New to photography, need advice.

[Newbee]

Hi there everyone! I'm new to photography. I decided to get a good camera and a couple lenses because I have an almost one year old daughter and want to take some great pictures of her throughout her childhood. I got a Canon xsi for the body. For the lenses I got Canon 50mm f/1.8 cause I keep reading how amazing this lens is especially for child portraiture (and it's cheap!). The second one I got I really am not sure if I should have - a friend suggested it and I bought it on impulse - Tamron 55-200mm. I already have it so I might as well learn to use it. If anyone has any tips for me, especially for the Tamron lens, I would love to hear what you have to say Thanks so much!!

 

[shootermcgavin]

Keep the 50mm on most of the time as you will miss more shots with the Tamron unless you're at the zoo or something with a lot of light. Focus on the eyes, use the P, I would try not using the flash at all in the beginning and slowly learn when a fill flash is needed, I think you learn quicker that way. You could keep ISO at automatic and keep an eye on it to get an idea of where lighting is bad. 100-400 is good for iso anything above isn't ideal. Post photos on here, great way to learn quick. Post processing your photo is going to bring it to the next level, in the mean time picasa 3 by google is a decent editing software for free but will fall short of professional results. Good luck!

 

[DiskoJoe]

point, click, then post the pics here. A 55-200 is not a great lens but it is enough lens for you at the moment. A zoom is handy to have.

 

[KmH]

Use the 50 mm f/1.8 stopped down at least 2 stops from f/1.8 (f/3.5), but the 50 mm is best used from about f/5.6 to f/8.

 

[Newbee]

Thanks guys! Really appreciate the feedback Would you recommend the "Canon xsi for dummies" book to get comfortable with the terminology and all the intimidating photography talk? Lol

 

[scorpion_tyr]

Personally I would suggest reading the manual that should have come with the camera. There will be a lot of stuff you won't understand at first, but sit there and google terms you don't know and you'll gain a much more in depth education about photography that way.

 

[Newbee]

That's why I was asking. I thought the manual was going to be much harder to read but as long as I take my time and think about it, it's not so bad Thanks for the input!!