Bought this crap to take pictures of the kiddo

[TWX]

Actually I like taking pictures, took some photography classes in high school in the nineties on a Pentax, much prefer digital and instant feedback if the results are any good.

I've been shooting as a light hobby with a Canon EOS Rebel XS since around 2011. After our kid came we wanted to be able to do both video and still photography, so we got the 77D a few months ago. Funny enough it turns out that this is one of the few hobbies one can do when there's a toddler to look after, especially if she's the most common subject. Been acquiring lenses and other equipment and trying to make my pictures and video not suck lemons. I'm further along with still pictures in that regard but have a long way to go.

This forum looks healthy and has a subforum for DSLR video, so looks like I can get some useful information here.

 

[Derrel]

Welcome to TFP! keep shooting those family pictures and videos!

 

[TWX]

Welcome to TFP! keep shooting those family pictures and videos!

Heh. I'm actually running into a bit of a stumbling-block doing that, namely storage.

SD media is cheap so it's easy to justify shooting raw, I can go days and days without running out of storage on the card. Going through all of it to reduce down to photos worth keeping, and then storing all of it is proving problematic. Funny, this wasn't a problem on a 10 megapixel camera shooting in jpeg on 8GB cards.

I've bought a couple of BDXL burners for offline/archiving and I'm working on setting up a RAID array in an old server chassis, but it's not a fast process.

 

[snowbear]

Welcome aboard.

 

[Photo Lady]

Welcome aboard.

 

[Dean_Gretsch]

Welcome. Hopefully you can share some of your favorites with us!

 

[Derrel]

Heh. I'm actually running into a bit of a stumbling-block doing that, namely storage.

SD media is cheap so it's easy to justify shooting raw, I can go days and days without running out of storage on the card. Going through all of it to reduce down to photos worth keeping, and then storing all of it is proving problematic. Funny, this wasn't a problem on a 10 megapixel camera shooting in jpeg on 8GB cards.

I've bought a couple of BDXL burners for offline/archiving and I'm working on setting up a RAID array in an old server chassis, but it's not a fast process.

I'm not so sure that's a good idea to cull childhood and family photos, especially close to the time when they were taken. As the years progress, stuff that at once which seemed like garbage becomes memory material.
Yeah... The old days of 10 and 12 megapixel cameras and 8 GB CompactFlash cards. That brings back memories for me. In the 2003 to 2006 era I was shooting six and 12 megapixel Nikons and alsi a Canon 20D, which was an 8.2 megapixel camera. These days I am shooting 24 and 36 megapixel cameras, and the raw files require much larger memory cards, and much more storage space. One storage space saver might be to shoot raw plus JPEG, and only keep JPEG's for your average or run of the mill photos, and keep a raw file of your very best work, or the most messed up exposures. I have found that downloading daily makes for an easier process than downloading 64 or 128 gigabytes of photos. Perhaps you should consider shooting fewer photos, as much as you can?

 

[TWX]

I admit that I am taking a lot of bad pictures, still learning the equipment. When all I effectively had was the Rebel XS and an 18-55mm kit lens I tended to just shoot in Program mode, taking what I got. Bokeh was basically out of the question. Now I've let my interests in having the full gamut of focal range lead to a selection of lenses and a couple with some slightly faster f-stops I'm having to learn how to actually use them and finding it a little more challenging than I expected. Downselecting the pictures where the subject is partially out of frame, where the subject is unusably out of focus, or where the image is blurred to the point of being unusable is pretty straightforward, but there are a lot where I might be able to fix them in post.

 

[Jeff15]

Hello and welcome..........

 

[Raw photographer]

Hey there and welcome. I have a rebel xs and I love it. It is a simple camera. And takes some time to get to know it. I used to use program mode alot and ever since I started using Manual, AV, TV my shots have been alot better. I used to only have the 18-55mm lens but my neighbor has been letting me use his Canon 75- 300mm and its great. It's not a high quality lens but like I said about the camera it takes some time to get used to it, and how to use it to get good images. I am by no means an expert but I thought you might like some tips from someone who learned photography the hard way. So upload some photos to the forum and I'm sure the photographers here will do there best to help you out with any questions you may have.

Once again welcome and enjoy.