Ahoy!

Just been playing with the new 450d and seeing what I can do with the different settings.

This is the first round with my dog. I had a bit of drama stopping the light from bouncing of her coat so brightly but then again I was in the sun..

Think these were taken in landscape setting.. I was swapping around a bit though. Not yet confident to venture into P as I'm still getting to know what does what.

Best way to learn, and what helped me with different terminology as well as settings etc is this guide...

http://www.nissansilvia.com/forums/index.p...howtopic=308729

You've got a good camera, so definitely venture into the manual modes!!! You'll get much better pics.

Holy crap, that dog could kick my ass.

Its probably over exposing the darks because of the timber in the background.

Hit the manual modes and use the different types of metering to get the best shot, and find what works with what.

Black things are hard, I struggled with my ex's dog.

I think the best way to do it would be to setup normally, and then stop down to minus -1 -2, then try and bring the detail back up in photoshop.

-2 EV would be way to dark.. The cross shadow with the sun doesnt help that thou...

nice staffy best breed of dog by far

Tried stopping down 2 steps but darks ended up too dark (at least I think I was.. we're talking speeding up shutter speed by 2 stops yeah? less light in that way? kit = lingo newbie)

Think it's just a bad time of day to try and shoot something that reflects light like that.. overcast or early morning would prob work better.

Ok so I got a tripod and decided to give it a go this morning when I went fishing.. Nothing spectacular but you gotta start somewhere to learn I suppose!


I left this one slightly under exposed in the dark areas because I liked the contrast effect.


Trying long exposure shots.. thinking that even my pressing of the shutter button is causing some shake.



Both these two are similar just taken a little after each other. Was trying to flatten out the water with a longer shutter speed but it was too bright. Couldn't decide which one I liked more.

Nice ones number 1 would have been good without the person. Number 2 is my favourite. When shooting long exposure shots i either use a remote or put it on a 3 second timer so that the camera is not distrubted by me pressing the shutter button. It doesn't make a huge amount of difference though.

Just realised I had IS turned on for those shots.. wondering if it was turned off if the photos would have been more crisp

When ever you mount a lens on a tripod, dont use IS.

IS tries to compensate for movement you 'might' get. but because its not moving, so its not as sharp as it could be.

can i post a slight rework of one of the sunrise images?

sure man.. I've done no PP to those at all

I'm still a PP newbie.

bit of contrast, droped exposure back, added saturation, etc etc

Makes a bit of difference!

Still annoyed about the slight blur.. I'll have to go out again one morning and see if I can get that nice and crisp.

Went out just before (just after sundown) to give the non-IS a try and I used a picture of a tree to compare IS and non-IS on the tripod. Must say neither are super crisp.. can hardly tell the difference really.

Am I expecting too much of the kit glass? (no name related pun intended)

Anyone got really crisp low-light photos off the kit lenses before?

You will need to sharpen the photos in pp espec with the kit lenses. I sharpen every photo I take. just to give that punch. see my latest post.

Yeah kit lenses are cheap for a reason mate. Primes are the best if you want super sharp, all zooms are a compromise, including mega-dollar ones.

vast improvement right there! 2nd one is your latest post looks great. As others have said, 1st one would have been good if the person wasn't there. The last 2 make your eyes bleed lol. Yes, KIT lenses are crap. Even the cheap 50mm f/1.8 is a must for $120ish. You'll get some great results with that cheapo lens!

Went out fishing again this morning and had time between casts to snap a few. Nothing great but I think this is the best out of the lot. No IS here, just sharpened + noise reduced in PP. Not the ideal photo as the sun was on the other side of the rocks etc but eh. Practice practice practice.

Yup thats it.. Practice practice practice!!

you are getting there tho!! just keep it up

My neighbour just had a baby girl so I'm going to take some photos for them.. any pointers?

My kingdom for some studio lights!

I reckon just take natural shots.. No need to go all fancy etc..

Just pure natural lighting

I *know* pet photos are overdone however had a big lack of time to shoot anything else. Took a few photos trying to play with different framing techniques and came out with this as my best shot.

Speaking of framing, you've cut the dogs foot out which sucks.

Yeah I know

As I said.. working on it! I was leaning over some brickwork and didn't notice her front foot that far forward.

I would try and get a little lower to the ground.. otherwise good shot, but (always a but), i feel its lacking something.. Dont know what it tho.. maybe the background.. hmmm