Photography 56k no-go zone

[brazed]

I'm sure we must have a few budding maybe even professional, photographers on these forums. Thought it would be nice to have a thread where you can showcase your work, share tips and even give some technical support (if you're able).

I bought myself a nice entry level D-SLR (Canon Rebel T2i) a few months back, but I'm starting to take it a little bit more seriously lately. I really love having a proper camera at my disposal on hikes and so on.

Anyway, I just bought myself Photoshop CS5 (extended edition). I'm lucky to still be eligible for student pricing, so I got it for just under $200. Anyway, if anyone knows of a good book to use as both a good text book and a reference book (once I've gone through it), I'll very much appreciate it. There are many books available, but I don't want to buy 17 to find the right one. Any advice?

ps. I have Lightroom 3, but Photoshop offers so much more, and apparently they work pretty well together...

[onona]

Great choice of camera. What lenses did you invest in? Even though your body is an entry level camera, it's the lenses that really count, and there's nothing stopping you from taking absolutely professional quality shots with good lenses mounted on a supposed entry level camera. People get way too hung up on megapixels and all that, when it's the glass that counts most.

You may actually find that you use Lightroom more than Photoshop for a lot of your photography stuff. Even though I also have the full CS5 and know Photoshop absolutely inside-out, I find myself using just Aperture (very similar to Lightroom) for 99% of my photography editing, not to mention that apps like Lightroom and Aperture are great for organising your photos (don't even think of using Bridge, there's simply no comparison).

Regarding a book for CS5, it's tricky to recommend one as I haven't read any Photoshop books in about ten years, but I've heard that this range is great for learning:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Photoshop-Di...4163784&sr=8-1

If you can find a Dummies Guide book for your camera, try that out too. I bought one for my camera when I bought it a year ago, and it really helped me to learn the ins and outs of the camera itself - after all, understanding everything about your camera is the first step to good photos.

You might also want to consider a short photography course. I'm lucky in that the company I worked for organised a 6 week course for us and I found that not only did I learn a lot about the technical aspects of it, but it also gave me an entirely new appreciation for photography as an artform.

I would also recommend this book just as a good overall general guide to photography in general:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Digital-Phot...4163993&sr=1-1

[brazed]

I am actually planning on attending a short course in digital photography in the next few months. Trial and error is fun, but like I said, I'm starting to take it more seriously.

Thanks for the recommendations, I'll give them a serious look-see. I only have the kit lens and a Tamron zoom (75mm to 300)lens. My next purchase will be: EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM Ultra-Wide Zoom lens from canon.

ps. My camera for those interested: Click

[Miktar]

I take a lot of amateur photographs for myself, I enjoy doing photography though I'm loath to get into the "hardware makes the photo" mindset - I live with two hardcore photographers who have like 5000 dollars worth of gear, and their photos sure look nice, but they seem so bland once you get past the technical fidelity afforded by nice hardware and lenses.

I'm one of those "the best camera is the one you have with you" kinda guys.

Personally, I just like taking photos of animals because they're so expressive, and the occasional snapshot of something I find interesting. I have a crappy little Kodak that I bought five years ago that I like, haven't really felt the urge to get something fancier until I feel my photography needs it.

[onona]

Thanks for the recommendations, I'll give them a serious look-see. I only have the kit lens and a Tamron zoom (75mm to 300)lens. My next purchase will be: EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM Ultra-Wide Zoom lens from canon.

Oooh, lovely, lovely lens. Canon's L lenses are pretty much the best lenses you can get for them, so you really can't go wrong with that. It'll be particularly nice for landscapes. You'll also find it easier to get good shots in low light due to the 2.8 aperture. You might also want to consider getting a prime lens - many people ignore them due to the fact that they're non-zooming, and yet they're very versatile regardless. The dirt cheap Canon EF 50 mm f/1.8 II lens is fabulous for portraits and shoots extraordinarily well in low light. I take mine everywhere.

I forgot another essential book recommendation: The Photographer's Eye. This is a great book for learning about composing compelling shots.

And for inspiration:

http://1x.com/

Miktar, I know what you mean about getting carried away by the technical side of it, but don't discount it entirely. Sure, the gear isn't everything (an unimaginative person will take bland photos regardless of how fancy their camera is), but it is nice to have versatile equipment at your disposal. I'm a huge fan of spontaneous snapshots (I take loads of pics on my iPhone and my small point-and-shoot Canon Powershot, even when I have my DSLR with me), but there's a great pleasure to be had from using more higher level gear too, because ultimately they give you more scope for creativity by giving you more control over your shots.

I like your shot of the guy in the minotaur suit.

I'm also a big fan of photographing animals, although I also love landscapes and architecture. I'm a particularly big fan of photographing fish.





I particularly adore black and white photography. Removing colour from an image changes the way you look at it, because you study the interplay of light and shadow, without being distracted by the colours. Here's some shots I took recently at the Vigeland statue park in Oslo. I processed them through a plugin called Silver Efex Pro, which is specifically for black and white photography and gives you massive control over the tones, especially if you shoot in Raw format.

[brazed]

Yeah I love black and white.

Some of my meager attempts the last few months:

from a moving vehicle:





one of my first:














ps. That site you linked to is AMAZING

pps. AAARRRGGGGHHH imageshack you useless ****e.

ppps. Finally.

pppps. Sorry for the large sizes, I actually did resize them.

[x-scon]

Brazed, I would suggest when taking photo's of landscapes to keep the horizon, well.. horizontal :-P
That shot of the lake with the clouds, which is very nice by the way, could very easily be fixed by just slightly rotating and cropping the photo to have straight edges again.

The little river that you photographed looks very confusing due to the angle at which you held the camera, personally I think it would have worked much better if the camera was at a straight angle. You could always experiment by just holding the camera closer to the ground or higher up etc.

The funny angles work well in some situations, like the photo of you cat on its back, because there isn't anything that could be disturbing like a horizon or the perception of gravity like with the river.

And don't worry about taking 100 photo's of the same thing and only choosing one or two at the end to actually use or share. That is the beauty of digital photography, there is virtually no cost involved in "wasted" shots. In the worst case scenario you might have missed an opportunity for something great, but apart from that there is nothing holding you back.

I am by no means an expert, my only experience in photography was a class once a week that was part of the second and third years of my Interior Design degree. Anyways, here are a couple of photo's from one of the projects we were given. We were told to study the work of Annie Leibovitz and then do our own thing.
My photo's were quite heavily edited to make the backgrounds black and white and quite blurred. Various layers of color changes were also made and "merged" to get the final result.
I also needed to sharpen some of the images quite drastically, but I can't really remember exactly why right now. This was done about two years ago...













I took around 75 photo's in 15 minutes for this project, and these 6 are the only ones I used.

[x-scon]

Here are a few close-up shots which I quite liked:















The camera that I use is a Panasonic Lumix FZ20 which my dad gave to me when he upgraded to the FZ50.

[Bonezmann]

Here are some of mine taken with with SAMSUNG ES10. Not a superhardcorepro camera, but it gets the job done.

[brazed]

I think we need to institute a 3 image limit from here on out. Otherwise we'll be swamped with pics.

[The Dash]

My current favourites: (Current being relative, i havent uploaded in weeks)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexpar...ht/4823956955/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexpar...ht/4912728816/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexpar...ht/4712007153/

I was taking much better pictures last year, but ive been too busy this year to really get into it again. I love taking photographs, but not sorting and editing them; so i have hundreds of pictures sitting on my memory cards and on my laptop, although, i do take pictures for my Residence-mainly sport- which also keeps me busy.

The specifics:
Camera: Samsung GX20
Lenses: 18-55mm and a 80-200mm

On my current wishlist is a polarizing filter, and a better telephoto lens. Current one is just too short. I would love something in the 100-400 range. Also a cleaning kit, for some reason my mirror is filthy, but i'm always so careful when changing lenses. So far, using a blower hasnt worked, nor a special brush i borrowed from a friend

[Kensei]

Good idea for a thread...

I know I should invest in a course in digital photography and, at the moment, the only editing I do on my photos is cropping (and perhaps switching a picture to black and white). To be honest I am quite content with just taking pictures ;)

I use my cute little Samsung Lumix G1 with, er, whatever lens it comes with (I think its a 14-45mm). I have a tendency to take pictures of statues with lots of negative space... perhaps because its easy :)

Here are three that I chose to upload:

[Squid]

A friend of mine is a professional photographer, check out http://www.mickywiswedel.com/.

Here is a shot from his 1x page:

[onona]

Bumpity bump because this forum needs something fresh and creative again.

So how is everyone doing? I recently started uploading pics to Flickr, to push me to start taking photos more often. Since I travel somewhere fabulous around once a month or so, I've had plenty of opportunity to take loads of photos (some of which are on my Flickr page), but I do need to start shooting around my hometown too, just for the sake of becoming more and more familiar with my camera.

My Flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/onona/

Some of my favourites:

The restaurant of the famous Gell?rt Hotel in Budapest, Hungary:



The Solfar Suncraft sculpture overlooking the harbour in Reykjavik, Iceland:



The rooftop of the Basilica Cattedrale Patriarcale di San Marco in Venice, Italy (Assassin's Creed II players will recognise it!):



The windswept, barren ?órsmörk valley in Iceland, which runs alongside the Eyjafjallaj?kull volcano which erupted last year:



The aurora borealis over Abisko in Lapland, Sweden:



And a slightly abstract view of the glass pyramid outside the Louvre in Paris, France:



You guys should also sign up to Flickr, if you haven't already. It's a great way to store and display your photos without them being compressed to **** the way Facebook does.

[Aesir]

Those are great Onona! Budav?r is my favorite.

[ioiiooio]

Hey guys, funny that this thread should revive now. I'm looking at getting a camera for a beginner, probably something affordable at entry level. Bear in mind that I do intend on taking it quite seriously as I am a graphic designer so having some good photography skills is an advantage. My budget is anywhere between R2000 - R3000 including whatever starter lenses etc I might need. I realise that's probably not going to get me much, but I think it should suffice for starters... or am I wrong and should I save up more?

Edit: all of those are really nice Onona, i was gonna pick a favourite... but I can't decide because they're all very nice.

[onona]

Thanks guys ^___^

ioiiooio, I hate to be one of those people that recommends a pile of expensive stuff that exceeds the budget stated by the original poster, but... I'm going to recommend something more expensive than your stated budget. The thing is, photography is one of those things that you'll learn and develop quickly, and if you buy a cheap camera, you'll find yourself quickly outgrowing it. My advice would be to be prepared to spend enough to buy a decent entry level camera that will give you enough to develop your photo fu with for a couple of years - in this case, something like a Canon 450D (which is what I use), or a Nikon D60. These two cameras are very similar in features and price, and ultimately it comes down to whether you want to go Canon or Nikon (the only two DSLR camera brands truly worth investing in if you're keen on photography). You can get both of these in starter packs that include kit lenses (usually in the 18-55mm range, although both of these cameras have cropped formats so these lenses won't behave as true 18-55mm, but I won't go into the intricacies of that now), although you'll want to replace that lens as soon as your wallet can manage it. I should warn you that photography is an expensive hobby, but considering you're a creative person, you'll find it immensely satisfying.

[ioiiooio]

Thanks onona, I was just talking about it with a friend now, and he pretty much confirms what you just said. Looks like more saving to do then, will make a nice Christmas gift to myself.

[Signor 65]

I've had my camera for a while now, haven't taken anything really great yet but things will improve with time. The best is just playing around with it and finding out all that it can do. I believe that that is the best way to learn.

So yeah, nothing astounding yet. There is one shot, however, which I thought was pretty cool.


When I was on a bus trip up to Joburg, we had to stop several times because of some 1-way traffic situation owing to the roads being serviced. So I took a 30 second exposure shot of the guy at the checkpoint meandering around. I thought it came out pretty cool if you don't mind me saying :D

[wisp]

I have a Kodak c713 7mp mik and druk camera , and i am a little confused about the whole megapixel think , i have tried on the net but its even more confusing.

I recently took some photos indoors with the camera set on low light at 7 mp with flash on , my photos are grainy and low quality to say the least . Unfortunately i cannot upload due to system admin limitations but would it make a difference if i lowered the megapixels or what settings should i change bearing in mind that i very seldom print my photos . Outside shots are good IMO but inside always come out krap . What am i doing wrong?