The Glade 4.0

I need to learn how to use my camera better.

A few years ago I bought a Canon D40x with the primary intent to take pictures of guitars and other shop projects. I wanted to take both WIP detail shots (so I can remember how I did some tricky thing later), and artsy glamour pictures of the finished work, mostly as a means to show them off.

What I've found is, that when I'm working on the bench, I rarely bother to take the D-40 out of it's bag to take a quick shot of my messy work bench. Instead, I have a small Canon Powershot A700 point and shoot hanging on the wall that I grab for that sort of thing. I'm happy with this. It serves it's purpose.

Stuff like this (more here)


I usually get the D40 out when I'm finished with something and I want to take some nice photos of it for posterity, before it gets stuffed in a case to live out most of the rest of its days...

What I've learned is, I have a pretty good eye for composition, but I lack the detailed understanding of the tool to take nice pictures in anything but the most ideal lighting conditions.

For example, this came out pretty good. Taken outdoors on a warm fall day with filtered sunlight (ideal really).


This on the other hand, was taken indoors, with poor lighting, and the results are poor



Because I really don't know what I'm doing with it, I generally just leave the camera on "Auto" and hope for the best. Basically I'm using the D40 as a very expensive Point and Shoot. I get decent results with good lighting, but when it's dark, or really bright sunlight, or indoors with poor lighting, I really struggle to get good results.

Also, besides taking pictures of my guitars, I think if I was more comfortable with the camera, I might be more inclined to get out of the house and do some landscape/wildlife photography. I seem to spend a lot of time admiring other peoples sunsets and landscapes, but never bother to take my own.

I need to get motivated to find some sort of 'advanced digital photography' course or something.

I looked at the local community college, but the course description was poor, and I really don't want to commit to something like that without a referral.

Any ideas?

And thinking about it, I should also find a decent (and affordable) photo editing tool, and learn to use it.

Any suggestions along those lines?

I've been learning a lot as I go, as well. The bottom line is that I generally make good pictures in post.

Never expect that what comes out of a camera will look great, or even good. It'll virtually never look like what you think photography "should" look like (this was the first thing I had to get through my head). Get yourself a program like Aperture or Adobe Lightroom. LightZone appears to be a free alternative, and it should do everything you want/need it to do.

The core stuff is pretty simple: the better the glass/lens, the better the picture. Shoot RAW if your camera supports it; the file sizes are much larger, but that shouldn't be an issue this day and age, and it affords you so much more leeway when editing in post. To get that nice low depth-of-field (i.e. a subject that's in focus and a background that's blurry), shoot with a lower aperture and zoom all the way in (if shooting with a zoom lens; note - going full zoom means that any camera movement is automatically more noticeable, so a tripod or really fast shutter speed is recommended). Also note that shooting with a low aperture means you need more light to counteract it.

Lighting is important, as well as shadow. Don't over-light, and don't be afraid of shadows. Shadows are what give the image depth, dimension, and character. Pay attention to lighting color temperatures.

In general, don't use a flash. Flashes are great for people who don't care about what the photo looks like and just want to capture the moment. Pro flashes are fine, of course, but don't use anything that hides on a camera and pops up when you hit the button. Just say no.

Right now, my suggestion is to stick with your auto settings and focus on lighting and post-production editing (LightZone). Lighting is something to constantly hone. You could drop hundreds or thousands of dollars on lighting, but for now, grab a lamp with a fluorescent bulb (so it doesn't get too hot) and a piece of cheesecloth to diffuse it and just play around. Start with the presets in an editing program and tweak them to your own liking; it'll teach you what sliders you like to adjust and which ones you don't. If you really want a training-wheels version of image grading software, grab the free and now-defunct Snapseed program. It iss (or was, thanks a lot, Google) fantastic.

Them's my thoughts.

Lighting is, IMO, the most important aspect of any photo shoot.

If I were you, I might try to take on this project on a slightly larger scale: http://digital-photography-school.com/h ... light-tent



I would combat this by saying that you should almost always use flash, but know when not to. Extremely dark surroundings? Don't use flash. Taking a shot out in the daylight? You need flash to light up your object of focus, or it could be blown out by background light.

At the end of the day, understanding each of the different settings on your cameras is going to make you feel a lot more comfortable. Read some quick write-ups on ISO, aperture, depth of field and you'll be off to a good start. Good photos don't need post work, they are only accentuated by it.

Some of my best shots have been point-and-shoot with my Lumia 920 and some settings tweaks.

Thanks guys, good input...

I learned a trick with the flash to temper the glare a bit, by putting a piece of thin tissue paper over it. But I understand that it (the flash) is really mostly a crutch...



This is where I'm at right now. Just wanting to get a better understanding of the settings and features of the Camera.

I have heard good things about Lightroom (I think it was from someone here.. possibly Kirra?).

I'll give that a look...

That depends on how much of a photography snob you want to be. If you need light and don't have several lamps to arrange as desired, you don't have much choice.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

Coro,

I have no aspirations to be a snob at all.

My specific problem is that my usual subject (guitars) are (hopefully) shiny and reflective. A flash just leaves glaring reflections.

The tissue paper trick helps some, but I think finding some portable lighting and setting up a dark backdrop will go a long ways towars making the glamour shots better.

This doesn't have to be expensive. For me, finding the space to store the lights would be the biggest concern (once I learned how to use them of course).

There's a lot of room between shooting in fully-automatic mode and shooting in 100% manual mode.

I'm not personally familiar with your camera, but I have a Canon and so far in my experience these settings are pretty universal to the brand.

First step is to switch from Automatic to "P" mode (stands for Program). The camera will still figure out the shutter speed and aperture for you, but you can tweak a lot more settings. Play around with "+/-" to change the exposure so your photo is either darker or brighter. You can also play with changing the ISO speed if necessary. Photos blurry because you can't hold camera still? Bump up the ISO. Photos turning out too grainy? Drop the ISO. (auto ISO normally does a good job, but it's still something you should become familiar with). Try playing around with the white-balance too, although this can also be done in post-production. And make sure you're shooting in RAW format, or at least RAW+JPG if you're lazy like me.

The next step for your purposes is probably to experiment in "Av" mode, which is Aperture-priority mode. You manually control the aperture, but the camera still auto-calculates the shutter speed in order to get a good exposure. Changing the aperture will change your depth-of-field. Lowering the f-stop (or f-number) will reduce your depth-of-field. This means less of your photo will be in focus, and it will increase the amount of blur in the background (which is usually a good thing for your kind of work). So if you're trying to do a close-up shot on one specific part of the guitar that you want to be the center of attention, but you want the rest of the guitar and the background to blur out in a pleasant way, then lower your f-number. If you're trying to get the whole guitar in focus in a shot like your "poor results" photo, you'll need to raise the f-stop (probably not desirable in that photo, just an example).

A lower f-stop also lets in more light, so you'll have a faster shutter speed. If you raise it a lot, your shutter speed will be slower and you'll need more light (or a tripod) to prevent your photos from becoming blurry due to camera shake.

Anyway, I left out a bunch of the details because I was trying to make things as simple as possible without confusing you with a bunch of technical mumbo-jumbo. You can always go read up on some intro-to photography guides online if you're really interested in more. But I think playing around with those settings is a good first step.

And I agree with everyone else that if you just want your photos of your guitars to look better, lighting should be your focus. You don't need to buy special lights or anything, you can DIY a decent lighting setup with some daylight CFLs and some sheets of paper (or bedsheets). Surely you own a lamp of some sort, right?

Thank you Amanar, that was actually really helpful.

I found a sorta-local camera store that has a two day weekend class in 'intermediate digital photography' that I'm going to sign up for.

Day 1 is camera stuff (probably along the lines of what you are explaining)...

Day 2 is specific to using Lightroom V to do post processing stuff.

Each day is 5 hours long. Hopefully I'll get some good info there.

In the mean time I'll get Lightroom installed and spend some time playing around with it.

Untol 12/2, you can get lightroom 5 and Photoshop CC for $10/month direct through Adobe.
https://creative.adobe.com/plans/offer/ ... +lightroom

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Holy shitsnacks!

Thanks Arafys, but I'm not paying $10 a month to rent the use of those programs. That would make Comcast cable look like a great deal!

Interestingly, I just built a lightbox last night using http://www.wikihow.com/Create-an-Inexpe ... y-Lightbox





Yes, I know I need brighter lights XD These were just test pictures

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Not sure if gundam
<insert picture of Phillip J Fry Here>
Or just Tau

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

Gotta use flash!

He doesn't need a flash. He just needs better lighting (use lamps with the appropriate color bulbs) outside of his lightbox.

I pulled the trigger on a digital purchase of LightRoom 5, and bought the Kindle version of this book.

I haven't done much with the actual digital processing bits of the software, but I'm already impressed with the file/catalog management systems. I do wish it had more robust internal backup capabilities though. As it is, i will have to make separate backups of the catalog databases, the settings and the images themselves... Lightroom only handles the catalog backups.

I'll try to get through the rest of this book this week.

I have signed up for an Intermediate Digital Photography a course t a local camera shop for next Sunday.

I had the convention photographer take some pictures of a model I built using more powerful light and a better camera. They came out looking REALLY good...

Unfortunately, I can't show'em just yet as they're for a contest, and I'm not allowed to post anything XD

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Tease.

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And right on queue (I just paid full price two days ago), Adobe is selling Lightroom 5 for $89.

Here is the link (from the Lightroom twitter) if anyone is interested

http://t.co/j0QoP8slBU

How was your photography course?

The store that is doing the training is in the process of moving to a new larger location. They will be offering more variety of courses, including some camera body specific material.

Based on this I decided to wait until this spring to sign up.

I did buy a new Nikon D7100 body (my Xmas gift to myself) that I've been playing with for the last week or so. Sooo many buttons, wheels, and knobs to learn.

I've found some good online material to hold me over until I get the class done.

I'm mobile right now, but when I'm back at my desk, I'll post some links.



Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

Going to get my Canon T3i tomorrow

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Holy shitsnacks!

I found a really good website for camera gear reviews.

http://kenrockwell.com

He is unbiased, and gives very good neutral reviews with a lot of useful information.

Here is his review of the T3i
http://www.kenrockwell.com/canon/rebel/t3i.htm

Cambridge in Colour (their spelling, not mine) has some really good tutorials and guides, but also has a great forum for learning to use your gear.
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/

Adobe Lightroom Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/user/AdobeLightroom

This channel has a lot of really good tutorials for post processing using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, which for $100 (or so) is a very powerful image processing tool.

Steele Training has some decent free digital photography and lightroom tutorials. His videos are well done, short and to the point. You have register a valid email address to access them.
http://steeletraining.com/

Edit: I will also throw in Nikon's official training site. This site is a bit clumsy to navigate and it can be difficult to find the guides or training you are looking for, but there is a lot of content for Nikon gear, and some general photography stuff, you just might have to dig a bit for it.

http://www.nikonschool.com

Edit2:
I got one of these laminated "Blue Crane" reference guides for my D7100, and I've found it really helpful to have until I get more comfortable with the camera.

This is the link to the T3i version (as an example)
http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Crane-Digita ... +reference

Lots of good stuff Thanks Midgen!

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Holy shitsnacks!

I really like that Cambridge site.

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Holy shitsnacks!

Got my gear today Tomorrow, up to the mountains for a photo shoot

Canon T3i with 35-55 eps, 50mm 1.8 prime, and 75-300 telephoto lenses, and a sling bag

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Holy shitsnacks!