Saggs,
I just got my first dslr last month and learning all the this's and that's is a bit overwhelming. I've seen a lot of talk about shooting raw vs jpeg. I understand a bit of it but anything you can add would be great + any tips on shooting airshows / aircraft, architecture, nature, animals. Would be great. This is for personal enjoyment only but I do want good shots.
RAW vs. Jpeg is one of those endless debates. Personally I shoot RAW and convert in Adobe Lightroom, I know a lot of pros though that shoot Jpeg to save time. The best comparison I've come up with is food.
RAW is like raw food, your camera is like the grocery store when you shoot RAW, it gives you all the ingredients and you have to cook/make the final product yourself.
Jpeg is like ordering off a menu, and your camera is the restaurant/cook, you tell it what you want and it cooks it all up for you.
I shoot RAW in abobe RGB color because it give me more control over little tweaks like color and tone curves. And conversion it is not really that time consuming. I used to shoot a lot of youth Rodeos, I would walk away from a day with 600+ RAW images. But I could get away with only actually processing >10 of them (basically one from each event, or each different lighting condition) and just sync the rest. That way I can convert all 600 RAW files in about 15 minutes or less. Lightroom lets me post them straight to my website that I sell from too.
Tips for airshows: For action shots make sure you use continuous autofocus, and spot metering. Shoot at a slower shutter speed (>1/500s) and learn to pan with the moving planes (it's not as easy as it looks) so that you get the prop blur. Without prop blur those planes look like static museum pieces. Use a polarizer, especially if it is a bright blue day, last airshow I was at I used a neutral density filter too.
Tips for nature/landscapes: Get a good tripod and use it, and think hard about composition. Try and follow ideas like 'the rule of thirds' and 'leading lines' and 'framing' when you can. Get low angles whenever you can so you have something interesting in the foreground, landscapes that are all background seem distant and uninteresting. I'd invest in a polarizer and a set of graduated neutral density filters too, because a lot of the time the dynamic range (difference between the light and dark parts) of a landscape is too much for a digital sensor to handle. With a GND you can darken the sky a bit and leave the foreground unchanged. (The other option is to learn to do HDR processing, but I prefer to just use a GND filter to spending the 15 minutes in Photoshop) And
MOST important wait for the right light. Even the prettiest landscape will look kinda blah when shot under the harsh midday sun. But wait for the "Golden hours" (basically the hour after dawn and before dusk) and the same landscape will look amazing.
Tips for animals/wildlife: Wildlife photography is what I love most, it is also the most frustrating, and most expensive. Frustrating because I've sat in a blind or tree all morning/evening long several times and walked away with 0 shots. Expensive because long, fast lenses are the most expensive. FYI my dream wildlife lens is a 600mm f4, but they cost at least $5-6K + another grand for a tripod and gimbal head to hold it. With wildlife you first need to do some research on what you want to shoot, find out where they live, what they eat, what time of day they are most active, their watering holes, etc... To be a good wildlife photog, you basically need to be a wildlife biologist too. Then it's all about patience, if you go chasing after wildlife you'll never get a good shot, you have to know where they will go, and wait for them to come to you, just like big game hunting.
Architecture I don't do... so I'm no help there, sorry.
I'd recommend getting involved in some photography forums, they can help you learn a lot. Find one specific to your brand of gear, they can help with setting and gearaholic questions. But find one where you can view and post images too, looking at others images will give you ideas that you like, and post your own to get feedback.
Here are a few sites I recommend.
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/ <-
GO HERE FIRST and read all of their articles under photo essentials.
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/index.shtml <- also has lots of great articles and essays. As well as a hugely knowledgeably forum, a lot of it is more into medium format stuff though.
http://www.dpreview.com/ <- Is kinda good and bad, They have all the recent news, lots of camera reviews, and forums for every brand. Be careful though, they also have thousands of idiots. I stay away from dpreview forums because most of them are just full of pointless pissing contests, about how someones favorite brand is .00001% better then that all other brands
And half the folks there are know-it-alls and pixel-peepers who spend more time in itardnet arguments then actually taking photos.
http://www.slrgear.com/reviews/index.php <- great place for lens reviews
http://www.photosig.com/go/main <- has thousands of photos in every category to view and/or critique, or submit your own for critique.
Mostly just go out and do! I learned the most through trial and error.
