Be Afraid, POTMers!

[Bifferwine]

Okay....Ummmm.... This thing is confusing. Do I even have a chance at learning what any of these buttons are besides the one that says "AUTO"? I have that one figured out. :lol: This instruction book is thicker than the one that came with my car. :cry:

 

[dcantucson]

Hey tell me about it. I haven't even tried to figure them out yet. :grumble:

 

[reeffreak]

I know this is probably asking to much.Biff or david,can you do an HD video?I like to see what looks like.

 

[Bifferwine]

I can try... I will have to find the section in the instruction book to see how it's done! Do you mind a video of my cats??? :D

 

[reeffreak]

Do you mind a video of my cats??? :D

Noooooooooooooo!I want a video of your fish tank.

 

[Bifferwine]

You forget. I have been out of town. I can't even see in my fish tank right now! I can clean the glass tomorrow and take a video.

 

[Bifferwine]

OMG guys I just found the "PET PORTRAIT" auto mode. You are in trouble now!!

 

[OhNoNemo]

Ha,Ha,Ha....let the fun begin....it really starts AFTER you take the picture,I actually been using action/sports mode because the fish move so fast,then you can just hold your shutter button down and click away:D,good luck and have fun.Mine does not do HD vids,but we have a little JVC cam for that....looking forward to some pics

 

[OhNoNemo]

Hahaha. Hopefully...coming?

This is how a conversation just went in my household:

Me: Maybe now I can finally win a Photo of the Month Contest!
NDB: You are the only person I know that would spend this kind of money just to win a casual contest that doesn't even have a prize.
Me: It's the glory! The glory is the prize!
NDB: Honey, it's a fish website. There's not a lot of glory to be had.

:cry:

Now thats funny:mrgreen:..I look at it this way.Posting pointless fish pics here is the only place to show our pics to people who may care just alittle,even if they fake it,its still nice to hear:Cheers:
: Don't forget to clean the glass....

 

[OhNoNemo]

Now thats funny:mrgreen:..I look at it this way.Posting pointless fish pics here is the only place to show our pics to people who may care just alittle,even if they fake it,its still nice to hear:Cheers:
: Don't forget to clean the glass....

This was went to be funny:mrgreen:,you know how you say something in your head then type it,it just does'nt read the same:grumble:.......makes you sound like a jerk or something:frustrat:

 

[d2mini]

This is one of the reasons I love my Leica.
Very little in the way of buttons and none of the silly modes like "fireworks, portrait, landscape, etc". Just let me choose the aperture, shutterspeed and iso and I'm good to go. Aperture Priority is as "dummy mode" as I'm willing to get.

Biff, you need to ignore all that crap and just use the basics. Otherwise you might as well have just bought a point and shoot camera. Buy a book and learn what Aperture (f-stop), Shutterspeed, and ISO do. Once you understand it, and continue to use it, it will come automatically. You will then know when modes like Aperture Priority of Shutter Priority will be useful.

I found this book very useful when learning, and I learned most of what I know on a digital slr. So even though the book speaks about a lot of film stuff, that's actually better and will help you understand how your camera works because it's still all the same. You're images are just recorded to a digital card instead of a piece of film. Everything else is identical. It's like learning how to drive on a manual car. Better in the long run.
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/National-Geographic-Photography-Field-Guide/dp/079225676X/ref=pd_sim_b_1]Amazon.com: National Geographic Photography Field Guide: Secrets…[/ame]

 

[Bifferwine]

Thanks for the link! I will be running errands this week and will squeeze in the book store.

I also plan on taking Catherine's class in the fall. I'll figure the thing out!

 

[fastrd400]

This is what the store gave me when I bought mny new camera.

Digital Photography For Dummies : Target Search Results

 

[OhNoNemo]

I got those books too,but they confused me even more,maybe i need one for real dumb dummies.....I just took 1000's,yes ,1000's of pics on all different settings and its helping a little.My problem is knowing when to use high or low ISO and all the other stuff it has

 

[d2mini]

It's so easy once you figure out that photography is all about light.
Without light, you don't have any pictures.

Aperture, Shutterspeed and ISO are 3 ways of controlling how much light reaches the film (or sensor in the case of digital).

The Aperture setting is the size of the hole in the lens. The bigger the hole, the more light that comes through into the camera.

Shutterspeed controls how long that light is let into the camera.

And ISO is all about how sensitive the film or sensor is to the light. The higher the iso number, the higher the sensitivity. The higher the sensitivity, the less light you need to get the correct exposure.

You can't just shoot thousands of pics and get anywhere unless you understand what the settings are doing and why you're getting the results you're getting. The meter that's displayed in the viewfinder display (usually along the bottom of the screen) is a big help because it will change as you make changes with the buttons on the camera. Look through the viewfinder and the meter tells you if you are correctly exposing or not. If you need more or less light, make a change to your aperture, shutter speed or iso. If your dog is moving fast and you want to stop the action then you need a fast shutterspeed. If you want to shoot something will a very shallow range of focus, then shoot with a big aperture (small f-stop). If it's very dark out you might need to raise your iso, slow down your shutter speed and open your aperture to get the correct exposure. You've only got 3 ingredients to cook with. All you have to do is think about what each one does and adjust accordingly. If you let the camera choose for you, or just randomly pop off a billion shots, you'll never learn and it will never become second nature.

 

[Alexander]

there is a really good website called dslrtips.com i believe. It has all kinds of how to photos and explains the different ways to make photos come out well.

 

[ggNoRe]

Just got my new camera a few days ago and I find this info very helpful. Thanks Dennis!

 

[Bifferwine]

Thanks Dennis and Alexander! I will have time to play with it this weekend. Until then, I am all jammed up at work! :cry:

 

[puttycat]

This is a good book on the basics. I read it a long time ago. I agree with Dennis those auto features are almost useless. I take pictures of the kids in plays,chorus, sports camera is almost always on M then Av. This also makes post processing or batch processing much faster if you decide to shoot RAW

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Exposure-Photographs-Digital-Updated/dp/0817463003/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276041809&sr=1-1]Amazon.com: Understanding Exposure: How to Shoot Great Photographs with a Film or Digital Camera (Updated Edition)…[/ame]

 

[tankedchemist]

Also, they make guides specific to your camera that are MUCH friendlier than the manual is. I got one that's got a yellow and white cover, specific to my Nikon camera. It's excellent at summarizing all the buttons, but also moves beyond that and explains when to use specific settings and why you do it. I found it useful. If I think about it when I get home, I'll try and find the title... but my camera's different than yours is anyway. I just went to the digital photography section and looked for the nikon books (not by Nikon, but about Nikon cameras) and flipped through all the options for my camera untiI I found one I liked.

congrats! And good luck.