Do we have any photographers?

saw this in Sunday's Observer

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Originally Posted by Little-Miss

Oh, i learnt that tip for myself. My canon Ixus doesnt have any kind of anti-shake function on it and i haven't got the steadiest of hands so i find my canons "burst mode" helps a lot, especially with the Macros.

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I've got an IXUS - wish I could have a digital SLR camera - I would most likely be in the same situation with regards to which camera to get lol.

I don't seem to have a problem when taking photos though - press the button down half way to zoom and then press the rest of the way to take the picture :)

I've got a Little Pentax K100D. Avoided the typical old CaNikon path as I've always liked Pentax kit and I can use some REALLY old lenses with this camera.

I've had some of the best pictures I've ever taken with this camera, have also used it to shoot two weddings...it's good money if you've got the balls to do it :)

Getting a K20D this year to go with it and am seriously thinking about some part time portrait work soon.

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Originally Posted by dhicks

Depending on what you'll be taking pictures of, you might find a tripod handy - just a cheap (£20) one will probably do fine.

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The advice I've been given is that for things like long exposure work a cheapo tripod will probably not be sufficiently stable. Mine cost about £70 from Calumet and is rock solid.

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Originally Posted by jinnantonnix

I've done quite a bit of this. I bought some old projector screens (for £1 each :)), kept a few white and painted the others with some poster paint and a sponge. They make very nice backgrounds and cost next to nothing.

For lighting, I bought two second-hand Jessops Portaflash studio lights (£50 each) and a wide angle background light (to light the background and stop nasty shadows on the background)....

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Good idea for backgrounds - I've found some really good studio lighting kits for not too much money (including an infra red or radio trigger), but the cost of background frames seems a bit steep considering there's not much too it !

Where are you placing your wide andgle background light ?

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Originally Posted by jinnantonnix

OR - and this is an excellent option if your budget is tight - a 50mm f1.8 non-zoom (prime) lens. You can pick these up for peanuts and the image quality will be as good as, or better than, ANY lens (apart from, say a 50mm f1.4 = ££££)

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I have this and can't rave enough about it, especially considering it was £80. It's f/1.8, so it's perfect for getting a shallow depth of field for portraits, and for my low-light work in theatre.

I've just got the Sony A200 and I'm loving it and playing with HDR.

Here's a couple of my HDR efforts

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3156/...86d89e65ae.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3249/...db151b55b8.jpg