Beginner here. Please let me know what you think

[Stefany0219]

Would you mind sharing it?

[dont.care]

http://s16.postimage.org/6ttro7bed/tulip_uned.jpg

[Stefany0219]

Beautiful! Now, what do you shoot with? And what lens was this shot taken with?

[dont.care]

5d III, 100mm f/2.8L macro

[Stefany0219]

Now, would you recommend picking up a macro in the future if I’m only planning on shooting portraits?

[dont.care]

100mm is actually a pretty nice portrait lens

[dont.care]

with your camera, any lens you buy you have to compensate for the fact that you would technically be buying 100mm but you’d achieve an actual focal length of 160mm.. You have to take that into consideration unless you buy a FF camera

 

just remember to multiply the focal length x 1.6 and there you’ll have it

[Stefany0219]

Ok.  Thank you! Just with the forum today I feel like I already know more about my little canon rebel than I did before 🙂

[dont.care]

Hell, we didn’t even go over half of it!

Here’s a concept you can try if you have a hotshoe flash that has an TTL feature

Set your aperture to your desired depth of field/properly exposed subject, and you can dial down the ambient light with the shutter speed =P (fyi)

Rear curtain sync is fun too, but you have to use AE lock so you don’t preflash your subject or set your flash to manual mode..

all kinds of shit with photography

 

[Stefany0219]

Cool.  Thanks.  I’ll have to try that

[cameraclicker]

Wow!  This has been running all day!

Someone previously said a photo was taken with 50 mm lens, 1/60th sec and a flash, and the discussion was that the shutter speed was too slow.  Two quick points:  I’m old enough to have owned SLR’s that had 1/60th as the sync speed!  And, light from a flash lasts about 1/1000th, so while anything lit by ambient might blur, the subject lit by the flash should be pretty sharp.  That is the principle behind the fad for wedding shots at the end of the reception.  Set shutter to a second or two, set the flash to second curtain, press the shutter release and pan or rotate the camera, or both.  It gives light trails and fairly sharp people, and impresses the non-photographer customers.

[Thom]

Don’t over think it and shoot what you feels looks good. Want to get really good really fast? Shoot film. This teaches you to trust yourself. Digital is hurting so many people. I hate it with a passion. In fact, get an oatmeal box, and make a pinhole camera. Basics.

[cameraclicker]

Want to get really good really fast? Shoot film. This teaches you to trust yourself. Digital is hurting so many people.

I disagree.  Anyone who wants to learn will learn faster with instant feedback.  Even if you develop your own film, you shoot the rest of the roll then spend an hour developing and printing.  Digital lets you see the image a second after you shoot it, and provides lots of additional information beyond just the image.  Digital also takes notes for you.  Months later you can go back and see what the shutter speed was, if you used flash, what metering mode you used.  You only get that information with film if you keep a notebook with meticulous notes.  If you use a lab and shoot prints, you have no idea what your photo looked like because the lab gave you prints manipulated the way they felt was best.  Finally, cost is a factor.  When you shoot digital, the incremental cost of a frame is almost non-existent.  When you shoot film the cost is somewhere between $0.50 and $2.00 (it may vary more with currency and market factors).  When shooting is almost free you tend to shoot more, and the more you shoot, the more you learn, if you are trying different things.

[Thom]

I find that to not be the case with digital shooters. They set it to auto everything and let it run. IF they decide to take down the information and learn from it, AWESOME. Most of the time, they’re just happy with the results and move on. Click. Look. Erase. Adjust. Click. Look. Erase. Adjust. I’ve seen this repeatedly.

My stance was just that they keep it simple starting out. You’ve assumed that the shooter really cares about the WHY they shoot (as I do too, and hopefully there is truth there).

Have you noticed the amount of images that are just posted and critiqued which are missing real database info to even help the poster? The cost of shooting film (yes has risen as is developing). But, I think that would slow most down to consider the frame they’re trying to capture. And make every frame count. I’ve learned the most by failure. Being able to fail at photography should set most in the right direction. Digital doesn’t seem to allow one to fail (unless, of course like true fauxtogs, they’ve reached their most awesome-ness and are willing to watermark it and hand it out to the public.

For the most part, people get digital so they wouldn’t have to learn the rest. Composition-wise…yes, I see your point. However, I can’t begin to tell you how many I see who get a mid-sized zoom and wonder what the focal length has to do with composition and what it does to subject. Grading and lighting…forget it. People want convenience. Furthermore, SD cards are super-cheap as are hard drives. How many people are truly cognizant of keeping themselves really organized so that their files aren’t lost to crashed drives?  Backing up a backup or a backup so that they will have that information in the future.

Recently I had a hard drive crash…luckily I’ve had neg filed away.

I’m sure you’ve had time to read some of the post that have people who work in the world critique their work. I’m not sure how many stop to talk about fill side, in ratio to hot side. There was one who touched on focal length to separate her subject from background (which was interesting to read…thank God she cared). For the most part it seems the reason there are disastrous digital fauxtog shooters are the unlimited bells & whistles with digital that they LOVE applying to their shots which they wouldn’t dare try in film.

I’m still confused about why people would post images that are clearly blurry.

[Thom]

One last point, I live and work in Los Angeles, so I have the benefit of world class labs and a support system that doesn’t start a sentence with “why are you still shooting film?” I hope people have access as well, but if you don’t…I forget that as film is dwindling, this is a difficult option to go with. I just hope most who want to do it professionally would love the what and why they do it enough to research voraciously the craft. As the OP has.

Again, even in my 30’s (and 15 years of developing my own neg), I am still learning the characteristics of film. And the magic that seems absent in digital.

I love it.

[Author]

Posts