Point & Shoot Vs. SLR

iluvphotography · Jul 17, 2008

My Canon SD750 takes better pictures than my Canon XSI. What is wrong with me???
They are more vivid, sharper and overall better shots!!

Sw1tchFX · Jul 17, 2008

You need better shooting technique and a better understanding of photography if that's the case.

The rebel is designed to output files for post production, do you have a workflow?

Big Mike · Jul 17, 2008

Many 'point & shoot' cameras will automatically boost things like sharpness, saturation, contrast. That might be OK if you don't mind giving up control of your images...but many of us like to take control and add those types of edits ourselves.

The DSLR has a lot more potential...buy you have to know how to use it and be willing to put in some extra work.

RyanLilly · Jul 17, 2008

Most P&S add a lot of saturation and sharpening, because most people will never edit them, and this process gets the best results with small prints from wallmart and drugstores.

RyanLilly · Jul 17, 2008

Damn! Mike you're always just one step ahead of me! :lol:

iluvphotography · Jul 17, 2008

Sw1tchFX said:
You need better shooting technique and a better understanding of photography if that's the case.

The rebel is designed to output files for post production, do you have a workflow?

I try.. I read a lot I have taken classes and I have learned sooo much from this forum for the last 2 years, but I am at the point of giving up.. So frustrated :-(

What do you mean by Workflow?

Joves · Jul 17, 2008

iluvphotography said:
What do you mean by Workflow?

Workflow=PostProcessing.
You might try picking up the book Understanding Exposure at Barnes&Noble or, whatever book store you have locally. It will help you in your quest for better photos.

RyanLilly · Jul 17, 2008

iluvphotography said:
What do you mean by Workflow?

What program(s) do you use for your images.

My workflow, for example:

Shoot in raw> import into Aperture. This I where I do my raw conversion, white balance, tweak the color, sharpening etc.
You could also replace aperture with another app, like lightroom, Canon's software that comes with the camera, or "photoshop camera raw".

If everything looks good, I can just export to jpeg and I ready to post online or send to a printer.

If I want to do more work on some photos I export them a PSD, TIFF, PNG, or other lossless format, then photoshop till my hearts content, and export to, jpeg, for printing.

The last part of a good workflow should be saving a backup/archive on an aditional HD or CD/DVD.

Big Mike · Jul 17, 2008

The last part of a good workflow should be saving a backup/archive on an aditional HD or CD/DVD.

Actually, many people say that it's best to do that at the beginning...ASAP, so that you don't loose anything in the time between when you start and when you are finished.
For me, it depends on the type of shoot. For a wedding, I will back up the files ASAP because that will have been an important one day shoot that can't easily be replicated. For a portrait shoot, I usually don't backup all the RAW files, just the working copies of the ones I edit.

RyanLilly · Jul 17, 2008

Well I guess, I don't think about it, because after I import I still have my original RAWs on my CF cards, so I have And I don' usually reformat them until before my next shoot, so I always have the original cards to go back to. But, you are right.

Big Mike · Jul 17, 2008

Yes, I always make sure that the files are on safely on a harddrive and maybe even on a disc before I reformat.

A few weeks ago, I was doing a big 'all-day' fashion shoot and I had to use some of my older/slower cards. One of them still had landscape photos from my TPF Rocky Mountain meet up, in July 2007. :lol:

iluvphotography · Jul 17, 2008

Ohhhh the good old RAW... I am having problem with that too... I recently installed CS3 on my new computer, but I cannot open my RAW files.. I downloaded Canon Camera RAW, unzipped it, and moved it to the folder that they suggested, but still when I try to open RAW images, I get a warning saying that "The file type is not recognized" or something like that... Oh I am so frustrated.. Maybe I should change my user name to "ihatephotography"

Big Mike · Jul 17, 2008

The XSi may not be supported by the latest version of Adobe Camera RAW. Was it listed under the newest version? If not, you will have to wait for the new update...which usually happens every few months or so, to incorporate all the new camera models.

You could also use the software supplied with the camera...you should have EOS utility and maybe Digital Photo Pro as well. You use that software to open the RAW files, then save them as JPEG or TIFF etc. Then you can open them in Photoshop.

Kegger · Jul 17, 2008

I back up mine on an external harddrive, then I use photoshop to do my adjustments and convert from RAW.

MarcusM · Jul 17, 2008

iluvphotography said:
My Canon SD750 takes better pictures than my Canon XSI. What is wrong with me???
They are more vivid, sharper and overall better shots!!

I would be willing to bet money that if you printed out some larger sizes of both such as 8 x 10 or larger(provided you took a good shot with the DSLR in the first place with the right settings) and put them side by side, you would see the difference in quality.

The image sensor in the XSI is probably at least roughly 5 times larger than the image sensor in the SD750. (I'm sure that's not 100% accurate, but I know it's several times larger anyway)