DSLR failure

Hi guys,

Thank you all for your help.

I have a new keyboard. :D

But even more important. . . thank you so much to Susie for meeting up with me today. I feel more comfortable with my camera and it isn't as intimidating as much now. I shall take it everywhere with me and just click, click, click away.One day I may just start taking decent photos. . . hopefully in this lifetime.

I'm going to take it one step at a time and work through the different modes and when I have another one of those 'flustered woman' moments, I'll post up for help.
 
When my d90 arrived I spent 3 solid days taking photos of nothing but my desk, and the things on it in my home office!

Every single option in the menu I have tweaked, taken a few photos to see what that did, tweaked again... some more photos, tweak again.....

This attitude + the following:

  1. http://www.kenrockwell.com/ (and his D90 iphone app)
  2. Some friends who are in to photography
  3. This forum
  4. Longfords basic photography
  5. http://www.dtowntv.com/

... has meant that when I do actually get a chance to leave my office, I can concentrate on the composition of my photos, and not on getting the D90 to do what I want.
 
George7 said:
Yeah, read it afterwards :razz::thumbs: I clicked 'post reply' at about half 11 and only just posted it as I went on a quest for alloy wheels :p And I still don't know what the Stud Diametre of a Ford Focus is :bang:
Click to expand...

4x108?
 
Uhuru said:
Hi guys,

Thank you all for your help.

I have a new keyboard. :D

But even more important. . . thank you so much to Susie for meeting up with me today. I feel more comfortable with my camera and it isn't as intimidating as much now. I shall take it everywhere with me and just click, click, click away.One day I may just start taking decent photos. . . hopefully in this lifetime.

I'm going to take it one step at a time and work through the different modes and when I have another one of those 'flustered woman' moments, I'll post up for help.
Click to expand...

Look peeps! ALL them 'Ps'! ( I bet it feels right queer now!)

Well, at least she's a Star Trek fan!!

Try 'The Digital Photography Handbook' by Doug Harman. Written in language even I can understand! A real big help to me when I was starting, (and still is!)
 
I have had my camera for about 4 weeks now and the week before I bought it i boiught a few mags and read them from cover to cover several times as the first time was all gobbldy gook so just read it again and again and started to learnem then got thew camera and it all went pear shaped again as what I had read went straight out the window, so all i did was take the cammera out and took loads and loads of pics all at different settings and found that the camera was notr as scary as firsat thought.

I am still learning everytime I switch it on, but 700 or so pics later and i am learning how to take a pic.

Practice practice practice, is the key to it.
 
Have a look HERE

I've tried to cover the basics as simply as possible.
 
CT,

I've read through that. I think I understand the theory. I just need to practice now. Tomorrow evening I am at a work's Christmas party. I will take my camera with me. I hope I'll be able to take some decent photos. I'm sure I'll end up using the auto mode or night portrait mode as I doubt I'll remember all the correct settings I would need in Av mode.
 
A slightly OT question. How did you manage to type TalkPhotography?

You may find the pics come out a bit dark if using the on-camera flash only, but have fun anyway!
 
Have you tried YouTube? There are tutorials on there for almost every question you want to ask and if you search for your camera model, it will give you videos about your particular model too.

It was very helpful to me when I first got my camera. Nothing like a few visuals to get you going.
 
gla dthat you are getting to grips with your camera now have to admit that i am starting to wonder if i have wasted an awful lot of money (and i havent even used it yet lol)
 
getnoticed said:
A slightly OT question. How did you manage to type TalkPhotography?

You may find the pics come out a bit dark if using the on-camera flash only, but have fun anyway!
Click to expand...

it was a link he didn,t have to type the (p) :lol:
 
Uhuru said:
I shall take it everywhere with me and just click, click, click away.One day I may just start taking decent photos. . . hopefully in this lifetime.
Click to expand...

That's the best thing you can do and don't be put off if the results are disappointing, the day will come when you take a picture that'll really put a smile on your face and it'll all be worthwhile, the best bit about practicing with a digital camera is it's free.

I've got about £2000 worth of rubbish pictures from my film days, it's much cheaper to be rubbish these days :D



KIPAX said:
You can't beat one to one.. it took me yrs to learn by trial and error and messageboards. (still learning as i bleive we all are) . I am not the quickest at picking things up it seems and depth of field took me forever... but my brother bought a dslr and all that I had to go through to learn I passed onto him in a couple of days initialy and within a month or so he knew it all..... its just not right is it :)
Click to expand...

Some brother he is, he could have least have pretended to be as thick as you :D
 
Uhuru said:
I shall take it everywhere with me and just click, click, click away.One day I may just start taking decent photos. . . hopefully in this lifetime.
Click to expand...
:thumbs: was lovely to meet you and thanks for bringing the sunshine with you!
Taking the camera out and getting pictures is the best way to learn, it won't be long before you look back and wonder why you were worried about it!
 
When i first took up photography i completed a city and guilds course at my local collage. We could use digital camera's and also film. Part of the course was to learn how to the take developed film through processing. This was really helpful in learning how a camera works, what happens to the film when light enters the camera.

The beauty of digital has already been mentioned. Instant results and accelerated learning curves. Something that has again been mentioned is learning 1 thing at a time.

Two basics are aperture (depth of field, DOF) and shutter speed.

To learn DOF i laid out a tape measure, and set up my camera low down looking along the length. Focus on one number on the tape and then play with the aperture. See how the different settings affect the result.

To learn shutter speed i placed a bike upside down so the wheels could free spin. I popped a couple of ping pong balls in the spokes of the rear wheel and then spun it (not too fast). With the camera on a tripod play with the different shutter speeds and see how the image is affected.

These two things really helped to grasp how the settings work individually.

Oh one last thing.
Your pictures from the bridge camera may be 'better' bacause you are used to it. Give a carpenter a new set of tools and it will take a while for them to produce great work. Give a race driver a new car and it takes a while before they win a race. You get the picture.

Once you start to feel happy with your camera your pictures will improve.
 
Uhuru said:
CT,

I've read through that. I think I understand the theory. I just need to practice now. Tomorrow evening I am at a work's Christmas party. I will take my camera with me. I hope I'll be able to take some decent photos. I'm sure I'll end up using the auto mode or night portrait mode as I doubt I'll remember all the correct settings I would need in Av mode.
Click to expand...

There's nothing wrong with Auto mode or P mode. Enjoy your camera and just progress at the rate you're comfortabe with. It isn't a race. :thumbs:
 
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