Just a bunch of questions- (Also opinion on level of ability? )

Calibun · Nov 16, 2013

Hello! I am new, just joined. I was given a Canon Rebel t2 (or t2i? I forgot, been a while) as a birthday gift last year. I had been wanting something better than a P&S since I was a little girl so it was an awesome gift. I toy around with it to try and learn on my own for the last year (not very much however as I am a college student and often swamped with work) but I think it's time to join a forum and get some help!

My first question is about flash. I NEVER use the flash because it really washes out the photos, obviously, but indoors I have no choice. My house has a super open layout (ex no walls between living room, dining room, kitchen, entryway, and bonus room) and unfortunately high ceilings as well. When I try to take photos with the flash directly I obviously get washed out photos. When I bounce the flash with a mirror it comes out just fine, and sometimes with a homemade "diffuser" which I don't use any more (too cumbersome), except that I still have to have a high ISO to get enough light in because my house has so much open space it's almost as bad as trying to bounce the flash off of the sky. lol.

I was at walmart buying a card for my new phone and I noticed they have camera-mounted flash for canon cameras for pretty cheap ($60 ish) They swivel and look like they can be positioned to bounce off the ceiling very powerfully. Right now I literally just tape a small mirror to my pop-up flash that that works for now but obviously I look like a fool and can't use that out in public at places I like to visit like zoos. Are the camera-mounted, cheap external flashes worth it? $60 is not too bad for my wallet but I also am saving up for better lenses so that would come out of my lens fund and I want to make sure I'm not wasting money. I guess my main questions is, is it worth it to not look like a fool in public and will it even work the as bouncing the flash off the ceiling?

Is shooting in "RAW" a large advantage over shooting in large JPEG? What are the actual differences? (I googled a bit and could only deduce that RAW format holds better color and sometimes less noise? ) I really don't do much of any post-processing beyond cropping, re-size, and sometimes rarely color fix or a teeny bit of noise removal but I try to shoot with as low ISO as possible). I really just use my photos for facebook (personal stuff), church events, and sometimes try to help take photos for rescue dogs and other pets and a lot of candid photos so they don't need to be perfect to the pixel, and RAW entails a LOT more work for me. But if it's a big difference I am willing to do it.

I hope this is the right forum for these questions! If not mods please feel free to move it.

Here are some photos I have taken. Lots of animals. Sorry! I just love taking pictures of animals. Things that you see that can specifically be improved on would be appreciated. I have thin skin when it comes to insults but I will take constructive criticism happily.

Smokeyr67 · Nov 16, 2013

Just to clarify, your using the built in flash not a speedlight?

Calibun · Nov 16, 2013

Yep, I am using the pop-up flash for now, reflecting it off a mirror or a home made diffusing using semi-opaque white board.

Edit// Looking back I probably should have posted this in the beginner's forum aha.

Smokeyr67 · Nov 16, 2013

Makes it a bit more difficult with the inbuilt flash, being so close to the lens the light. You could play with the flash exposure compensation and see how you like the results.

Sorry, but that's my best suggestion

Calibun · Nov 16, 2013

I have been trying to mess around with the exposure comp. but for some reason the photos come out looking exactly alike- or maybe the difference is just so small I can't tell. I'll take a series of photos of the same thing later with different settings and post them up if they will help.

ronlane · Nov 16, 2013

Calibun said:
I was at walmart buying a card for my new phone and I noticed they have camera-mounted flash for canon cameras for pretty cheap ($60 ish) They swivel and look like they can be positioned to bounce off the ceiling very powerfully. Right now I literally just tape a small mirror to my pop-up flash that that works for now but obviously I look like a fool and can't use that out in public at places I like to visit like zoos. Are the camera-mounted, cheap external flashes worth it? $60 is not too bad for my wallet but I also am saving up for better lenses so that would come out of my lens fund and I want to make sure I'm not wasting money. I guess my main questions is, is it worth it to not look like a fool in public and will it even work the as bouncing the flash off the ceiling?

To me a hotshoe flash is better than the built in flash of the camera because it changes the angle (albeit, not much). It should also allow you to turn the flash and allow you to bounce it off the wall or ceiling. It will also give you the ability to do off camera flash (which is the best) at some point if you get a trigger for it.

Calibun · Nov 16, 2013

That is what I was thinking too. For $60, it is probably a good starting point at least. I hate to buy cheap equipment only to upgrade later as it costs more but I think this will be a worthwhile investment. I'll look around the gear part of the forum and see which one is the best for the price.

Thanks!

KmH · Nov 16, 2013

I think a $60 flash at Walmart will be a 3rd party brand flash and not a Canon brand flash.

These are pretty popular in the $60 price range - Yongnuo YN-560 II Speedlight Flash for Canon and Nikon. GN58.

It's a manual adjusted flash unit that does not have any auto nor semi-auto TTL (through the lens) modes.

Calibun · Nov 16, 2013

They had two that looked similar, one said Canon and the other Nikon, it think it was a 3rd party flash you are right. What does a manual flash entail? I suppose this is a stupid question (Now I really regret not posting in the beginner's thread heh) but does that mean the flash has to be expressed manually? And if so how the heck would I time it right?

Edit/ Okay, it was definitely a stupid question. Googled it and now understand it I think. As long as I get enough hands on with one I'll eventually figure it out and gain some personal experience.

The one you linked looks good and the reviews seem good. Are we sure it'll fit on the t2i or will I need an adapter, and if so, which one? I'll probably buy it in a few hours once I read up on it bit more if it does.

Overread · Nov 16, 2013

Calibun said:
(Now I really regret not posting in the beginner's thread heh)

No problem - just use the little triangle with a ! in the middle in the lower left corner of your profile on a post (normally the starting post in a thread). You can report the thread to a mod and we can move it over without any fuss (as has now happened now

).

Also for some reason the attachments in your first post are not appearing, not sure if you deleted them or if something has gone wrong?

Calibun · Nov 16, 2013

Overread said:
Calibun said:

(Now I really regret not posting in the beginner's thread heh)

Click to expand...

No problem - just use the little triangle with a ! in the middle in the lower left corner of your profile on a post (normally the starting post in a thread). You can report the thread to a mod and we can move it over without any fuss (as has now happened now ).

Also for some reason the attachments in your first post are not appearing, not sure if you deleted them or if something has gone wrong?

Thank you!

I'm not sure- they should be showing up. They show for me? I'll try deleting and re-uploading them.

KmH · Nov 16, 2013

The difference between Raw and JPEG is that a Raw file sis kind of like a film negative, in that it is not a finished ready to print image.
A Raw file has to be 'developed' before it can be seen as a photo.
A Raw file has 12-bits or 14-bits of color depth per color channel.

Digital photos are made using 3 color channels - red, green, and blue - or RGB.

JPEG is like a Polaroid 'instant' picture because a JPEG is developed and edited right in he camera. The editing that gets done was decided on by a committee of camera software engineers long before you took the photo.
JPEG has an 8-bit color depth.

14 bits can represent 16,384 graduations of tone.
12 bits can represent 4096 graduations of tone.
8 bits can only represent 256 graduations of tone.

Image Files

Tones & Contrast

Calibun · Nov 16, 2013

Overread said:
Calibun said:

(Now I really regret not posting in the beginner's thread heh)

Click to expand...

No problem - just use the little triangle with a ! in the middle in the lower left corner of your profile on a post (normally the starting post in a thread). You can report the thread to a mod and we can move it over without any fuss (as has now happened now ).

Also for some reason the attachments in your first post are not appearing, not sure if you deleted them or if something has gone wrong?

Thank you!

I'm not sure- they should be showing up. They show for me? I'll try deleting and re-uploading them.

Edit/ Do they work now? I tried to re-upload and got "invalid file" for a few of them which was strange so I left them out.

Calibun · Nov 16, 2013

Thank you for the links! I'll go have a read through them right now.

Edit/ Finished the Cambridgeincolour link. Very informative. I don't think I need that much quality control just yet until I learn a bit more about changing the values but I can see how RAW can be considered superior. I think I'll start taking short photoshoots in RAw and mess around with them. I'll need to find a decent program to work with. For now I just have the software that came with the camera.

KmH · Nov 16, 2013

Except Sony/Minolta cameras, every other SLR/DSLR camera make uses the same ISO 518:2006 flash unit hot shoe mount. Hot shoe - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So the flash unit I linked you to will fit all of Canon's DSLR cameras.