Trip photos...help please!I'm an idiot UPDATE: here are 4 I took post #10

[crazee4mickey]

Going to Puerto Vallarta on Friday with DH and 2 of our kids. I would've asked for help earlier but just found out we are going!

I am wanting to take unbelievable photos such as the marina lit up at night, whales breaching, sunset, and my kids of course!

The problem---- I have a Canon Digital Rebel XT with the standard 18-55 mm lens plus I have a Canon zoom lens EF 75-300mm lens 1:4-5.6 (I have no idea what this means I am just typing what is on the lens!) and really not a clue what settings I need to have the camera on to achieve the photos I want.

Nighttime shots--I turn to night setting-the flash goes off which isn't good at all and the picture is blurry!

Whales breaching--my zoom lens sometimes doesn't want to zoom so I have to do it manually...I will miss the whale! Do I set it on the "little guy running" setting? If I do how do I get it so pics aren't blurry?

Sunset? No idea what to do!

Basically I am really useless with this camera! Any help would be greatly appreciated--I can't really understand "camera lingo" such as aperature, etc. so if you can help me at all please remember you are talking to someone who has a camera with more brains then the person operating it!!

 

[ukcatfan]

How fast can you read? I would suggest picking up a book to learn the basics. I like Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. We could tell you some about settings, but you need to understand how to apply that to your situations. Also, am not sure what you mean by not zooming automatically. All the lenses are manual zoom. Are you taking about focus instead?

Kevin

 

[DVCRon]

Hi Bonnie:

I don't want to put a damper on your expectations but to take "unbelievable photos" requires a good working knowledge of your camera, a basic understanding of photography and lots and lots of practice.

Not what you wanted to hear I am sure but unfortunately the truth

I would echo Kevin's comments that you start out by getting a book on digital photgraphy geared towards the beginner. Then, I would read your manual front to back without looking at your camera. Then put your camera in your lap and re read the manual. Looking at and playing with all the controls and settings as you read through the manual.

Then you can go out and start practicing.

It's not just about the settings as you have already learned.

A quick lesson.

The lens you refer to the 75mm-300mm refers to the focal length. Basically it will effect how large you can make the subject of your photograph appear in the photo. 300mm the subject will appear closer and larger in the viewfinder. 4 - 5.6 is the aperture or how large the opening in the lens is or how much light the lens lets in. It is a misleading number as it really is a fraction so 4 is really 1/4 and 5.6 is really 1/5.6. So as the aperture number get smaller the aperture gets larger and lets more light in. This will allow you to either use a faster shutter speed or a lower ISO (think film speed). The aperture varies so as you go closer to the longer focal length (300mm) you get a smaller (5.6) aperture. Large aperture lenses that have long focal lengths are expensive. A f4 300mm lens is $1,000 and a f 2.8/300mm lens is $3-4000 and those lenses don't even zoom!

I am sure a good book on the subject can explain it much better then I did.

Breaching whales is a tough shot for even a professional photographer. You have to know when the whale will breach, be able to track the focus (hard to do on a object that is pretty much one color (black) due to the lack of contrast and have a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the action.

Regarding the zoom. Digital SLRs like the Rebel XT don't have autozooming lenses like a point and shoot. The autofocus can be set to auto but the lens has to be zoomed manually. It is working as intended.

My advice is for this trip, bring a nice little point and shoot camera and spend the time to learn about your XT, it can produce unbelievable photos in knowledgable hands.

Have a great trip

 

[labdogs42]

OK, just a few tips:

the night time setting on your camera is meant to be used with a tripod. It uses a slower shutter speed to capture more light. It will result in blurry pictures if your subject or your camera moves during the shot. It is a great feature if you know how to use it. You can do it handheld if the subject isn't moving, but it still might blur a little. If you are just trying to capture something like the marina at night, you probably want to use a tripod and the "P" setting on your camera.

As for whales, I have taken these pictures before. I would think the sports mode would be the one to try for sure. It will use a fast shutter speed an allow you to take multiple shots by just holding down the shutter release button. With any luck, you might just capture a great shot and you can delete the rest!

Sunset, just point and shoot at what looks nice to you. You shouldn't need any "fancy" settings for these shots.

Hopefully that helps. I found the best thing for me to do to learn how to use my camera was to take a class at my local photo store that was specific to Canon Digital SLR's. That two hours taught me more than the whole stack of books I have sitting in my house! I'm just not a person who can learn something like photography form a book. I needed someone showing me and me following along, camera in hand, to figure it out. Keep your eye out for any classes like that in your area. They can help immensely!

Good luck with your trip and have fun!

 

[Michele]

I want to emphasize that you should probably use the continuous shooting mode to take multiple pictures in a row, especially with the whales.

There should be a button on your camera (I have a Rebel, but not sure if it exactly the same) mine is on top, with a little rectangle and little lines by the corner. When you turn this on, if you hold the button down when you take a picture, it will take many in a row. That should help you get the whales at just the right time.

 

[Groucho]

I agree with what the others have said, but there is a pretty easy formula for getting really nice nights shots with most any camera... but you will either need a tripod or somewhere steady to set the camera down on.

Put the camera in Aperture Priority (Av) mode and set it to somewhere around F8 or F11. Set your ISO to the lowest possible (100 or 200 usually). Set the camera to wait two seconds after you press the shutter to actually take the picture. (This will keep it from blurring when you press the shutter button.) Compose the shot and press the shutter and let go of the camera. It will wait two seconds then take a fairly long photo (maybe even a few seconds long) and you should have a nice result.

If it's too bright or too dark, try using Exposure Compensation to brighten or darken then re-take the photo.

One other note - if your flash pops up on its own, that's because you're in Auto mode. Try going to "P" (Program) mode, that is about as easy as Auto but the flash stays down unless you tell it to come up.

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

Another suggestion, try to get your hands on The Digital Photography Book Vol 1 and 2 by Scott Kelby. He gives you specific 'recipes' for how to get the kind of shots you want.
You will probably need a tripod for night shots, and shoot in Program mode for whale watching for now. When you know how to use the camera better than you can venture into A,S and M territory. Good luck!

 

[DVCRon]

Another vote for Scott Kelby's books. Very easy to understand and he mixes the subject matter with humor to make them more readable.

 

[crazee4mickey]

Thank ou everyone! I have been practicing the night shot with ISO 200 and they come out pretty clear---I will try to find the book so I can read up on everything I should know but don't!

 

[crazee4mickey]

They are a little blurry after I resized with my horrible photo editing program, my originals are not though...overall I was happy with my pics!

I took 998 so some were bound to turn out!

I posted these 4 specifically because I had asked for help from all of you kind Dis'ers and of course you responded--thank you!

Night time shot off balcony:

Sunset:

Whales--the first is the mother and the next is her baby:

 

[DVCRon]

Bonnie:

Very nicely done. My favorite is the seahorse. Looks like you had a great trip.

 

[emmabelle]

Good job, night time and action shots are some of the hardest pictures to take.