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Digital Disasta

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Ok, first I'm new to the forum so I guess I'll start with who I am. I'm 23 year old graphic designer living in NYC. For extra money on the weekends I DJ at a few different clubs in the area (Progressive House, Tribal, Hardstyle). I have recently been playing with my sh!tty digital camera a lot and I decided I would like to get more into Photography. I have been using Adobe Lightroom with some of my pictures recently to see what I can do with them, and I do like Lightroom so far. Other programs I use are: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Modo, Cinema 4D, Flash and Dreamweaver. I also produce Progressive House, Tribal, and Hardstyle and I use mostly Cubase 4 (if anyone here knows Music production).

Ok so onto my question. I am looking to buy a Camera within the next week. Nothing serious, something to start me off on the right foot. I know SLR cameras are a lot of money, so I was thinking of just getting a decent camera for the time being, just to make sure I really want to get into this. This is the camera I was thinking about getting:

http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/product.asp?product=1268&fl=4


Any comments or help would be great!
 
The Olympus looks to be a good buy for the money, but if you are like a lot of people I know, you will use it for a few weeks, get the bug and want a DSLR. It's up to you if you want it, or you can wait until you have a bit more cash and buy a cheap DSLR.
 
These "superzooms" are good cameras when you want something more than a P&S and less than a dSLR. I had one for about a year before I "got the bug" and absolutely HAD to have a dSLR. These are a good way to figure out if you really want to get into photography.
 
Well I did a little more research on the camera and found that it has pretty bad shutter lag. Compaired to lower end DSLR cameras its over a half a second. Is this something I should worry about now, or should I just buy it, and see if I really want to get into it? I did find a Rebel XT online for $410, but I really don't know what it comes with or anything. The website did say it came with one lens, but does it come with batteries, flash cards or anything else? I mean if I can get a ok SLR for a 100 bucks more, why not? Opinions?
 
Check www.resellerratings.com before you buy any DSLR for $410. ;)

Ok, so I was looking at that site, and found a Rebel XT for cheaper. I'm gonna have to think about what I want to do. I'm kinda stuck being that I really don't know what I'm talking about right now. Photography has always interested me, and being that I do a lot of graphic desgin, it would be great to use my own photos in my work instead of relying on other people and stock websites.
 
If you want to get into photography a bit more and see whether you like it enough to really commit, (read: $$$$) I would offer you my Olympus C-750 UZ for $175 shipped. It offers full manual control and a nice long, sharp zoom lens. Google it.

Otherwise, save up about six hundo to start, and plan on spending another $400-600 shortly thereafter to get some lenses.
 
If you want to get into photography a bit more and see whether you like it enough to really commit, (read: $$$$) I would offer you my Olympus C-750 UZ for $175 shipped. It offers full manual control and a nice long, sharp zoom lens. Google it.

Otherwise, save up about six hundo to start, and plan on spending another $400-600 shortly thereafter to get some lenses.

Well, here's the deal. Like I said before, I do graphic design. Instead of me looking through stock photos, or waiting on other people to get back to me with pictures, I would like to do it myself. The only problem is it's not as easy as just pushing a button. Maybe if someone could mention a good book of basics and as I'm reading, experiment with a camera, I might be better off. I feel like not only will photography help my work a lot, but I think I'll have fun doing it, unless I get frustrated and throw the camera down the block lol.

I do have a camera now, but the quality is such crap. It's a kodak Easy Share DX??? (I'm at work so I don't remember off the top of my head). I have tried to edit some of the photos in Lightroom/Photoshop, but any adjustments I make, I feel like the noise level is way to high, it just starts to show. Plus, the shutter lag on the camera is pretty bad, that's one thing that gets me mad. When I go into manual mode and start playing with the settings I find that I always need a extremly slow shutter speed to get a decent picture (like around 1/4, or 0.5 sometimes) even with a f/stop of 4. Doing this will give me a good picture indoors (in my apt mostly), but if I don't keep the camera dead still you all know what will happen. These settings on a decent camera I am assuming will be overexposed to no end, or maybe not, idk.
 
I have tried to edit some of the photos in Lightroom/Photoshop, but any adjustments I make, I feel like the noise level is way to high, it just starts to show.

Well, forgive me if you know this already, but the first rule of photo editing is to not edit JPEGs much. First, save them as TIFFs, which are uncompressed, and won't result in as much lost data and noisiness. When you're done, you can save them again as JPEGs to save space on the old hard drive.

Plus, the shutter lag on the camera is pretty bad, that's one thing that gets me mad.
This somewhat has to do with the way autofocus cameras work. When you press the shutter release part-way down, the camera focuses and sets the exposure. Then, when you push it the rest of the way down, it trips the shutter. If you push it down all the way in one motion, it still has to focus & set the exposure, which can take a bit of time. It is faster on SLR cameras and with adequate light, but there are still a lot of steps in the process. If you work with this process instead of being frustrated by it, it isn't so bad. Focus & take exposure, THEN shoot.


When I go into manual mode and start playing with the settings I find that I always need a extremly slow shutter speed to get a decent picture (like around 1/4, or 0.5 sometimes) even with a f/stop of 4. Doing this will give me a good picture indoors (in my apt mostly), but if I don't keep the camera dead still you all know what will happen. These settings on a decent camera I am assuming will be overexposed to no end, or maybe not, idk.
Yeah, the smaller point & shoot cameras often have slow lenses, which means you need to either increase the sensitivity (ISO), use a longer shutter speed, or both. Even on SLRs with fast lenses, a tripod is often necessary for sharp pictures indoors without flash.
 
I came from the same position as you. I was a graphic designer, and got tired of searching for stock photos. I wanted to make my own textures and what not. I started with a really cheap digital p&s and before you know it, I was hooked completely into photography. That was about 7 years ago. If you want to get the most out of your P&S right now, get a tripod, manually set the ISO to the lowest possible, manually set the white balance accordingly, and use the self timer to trigger the shutter.

If you decide to get a digital SLR, you will greatly increase the quality of your pictures, and your creative freedom. Don't be fooled though. dSLRs are not inherently more sensitive to light. An exposure of f/4 and 1/4 on your p&s will give you the same exposure at the same ISO on a dSLR. The benefit to the dSLR is that you can get better lenses that open to to 2.8, or even 1.8, and the higher ISO are much more usable.

A book on photography basics would be very smart. I always recommend books by John Hedgecoe, and you can find them at amazon.com. One of his photography basics, or complete guide to, would be good.
 
Well, forgive me if you know this already, but the first rule of photo editing is to not edit JPEGs much. First, save them as TIFFs, which are uncompressed, and won't result in as much lost data and noisiness. When you're done, you can save them again as JPEGs to save space on the old hard drive.

Ok not to start anything being that I am new here and all, but if your camera takes JPEGs, that's it. When you take the picture, it is already compressed, you can't do anything about it. When you export, your exporting a compressed file, now if you make it a TIFF, your only changing extention, you can't decompress a JPEG. Think of it this way:

When you take a uncompressed wave file, and make it into a mp3, their is a formula that the program does to take the high peaks of frequencies, and the low peaks of the frequencies and take them away for ever (this is how the file size is taken down to basiclly nothing). Now your mp3 player has the other half of the code to "add back the peaks", but if you listen with studio monitors, it adds so much digital noise to the track (it also depends on kbps 48, 92, 128, 160, 192 etc..). You never get the original song back, it's distorted forever, you can't decompress a mp3 back to a wav. Can you make it a wav? Yes, does it have the quality again? No, your just making the file big for no reason.

This is why RAW images are such a big deal, because its the REAL image, it's not compressed, hence the file size. If you could decompress images, RAW format wouldn't mean anything, everyone would say "OK, big deal...you can do the same with JPEG and the size is smaller", not the case.

I came from the same position as you. I was a graphic designer, and got tired of searching for stock photos. I wanted to make my own textures and what not. I started with a really cheap digital p&s and before you know it, I was hooked completely into photography. That was about 7 years ago. If you want to get the most out of your P&S right now, get a tripod, manually set the ISO to the lowest possible, manually set the white balance accordingly, and use the self timer to trigger the shutter.

If you decide to get a digital SLR, you will greatly increase the quality of your pictures, and your creative freedom. Don't be fooled though. dSLRs are not inherently more sensitive to light. An exposure of f/4 and 1/4 on your p&s will give you the same exposure at the same ISO on a dSLR. The benefit to the dSLR is that you can get better lenses that open to to 2.8, or even 1.8, and the higher ISO are much more usable.

A book on photography basics would be very smart. I always recommend books by John Hedgecoe, and you can find them at amazon.com. One of his photography basics, or complete guide to, would be good.

I will play with my camera a bit and see what kind of stuff I can get out of it. My white ballance kind of s!cks, because it has four presets and thats it, and I don't think I can turn it off. I also went on amazon.com and looked a few books that Hedgecoe wrote, I'll prob pick up one or two (they're extremely cheap, I found a few for under 2 bucks). Thanks for the info!
 
Ok not to start anything being that I am new here and all, but if your camera takes JPEGs, that's it. When you take the picture, it is already compressed, you can't do anything about it. When you export, your exporting a compressed file, now if you make it a TIFF, your only changing extention, you can't decompress a JPEG.
Yes, I know. It's already compressed, and so it is inferior to a RAW file or TIFF to begin with.

However... when you start editing, every operation you do to a JPEG file, the JPEG loses more and more data. This isn't the case with a TIFF or RAW file. Do the editing, then save as JPEG when you're done, and you lose nothing.

Do multiple edits to a JPEG, and :thumbdown: :confused: :grumpy: :(
 
Here's something out of left field, you can get a used Nikon or mid-level Canon (sorry, I can't get over how much a rebel 350 feels like a toy) with a 50mm lens of good quality (around a 75mm equiv. in 35mm film) And if you decide you don't like photography, they hold their value and you can sell your rig with out much loss at all.

mike

P.S. Try it, you will find you have a voice you never knew you had.
 
Yes, I know. It's already compressed, and so it is inferior to a RAW file or TIFF to begin with.

However... when you start editing, every operation you do to a JPEG file, the JPEG loses more and more data. This isn't the case with a TIFF or RAW file. Do the editing, then save as JPEG when you're done, and you lose nothing.

Do multiple edits to a JPEG, and :thumbdown: :confused: :grumpy: :(

Well for this, I have one answer...Non-Distructive image editing. This is another huge improvement to image editing software. Lightroom and Aperture are already ND. If you use Photoshop for your image editing, make a copy of the original image layer and lock it (the first thing they teach you in Graphic Design class). One other thing you might want to do is instead of making all the changes to the image layer, you can make effect layers and you can stack them like image layers. This way you get all the effects you want, and you can delete, edit, change, and move around all your effects and not worry about your original image. Making multiple edits to one JPEG is rediculous. Make a .psd file copy the original image layer, lock it, and you'll always have it. You can make as many copies of the file, or drag the layer or layers to a new .psd and start from there.

Here's something out of left field, you can get a used Nikon or mid-level Canon (sorry, I can't get over how much a rebel 350 feels like a toy) with a 50mm lens of good quality (around a 75mm equiv. in 35mm film) And if you decide you don't like photography, they hold their value and you can sell your rig with out much loss at all.

mike

P.S. Try it, you will find you have a voice you never knew you had.

I have decided to grab the Olympus SP-510UZ I think (the one in my first post). I found it for under 250. I need to make sure this is something I'm going to be able to do. I am ordering 2 of the books Mat mentioned before, and I am going to read the books, and at the same time, go out and practice what I'm learning. I think doing it this way would be my best bet. If I do enjoy Photography as much as I think I will, I will upgrade to a SLR, but to just buy one off the bat, I think will be rediculous. Hopefully I'll be able to post some pictures some where on the forum, and I can get some feedback from people to see if I'm on the right track.
 

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