Bought a DSLR, first real camera

seabeerob213

anon rebel EOS, T3i, 569$, love it so far, trying to get back in the hang of photography. H avent used a real camera since high school, did a bit of reading up and this one is one of the most feature packed cameras in its price range. Anyone have one or one similiar, who can give me tips and tricks on getting the most out of it? it's the 18.5-55 lens, didnt wanna spring the extra 200$ for the same model with the 18.5-135 lens.

nguyendot

Read a book on how to use the manual features, that will get the most out of it.

Also buy a 50mm f/1.8 lense for portraits and low light. It's cheap ($100 or so), gives super sharp images and will be most handy when trying to get kids moving around. No zoom but trust me - no one here will disagree about having it in your bag.

Save some money up for after learning the basics and invest in lenses. The bodies are disposable for the most part but your glass is the investment if you want great pics after shoring up your skills. Skills first, equipment later.

Mikey081057

If you travel alot and don't want to drag along 3 lenses, an 18-270mm lens can really roundout your kit... mine is a tamron, and it is awesome. I don't even know where my other lenses are. It has a piezo drive motor in the a f so you cant even hear it if you take video.

The other tip is use smaller mem cards.. 8 or 16 gb cuz if you lose one it wont be as devastating as losing a 32 or 64 gb card.

Take lots of shots, and pick the ones you like best. Use the bracketing feature.

Enjoy.

gmcman

Get a dedicated hard drive. I take my pics using NEF (Nikon's RAW), once the card is full, use 2 sub-folders inside the single import folder. One folder for RAW, one folder for JPEG. You may want to go one step further and use a 3rd folder for a smaller JPEG for emails. You never know when you are getting a keeper and may want the full resolution, also there is more post-processing control on the RAW image.

Save for the lenses, I agree..that's where the money is made only 2nd to your technique and skills. I would also very highly recommend using Canon lenses...3rd party has decent lenses but I would stick with Canon.

Stay away from the AUTO modes and use your skills. I prefer aperture priority for the most part, manual for the rest.

Get a good speedlight.

Adequate PC with ample RAM. Or MAC I suppose...

seabeerob213

pc is adequate, i hae an idea of the settings from high school photo clas, and the case i bought came with a dvd on how to use manual dslr's, and i use mostly manual mode, but have some auto features turned on depending on what im doing. i will buy a hard drive in a couple weeks. lenses will be a definite addition, i want something good for landscapes and similar, because when we go muddin, we ususally find somewhere to stop and take pics for a bit.

WLDock

Good for you on getting a nice DSLR in this cell phone world we live in.

Myself, my first decent camera was a Cannon Rebel S SLR w/ a Sigma 28-70mm Auto lens, and a Cannon flash back in the 90's. I was working in a photo lab back then and was trying to get into it. The toughest thing I did back then was a couple of weddings then later a studio shoot for a friend that was trying to get a modeling book together. I was interning at a cable station and borrowed a studio light set and made a backdrop using white sheets. I remember I gave my friend all of those negatives and had not seen the pics in years. I was suprised at my work when I saw them years later. I thought it looked better than I thought it did at the time i shot it. I guess at that time working in a photo lab and had seen some real quality stuff come through every now and then. I guess I was striving for that type of result. The best photos I saw back then were not always from the Pro's that did it for a living but from a Doctor that was into it as a hobby.

So, that is my best advice....keep your camera with you and shoot everything. Keep reading and keep looking at the photo's of those that do it well whom you have access to to ask questions. Yes, having good equipment and expensive lenses is one thing but....having an eye and knowing how to shoot is more important.

Thanks! as this post reminded me that I need to get nice DSLR myself. I only have Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5 point and shoot currently. Its not easy having too many costly hobbies!

seabeerob213

for some reason, not all of the pics will upload to the PC, and my samsung tv doesnt count as a high enough resolution monitor to open the software, so i guess a new tv or a dedicated monitor may be in my future, or just reserve the camera stuff to the laptop

bikerboy

Get a good photo editting quality IPS monitor and Lightroom from Adobe. A tripod will be the other must have. I use one with a qr plate. Let's you use it easier and faster. I use a Sony nex 7 and three lens plus adapters for legacy lenses. Have fun.

gmcman

Also keep in mind the T3i uses the APS-C sized sensor and this is not a "full-frame" sensor, meaning you will have 1.6X crop factor. Technically speaking your 50MM lens will become an 80MM effective focal length. This really becomes a factor on wide-angle lenses, you need a 12MM lens to obtain the 18MM of a FF sensor or film camera.

What I said earlier about using 3rd party lenses I tend to go back on with wide-angle lenses. Really comes down to cost and I have had great results with 3rd party lenses, sometimes it's hard to tell the difference but needless to say Canon has spectacular lenses.

Also, this tripod head works great with lenses smaller than what the pro's use at a NFL game....I love it and couldn't live without it.

http://www.adorama.com/US%20%20%20%20603724.html?gclid=CI7DqaXszrsCFW9nOgodnEUAaQ

seabeerob213

figured out how to upload them, other than a couple lenses and a basic tripod, not gonna do too much with it for now, just take pics. I have a car, and stereo that come first with money. I have bought a 55-250 mm canon lense with IS, 30% off + no tax, 270$. software and stuff can wait for now, the pics are on an EXT.HD and not going anywhere. Also, i use my laptop for photos, as the software all works pretty smoothly with it.

Shizelbs

Knowing what I know now, here is what I would do;

1) Buy a fixed 50mm lens.
2) Buy and learn how to use a good speedlight/flash
3) Buy and use Adobe Lightroom

seabeerob213

thanks for the tip shize, i'll start looking into stuff

audiocr381ve

I'd also recommend the 50 1.8. It's a sweet little lens that is great in low light, it's light weight, & great for blurring out that background when you want to draw your viewers eye to something specific as opposed to everything in a shot. I own the 50 1.4 and the 50 1.2 L and the $100 50 1.8 holds its own. The build quality is absolute crap, but the images it produces are nice.

The more you start shooting, the more you'll figure out what you like to shoot. You may find yourself gravitating towards certain things like landscapes or portraits or architecture or street photography or whatever.. Once you figure out what that is, you'll start getting interested in which lenses make your subject matter look its best. You'll also learn what you like and don't like about gear. Some guys like to travel ultra light while others will bring whatever it takes to get the absolute best image in their eyes. This will effect the choices you make when buying new gear.

Here are a few of from my 5D MKIII and 24-105 L.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2kql094wegt1kuv/downtown.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9jqm19m2g0shz5c/915A3820.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ibiro0ud99iasuh/915A2821.jpg

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jnjwmtiqggp7odr/915A4333.jpg