i been bored lately, so i want to learn how take good picture. is there any good books that ya recommend? also i was planning on getting a digital slr for my new hobby, so any recommendation? i was leaning toward a canon D350 digital rebal xt, what ya think?

thanks

 

i have a canon s50, its nice for a point and shoot

 

D350 is a good camera, I doubt you would be disappointed in it. Also take a look at the Nikon D70 which is in the same class as the 350D and is also a great camera.

If you are going digital you will get the only book you really need with the camera...the owners manual. Carry it with you until you are used to the camera and read it when you get stuck on how to do something. You should be able to figure out most tech based things from that, the rest is in your eye and whether you can see a good shot or if all you see is snapshots.

 

pierced1: i want to try something beside just point a shoot, but thanks for the help!

nightshade: i will look into the d70 also! so the owner manual is good enough to explain what all the features do and how to use it correct? Would it give me a good idea on how to set it for like a night shot of a city?

when i look at things i do have an idea of how i want the picture to look, but i just don't know how to set the camera to take it like i wanted it to!

also do ya think its worth taking a class in photography?

 

I think you can figure it out with the manual and some playtime with the camera. Just remember that unlike film each image you take won't cost you anything to develop so you have a "safety net" in that you can do al kinds of experimentation with it.

A classs can help and does for some people, but sometimes it also limits what you can do because it may not be "accepted standard" and you get trained into a mindset of having only one way to do something.

I dunno though I guess if the teacher is really open minded about letting people do their thing, and comments based on artistic merit rather than technical perfection (though many times one begets the other) I think it would help...really depends a lot on the instructor.

 

thanks! i probably just get a camera and go from there (since its a hobby to kill time so why not try learn on my own) and if everything fail, i probably take a class.

now for the next question, i was thinking of getting one of those mfg kit (body and lens) beside that whats else should i get to start? i know i need memory, tripod, & carring case. should i get more lens? flashes?

 

completely agree

and again completely agree.

I will say that before you try anything artistic, make sure you know how to take basic good pictures. And no fuggin tilty car pics and shit!

 

lol, like those old import magazine pics? well i was planning on taking car pics but more on the line of action shot(car drifting or speeding by) also want to take good night life pic, city, sceneries(sp?), people.

 

Forget Nikon, go with the Canon line of digitals, the CMOS sensors are a lot cleaner and sharper than Nikons CCD's. Canon CMOS's are also a lot cleaner at higher ISO's then the CCD's.

If your good at photoshop then you shouldnt have to many problems converting to digital from 35mm, although on the otherhand if your new at photoshop and or have never used it before then your in for a rough ride :-)

When you use Canon DSLR's the images arent very sharp out of the camera and must be post processed either in C1 if your shooting RAW or in photoshop if your shooting RAW or jpg.

If your a n00b to photography then I would recomend shooting RAW, it is way more forgiving and you get far better results from it than just JPG.

Depending on how serious you wanna go save your money on the body and invest in good glass, dont go off brand with your lenses, rather go with a good Canon lens and if you can afford it go with Canon's "L" series lenses, result are far supior than anything else out there. Also invest in memory cards, big ones like 4 gig memory cards or 4 gig microdrives.

I shoot with the EOS 1D mkII, I got three 4 gig microdrives and two 1 gig microdrives. On big shoots I also carry a laptop to dump the cards once done with them.

Any questions let me know.

 

i was waiting for it. the old canon vs. nikon debate. LOL

20d vs. d70

I'll say that i always thought i was "artisitc" @ photographs. And always enjoyed taking them, no matter what they were of. But it wasn't until I got my first SLR and realized i knew nothing. In combination of Fatbootys 10 page long AIMs and taking the class I am in now, i not only gained A TON of knowledge, but improved my photographs. I made tons of mistakes from this class, and only gained knowledge from them. there is a lot more that goes into a picture other then the artisitc view someone has (which can differ from one person to the next)

I think 35mm taught me that you really have to get the shot right, and you can't relay on the delete button on the back of the camera. But it also taught me a lot about contrast. (in black in white)

I know it helped me, and SLRs are very different then point and shoot. But i'm currently looking to get a d70. great camera, for a great price, and you can find a d70 a lot cheaper ever since the release of the d70s