Hey all. I just purchased my first ever SLR.

It's a Canon 400D with 28-90USM lense, shoulder strap, charger, 1gb card, instructions, software etc that i picked up in mint condition second hand for $500.

I don't really know how to use it, but that is all part of the fun. I just went around the house and took photo's of whatever I could find. 98% of them were crap, and here are 4 that I decided to post up to say hi.


We have an 18ft boulder retaining wall out the back, this is a photo of a rock



My dad plays guitar, and this is his Fender Stratocaster



This is one of my rear Khumo V70A Semi Slicks



And here are two pegs... Just hanging around.




Anyways, I'm reading instructions and figuring out how to use it. This is basically a thread to say hi and to watch this space. I don't yet have photoshop so any 'editing' (lol) right now is done in Picasa 3

Peace

Sharpy

Looks good Dan. Practice makes perfect!

Im considering buying pretty much that same package so il be popping in and out to see how you go

The peg shot needs a different coloured peg.

tyres are shit hankooks would be better.

Ok, They are a slick compound with grooves in them.....Thanks for the C&C though!

haha "nice pegs gl with it"

MOAR pegs! MOAR I say!

lol.... pegs.... go find some boobies or something would ya ,then let me know and ill check back again

Hey guys, went to Harry;s diner meet tonight. out of 111 photo's I got 5 'ok' ones. lol

only edited the first one slightly, and that was with some shit program, others are just resized straight off the camera.

It was dark, havent figured out exposure's yet. do not have tripod, hence them all being taken off the ground lol.

Well you were using ISO400 (which is the digital equiv of film speed), this means the sensor takes in less light (doesn't have to soak in the light) for as long but gives you that grainy appearance which isn't nice like in film, it's just called noise for digitals, but you used probably the max I'd take a 400 up to, maybe 600 if it doesn't just double from 400.

You also seem to be running your lens 'wide' or 'open', this is the f/ or aperture value, that is a bunch of little blades in your lens that dictate how much light comes into the camera, f/2 for instance is very 'fast' or 'wide' but has a very shallow depth of field (out of focus area before and after the subject) but it will mean you can take photos at much faster shutter speeds than an f/5.6 lens wide open. Working at f/4 I assume with a kit lens mean you could've got perhaps f/3.5 (if it went that wide, probably not).

The best tip for ground shooting I guess is make sure you set the camera on self timer, that way you don't get the shakes after you hit the shutter (last pic for instance). and maybe put your camera on a jumper or a towel or something. P.S. Tripods are like $30 from a camera store for an el cheapo so skip the smokes for a week and you've got one (If you smoke that is).

Just got back from a cruise around the south pacific, and took this photo. Still going through the rest, but thought this one was awesome.


no editing

i like that one^^^^

some more photo's from the trip. again, no photo's are edited.


some fish in an aquarium, on the other side of the glass, and the ship at dock at night

great photos man. the fish ones are unreal.

Good shots man, jsut keep practicing. Only criticism is, with the night time car shots, either use a tri-pod or turn your ISO up. It becomes more grainy but it will be much much easier to shoot at night.

ya, tripod is definately next on the cards

Nice shots mate. Especially like the dock one

I wouldn't go any higher then 400 iso though... Way too grainy.
You want minimum grain and no blur issues. I do lots of night shooting currently and 100 is perfect for me. Am using the same camera as you shapry, and on TV mode at night. As long as you have a decent tripod to use and even set a timer, doing this will mean that you wont have that shake that happens when you hit the shoot button. And if you cant get it to focus on what you what when you are not using a flash, take one photo using the flash so it focuses, then flick over to MF on the lens, it will keep that focus point from the flash shot and allow you to not use a flash for the proper shot with natural lighting you are wanting.

Shoot button = shutter.


Wow.

Nice shots bro, I like the one at the docks. Water shot would've been better with a polariser. Not too sure what happened with the cat photos, they seem quite washed out. A decent tripod is a must, don't make the same mistake i did and cheap out on a tripod.

Thanks heaps guys, appreciate the tips, especially the flash/change to mf tip.

Thanks

Neeeds moar gf pics

Nice shots dude, little tip to get good Colour under crappy street lights,

1. set up and compose your shot,
2. switch to Manual focus(MF)
3. get the photo as far out of focus as possible (typically at infinity when shooting cars up close)
4. Take a shot
5 go into your menu's and find "Custom White balance" (this will take you to your images)
6.Select the out of focus image
7.go to your white balance menu / button and change it to custom (far right on Canon)
8.switch back to Auto focus and shoot.

Enjoy mate hope this was helpful.