DSLR Help

[RabbieBurns]

Ive been given a Canon EOS 40D camera and I have no idea how to use it.

 

Is there any online tutorials on how to use this. I know you can do a whole college degree in photography but Im just looking to be able to take some nice shots.

 

At the moment when its on Auto the photos dont look any better than my cheapy $100 sony point and shoot.

[plexer]

Aperture and shutter priority are the 2 modes you want to look into.

 

Otherwise use the mode selectors for portrait, sport etc... to at least give the camera an idea of what you're pointing it at.

 

Ben

[Arthur]

This guide may be a good starting point...

 

Photography Tutorial: A Quick Guide to Understanding Your DSLR Camera « Kevin & Amanda

[RabbieBurns]

Thanks that looks very useful. I want to be able to take photos of waves and stars and stuff so the info about long exposure helps. Will post my results for you all to laugh at

[RabbieBurns]

Took about 1000 photos this afternoon and managed to get these couple. I still had to go into photoshop afterwards and adjust the white balance to 'auto':

 

 

 

On Saturday Im going on a helicopter tour of the city, its forecast for a bright sunny day. What setting would I put it on to take photos of the city sky line, buildings, sea, etc?

[Love_Sausage]

I can highly recommend this book, it was recommended to me and it got my head around exposure and the balance between shutter and aperture:

 

Understanding Exposure, 3rd Edition: How to Shoot Great Photographs with Any Camera: Amazon.co.uk: Bryan Peterson: Books

 

As for your helicopter ride, shutter priority mode might be the way to go, keep the shutter speed as high as you can without underexposing the photographs to minimise movement blur.

 

Also, once you get into your camera more you will want to consider shooting in RAW and getting more in depth with editing using Adobe Lightroom or Aperture. The difference it can make to that one picture in the hundred you took that you actually like can be huge.

Edited March 21, 2013 by Love_Sausage

[RabbieBurns]

the file format at the moment is .CR2

 

How do I make it RAW ?

[LosOjos]

When I started out in photography, I found flickr to be an incredibly useful resource. You can search for photos similar to what you have in mind, then view the EXIF information to see what aperture, shutter speed and ISO the photographer used. I found that invaluable in improving my own skills. There are also a ton of groups you can join focusing on every subject you can imagine, and if you put the time in finding good, active groups then you can learn a lot from conversation there too.

 

Another book recommendation is this one: Collins Complete Photography Course: Amazon.co.uk: John Garrett, Graeme Harris: Books

It's laid out as though you were studying a course in photography (even has projects for you to do) and will teach you all the core concepts. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

[LosOjos]

the file format at the moment is .CR2

 

How do I make it RAW ?

 

CR2 is RAW. Each manufacturer has their own file format for RAW, that is Canon's (I own a 40D too)

[Neil-Millgate]

I found this forum to be massivly helpful - www.talkphotography.co.uk/

 

Pros and amateurs alike all willing to share tips and tutorials for you.

 

To be fair, with the helicopter ride, stick it in auto and let it do the work. You just focus on composition of the shots. You will enjoy the flight a lot more and getting composition right is more important early on than learning about f stops and dof.

[pcstru]

Some good info already. My arbitrary tips :

 

1. Get a tripod. Use it.

2. Experiment but take notes (you need to remember what you were doing - so you can see the difference). i.e. stick camera on tripod and take 10 photos of a subject altering the aperture a stop at a time.

3. Clarity/Sharpness relies on three factors : Most important is the lens (glass). There is some rubbish out there that will never give you a sharp picture (sometimes that can be a good thing - in portraiture, people generally aren't impressed by detailed reproduction of their skin pores). Most glass is really sharp only at particular apertures - usually stopped down a bit. It's worth experimenting with your lens to see where this is. Second is movement, a tripod will generally eliminate it as a factor but always be wary of large 'zoom' in low light. The last and least important factor is the actual focus.

4. Establish a procedure - Get camera out, switch on, check settings; Quality, ISO, Whitebalance, shutter mode etc. The aim is that you never come back from a difficult shot (dangling 200ft off a cliff only to discover later that you were shooting at ISO 25 with a custom white balance suitable only for blue led's).

5. For night shots of stars or the moon, google "barn door mount".

6. Take lot's of pictures!

[pantscat]

Here's a tip - don't use auto, or the flash will keep randomly popping up when you least want it to. Stick it on "P" instead (same as auto, but with no auto-flash)... take loads of snaps, pick out the ones you like most and then look at the EXIF data - from here you'll start to see the correlation between the aperture and shutter speed and the effects it has on an image.

 

As someone else has already said Talk Photography™ is a very useful resource. Personally I did a two-day getting started course about two years ago which was really useful to get up and running.

 

Also - get a copy of Lightroom - if you're shooting in RAW (cr2) then the images will likely look quite "flat" without some sort of processing. This is one of the most important things I learned... subtle post-processing can make an average image look rather acceptable.

[JJonas]

I like the first picture with the blurred water over the rocks (caused by a slower shutter speed) get a tripod or a bean bag and try using a slower shutter speed to get similar shots with things that are moving.

 

if you are hand holding and don’t want a blurred photo as a rule of thumb don’t use a shutter speed lower than the maximum focal length of the lens you have attached.

 

some links

 

Rule of thirds - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Golden Section and Rule of Thirds (Golden Mean, Golden Ratio, Golden Spiral, Golden Proportion, Golden Triangles).

 

Canon EOS 40D Online Manual (1/11) - YouTube

 

40D Owners manual pdf

Edited March 21, 2013 by JJonas

[sted]

Here's a tip - don't use auto, or the flash will keep randomly popping up when you least want it to.

 

i shoved a hotshoe mount spirit level there that stops the flash lol

[RabbieBurns]

Thanks some really good advice. Ill print off the manaul tomorrow.

 

Ive already got a tripod, those waves shots were using the tripod, the ISO set to auto, and then experimenting with various settings for whatever the other numbers are.

 

Just took some off my balcony, these ones seemed to turn out quite well with long exposure. Its cloudy tonight so no stars to look for.

 

 

Im going to set my alarm early and see if I can get some nice sunrise photos.

[MYK-IT]

Great Camera! I have the Canon EOS 50D.

 

As others have said, just read books, online forums and basically snap away and experiment. The beauty of digital photography!

 

I am still at amateur level, but finally got my head around the basics of aperture (f – AV) and exposure (TV), then when you have that clear in your mind. Move onto ISO. Just never used the camera in AUTO!

 

Once you get addicted (which you will!) Lens make a huge difference depending on what you subject area will be taking ohotos in (portrait, landscape, sports). If doing sports, high shutter speed will come into it, but as less light will enter the sensor, a bigger aperture is required. So more expensive lens (F4, F2.8 etc.) are required.

 

If you haven’t got the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 mkii Lens already, get it! You won’t be disappointment. Fantastic lens for the money. About £99 new, or £50-60 second hand.

 

Buy Canon EF 50mm f/1.8II Standard Lens online at John Lewis

Ffordes Photographic

 

I am currently using a 24-105mm f4 L IS lens, it’s a very popular, and amazing all-rounder lens (although not cheap ~£600 second hand!)

[pcstru]

Those look pretty good. For long exposure on a tripod you can eliminate some risk of camera shake by using the self timer to trigger the shot instead of pressing the release. Use different ISO settings to allow you to test different apertures to see if/how that is affecting sharpness.

[LosOjos]

Ive already got a tripod, those waves shots were using the tripod, the ISO set to auto, and then experimenting with various settings for whatever the other numbers are.

 

This may not be a concern right now, but later down the road you might remember this. The Canon 40D, when set to auto ISO, will never use an ISO less than 400. Unfortunately, ISO 400 is about the limit of the camera before you start getting quite noticeable noise in your shots. The higher the ISO, the quicker you can make an exposure (good for low light situations or fast moving subjects) but the more grain you'll get. ISO 100 is the lowest ISO the 40D is capable of and that will produce the cleanest images. When using a tripod, unless you need a faster shutter because you want to "freeze" the action, ISO 100 will be fine.

 

Another recommendation, if you have an Android device, is this app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.theotino.photography

It isn't free (I don't think it's expensive though) but I found it very handy in the early days.

[RabbieBurns]

How do you do a really long exposure eg stars moving across the sky? this seems to have a highest setting of 30 which is what that 2nd photo was taken in that has the car headlights as a long stream of light, but I imagine for stars etc it would need to be a lot longer?

 

Also, if i was to shoot fireworks in the sky, what kind of settings would I want for that?

[JJonas]

How to Photograph Star Trails: The Ultimate Guide

 

http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-photograph-fireworks

[pcstru]

How do you do a really long exposure eg stars moving across the sky? this seems to have a highest setting of 30 which is what that 2nd photo was taken in that has the car headlights as a long stream of light, but I imagine for stars etc it would need to be a lot longer?

 

Also, if i was to shoot fireworks in the sky, what kind of settings would I want for that?

 

Isn't there a Bulb setting? Should show up on manual if you keep selecting for a longer exposure time it eventually reads "B" for bulb. That will keep the shutter open as long as you hold the button (an external cable release is useful as you can lock it in position).

 

[EDIT - actually, it may be "B" on the settings dial]!

Edited March 21, 2013 by pcstru

[PyROm]

When I was learning with a 40d and stuck at home I put a coke can in the shower and played about with shutter priority to change between freezing the water droplets to getting a smooth flow. I found it useful later on when I was photographing streams and waterfalls. Also it gave me a lot of practice at balancing iso/shutter/aperture to cope with the lowish light levels where my shower is.

 

I normally use a remote release when tripod mounting my camera. They can be picked up cheap off ebay for £9 ish and you can get slightly more expensive ones that can be set up to automatically trigger the camera ever x seconds etc. for doing time lapse. If your photographing the moon with a long lens I would look at using mirror lockup which moves the mirror on the first press, then takes a picture on the second press, reducing any vibration from the mirror moving.

 

From memory with the 40d you keep scrolling past to 30" and BulB is displayed on the top lcd display then you really need a remote release, which you hold the shutter button down for as long as you want the exposure to last for.

[Arthur]

if you have an Android device

Another useful app for Canon DSLRs is DSLR Controller.

[PICNIC]

I got into Astrophotography recently and I would highly recommend BackYardEOS amazing for taking LE shots without the need for a separate remote shutter and you can set up a sequence of shots very easily.

[LosOjos]

I got into Astrophotography recently and I would highly recommend BackYardEOS amazing for taking LE shots without the need for a separate remote shutter and you can set up a sequence of shots very easily.

 

Looks very interesting, but I want to punch whoever came up with the blurb for their website, "-- bar none" is not a valid end to every sentence!