Purchased a DSLR camera - Really Happy

[quicksilver1663]

Picked up a Canon Rebel XS with an IS lens (18-55) at Walmart this weekend. It was on for $348.00 which from reading is an amazing deal. Got one of the last ones in Atlantic Canada supposedly. I know it is an entry level camera but were are noobs. My wife and I had picked up a Canon SX120IS about 4 months ago and were quite dissapointed. It was quite slow and many shots we tried to take were blurry.

I know nothing of Photography and do not pretend to. I have begun the learning experience and may take an intro class. I tend to try to learn things on my own by reading or watching educational videos but with a young son at home my time is sparse.

We used the camera on Auto mode for the entire weekend and were really amazed at how fast the shutter is. We were constantly missing shots of our boy since he would turn away before the old camera could capture things.

Any tips on using a DSLR would be appreciated. For now I point and shoot.

[GunnerMcGrath]

Congrats! I am slightly less noobish but still a noob. =) I have the Nikon D40, which is approximately the equivalent to what you got. Here are some of my better shots after practicing for a few months: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gunnermcgrath

The biggest advice I can tell you is that you need to learn some photography basics. If you go to http://www.reddit.com/r/photoclass and start with Lesson zero, and go through the lessons, those will teach you a lot of things you need to know about your camera and how to use it. Just spending a few days reading up on the basics of my camera, particularly the importance of knowing how aperture and shutter speed work together, as well as some things about lighting, composition, and RAW file format made a huge difference in the way I take and view photos.

Yes, most of my shots are still snapshots, but if you know some basics your snapshots will be blowing the minds of your friends and family. I have friends with nicer DSLRs who marvel at my pictures simply because I learned how to light a scene better than flashing my subjects with the on-camera flash. =) People will constantly say "you must have a great camera!" and while it's kind of true (relative to them), you'll learn not to rage that the camera is not 100% responsible for good photos, the guy behind the camera has to do something decent as well. hehe

Oh, and as you learn, make sure to share as much as you can with your wife and anyone else who might want to use the camera, or else you will never get to be IN a halfway decent picture. =)

[HeartbreakRidge]

Welcome to my second favorite hobby! [8-|]


Bookmark Digital Photography Review. Lots of valuable resources.


A flash with an adjustable head will be your friend. Especially if you are doing lots of indoor photography (since you mentioned your son), getting good lighting for shots will often be a problem, and the onboard flash is basically useless - also because direct flash is not pretty (on skin, red eye, etc.). It makes *SUCH* a difference to use a proper flash gun (i.e. one with juice to put out good lumens, unlike the onboard) and then to bounce the flash (for indirect lighting).


Get a decent quality editing program - such as Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 (~$50 after rebate currently). Just some basic tweaking can either save a shot, or make a HUGE difference in how nice it looks.


At some point, if you want some reading material, Scott Kelby is a prolific photographer/author, and seems to have a rep for writing his books in a very useful and approachable way for newbies and beyond - I was very impressed by a book of his I picked up recently.


I've gotten most of my experience by just taking a LOT of shots, playing with settings, and learning from that (so far) - though I'd not mind taking a proper course at some point.

[IceLion]

Get a decent quality editing program - such as Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 (~$50 after rebate currently). Just some basic tweaking can either save a shot, or make a HUGE difference in how nice it looks.

Timely - Quick I just bought this myself for the Mac. Total came to about $80 CAD and then there is a $20 mail-in rebate. It sells for $130 CAD at FS.

[HeartbreakRidge]

Get a decent quality editing program - such as Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 (~$50 after rebate currently). Just some basic tweaking can either save a shot, or make a HUGE difference in how nice it looks.

Timely - Quick I just bought this myself for the Mac. Total came to about $80 CAD and then there is a $20 mail-in rebate. It sells for $130 CAD at FS.

It also comes with a $20 credit for Shutterfly.com, which is appropriately devious of them.

[quicksilver1663]

I have Adobe Lightroom 3. Currently using iPhoto but looking to migrate. Is Lightroom ok or should I look at Aperture.

[HeartbreakRidge]

I have Adobe Lightroom 3. Currently using iPhoto but looking to migrate. Is Lightroom ok or should I look at Aperture.

wow, you already have Lightroom 3?? That's not exactly noob software. [H]


if you have LR3, then you are good for now. you might want to consider PSE9 still, though, because there are some things (like removing objects from a photo) that can't be done in LR3.


I think some Mac people prefer Aperture to Lightroom (since in Windows land, Aperture does not exist), but even there I think everyone agrees they are both very good programs - and it's more a question of preferences and personal taste.

[quicksilver1663]

Yeah I have barely even looked at Lightroom yet. I don't might starting (purchasing) Elements if it will be easier to use. I need a way to keep iPhoto still being used though as the wife likes it. Not sure if there is a way to share catologs between programs. Probalby not as that is asking for trouble.

[vcize]

I'm in the same boat Quick. I went on a vacation to Italy last week and wanted to pick up something better than just a little point and shoot for it, so I grabbed a Canon T2i off slickdeals about a month ago (since it also does great HD video as well). I also grabbed Canon's 18-200mm IS lens to go with it so I wouldn't have to carry multiple lenses around on my trip.


Despite growing up with parents who made their living as wedding photographers, I knew virtually nothing about cameras. I called up my uncle (also a photographer) for a quick tutorial and then spent the entire plane-ride over doing as much reading as possible.


The thing that helped me learn the fastest though was just using it. I took almost 2000 pictures on the trip, many of which were just the same picture a bunch of times while playing with different settings to see which looked best. My requirements were a little different than yours (I was doing mostly landscapes, buildings, etc), but I spent most of my time with the camera set on program mode, which lets you adjust some of the more basic settings but keeps stuff like shutter speed and aperture on auto.


It wasn't long though before I was taking about half my photos in manual mode and adjusting those settings as well, just playing around with them to see what made the picture come out best. The biggest challenge was night photos, which were very common thanks to the ~4pm sunsets over there this time of year.


I'll try to get some photos from the trip up when I go through them, but I'm having a blast with the camera and have definitely found a new hobby, as if I needed more of them.


ETA: I use Photoshop CS5 for my editing. I already had it as part of the CS5 production premium suite I use for video editing.


ETA2: Gunner those photos are awesome. I especially like the one of the bee.

[HeartbreakRidge]

Yeah I have barely even looked at Lightroom yet. I don't might starting (purchasing) Elements if it will be easier to use. I need a way to keep iPhoto still being used though as the wife likes it. Not sure if there is a way to share catologs between programs. Probalby not as that is asking for trouble.

Found this interesting article on iPhoto/Lightroom conversion.


PSE is probably where Adobe wants most consumers to go, but Lightroom is definitely more powerful - potentially. With some reading (like the Kelby book), you can probably get the presets & defaults to where you need them to speed up your workflow. There's also the wonderful world of Lightroom plugins which can extend/adapt LR in many ways (which I have not even begun to play with - like one that is supposed to seamlessly integrate LR and PSE).


Dpreview.com has a very indepth review of Lightroom 3 which might also be worth your time to give you some ideas about how to use it.