JB88, photo help please :)

[SD67]

I'm going to NATFLY this Easter and hopefully I'll be taking some air to air shots of some of the Aussie KR's and I was wondering if you could spare a few pointers. I've never taken any photos in this sort of environment before.
My previous work was done on 35mm manual SLR's (I still have my old Minolta but it has a fungus from storage and I need to get it cleaned ) and it was pretty much exclusively landscapes and portraits with the occasional wedding. I also did a lot of party scene photography when I was at uni to pay the bills.
To be honest I feel a little bewildered working out the way the settings are managed in the new digital SLR Sarah has bought us, but I'm going to give it a go.
It's a Canon EOS400D and from what I understand it's an excellent entry level digital SLR. So far we only have the one lens, though I do want to buy at least one more but I just don't have the time, however for what I want to do the 18-55MM standard zoom lens should perform adequately.
So far I've taken some nice portraits of Sarah and Brianna and I've even had some very nice results on manual. The lack of the split focus really bugs me though.
Any tips you could give would be greatly appreciated.

[SIG220]

I'm going to NATFLY this Easter and hopefully I'll be taking some air to air shots of some of the Aussie KR's and I was wondering if you could spare a few pointers. I've never taken any photos in this sort of environment before.
My previous work was done on 35mm manual SLR's (I still have my old Minolta but it has a fungus from storage and I need to get it cleaned ) and it was pretty much exclusively landscapes and portraits with the occasional wedding. I also did a lot of party scene photography when I was at uni to pay the bills.
To be honest I feel a little bewildered working out the way the settings are managed in the new digital SLR Sarah has bought us, but I'm going to give it a go.
It's a Canon EOS400D and from what I understand it's an excellent entry level digital SLR. So far we only have the one lens, though I do want to buy at least one more but I just don't have the time, however for what I want to do the 18-55MM standard zoom lens should perform adequately.
So far I've taken some nice portraits of Sarah and Brianna and I've even had some very nice results on manual. The lack of the split focus really bugs me though.
Any tips you could give would be greatly appreciated.

You got a great camera there that can take fantastic photos.   Main thing for you to do until Easter is practice a lot with it, and read the manual completely.

That standard zoom lens you have should be fine for this situation.   Canon does make a much faster EF 50mm 1.8 fixed length lens for your camera for only $80.   Getting it can give you far better ability to shoot in low light, since the lens is so much faster than that zoom.   

The autofocus system on your camera is very fast and accurate, as it is the same one that is on the more expensive semi-professional EOS 30D camera.   So odds are that your pictures will come out very well focused without any extra effort on your part.  If you push the AF button on the camera, all of your focusing options will then pop up for you to select.   And one of them is MF ( Manual Focus ).   If you select that option, then you can manually focus, and you will get a split focus on your LCD to assist you with that.   Manual Focus is basically essential to use whenever taking any Macro shots with the camera.

95% of the time I just use the PROGRAM exposure mode option, and then use the exposure compensation feature to tweak the exposure ( if needed ).  You can also use that compensation feature to quickly take photos at slightly different exposures.   Just bracket your shot, by taking one with greater exposure, and another one with less.   And then decide when you get home which one turned out best, or will be the best one to tweak further in your photo editing software.   Anyway, that is sort of the lazy thing to do, but it does cover all bases, and help insure you get an optimal exposure on at least one of the shots.

I own two of the top Canon Powershot Digital Cameras myself, and would never considering buying any brand of camera other than Canon.





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[JB88]

practice practice practice.

in the meantime use auto settings and learn how to post process for effect and compensations.

level horizon always (unless purposefully doing otherwise)

observe the rules of halves and thirds.

find interesting ways to look at and get at your subject.

take a zillion, pray for a few.

and finally...

learn to crop your images.


 

[AWMac]

practice practice practice.

in the meantime use auto settings and learn how to post process for effect and compensations.

level horizon always (unless purposefully doing otherwise)

observe the rules of halves and thirds.

find interesting ways to look at and get at your subject.

take a zillion, pray for a few.

and finally...

learn to crop your images.


 

This is what made Abraham Zapruder famous.

 

Mac

[SIG220]

This is what made Abraham Zapruder famous.

 

Mac

And also Steve Reiter.   Whenever I would see Steve back when I was a beginning teenaged pistol marksman, he was always practicing.  Night and day.

Alas, I never had anything close to his dedication.   Or my two cousins either, who, also like Steve, also won National Championships at Camp Perry.

However, Steve was in a class all by himself, since he won the overall National Pistol Shooting Championship 5 times.

Practice is the key to excelling at anything.

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[SD67]

Thanks for the tips guys
We'll be leaving tomorrow morning so I'll be absent for at least a week. I'm organising web hosting for the pics so I'll post a link once we get them all sorted

[ramzey]

I'm going to NATFLY this Easter and hopefully I'll be taking some air to air shots of some of the Aussie KR's and I was wondering if you could spare a few pointers. I've never taken any photos in this sort of environment before.
My previous work was done on 35mm manual SLR's (I still have my old Minolta but it has a fungus from storage and I need to get it cleaned ) and it was pretty much exclusively landscapes and portraits with the occasional wedding. I also did a lot of party scene photography when I was at uni to pay the bills.
To be honest I feel a little bewildered working out the way the settings are managed in the new digital SLR Sarah has bought us, but I'm going to give it a go.
It's a Canon EOS400D and from what I understand it's an excellent entry level digital SLR. So far we only have the one lens, though I do want to buy at least one more but I just don't have the time, however for what I want to do the 18-55MM standard zoom lens should perform adequately.
So far I've taken some nice portraits of Sarah and Brianna and I've even had some very nice results on manual. The lack of the split focus really bugs me though.
Any tips you could give would be greatly appreciated.

Your camera is OK, lens is much better then any of JB88 powershot lenses.
Get  circular polarizer for any A2A shoots, it help you kill  unwanted  glass reflection, also boost colors.
Instead of manual focus , use selected AF point. Much more reliable then eye.
If you like to  use MF calibrate viewfinder to your eye , also there is option for AF to confirm your manual focus. If you nail it closest AF sensor should blink red and beep. Not sure about canon, but nikon, pentax have it

[JB88]

canon has it as well.

[SD67]

The only real problem I have with manual focusing on the 400D is the lack of the split focus. You can buy the screen and install it (or as I may do, get it installed for me) but I don't have the time.
I will however be buying a filter for it before we go though.

[SIG220]

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One feature that you now have that film cameras don't is Image Stabilization.   And what can allow you to do is to shoot with a shutter speed normally far too slow for you to typically be able to kept the camera steady and the photo in focus.   It can be a big plus when shooting indoor photography, especially if there is not much motion going on.

Here is a photo that a neighbor took with his Canon EOS 400D XTi indoors last Halloween.   If you check the picture info, you will see that the ISO was set to only 200, allowing for a very good picture quality.   Shutter speed, though, was all the way to 1/8 second, which normally would be blurred in a film camera.   But Canon's Image Stabilization took care of that, allowing the photo to still come out crystal clear, as you see here.

So do experiment with slower shutter speeds, and you will be amazed at how versatile your new camera will be with slower speeds. 

[ramzey]

look at exif again and stop telling BS about how wonderfully is slow shutter speed on dslr

add
unless you dont have clue what to look at

[SIG220]

look at exif again and stop telling BS about how wonderfully is slow shutter speed on dslr

add
unless you dont have clue what to look at

What point exactly are you trying to communicate?   The shutter speed and ISO setting are exactly as I described.  Your post is quite unintelligible.


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[NUKE]

Image stabilization is in the lens. Very expensive ones. The camera body has nothing to do with it.

I highly doubt that the picture was taken at 1/8th shutter speed with an ISO of 200. NO way! Even if the primary focal point managed to stay in focus, no way in hell you'd have that kind of depth of field.

Was a tripod used? A flash, lighting?

[SIG220]

Image stabilization is in the lens. Very expensive ones. The camera body has nothing to do with it.

I highly doubt that the picture was taken at 1/8th shutter speed with an ISO of 200. NO way! Even if the primary focal point managed to stay in focus, no way in hell you'd have that kind of depth of field.

Was a tripod used? A flash, lighting?

A flash was also used, but the ISO and shutter speed are indeed what was recorded.   I should have mentioned that a flash was also employed.

I was indeed mistaken, though, as the XTi model's standard lens does not support image stabilization like my two Canon Powershots have.   Canon's upcoming Digital Rebel XSi  SLR that is coming out next month, though, will ship standard with an new lower cost IS lens.   But that is not the case with the current XTi model.  So I stand corrected on my error of assuming that it had that the Image Stabilization feature, when it does not with the regular lens.

Image Stabilization is a truly great feature.   That is still a most valid point.   I would certainly never buy another camera/lens combo that did not have that feature.

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[NUKE]

what was the aperture setting?

I don't know of any SLR, digital or otherwise, that has image stabilization built into the body. It's done in the lens. Maybe the cheap-o stuff has that feature, but I'm not sure.

I'm pretty sure that a 1/8th shutter speed and 200 ISO is NOT going to make a shot like that.

And how can I read the file info, it's just a jpeg?

Please tell me how I can view the camera settings in a jpeg image.