iS is great to have. But some people don't prefer it. I think its a necessity when shooting video on a dslr though.

 

not necessarily.

people think IS will improve the quality of the pictures. but all IS really does is compensate for camera shake when the shutter speed is less than 1/focal length of the lens.

simply put, it is (usually) effective when you are shooting something and the shutter speed is less than the focal length of the lens you are shooting in. for instance, if you have a 50mm lens, you have to try and shoot faster than 1/50th of a sec. Generically speaking, it means the longer the lens, the faster you have to shoot it to get sharp images.

what really gets you sharp images is faster shutter speeds. it always has been. now to get fast shutter speeds you either 1)use a "fast" lens, 2)bump up the ISO or 3)both. IS cannot "freeze" action or stop a moving subject, a fast shutter speed does.

a good combo would be to put IS and a fast lens together. if you can save up and have the $$$ for it, get the EF-S 17-55mm F/2.8 IS USM. it combines a fixed aperture across the entire zoom range (2.8) and Image Stabilizer. there are cheaper alternatives but if you want the best of both worlds with no regard for price, that's the lens to get. I love mine.

 

Yeah that's definitely something to think about. I guess for now I will have to stick with the 50 and learn how to use it well. I have some more pictures that I really like and will have to post them asap.

 

the 50mm is a good lens to start with. it makes you think and compose the shot more thoroughly than a zoom would. plus you could (almost) always use your feet and back out a few or come in closer if you wish to frame your subject.

 

last month on vacation the one day I took my camera out for the day I only took my 50 with me, partially for weight....but mostly because I wanted to challenge myself and see what I could come up with.

 

Man, i wish i the 17-55mm f/2.8 IS was an EF lens instead of an EF-S. I might have gotten that instead of the 24-105mm. i guess for marking reasons they couldn't since of the 24-70mm f/2.8

 

original



edit

 

STI edit, one of my favorites, that and the gold rims.

 

I can tell you that when I rented a Nikkor 24-70mm F/2.8, I had a hell of a time getting sharper images. Now I am still learning, and knowing what settings to use when is still a challenge. I find that with the VR (basically same as IS in Canon) on my kit lens, I get sharper images with less thought. The 24-70 lacks VR, and after a week shooting with it I started to doubt my own abilities. I am sure with time I will learn how to select the proper settings for different circumstances, but at $1800 for the lens, I think I have to learn a bit more before buying one. I do however recommend renting before buying an expensive lens as you can try it out for relatively little money.

 

^ another thing.....you need to learn how to position yourself and how to hold the camera to reduce shake as well. Unless youre like me and its just a lost cause

 

Hahah yeah walsh I think i'm steady so far, but we will have to see. I am flying home today and then taking care of somethings but next week I should have way more time to play around with my camera and experiment with all the tips. How do you guys like the sti edit? I think its the best one besides the gold wheels which I want to re edit but its still an amazing shot in my eyes.

 

The STi edit is alright, just that the guy in the jeans is so close in the field of view that it's distracting.

 

Haha damn I thought it was good. Your def right, if I was doing a shoot it would be much cleaner with out the guy but I like them in the background I thought it added to the whole meet vibe and what not. I gotta come up with something nice to impress y'all!

 

No need to try to impress us. Do your way, but also take the advice from others to form your own style of photography. Never be afraid to try something new. You can mimic others to start off but then its always good to try to make your own concept. This is how art is formed

 

There's always software...

 

I like it, I like it, Its clean, I like how that whole half is blurred out, nice edit. Took some shots while I was home for the weekend, experimented, and some came out okay. Loving the learning process!

 

Congrats on your new camera! I had a t2i before I upgraded to 7D. Rebel series are great for someone who starting out because it packs so much in such a small camera. 50mm 1.8 ii is a great lens because they can be found 100ish new. I have 50mm 1.4 and on a crop sensor a little too tight in smaller rooms. That why I carry my 15-85mm and flash for everything else.

What type of photography are you into? If shooting portraits I suggest getting a external flash. Being able to bounce light off walls/ceiling will help soften the light onto the subject. If shooting night photography or landscaping I would like into getting a good sturdy tripods. I heard good things about Induro, best bang for your money.

I would also start shooting in Raw if your planning on using editing softwares like, photoshop, lightroom, aperture, etc...

Here are a couple shot I took with 50mm that I liked.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/70337480@N04/7025703025/http://www.flickr.com/photos/70337480@N04/7025703025/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/70337480@N04/, on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/70337480@N04/7003182721/http://www.flickr.com/photos/70337480@N04/7003182721/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/70337480@N04/, on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/70337480@N04/6947136987/http://www.flickr.com/photos/70337480@N04/6947136987/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/70337480@N04/, on Flickr

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/70337480@N04/7028180033/http://www.flickr.com/photos/70337480@N04/7028180033/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/70337480@N04/, on Flickr

 

The photography I will be doing will most likely be all outdoors, My mom has an external flash for her t3i so I might have to steal that soon!

Those shots came out awesome! I am getting better, I will be doing a ton this weekend as far as shooting goes. So I am pretty excited to get down to some serious shots. As far as RAW, I don't have any software besides the Stock Canon stuff, and I don't foresee myself buying anything, but do you think I should still shoot in Raw?

 

Shooting in Raw give you a lot more detail then Jpeg. It will be a lot easier to fix white balance with raw. But if your doing a lot of test shots, (learning how to use camera/lens) I would stick with Jpeg. Anything you want to capture and go back and edit, shoot in Raw. When I ad the T2i I put about 10k shots in less then 7 months. My 7d which is only 3 months old already has 8k on it.

Only complaint about shooting in raw is the big file size. About 25mb per photo so a 16gb card will only get you around 500 photos.

 

New stuff from this past weekend, all unedited except for the ones with the car in them.

 

I'm still not getting the crispness I want that others have, Slick's photos above for example!

 

Are you still using p mode? Your aperture while shooting isn't probably @f/1.8

 

Hmm for a few I was, for the others I wasn't but your right, it definitely wasn't 1.8

 

If you want sharper images, don't shoot wide open

 

That's what I was going to say. F/1.8 will be fast and good for darker settings or something like sports, but for clarity, I think you'd be best around F/8 perhaps. It probably depends on your lens, but someone else can correct me if I am wrong.

 

I think if your going for bokeh, try shooting at 2.8. 1.8 is very wide and hard to get sharp images. From what I read and my own experience 2.8 is the sweet spot.

 

Most sweet spots for 1.8, 1.4, 1.2 lens are F/2 to F/4'ish.

 

Makes sense. I have gotten some very sharp pictures with great bokeh with my 35mm f/1.8 stopped down to 1.8. So it is possible. I would guess it depends on the lens.

 

Good to know. Thanks.

 

It would help if you included the aperture, iso, and shutter speed you used in your photos. Keep in mind that wide open (i.e. f1.8, f1.4, etc.) your depth of field is going to be very narrow so accurate focus is critical. Increasing focal length also narrows the depth of field. You want to keep your shutter speed up high enough to counter camera shake. The rule of thumb is the inverse of the length of the lens you're shooting. For instance, shooting at 200mm means 1/200th second minimum. Image stabilized lenses help but using a tripod is best. You can also learn how to hold a camera as steady as possible when shooting without a tripod - I keep my elbows against my torso, lean against something stable, and slowly exhale when I press the shutter.

 

I believe my aperture was around 5.6 for most of these except when I wanted a deeper depth so I bumped it up to 22. I will try to hit the sweet spot when I shoot next though!

 

I use Exif Reader with Google Chrome, tells me everything about every picture I hover over, if it's there. And for most it's there.

 

Here are some teasers from last nights Lexus is-250 shoot. The rest of the pictures will be up and edited in about a week or so but here is one of the best and one of the worst photos to give you guys a taste of what went down!


One of the best IMO (unedited)



One of the worst from the shoot (unedited)




Both shot at around 1 in the morning on my campus in NYC.

 

You really need a tripod for photoshoots. Start using the timer once you get that.

 

Used a tripod but it was windy out so there was some sway, like I said one of the worst but the prop came out nice. I left my shutter release in the room so I didn't have that. Photoshoot is a bad word I guess, we basically went out and experimented and fooled around with some night shots. The one with the prop I took really quick while my buddy was setting up his gear, I wanted to have the car blurry and the screw in focus. I can't very well give you guys the best stuff without taking the time to tweak it! Have some faith spec!!

 

Use the camera's timer release and up the shutter speed.

 

one of the thing i learned about photography was from one of the DVD i was watching about lighting by Zack Arias. "if you just say, ill fix it in photoshop or any photo editing program, just slap yourself". Which i started to do more was focus on getting it right first on camera and only have to do minor adjustments if needed on post editing programs. Not saying i don't have faith, but just giving you advice as we all started somewhere.

 

Very true, point. I don't even have photoshop and the most I do is play with the saturation and contrast lol so no danger of me changing much, I just havent sat down and looked through them all yet. You are right though, I am still learning. I really like the top photo which I think caught a cool effect from the water, I think that was a 30 second exposure.

Jupiter - I didn't even think of that!! Damn would have been much easier that way. I have the shutter release for next time though, hopefully it will be my actual car when it is out of the shop.

 

no worries, there is much i need to learn too.