oh, don't need the 200-300, but it's soft out there anyways. I went with it because for the money it will let me play with and learn which range that I like to take pics in for a reasonable cost. a friend has this same lens, and her 16x20's are sharp as can be- no problems that I would have a problem with.
The shallow depth of field is what I want to work on tomorrow. Hopefully I'll figure it out on this camera- it's a lot more different than the old 1975 slr I had in college.
Any tips?
~jo
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formerly known as sagemama
Sage Emma 10-21-99
Torin Rory 05-05-02
Rhys Maryn 11-15-04
MacEwan Arthur 05-23-2007
ok..it is official...i took the canon rebel xt back to the store. i like the grip on the d50..it is smooth and the buttons feel natural in my hand. more natural than the canon did. i have been taking pictures of my kids on the auto focus and it's amazing. this camera is going to make me very happy i do believe!
ok..i just realized this morning..i need to get another battery...my battery is dead and i'm MISSING IMPORTANT PICTURES (ok..not really..but i'd love to be taking pics) while the battery is charging...darn.
OK, here's my quick advice for photographing kids with an SLR.
1. Ditch those long lenses. You will be so far away and be locked into such high shutter speeds! Buy the 50 mm f/1.8 -- you won't regret it, and they have great resale value if for some reason you don't like it. This lens is an amazing value for the money, and you will love your sharp images!
2. Find the light. Watch the light. Know the light! It's really all about the light. Think you have a spot that you'd like to take some pictures in? Bring a stuffed animal out and shoot it from all angles -- 360 degrees around, and from low and high too. Try this at all different times of the day and in different weather. See what looks good and what doesn't. Maybe this might not even be a good spot! Or you might discover that it's perfect after 4 pm on overcast days.
3. Learn to read your histogram, especially if you are not using a lightmeter. The histogram will tell you so much more than the LCD preview about whether your image is correctly exposed.
4. Watch your highlights. If you blow your highlights you can never get them back. If you were used to film, this is a different way of thinking and it can take a bit of getting used to.
5. Keep your apertures low so your background is thrown out of focus. To do this you really have to be spot-on with your focus, since the plane of focus can be quite narrow depending on how close you are to your subject. One thing that might help is to learn your focus points and how to move between them easily.
6. ISO - Aperture - Shutter Speed. Check them every time! It can be a real bummer if you realize you shot a whole bunch of pictures in bright light at ISO1600 since that's what you left it on last time.
7. Make it fun for your kids. Engage them, play with them, treat the session like special mama/kid time and oh take a few pictures in there while you are enjoying them. (You really have to have your camera settings nailed to do this! Nothing spoils the rapport you have with your subject if you have to interrupt your conversation to fiddle with your dials.)
I really appriciate you taking the time to write this stuff up. I am really enjoying playing with the camera and learning just what it can do. I did get the long lens, as said before because I want to play, learn and figure out what feels good to me. (and for this price I really just wanted to experiment) I am really enjoying the 18-55 it comes with.... any reason why I would prefer/want the above lens when the 50 is within this range? Just curious.. there are soooo many options it becomes difficult to even navigate!
I'm working on that 'learn your focus points, it's a little tricky trying to remember not to always just center everything! The results are worth it though
What mode do you normally shoot in?
Any book recomendations? I personally learn well from printed matter...
Or perhaps an online tut site that you like?
I was so excited, yesterday my great aunt mentioned that she wanted to get a group photo and my dad volunteered that he had a tripod from his 1974 nikon slr. He brought it up from the house and let me keep it here so we were able to get a full family picture!! I even figured out the timer feature I think I may actually get a record of the whole family this christmas!
Jo, that's the one! There are two reasons it is preferable over the kit for portraits. One is the sharpness. The other is the lower aperture available. Your kit can only go to f/3.5-5.6 right? You can get so much more light with a f/1.8 than f/5.6, and at f/5.6 you can't get that blurred out background most of the time. I would definitely recommend the USA lens over the imported, since the USA lens will be covered by warranty. The kit lens is fine, really, but it can be frustrating since you can't achieve the results you may want with it. (Although it's certainly not limiting you the way a 70-300 would!) One kind of fun benefit of the 50 is that it's so light and tiny -- it makes it much easier to grab the camera and bring it along to places you might have thought twice about it before.
Focus points are really hard to master when you are trying to manage all the other buttons and settings. I would concentrate on your exposure first and then move onto focusing.
I shoot in manual with my light meter all of the time. My results are so much better than using the in-camera meter. If I don't have my meter, I put it in apterture priority mode, fill the frame with the subject and get a reading, and then dial it in manually. And even with all that I am adjusting on the fly based on my histogram.
i need to get a bag for my camera and probably a lens or two....rosemary, jo...what do you have? need something big enough but not a suitcase...yk (hard to tell shopping online)
Location: email me if you want to stay in touch - madhousemauly@gmail.com
Posts: 15,641
julie - can i ask did you see any difference in the 8mp of the rebel and the 6 of the nikon d50?
i got to use my FiLs canon eos 20d (he is a professional photographer, specializes in wedding and portrait photography) today and was just so happy using that one (the fact that the rebels have been compared to the 20d in overall picture quality had me happy) but after reading some reviews about the d50 compared to the rebel, has me wondering. is it just the lenses? i saw a lot about the nikon lense being better out of the box. but if its jsut lenses then i dont really worry about that so much (my FiL has an endless supply of lenses i can use for the rebel). i specialize in building and landscape photography, if that makes any difference.
also, did they let you return the rebel with no questions? i would love to be able to get both for a day in the field to see which i like better
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