this. I have used a 5D Mark II for a couple weddings and love the controls. I am possibly getting a used one for Christmas. It is truly amazing how little grain it produces at higher ISOs. I just cannot go up over 400 on my Rebel, whereas I shot in the church ceremonies at 1600 in some cases and it wasn’t too grainy.

@Ggjo: I get very discouraged when I see people paying $25-$50 for just terrible work. It’s like the fauxtog got a camera (some I swear are point and shoot) and did just that- pointed, and shot, then burned the disk with 100 images with absolutely no care for posing, composition, lighting, focusing, etc. Now my images certainly aren’t perfect all the time! But these are things I always pay attention to. I ask myself also “Is this what people want?” but they’re just out to make a quick buck, taking pictures of 5 people per week and just burning them a disk so they don’t have to deal with anything.