dave, what lenses do you own?

what do you shoot birds with? and what did you shoot that snake with?

i'm about to buy some lenses, first up is ultra wide for landscape and buildings

I am a photography super rookie, but this is one I liked from a recent trip:



and one from last weekend:

above photo was pretty heavily photoshopped (as far as my skill level allows), i slightly desaturated and applied a mask to keep/brighten greens.


not much changed on this photo. i may go back and slightly desaturate+darken the top third of the photo.

almost all of my recent pics are through the Tamron 200-500mm lens for Canon. i previously used my 300mm but i always found myself coming up way too short for wildlife pics.

i have the Canon 17-40mm "L" for wide, good lens, but honestly wish i had something like the 10-22mm.

i'm about to buy a sigma 10-20mm, my stock/standard lense that came with my camera is a 18-55 and i wish it was wider, so hopefully the 10mm is ok.. i'm not really looking forward to dealing with the distortion on the sides, though

in a while, i'll probably get something in the 200-600 range

You can avoid some distortion by not going all the way down to 10mm, and shooting at like 12mm for you widest. And I doubt you'll think 12mm isn't wide enough. The difference between 12mm and 18mm is huge.

B&W conversion of a friend's baby from this past weekend:

Well, there is a zoom capability, but I assume you mean that there's not much telephoto capability.

Yes, you can get either the Digital Rebel XT or the Nikon D60 for under $600. And one advantage of the DSLR is the ability to switch lenses in the future. I.e., should you find the standard 18-55 lens to be too limiting, you can buy a 55-200 or a really high quality 70-200, without having to buy a new camera.

But here's a comparison of DSLRs to point and shoots.

Pros for DSLR:

* Much faster reaction time. If you see a subject, you can take a picture almost immediately, with very little focus lag. P&S cameras typically have a lot of lag, meaning you press the button and have to wait a second for the focus to be achieved.

* Better low light capability. Most DSLRs have bigger sensors, meaning less noise than P&S cameras. For comparison, my P&S (Canon A610) has lots of noise at ISO 400 and is basically unusable at ISO 800. My Canon 40D is very usable at ISO 800 and has less noise at ISO 1600 than the P&S has at ISO 400. Plus, you can add a fast lens or an image stabilized lens and use it in even lower light.

* More flexibility with flash. Most P&S cameras only support the internal flash. I think all DSLRs have a hotshoe, meaning you can use an external flash, either on-camera or off-camera.

* More lens flexibility. With a P&S you're stuck with then lens that came with your camera. With a DSLR, even if you get the 18-55, you can supplement lenses as short as 10 mm and as long as 800 mm. And you don't necessarily have buy them. There are plenty of on-line places that will let you rent lenses if you need them for a special occasion.

Pros for P&S:

* Size. This isn't as trivial as you'd think. There are instances when carrying a relatively big DSLR is very limiting and you wish you had a camera that fit in your pocket.

* Easier to use. It's true that most DSLRs have basic modes that are just as easy to use. But it still can be intimidating for some.

* More flexible LCD use. Many P&S cameras have the LCD screen hinged so you can turn it around based on what direction you're shooting. DSLRs don't have that. In fact, most DSLRs require you to look through the viewfinder to see what you're shooting, though some new DSLRs have "Live View" capability.

It basically boils down to how serious you are about photography. If you just want something so you can take pictures of family and friends and aren't really a hobbyist, you should probably get the P&S simply because you'll use it more.

If you're serious about photography (or think you'll become serious in the future) get the DSLR.

Also, because of some of the advantages, certain styles of photography basically require a DSLR. This includes sports (because of shutter lag and faster frame rates) and studio shooting (because of the ability to control external lights).

Great thread, all. Really impressive stuff and fantastic advice throughout.

Anyway, I just bought my first digital camera. It's an Olympus Stylus 1010 point-and-shoot (10 megapixels, 7x optical). It has some pretty nice features (imo), and I really want to get the most out of it. I'm just wondering if anyone has any recommendations for a good point-and-shoot photography book. I guess I'm looking for a "guide to better pictures" type of book, if that makes any sense. Let me know. Thanks.

Once again, awesome thread. My photos to follow...

I really like this pic.

I liked the Digital Photography Book by Scott Kelby. I'm not sure how many manual features your camera has, but that book will go over the basics of most of that, as well as giving you composition tips. He has a sequel to that book that I haven't read yet, but I'm sure it's pretty good also.

This is right up my alley. Thanks.

Well, I got the new camera in the mail yesterday and was playing around with some of the features. I snapped this one last night. I need a tripod.

These shots are taken from a point and shoot, a Cannon SD1000.

A Rhododendron flower, macro setting.


More (I like the contrast of the flower color and the green leaf colors)

Mountain bike trail in CA, Skeggs Point. (I like the textures and jungle feel to the pic)

Same trail, different spot.......cool trees.

I do some real estate photography on the side for a couple of real estate agents. I had a reasonably successful shoot the other day:









Real estate photography is particularly difficult technically and "artistically" (at least for me), because not only do you have to flatter the property, but you also have to make sure you are fairly and accurately representing it (so not too much flattery). Fortunately, most real estate photography is awful.

I also did a few natural light shots of the property before I left. They are more for me and probably wouldn't be used in the listing itself:

I have this book too.

Good introduction to digital basics and also tells how to get the most out of DSLRs. I never took any photography classes, so I really needed the help.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidraymond/2630637967/

I don't have a real macro lens yet for my Canon, but I make fake macros with my Tamron telephoto!

This is very nice. I took a look at your exposure info:

Exposure: 0.003 sec (1/400)
Aperture: f/10
Focal Length: 500 mm
ISO Speed: 800

What is your workflow? Do you shoot to RAW and then process or do you shoot straight to JPEG. Seems like really fantastic ISO performance with zero noise at ISO 800.

And 500mm? Holy crap.

Thanks for the compliment Vin. I'm still more or less a newbie, but I've done a lot of trial and error w/ fieldwork over the past year.

I did some trials with shooting RAW, but I don't feel that the storage space was worth the trade off for uncompressed images based on my current usage. I don't do drastic white balance changes, and I'm not doing any commercial photography (yet!).

My workflow for this pic:
for wildlife I always shoot in burst mode due to motion of animals
i use canon's manual "center point" focus instead of basic AF
i use "AI servo" mode of autofocus
generally shooting handheld or off of monopod (too much walking for tripod)
"large" jpeg mode
no noise reduction used on this photo
i did not see noticeable grain
otherwise i generally run noise ninja on ISO 800 and 1600
i typically tweak highlights/shadows in CS3 to get dynamics better
most photos i sharpen in CS3 w/ a "high pass" overlay layer

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right now the 200-500mm Tamron is mounted 95% of the time, this is a great season for wildlife on the east coast, i often need the full 500mm range, and i don't often find 200mm too prohibitive outdoors.

You're right, most real estate photography is terrible. Yours look great, though. How did you light them?

My lighting setup generally consists of one or two strobes on lightstands triggered by wireless radio transmission. To really do this right, I'd like a third (or more) strobe, but for some reason my cheapie radio receivers are inconsistent with three. For smaller rooms, I try to find a wall to bounce a single strobe off of and for larger rooms I just try to place them where they are not in the frame and they maximize the coverage. A lot of trial and error for me at first, but eventually it becomes easier to know where to place the stands.

Hmmm. Any idea how applicable this book would be for people using point-and-shoots?

i bought scott kelby's books today. i finished the first one in one sitting and it was extremely good.

here's my first attempt at HDR today:

tips and critisisms please! Unfortunetly there wasnt a cloud in site, so the sky is super boring

i used 2 photos with different shutter speeds at f/11. originals: