First attempt and photography...C&C

Lyncca · Nov 12, 2008

USMC said:
I guess this is where I'm completely lost... I'm not sure what those things are that you mentioned for the lens. It's an Olympus and on the lens it reads:
4.6 - 92mm 1: 2.8 - 4.5
Is that any help at all? To blur the background on the pics above I just selected the portrait mode and zoomed in until the background was blurry. I'm sure if I manually selected the settings I could get better results, I'm just not sure what to select.....

4.6 - 92mm? Is it a P&S or SLR camera?
I had (well actually I bought it for my husband) an Olympus P&S. It was a great little camera, but unfortunately was stolen when his car was broken into :thumbdown:

USMC · Nov 12, 2008

Lyncca said:
4.6 - 92mm? Is it a P&S or SLR camera?
I had (well actually I bought it for my husband) an Olympus P&S. It was a great little camera, but unfortunately was stolen when his car was broken into :thumbdown:

Well, I think it's a bit of both. Here it is.
http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/product.asp?product=1367

Seems like it has some features of both. I like that it comes with a 20X zoom for my travels, so I don't have to constantly interchange lenses. I can still save photos in RAW format and have the option to choose absolutely every setting manually. I thought it would be a good compromise... does this help?

Lyncca · Nov 12, 2008

Ah ok. It looks like a bridge camera (SLR options with single lens).

So, the easiest way to force the camera to blur the background as much as possible, move in or zoom in on your subject and if you have a Aperture setting, you want that to be as low as possible, which is 2.8.

The portrait mode may already be doing that for you automatically, but that would be how to decide how much or little you want to change it. Littler numbers = less depth of field (blurred background), bigger numbers = more depth of field (clear background).

Hope that helps

By the way, she is beautiful. I really like the last shot.

DRoberts · Nov 12, 2008

USMC said:
So, my girlfriend went and met a photographer a few weeks ago for her very first photo shoot. After seeing the pictures this photographer took and of course seeing how much it cost for us to keep only 7 of the pictures, I decided that it didn't look all that difficult and that I would give it a shot.

Wow...Glad she didn't have brain surgery :lol:

I like the sailboat background and your cropping is pretty good throughout. Nice to see you aren't leaving her dead center in all your shots. Nothing more I can really add that hasn't been said.

USMC · Nov 12, 2008

DRoberts said:
Wow...Glad she didn't have brain surgery

I like the sailboat background and your cropping is pretty good throughout. Nice to see you aren't leaving her dead center in all your shots. Nothing more I can really add that hasn't been said.

You don't sound very confident in my ability to perform brain surgery.....

I'm a little confused about something.... is the aperture setting controlled by the camera itself, or by the lens? If I buy a new lens to attach to the camera will I be able to take better portrait style pictures?
Sorry if that was the dumbest question you've ever heard... still learning!

USMC · Nov 12, 2008

Lyncca said:
Ah ok. It looks like a bridge camera (SLR options with single lens).

So, the easiest way to force the camera to blur the background as much as possible, move in or zoom in on your subject and if you have a Aperture setting, you want that to be as low as possible, which is 2.8.

The portrait mode may already be doing that for you automatically, but that would be how to decide how much or little you want to change it. Littler numbers = less depth of field (blurred background), bigger numbers = more depth of field (clear background).

Hope that helps

By the way, she is beautiful. I really like the last shot.

Thanks for the kind words! She is very beautiful.

So, when I put the camera on the all manual setting..... I'm being overwhelmed by how to know what to set all these different settings at. Like the ISO, Aperture, Shutterspeed, and this little exposure compensation number is constantly changing when I point the camera at different things. Is there a good place on this forum, or anywhere else, that I can maybe learn about these settings and how to use them?

DRoberts · Nov 12, 2008

USMC said:
So, when I put the camera on the all manual setting..... I'm being overwhelmed by how to know what to set all these different settings at. Like the ISO, Aperture, Shutterspeed, and this little exposure compensation number is constantly changing when I point the camera at different things. Is there a good place on this forum, or anywhere else, that I can maybe learn about these settings and how to use them?

I would suggest reading and reading and reading if you want to really produce good quality photos...Here are some links to get you started...

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials.htm

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=52418

http://www.the-digital-picture.com/

Lyncca · Nov 12, 2008

DRoberts said:
I would suggest reading and reading and reading if you want to really produce good quality photos...Here are some links to get you started...

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials.htm

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=52418

http://www.the-digital-picture.com/

Absolutely. When I say that in the last 10 mths I have learned everything from here, it is true. But most of it is indirectly, as in someone suggesting to me to read a book. The first recommended was Understanding Exposure. You can get it on ebay.

When I discovered this forum, I think I was a bit like you, it all seemed Greek. You will get a LOT of knoweledge for around $20.

Village Idiot · Nov 13, 2008

USMC said:
You don't sound very confident in my ability to perform brain surgery.....

I'm a little confused about something.... is the aperture setting controlled by the camera itself, or by the lens? If I buy a new lens to attach to the camera will I be able to take better portrait style pictures?
Sorry if that was the dumbest question you've ever heard... still learning!

The aperture is the opening in the lens that lets in light. It's controlled by the camera in most all modern lenses and cameras. You probably could only buy lens adapters for your camera.

And I'm pretty sure your girl would end up talking like former president Nixon and probably have one hell of a drooling problem after you were to attempt brain surgery on her.

USMC · Nov 13, 2008

Village Idiot said:
The aperture is the opening in the lens that lets in light. It's controlled by the camera in most all modern lenses and cameras. You probably could only buy lens adapters for your camera.

And I'm pretty sure your girl would end up talking like former president Nixon and probably have one hell of a drooling problem after you were to attempt brain surgery on her.

You make a good point... I'll avoid the brain surgery for now.
So, do you have any experience with a lens adapter? Do you think a lens adapter would be of any benefit to me or should I just stick with the one that is on it? I appreciate everyone's help, thanks!