What can i get out of my Canon 350D?

razorfish

razorfish

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Alex 'Olesia' Macey
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Hi, I'm totally new to photography and I've just got myself a Canon 350D with the 18-55mm and the nifty fifty lens.
I've been practising taking pictures in AV, TV and M modes, my pictures don't always come out full of detail like I've seen on some of the pictures posted on here. I have also been trying to practice on night time photography as well, I'm really interested on what I have seen, I cannot come close to that level of standard what you guys have posted on here, I've been practising with the ISO, aperture and shutter speeds on what people have said on here that are good for night time work, I'm not sure on the correct white balance for it though.

I tried taking a picture outside my front door, the street lights are like a orangey colour, when I toke the picture it came an orangey brown colour in the scene, this was without the flash by the way, and it was foggy, lol, Are you suppose to use flash in night time photography? I tried it, it looked rubbish, you can't really see no detail or sharpness, I've tried with various ISO and aperture and shutter speeds, no effect on the picture, is it just me? I'm having no luck so far, the pictures look like they were taken from a cheap rubbish camera :(
 
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Try posting some pictures, explaining how you took them, what the setting were etc. people will be able to give you some feedback on what you are doing wrong/right etc.
 
Hey there! Welcome to the habit...

I think we were all there at some point and depending on how you look at it, we all still are learning, so don't be disheartened for starters.

Like mentioned above, a great start is to post a few of your images and details of how you took them (iso setting, shutter speed etc) and the conditions you took them in(day, sunny, night etc) and we can generally give you pointers on how to improve.

One thing to bear in mind is that nearly every amazing image you see will have been enhanced in a post production program such as lightroom or photoshop to bring out details and colours etc. Some pictures you see may be a combination of 20 different shots of the same picture, all with slightly different settings, to capture all of the detail.

The point I'm trying to make is that there is immense amounts to learn, but you will get there with practice and reading the different techniques you can use to obtain different shots. Good lick! :)
 
The 350D is quite capable of delivering excellent results but in the first instance I would suggest that you learn more about how it works and what it does. Once you have a basic understanding of how a camera works and get to grip with it's controls your results will get better.

Steve

Sent from my iPad using TP Forums
 
The 350D is an excellent little camera I still have mine, as already said learn how to use it and you will get shots like these.

http://SPAM/c3whur/Img_3049c.jpg

http://SPAM/c3whur/Birds/Img_5951c.jpg
 
I owned a 350d for a while. Great camera, no reason why you can't get exceptional images. It's more to do with the technique and glass (lenses) used than the camera body.
 
razorfish said:
Hi, I'm totally new to photography and I've just got myself a Canon 350D with the 18-55mm and the nifty fifty lens.
I've been practising taking pictures in AV, TV and M modes, my pictures don't always come out full of detail like I've seen on some of the pictures posted on here. I have also been trying to practice on night time photography as well, I'm really interested on what I have seen, I cannot come close to that level of standard what you guys have posted on here, I've been practising with the ISO, aperture and shutter speeds on what people have said on here that are good for night time work, I'm not sure on the correct white balance for it though.

I tried taking a picture outside my front door, the street lights are like a orangey colour, when I toke the picture it came an orangey brown colour in the scene, this was without the flash by the way, and it was foggy, lol, Are you suppose to use flash in night time photography? I tried it, it looked rubbish, you can't really see no detail or sharpness, I've tried with various ISO and aperture and shutter speeds, no effect on the picture, is it just me? I'm having no luck so far, the pictures look like they were taken from a cheap rubbish camera :(
Click to expand...


The orangey colour cast is due to the white balance. White balance is about the camera deciding what tones should be neutral so the colours look right, and artificial light often fools cameras and they don't pick the right with balance and photos come out with odd colours. This is easily fixed by either manually selecting a suitable white balance from the presets your camera has (Most cameras have white balance settings for incandescent, florescent and tungsten), or shoot raw format, where you can choose the white balance during raw conversion.

Getting sharp shots is mostly down to the user. The rest is down to the lens.
Your 18-55 should produce reasonable quality if used right, and the 50mm is capable of very sharp shots.
In low light, you need to use either flash or a tripod. To shoot in streetlight light, you need to go up to really high ISO's or use really fast apertures to get a shutter speed high enough.
To get high quality shots in low light, you need a solid tripod, and use mirror lock up and a timer, or remote release to avoid shakes.

Post processing shots is also important. All digital images need to be sharpened (with possible exception to those from a foveon sensor, but there's no point going into that) to some extent. When you shoot JPG, this is often done by the camera as it converts from raw to JPG in camera. But the camera will just apply a set amount of basic sharpening to all files, so it's often best to leave sharpening set low or off in camera, then sharpen in post processing to give you control over the amount and the radius (using USM or smart sharpen) of your sharpening to get optimum results from each image. If you shoot raw, all sharpening is done in processing and conversion.
Sharpening is also necessary after downsizing an image (downsizing softens details) to keep it looking crisp.

Have a look at this article about processing for the web:
http://www.juzaphoto.com/eng/articles/jpeg_save_for_web.htm

He talks about smart sharpen in the article, but it's mostly applicable to unsharp mask as well (which is more basic, but you get it in all good processing software, where smart sharpen is only photoshop/lightroom).


If you use good technique, your 350D is capable of stunning quality.


Hope some of that helps ;).
 
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I'll post pictures up as soon as my laptop comes back from being repaired. I think cos I'm only seeing them on the LCD screen on the camera, and not on the computer I think some look a bit rubbish but In the meantime I shall keep looking at the tutorials on here and keep practicing on the cameras ISO, aperture and shutter settings on what works indoors and what works out doors, I'm waiting for a tripod to come as well :)
 
Hi Razorfish. Don't worry, as others have said, the 350 is a very capable camera and capable of taking great shots. Not wanting to boast or anything but I've been published in national newspapers, guide books, educational books, local magazines, photography magazine websites etc etc - and recently held a rather successful exhibition resulting in several sales - all with images taken on a 300D !! I only upgraded to a 50D at Christmas (thanks Santa!) and still take my 300D with me.

Follow the advice others have offered and we look forward to seeing some of your images.

Cheers
Andy
 
artyman said:
The 350D is an excellent little camera I still have mine, as already said learn how to use it and you will get shots like these.
Click to expand...

Great shots, what lens were these shot with?
 
Markl said:
Great shots, what lens were these shot with?
Click to expand...

The first was with the bog standard el cheapo non IS 18-55 kit lens that came with the camera, and the Chaffinch was with a Sigma 150-500, birds don't tend to let you get that close with a kit lens :D
 
artyman said:
The 350D is an excellent little camera I still have mine, as already said learn how to use it and you will get shots like these.

http://SPAM/c3whur/Img_3049c.jpg

http://SPAM/c3whur/Birds/Img_5951c.jpg
Click to expand...

Really cool pictures, you have a nice balance of the aperture and shutter speed which makes perfect exposure am I correct?
Yes I have Photoshop CS4 to enhance my pictures with, would you recommend using Lightroom as well? :)
 
The 350D is a great camera and should never be underestimated. Learn how to use it properly and to give you some idea of it's capability, take a look at the link below. I would also advise downloading some exif data software, which will then allow you to check the particular camera settings of any photograph which takes your fancy, however, not all photographs have the exif data attached, but on that site most do.

Good luck.:thumbs:

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=496404&highlight=350d
 
I got a 350D when I first got a DSLR and it's a great little camera, you'll be able to get some great shots with it - have fun!

Night shots are always going to be tough to get perfect in the early days since you're so often dealing with different colour light sources, long exposures which risk lens shake, high ISO which introduces noise/grain, wide aperture which gives shallow depth-of-field and so can make it harder to keep a subject in focus....

Feel free to post examples of your shots if you want people to give advice on specifics as it's hard to guess the root cause of a problem but maybe you would find it more satisfying to get more proficient taking shots in better light conditions then once you're happier with that you'll probably find you don't have the same problems with the night any more since you'll be so familiar with everything!

From your post it sounds like you're on the right track though, good luck!
 
350D was my first camera! i advise a nice lens with good aperture to start with like 50 1.8, you will have good portrait results.
 
@artyman great to see such fine photos taken with entry level kit. I find that really inspiring. It's all to easy to thinks a new lens or upgrade of body will improve your photography. Photos like that just prove how capable the cheaper stuff is.
 
Try and get the basics right in daylight, and learn what all the different settings do, before you try night time photography.
 
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