Novice needs advice!

[mpskinner]

Hello,

I just got the canon rebel XSI that comes with a lens(kit) and im trying to get the basics down...i was taking several shots at different modes both creative and auto etc etc but im still not getting really good shots..can anyone give me some few basic setting for my camera using the creative mode...the auto modes are good but i think i can get more from this expensive camera using other modes.



I take a lot of pictures of my girls at the beach....what is the best settings to use in this case? I went 1 hour before the sun set last time and the pics still had a lot of shadow in the face or my little one couldnt open her eyes all the way b/c the sun was to bright...in another instance I took a pic in a walkway that had lots of greenery and then the background looked great but her face looked to bright...others the face was to cool (blue tones..auto setting).

The other instance I will be using the camera in is when shooting at a concert hall w/o flash...my daughter plays the viola on stage and im hoping to get decent shots.

The other instances will be birthday parties...how do i get a great shot with candles cake and a kid.

I do not really want to buy any other lenses right now..so if anyone can suggest some quick and easy setting on how to get the pics to look great in the above conditions please let me know...

[inkista]

Slow down. Take a deep breath. The learning curve is steep, but if you take it one step at a time you can make it. The camera gives you several settings from full auto to full manual, and you may want to ease your way through things one step at a time. I'm afraid there really is no quick and easy one-size fits all answer to what you're asking for. You have to learn to think your way through to a proper exposure.

I'd suggestion putting the camera in "P" mode, and then taking a shot, and if you see something wrong with it, learn how adjusting the iso, the white balance, or the exposure compensation might help you.

ISO is the sensitivy of the sensor. The higher the number, the more light it can grab at a time. If you're getting motion blur, or the picture's too dark, adjusting the ISO upwards can sometimes help.

White balance is how you adjust for "too cool" (blue) or "too warm" (yellow/orange).

And exposure compensation can help with overall too-dark or too-light.

Once you've got that down, then move to Av, TV, and M modes, and gradually wean yourself off using just exposure compensation to nailing down specific apertures and/or shutter speeds you need to get what you want.

A good book for learning the basics of exposure is Bryan Peterson's Understanding Exposure.

If you're shooting with someone who's backlit by the sun, you can use the flash to fill in the shadows with light. If someone's looking directly into the sun, you might want to simply turn them so they're not and catch them from another angle. If the white balance in auto is off, experiment with the other white balance settings to get what you want, or shoot RAW, and then adjust the white balance in post processing.

At the beach, reflected light from the water and sand tend to fool your meter and make the camera underexpose. You'll want to dial in exposure compensation to the right +1EV is probably a good starting point and adjust as you go. Spot metering may also help.

For shooting stage stuff without a flash, you are probably going to have to buy another lens. The $90 EF 50mm f/1.8 can handle lower light situations than your kit lens much more easily. The problem is the maximum aperture of the lens. At the end of your zoom range, your maximum aperture is f/5.6. That aperture is probably too small to let you get a high enough shutter speed to freeze action and avoid motion blur.

It will also help you with shots like the one you describe for birthday parties, although using a flash for those kind of shots may be another good option.

[Mr Guy]

One piece of advice I personally followed was to start in automatic mode until you're reasonably satisfied you at least captured the moment THEN switch modes and try and add your creative stamp or improve the quality. Have a couple fall back pictures from the camera's best guess, for me, went a LONG way from frustrating piece of junk to fun learning experience.

[mpskinner]

"The $90 EF 50mm f/1.8 can handle lower light situations than your kit lens much more easily. The problem is the maximum aperture of the lens. At the end of your zoom range, your maximum aperture is f/5.6. That aperture is probably too small to let you get a high enough shutter speed to freeze action and avoid motion blur."....can you tell me what is another lens that may work for shooting stage pics. From what I'm reading and understanding that type of lens would be better suited for evening shots that are relatively closer to the camera..please correct me if im wrong...

Also, if i use the camera lens that came with the camera for a general evening pic with bad lighting would adjusting the settings to f/4, 1/250s ISO200 get me a decent shot?


I also noticed an article on metered reading and that one photographer always uses this as a reference point...what does that all mean.

[Palladius]

one photographer always uses this as a reference point...

Sounds like a variation on the 'Sunny 16' rule... this was an old-fashioned way of estimating correct exposures when everyone used film and light-meters.

Basically, you set the shutter speed to roughly the same as your ISO... so if you were using ISO200 film (the numbers mean pretty much the same in digital cameras) you'd have 1/200s or 1/250s. Then you set the aperture to f/16 if it's a sunny day. Then you stop down the aperture if it's slightly overcast (f/11), overcast (f/8), or heavily overcast (f/5.6).

So since f/4 is going to let in a bit more light than f/5.6 it seems pretty reasonable to use that as a starting point for evening shots. The exact settings required will depend on the specific lighting conditions you have at the time.


If I can make a suggestion, something that has worked for me is just sitting and playing with the camera. Try putting it into shutter priority mode and choosing a middling shutter speed like 1/125s and then point your camera and different parts of the room and out the window. Concentrate on how the camera adjusts the size of the aperture to keep the same amount of light coming in. Most things in the room will look the same brightness to you because your eyes are excellent at adjusting their own aperture (pupils), so you'll have to become quite conscious aware of how light levels change.

Also, try and be a bit scientific... change one thing at a time until you get how it works. Set your aperture at f/8 and your ISO at 400 and see how changing shutter speeds affect the shots you get. Then change something else.

This might sound quite silly but, as I say, it's worked for me... when you've got an important shot in front of you, you really don't want to be mucking about trying to remember whether bigger apertures numbers mean less light or the other way around (something I've done!)

[Keels1225]

[QUOTE=mpskinner;349430] From what I'm reading and understanding that type of lens would be better suited for evening shots that are relatively closer to the camera..please correct me if im wrong...

Also, if i use the camera lens that came with the camera for a general evening pic with bad lighting would adjusting the settings to f/4, 1/250s ISO200 get me a decent shot?

QUOTE]


The kit lens on the XSI is 18-55mm, so even "zoomed" all the way in you will still have about the same perspective shot that you would with the EF 50mm 1.8 II prime lens. But with the prime lens you will be able to get a much higher aperature.

I know this is all probably overwhelming, but bear with it and spend some time on the blog for this sight....especially under the beginners section. There is worlds of useful information at your fingertips.

[inkista]

Originally Posted by mpskinner

Re: 50mm f/1.8 II
....can you tell me what is another lens that may work for shooting stage pics. From what I'm reading and understanding that type of lens would be better suited for evening shots that are relatively closer to the camera..please correct me if im wrong...

You can always stop a lens down, just like you can always narrrow the opening of a door, but you can't just make the door wider. So, the 50mm f/1.8 can also do very well in bright daylight. And f/1.8 isn't like having night-vision goggles, where you can magically see and shoot in the darkness. Just indoors at night with the lights on, even at f/1.8, you may still need to be up to iso 800 or iso 1600 to get a good shot without a flash.

THE stage-shooting lens in the new Canon lineup is the $900 EF 135mm f/2L USM. It's the cheapest of the "holy-trinity" of portrait lenses (35L, 85L, and 135L). I own one, it's magical, but it may be more lens than you're looking for (both in price and weight). Other alternatives, if you need more reach, would be the EF 85mm f/1.8 USM, the EF 100 f/2, the EF 135 f/2.8 Soft Focus, and the EF 200mm f/2.8L USM. The rule-of-thumb cutoff point for "available light" shooting is a max. aperture of f/2.8.

The problem with using a longer lens is that if it doesn't have IS, then you have to have a shutter speed of 1/focal_length or faster. That means if you're shooting at 100mm, you need your shutter speed to be at 1/100s or faster.

Also, if i use the camera lens that came with the camera for a general evening pic with bad lighting would adjusting the settings to f/4, 1/250s ISO200 get me a decent shot?

My gut instinct is probably not--that sounds underexposed to me but my definition of "general evening" and "bad lighting" may not be yours, and that assumes you can get to f/4. You'll have to be zoomed out to do that, since your max. aperture at the 55mm end of the lens is f/5.6. Remember, your sensor is a lot bigger in a dSLR--you can use iso 800 without fear.

Small footnote if you didn't go to the link on maximum aperture in my earlier post (which explains all this far better)--when your kit lens's max. aperture is described as f/3.5-5.6 this isn't the aperture range of the lens, like the zoom range (18mm-55mm) is. This is the maximum aperture at the ends of the zoom range. So, the widest your aperture can be at 18mm is f/3.5, and at 55mm, it's f/5.6. You can always make the aperture smaller than that, but you can't go any wider.

But as people are saying, thanks to digital, you don't have to do this in your head. If you get it wrong, you can adjust and try again. Don't worry too much about what online pundits (me included) say. Your own experience will probably teach you more.

[(CMC)]

Originally Posted by Mr Guy

One piece of advice I personally followed was to start in automatic mode until you're reasonably satisfied you at least captured the moment THEN switch modes and try and add your creative stamp or improve the quality. Have a couple fall back pictures from the camera's best guess, for me, went a LONG way from frustrating piece of junk to fun learning experience.

Excellent advice. It's a totally overwhelming experience otherwise.