Joining the forum!

tbarnes · Oct 1, 2011

Well as most in here are, I am new. My boyfriend was once a member years ago and referred me to the forum! I have absolutely no idea what I am doing, but I do know I am happiest when I see a photo I have taken make others and myself happy! I am here to learn as much as I can, and basically have someone cut everything down for me and help me better understand what to do. I do not know what RAW means although my photos are, do not understand exposure but am told I REALLY need to learn how to mess with it, ha. I have a Nikon d3000 I was told it was a great starter camera for the price. For a present I also received last night a Nikor f1.8 portrait lens, since according to my boyfriend that is what I like to take the most of. Hope to learn the most I can!

Oh I also just purchased Photoshop CS5 extended Teacher and student version? I just stare at it... just not sure what to do.

I went to upload a picture from the first set I took and well, couldn't figure it out. Like I said, lots to learn!

Trever1t · Oct 1, 2011

welcome to the forum. You will learn but it will take time, trial and error. Don't get discouraged by your attempts or criticism you receive along the way. Read all you can, read it again.

tbarnes · Oct 1, 2011

Thank you a lot!

MTVision · Oct 1, 2011

Welcome. There is a sticky thread in beginners forum that shows how to post pictures here.

Www.photoshopessentials.com. <---- good website for beginning Photoshop

Understanding exposure by Bryan Peterson. Excellent book to learn and understand exposure and how to shoot manual

JPEGS are processed in camera. If you at a jpeg and raw file of the same image you will notice a difference. JPEGS are more vibrant (usually) because the camera processes them.
Raw is basically a digital negative. It's a large file because no loss occurs. They need to be processed in Photoshop because unlike jpeg no processing occurs in camera. With RAW you have more control , in Photoshop, to fix white balance, exposure, etc. Raw files are also great because JPEGS degrade everytime you open and save them.

Www.cambridgeincolour.com. <---- great digital photography tutorial

Good luck. You have a lot to learn but it's fun.

shootnride · Oct 1, 2011

LizardKing · Oct 1, 2011

Welcome!

About a month ago I was just like you, except my girlfriend has zero experience in photography... :lol:

But this forum helped me learn A LOT in a really short period of time. Thanks to recommendations here, I read the following 2 books, which completely changed my way of thinking photography. One's all about Exposure, all the variables and how to combine them to get different results. The other, is about composition... more about the 'art' behind the picture you're taking. How to take advantage of lines, shapes, forms, colors, textures, etc... I just loved them, learned so much with them. Will probably read them a couple more times... :thumbup:

- Understanding Exposure 3rd Edition by Bryan Peterson
- Learning to See Creatively Revised Edition by Bryan Peterson

About Photoshop... I found really helpful some course at Lynda.com... There's one called "Adobe Photoshop CS5 for Photographers" that I really liked... I think there's also one for Camera Raw 6, done by the same guy, that seems to be pretty good, too... Anyway, this page is paid, but you have tons of videos teaching photoshop. Just google it.

Regards,
LizardKing

tbarnes · Oct 1, 2011

Thanks everyone! I am definitely going to Amazon some new books tonight!

So far I have read about RAW on here and also greycards, I was very impressed!

Hopefully that worked, that is my first time actually shooting and editing a little bit. I tried to take some today with my new nikorf1.8 lens and ahhh TERRIBLE blurry pictures! I will definitely need to read some more!

MichaelH · Oct 1, 2011

Photoshop is an amazing tool for doing more than just editing RAW. I would prefer Lightroom for editing in RAW, but not everyone has enough money for both pieces of software. The best part of Photoshop though, is curves. It's by far my favorite tool.

MTVision · Oct 1, 2011

MichaelH said:
Photoshop is an amazing tool for doing more than just editing RAW. I would prefer Lightroom for editing in RAW, but not everyone has enough money for both pieces of software. The best part of Photoshop though, is curves. It's by far my favorite tool.

Lightroom has the same exact camera raw program as Photoshop and Bridge. Photoshop can do a lot more than editing RAW but Lightroom doesn't edit RAW files any differently except you can probably batch edit.

MTVision · Oct 1, 2011

tbarnes said:
Thanks everyone! I am definitely going to Amazon some new books tonight! So far I have read about RAW on here and also greycards, I was very impressed!

Hopefully that worked, that is my first time actually shooting and editing a little bit. I tried to take some today with my new nikorf1.8 lens and ahhh TERRIBLE blurry pictures! I will definitely need to read some more!

I didn't check the exif data for your images but if you are shooting at f/1.8 you will probably have soft pictures. Most people shoot wide open when the get fast lens (I'm guilty of this too

but the DOF is so razor thin that he slightest focusing error will be blatantly obvious. Shooting at f/4 while you are learning will give you a nice DOF (blurred background) while keeping the focus sharp

tbarnes · Oct 1, 2011

Awesome thanks! Those were without it, I would be way to embarrassed to post the pictures I tried today with the new lens ha!

MTVision · Oct 1, 2011

tbarnes said:
Awesome thanks! Those were without it, I would be way to embarrassed to post the pictures I tried today with the new lens ha!

I didn't think these pictures were blurry anyhow!

keep in mind that your new lens doesn't work it's best at f/1.8

jeff_scott · Oct 1, 2011

Don't I know you? How did you get pictures of my son?

Welcome to the board, you getting back into photography is making me itch to get back into it too.

tbarnes · Oct 1, 2011

Well when I attach the lens to the camera it says it must be locked and on its highest number... I have no idea what any of that means or what f 1.8 is

just that i must keep it on 22. I told you I have no idea what I am doing, BUT that is why I am here to learn! Thank you for being so nice!

LizardKing · Oct 1, 2011

tbarnes said:
Well when I attach the lens to the camera it says it must be locked and on its highest number... I have no idea what any of that means or what f 1.8 is just that i must keep it on 22. I told you I have no idea what I am doing, BUT that is why I am here to learn! Thank you for being so nice!

You better read some serious article or chapter of a book about aperture... But, basically, if you take pictures a f/22 like you did, you're using a small aperture (yes, big numbers = small apertures) and that means you'll have a long depth of field. You can see in your pictures that the background is not that out of focus or blurry, right?... Well, if you use smaller numbers (bigger apertures), you'll have shorter depths of fields. Which means you're reducing the "part" of the picture that's in focus.

Try setting the camera on a tripod and use a small aperture (1.8, 2, 3.6, 4...), set the camera/lens to manual focus and start playing with it for a while. Focus on something and take a picture. Then, without moving the camera, start increasing the aperture and taking new shots with the same focus. You'll see how it works, is actually pretty simple.

Sorry if it's not clear, english is not my mother language and this is actually the first time I try to explain that

Regards,
LizardKing