The Photography Thread

[MartyG]

It was hanging by a thread

And this tiny spider is about 2-3mm at most:

[Ish]

Love the way he's lifting that aphid.

Some from me. I like the idea of the colourful one but I've not nailed the execution yet and its still a bit scrappy.

[babs]

Have you bought that camera yet babs?

Funny you should ask, because as of this afternoon I am now the owner of a Nikon D40

I went along to Jessops to try them out - The D40, Canon 400D, a Pentax and a Sony, and was able to immediately dismiss the Pentax and Sony. I didn't like the feel of the Pentax and the Sony was just so 'plasticky' - it didn't do anything for me. What it came down to in the end was just finding the D40 so much more comfortable. I was a bit dubious of reviews saying that many entry level DSLRs had small grips but it's so true, and with the Canon I could almost feel my hand cramping up when I was trying to get a good grip.

In the end it ran in at just shy of ?340. It was ?390 in-store, so I nipped home and ordered with 'Collect in Store', went back down the road and claimed my ?50 saving smugly.

The battery's on charge at the moment and I'm scouring the manual (which tbh may as well have been written in Dutch), but I'm sure I'll come to make sense of it all in time. Can't wait to get playing with it now, although it's made me realise I want a new monitor - the colour temperatures on this one are screwed.

Thanks for all the advice guys, it was much appreciated. I look forward to being able to contribute to this thread myself in the not-too-distant future.

Any good tips for an SLR newbie like myself, things I should get acquainted with first? Or is it just shoot, shoot, shoot?

[MartyG]

Funny you should ask, because as of this afternoon I am now the owner of a Nikon D40

So where are the first pics? Come on, don't keep us waiting!

And yes, just shoot shoot shoot - don't be afraid to try different settings and just play around with them - you'll learn best by playing with the settings and seeing how that changes the images. Have a play in the Apature Priority mode first, have a play with different apature settings. It's by far the most useful mode I use on my camera as it allows me to control composition exactly as I like.

Here's a good thing to try, get a newspaper and get focused on the text print, and try different apatures and see how this affects the depth of field ( the amount of stuff that's in focus ). Just don't post the pics on here

As you're working in digital you have no worries about development costs - I'm nearing 9000 exposure on my D50 now.

[babs]

As I said above, the battery is still charging.

The better half is going running in the woods in a bit, so I'll nip down with her to try and grab a few shots, but it's really overcast now so I'm not holding out much hope.

[MartyG]

The D40 has a flash, use it

[Ish]

I'd agree with what Marty said - shoot, shoot shoot and shoot more. Its the best way to learn.

I look forward to seeing your photos in here - get yourself a flickr account!

[babs]

I already have two I'll upload some old photos from my A70 later, to give an idea of the kind of thing I'll want to be shooting in a few weeks time. I could do with some settings advice

[babs]

Oops, I already have some of the aforementioned shots online it seems.

We go to a big martial arts expo each year, and I want some good action shots. Last time all I had was my old Canon A70 compact, and given the shutter delay I was quite pleased with what I managed to get, but most of the shots are dark/underexposed and given the speed people were moving, blurry too.



The main problem is with lighting, in a big exhibition hall (NEC last year, ExCel this year) flashes are pretty ineffectual and the provided lighting is poor. Any tips for improving it? Could it just be metering light better?

[MartyG]

Chances are the flash on the A70 simply wasn't powerful enough.

In order to stop action like this you really need 1/250th of a second, and quicker would be desirable.

Solutions: Really expensive f2.8 lenses, higher ISOs or decent high speed syncing flashes.

I'll bet the D40 makes a better job of these shots than your old A70 would.

[babs]

Well, looks like I'm going to need something much steadier than my knee if I want to shoot in late daylight in the woods

I'm having a problem with the memory card though, it's just an unbranded 2GB SD and I was getting errors at first with the camera saying 'File contains no Image data' when trying to view some. Then when I connected it to the computer it locked up trying to copy (damaged) jpegs. I managed to get most off but they had bands of missing colour at the bottom.

I've since formatted the card on the PC and again on the camera and haven't had the error again so far, I'll have to see how it goes. I think it might be worth investing in a half-decent one though if this is anything to go by.

[Alastair]

You'll get better at hand held shots. I did a shot for ebay of my Tamron lens today and at f8 it suggested 1/2 a second so I thought I'd give it a go. Wasn't perfect but was perfectly usable. Here it is.

Did you format the SD in camera before taking the first shots? If not that could have caused it. Worst thing ever though losing pics so def get a decent one as they are so cheap now.

I highly recommend mymemory.co.uk There own branded cards have been faultless for me, but, I've only ever used them for CF cards so want comment on the SD's. 2GB is only £10.99 though.

[babs]

I did format it first yeah, it just seemed to hate me

Since the format on the pc then reformat in the camera, everything seems ok for the time being. I'm still going to invest in a new card though, and I guess I'll be needing a nice kit bag too. The last one I had was a cheapy from 7dayshop, I'll have to dig it out for now.

Can anyone recommend a nice site for someone like me, who has a rough idea of the basics but would like to learn more, maybe even those weekly/monthly competitions to give me some focus (!) on something to shoot.

I kinda understand the basics of f stops, iso, shutter speed and the like, but looking at a scene and thinking 'ooooh this needs x,y & z' still eludes me. For example, taking really dull, low light shots like I was trying tonight - if I'm to avoid the horrible flash and try to cram in what's left of the natural light would I be right in thinking the following? - longer exposure, iso - i guess is trial and error to get a play off between light and noise, and aperture is one which gets me - open for more light in but smaller depth of field, is that right?

Sorry to sound so thick, I am reading, playing and learning, but it's combining it all which is going to take the time I think

[Anpanman]

Correct with the aperture, wider aperture less DOF.

Think of squinting! If I take my specs off I can't see across the room but if I squint things get clearer as I'm making the iris in my eye smaller.

[Alastair]

...open for more light in but smaller depth of field, is that right?
...

Correct, the wider it opens the shallower the depth of field. Unless you are particularly close to an object it often wont matter though. Go back a few pages and check out the low light beach shots I did. Browse flickr and check peoples exif data like this for my shot. It'll give you loads of ideas. As you can see in that one the aperture of f/4 didn't overly affect the DOF, I just used it to allow as much light as possible into the lens. Raising the ISO is the other way to get more light to the sensor while keeping the shutter speed useful.

The RLLMUK monthly contest is generally quite a decent standard, worth a go and if I can win it twice and get photo of the year so can anyone!!!