CC for first time DSLR user...

[cmaag]

1.) Shot last night, first attempt at using my 55 - 250mm EF-S lens on Canon T3



http://cmaag.smugmug.com/Photography/The-Beginning/i-HM5N7t3/0/M/Full-Moon-M.jpg

2.) Shot in RAW converted to B&W



http://cmaag.smugmug.com/Photography/The-Beginning/i-xwkDPLJ/0/M/El-Rey-BW-M.jpg

3.) Working w/ DOF



http://cmaag.smugmug.com/Photography/The-Beginning/i-S3B9x9X/0/M/The-Boys-M.jpg

4.) Shot in RAW converted to B&W



http://cmaag.smugmug.com/Photography/The-Beginning/i-K8H75b3/0/M/Gatsby-BW-M.jpg

5.) First attempts at shooting



http://cmaag.smugmug.com/Photography/The-Beginning/i-6xqcWQV/0/M/Inger-M.jpg

Hi, I've had my camera for about a month and just finished David Busch's book explaining how to use the Rebel T3. I am halfway through Bryan Peterson's Understanding Photography (found Busch's book very informative on how to use my specific camera and loving Peterson's book).

Any feedback would be wonderful.

These pictures were shot when I was first grasping how to use my camera. With the current book I'm reading I think I will be experimenting more with Manual (vs. Aperture Priority which I did for most of the pics except the moon one above).

Thank you!

 

[TenaciousTins]

The first thing I notice in most of your photos is that your focus is off. The subject is soft. The picture of the cat would have been better if the eyes were in focus and the thing at the bottom of the picture wasn't in it (and you didn't cut poor kitty's nose off )

I'm in no position to technically critique, just saying what I see from this noobs perspective. #3 and 4 are the worst pictures of the bunch for me. No visual interest. You can't see the dog. Nothing lighting him/her up. Shot at a weird angle and yeah...lighting...focus. But keep trying, don't ever stop...these guys here will help you learn what to do to make it better. As for the city picture, I'd like to see that one in color. in B&W there is no visual interest for me. Also it is fairly dark so the only thing I can see is the sign...an ordinary vegas-street-shot type for me. The moon picture seems a fair bit under exposed, and soft.

Good luck! I look forward to seeing more pictures!

 

[MTVision]

1.) Shot last night, first attempt at using my 55 - 250mm EF-S lens on Canon T3

http://cmaag.smugmug.com/Photography/The-Beginning/20014034_FfjN24#1577377829_HM5N7t3-A-LB

http://cmaag.smugmug.com/Photography/The-Beginning/i-HM5N7t3/0/M/Full-Moon-M.jpg

2.) Shot in RAW converted to B&W

http://cmaag.smugmug.com/Photography/The-Beginning/20014034_FfjN24#1577377931_xwkDPLJ-A-LB

http://cmaag.smugmug.com/Photography/The-Beginning/i-xwkDPLJ/0/M/El-Rey-BW-M.jpg

3.) Working w/ DOF

http://cmaag.smugmug.com/Photography/The-Beginning/20014034_FfjN24#1577377996_S3B9x9X-A-LB

http://cmaag.smugmug.com/Photography/The-Beginning/i-S3B9x9X/0/M/The-Boys-M.jpg

4.) Shot in RAW converted to B&W

http://cmaag.smugmug.com/Photography/The-Beginning/20014034_FfjN24#1577378065_K8H75b3-A-LB

http://cmaag.smugmug.com/Photography/The-Beginning/i-K8H75b3/0/M/Gatsby-BW-M.jpg

5.) First attempts at shooting

http://cmaag.smugmug.com/Photography/The-Beginning/20014034_FfjN24#1577378170_6xqcWQV-A-LB

http://cmaag.smugmug.com/Photography/The-Beginning/i-6xqcWQV/0/M/Inger-M.jpg

Hi, I've had my camera for about a month and just finished David Busch's book explaining how to use the Rebel T3. I am halfway through Bryan Peterson's Understanding Photography (found Busch's book very informative on how to use my specific camera and loving Peterson's book).

Any feedback would be wonderful.

These pictures were shot when I was first grasping how to use my camera. With the current book I'm reading I think I will be experimenting more with Manual (vs. Aperture Priority which I did for most of the pics except the moon one above).

Thank you!

I would stay away from b/w conversions for now. Learn how to do a clean edit on your photo. A clean edit is when you edit the photo and fix any issues without it looking noticeably edited. Once you have that down your b/w conversions will come out a lot better. Also, don't just use an auto b/w conversion - play around with it until you get it right. The b/w of the dog looks out of focus and the dogs face is pretty much black.

Not sure what you were doing int the "playing with DOF" shot. Did you want the cat in focus and the dog out of focus or vice versa. I personally don't like it when the foreground is out of focus and the background is in focus.

The cat shot is cute but I don't really like the OOF area. Keep up the work though. There is a lot of great information on this forum.

Www.cambridgeincolour.com has some great tutorials. Look forward to seeing some more shots as your progress!

 

[fjrabon]

I would stay away from b/w conversions for now. Learn how to do a clean edit on your photo. A clean edit is when you edit the photo and fix any issues without it looking noticeably edited. Once you have that down your b/w conversions will come out a lot better. Also, don't just use an auto b/w conversion - play around with it until you get it right.

I feel like you have to have this on a permanent clipboard, that you just cut and paste every time there's a a 'first time DSLR user, CC' thread. It's very good advice though.

 

[fjrabon]

1) How long was your exposure? Did you use a tripod? I can't tell if this is extremely mild camera shake blur or being out of focus? As tight as you have the moon there, if your exposure length was anything at all, it would need to be on a tripod, with a remote shutter trigger, and probably even with the mirror up. This is zoomed way, way in, even the tiniest camera shake is going to show, IS or not IS. I feel like for this type of shot, the moon has to be RAZOR sharp for it to work. I also feel like the contrast could be a little higher and/or the moon could be a little darker.

2) I like it a lot, but I am a sucker for those types of shots.

3 & 4) Gotta find a way to brighten up the pug's face or just cut it out of the shot. I think the darkness of the dog's face is really off putting in both of these. Also the DOF thing in the first was weird to me, but I did like the cat's pose. I'd have actually moved to be where the window is side lighting the cat on that chair and got that shot.

5) number one rule of shooting animals is focus needs to be 100% on the eyes. You will occasionally get debates on whether people should be focused on the eyes or the cheeks, but everybody agrees about animals. Gotta be the eyes. You can screw a lot of other things up, but you can't miss that. Here the focus is on the nose.

 

[cmaag]

Thanks that was really helpful.

1.) I haven't bought a tripod or remote shutter trigger yet (bought the camera less than a month ago) so it was handheld with an IS lens (but trust me the whole time I was attempting this shot I was wishing I had a tripod - I leaned against a wall to try and steady myself - I'm 6 months pregnant haha). 1/100 for the exposure length (250mm) @ F11, ISO 100 - I did try it at longer and shorter shutter speeds but wasn't really sure since it was handheld which looked better.

2.) The El Rey is a old music venue around the corner from my apartment and it was the first nighttime picture I tried taking (I avoid using flash so far). I definitely would love to learn how to edit my pictures correctly as MTVision suggested but haven't gotten there yet (any good books that anyone can recommend for editing pics would be great).

3 & 4.) I totally agree with the pug comments. I just liked the picture but it bothered me that his face was so black (esp. in the B&W pic). Re: DOF I was trying to practice something I read by focusing on the cat in the back to try the technique. I think moving to the window sounds like a great idea, and I'll try it this weekend.

5.) Question on focusing on the eyes. Should I manually pick my focus point or should I let the canon decide which AF points to use? And If I manually pick my focus point (not manual focus) do I aim for one of the animal's eyes? That's where I get confused I think. Also the couch is distracting (blur in the foreground) but she was laying there so cute I didn't know how else to capture the shot w/o including it.

Really appreciate everyone's feedback!!!

 

[fjrabon]

5.) Question on focusing on the eyes. Should I manually pick my focus point or should I let the canon decide which AF points to use? And If I manually pick my focus point (not manual focus) do I aim for one of the animal's eyes? That's where I get confused I think. Also the couch is distracting (blur in the foreground) but she was laying there so cute I didn't know how else to capture the shot w/o including it.

I'm not familiar with Canons, but you should have an option to be able to manually pick the auto focus point. Any time you are shooting an animal with its eyes in the picture, position the focus point right on the animals eye and take that shot. You should have multiple focus points that you can choose from in your viewfinder, but, again, I don't specifically know how to tell you to do this on a Canon. Another trick is to use auto focus to get you in the ballpark, then compose the shot how you want, then switch to manual focus to really, really nail it. But that takes a lot of practice to be able to really 'see' when you've 100% hit the focus.

 

[MTVision]

I feel like you have to have this on a permanent clipboard, that you just cut and paste every time there's a a 'first time DSLR user, CC' thread. It's very good advice though.

Well it's kind of hard to cut and paste on my iPhone .

Pretty much any b/w photo posted by a newbie sucks because they don't know what they are doing. If you can't edit a picture the normal way how can you expect to get a nice black and white conversion.

 

[MTVision]

1) How long was your exposure? Did you use a tripod? I can't tell if this is extremely mild camera shake blur or being out of focus? As tight as you have the moon there, if your exposure length was anything at all, it would need to be on a tripod, with a remote shutter trigger, and probably even with the mirror up. This is zoomed way, way in, even the tiniest camera shake is going to show, IS or not IS. I feel like for this type of shot, the moon has to be RAZOR sharp for it to work. I also feel like the contrast could be a little higher and/or the moon could be a little darker.

2) I like it a lot, but I am a sucker for those types of shots.

3 & 4) Gotta find a way to brighten up the pug's face or just cut it out of the shot. I think the darkness of the dog's face is really off putting in both of these. Also the DOF thing in the first was weird to me, but I did like the cat's pose. I'd have actually moved to be where the window is side lighting the cat on that chair and got that shot.

5) number one rule of shooting animals is focus needs to be 100% on the eyes. You will occasionally get debates on whether people should be focused on the eyes or the cheeks, but everybody agrees about animals. Gotta be the eyes. You can screw a lot of other things up, but you can't miss that. Here the focus is on the nose.

Why would you focus on a persons cheeks? That makes absolutely no sense.

 

[fjrabon]

Why would you focus on a persons cheeks? That makes absolutely no sense.

I don't get it either, but there are some old timers who swear by it, I've seen the debate mentioned in a few books. I think it has to do with the cheeks being a better mid point depth wise for the face, that is the nose through the eys are in better focus, if you focus on the cheeks. Whereas the eyes are the 'deepest' part of the face, so the very tip of your nose will be a little bit out of focus, if you focus on the eyes.

But to me, having the eyes crystal clear is more important than if the tip of the nose is a tiny bit off.

 

[cmaag]

I do know how to manually pick my focus point but to clarify my question. I can only pick one foucs point out of the 9 or let the camera pick. If I can only choose one of the Focus points should I just focus on one of the eyes, is there one eye that's better than the other (sorry for the novice question in advance - that's why I think i was picking to focus between her eyes - whoops)?

 

[MTVision]

I don't get it either, but there are some old timers who swear by it, I've seen the debate mentioned in a few books. I think it has to do with the cheeks being a better mid point depth wise for the face, that is the nose through the eys are in better focus, if you focus on the cheeks. Whereas the eyes are the 'deepest' part of the face, so the very tip of your nose will be a little bit out of focus, if you focus on the eyes.

But to me, having the eyes crystal clear is more important than if the tip of the nose is a tiny bit off.

The tip of the nose would be OOF if you were shooting wide open. I've never read anything that said to focus on the cheeks. In portraits the eyes are the most important not the nose or any other part.

Why even mention that to a newbie especially if you don't agree with it? You are just going to confuse them.

 

[cmaag]

Thanks Megan, I checked out the link you posted above and I can't wait to spend some more time this weekend viewing the tutorials. I was curious do you know a good book or way for me to learn how to clean edit my pictures correctly?

 

[MTVision]

I do know how to manually pick my focus point but to clarify my question. I can only pick one foucs point out of the 9 or let the camera pick. If I can only choose one of the Focus points should I just focus on one of the eyes, is there one eye that's better than the other (sorry for the novice question in advance - that's why I think i was picking to focus between her eyes - whoops)?

Focus on the eye closest to you!

 

[MTVision]

Thanks Megan, I checked out the link you posted above and I can't wait to spend some more time this weekend viewing the tutorials. I was curious do you know a good book or way for me to learn how to clean edit my pictures correctly?

What do use for editing?