Thanks to those who chimed in to help me pick out a starter DSLR. I found a pretty good deal on a new T1i with 18-55is for only $650.00 and also came with a brand new backup non oem battery and Sandisk 8gb. I also placed an order that night for the "nifty fifty" which should be in any day now.

Now most of us who have been on forums for quite a few years notice the difference between a photograph and a picture. I also knew I had a lot to learn before just picking up the camera and taking pics but I was overwhelmed by the information needed to take a proper photograph.

I began shooting around the house on full auto settings and trying out the macro on a couple bobble heads which came out surprisingly decent. I then went over to a buddies to show off the new toy and started to tinker around with the settings when I found monochrome . For not knowing or changing any other settings other than monochrome, I still think the pics came out decent. (see pics below for C&C)

The next day I set off after work to find something else to shoot and found a church which I thought was pretty neat. I didn't have (and still don't) a tripod which I will be purchasing with my next paycheck, so pardon me if these came out öff balance and uneven. I was also shooting in "P". Ohh well here are some pics and I'm hoping to learn as much as I can, as fast as I can.

PS: I also did a little touching up in PS (I'd consider myself decent with CS2). These were NOT shot in RAW which again I didn't read about until after I took these and I apologize about the bordering but I was practicing and am still working on a logo. -Chris-

 

Pretty good work so far bro I would suggest waiting until your pictures get better before adding a watermark - you don't want others to refer to the wrong photographs later after your work had gotten better!

 

Thanks for the suggestion, do you use LR for PP? I'm wondering if I should fork out for it if I already have CS2 and if there are many differences between the two. Also, do you have any suggestiosn on presets for certain things you're shooting?

 

care to cliff notes 'RAW' for me?

 

This thread helped me understand it better:

https://my350z.com/forum/photography...dslr-pics.html

Essentially Raw is the "raw" data taken and not adjusted any. Usually it's turned into a jpeg or other form in order to save memory. I have an 8gb Sandisk that holds somewhere in the area of 1200 jpeg format pics or 300 RAW pics. Some prefer to save both. I'm just now working with RAW and since I do quite a bit of PP after I upload it to my computer, it's better for me to work with the RAW pic instead of a smaller jpeg.

 

damn. how'd i miss that thread? thanks.

 

a lot of PJ guys say that jpg is good enough these days but i don't see it. i think the best shots are still RAW. good pickup, i wanna see some video!!

 

It's going to be raining for a few days here but will shoot some video when the weather cleans up. As for Raw Vs. JPEG... I've hada few days to work with both in Lightroom and Photoshop and usually use the Raw for LR then tr to JPEG to sharpen in PS.

 

congrat on new camera. great photos.
btw, kit lens sucks. slap on tamron 17-50 sp, you'll get better photos.

i kinda regret buying canon xsi. If i had a chance to do it all over again, i'd like to get full frame camera like canon 5D.

 

^^^ 50D is not "full frame", still a 1.6x crop body. only the 5D's and 1D's are full frame 35mm sensors. i do agree that the tammy 17-50 f/2.8 is a great lens for about half the cost of the 17-55 f/2.8 IS canon lens. another good one is the canon 17-40 f/4 L, probably one of my favorite lenses. it's on sale right now on B&H for $700. fantastic lens. just getting into DSLR's that's probably a real stretch for the what you want to spend on the camera tho. instead check out the canon 50mm f/1.8. it's ~100 (or less used) and is an excellent, sharp, low light lens to get into the world of primes!

 

sorry typo, i meant 5D.

 

Thanks. It's a great started DSLR for now. I might move up a couple years from now when I'm more comfortable with my abilities.

Thanks, I actually already purchased the nifty fifty and should be here on Monday. As for the lens after that, I won't be spending $500+ on a new lens anytime soon. I want to get the basics down first before moving on to bigger/better lenses. I will probably end up getting the 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS and practice with those then I might pick up the lens you suggested next fall/winter.

 

Congrats on a great camera purchase. I have the same and love it. Although more FPS would be nice, I can get pretty much all the shots I want with this.

Some say the kit lens 'sucks' which, comparatively to other canon lenses of higher value, it does. BUT, for an all around lens it's not too bad - especially while learning a new camera.

A Canon rep told me that the camera IS NOT warrantied if a knock-off battery is being used and damage occurs. You might want to check on that. Not that I'd expect the battery to burst, but in the [unlikely] event it does happen, canon MAY NOT warranty the camera.

 

that sounds like a good plan. spend as much time as you can in photoshop, there's lots of great tutorial video's on youtube (my favorites are "you suck at photoshop" ) that can help. 55-250's decent but i've heard the 70-300 IS is better... i've never used either so i couldn't tell ya

 

I'm actually decent with PS and have been using it for about a year. I'm just starting to learn Lightroom though.. I know a lot of people aren't into the editing side and think it should be just the picture but it's nice to correct a few errors from an amateurs standpoint and learn as I'm doing it for the next thing I shoot. I'm entering a PS contest for voodoo doughnuts (locals might know what I'm talking about) which I think I have a top 3 idea..

Yea the kit lens and the fifty will be plenty for me to start out with. I will have to look into that about the battery. I think I remember a thread about that on POTN and for now will be charging and using the oem battery

 

nice shots, just picked up the T1i last week.

 

Cool stuff bro, I will be looking forward to future pictures you take!

Now maybe instead of posting other peoples stories, you can start writing some of your own!

 

sweet like it alot