Just got a canon eos 1000

[AdamW]

Just a test picy from the new camera

[AdamW]

And another of the dog in "action"

[left & right]

Nice looking dog

[AdamW]

And now I am cropping pictures...

[AdamW]

And another of the ESS

[AdamW]

Still playing!

[Frenchieboy]

I have an EOS 400D and would love an EOS 1000 so I'm jelous as hell! Have fun with your new camera----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------And I'm still jelous as hell!

[AdamW]

last one of the 300 shots I took whilst walking the dog for tonight................

[Billy.]

Coming on nicely. You'll pick it up really quickly.

 

My advice:

 

I'd look up on F stops, as your images were taken at F5.6, which is a standard setting.

 

I think you should avoid 'Action' settings on the dial and go for the P (Program) or S (Or also named Tv) shutter modes, which will give you control over the shutter and aperture timings.

 

Altering your Fstop will do wonders for your images. Likewise, the shutter speed is great for making an image really stand out. It'll be best for your close up shots.

 

If you're wondering how I know what settings you have, I've extracted the Exif data from the images, which basically tells me everything your camera was doing at the moment you took the shot

[AdamW]

Thats a little scary.. you know the setting of my camera when I took the shot! big brother is watching me! (just not taking pictures I hope!)

 

One last for tonight (taken before I looked at the above post!)

my 20 bore Browning Cynergy Game

Edited September 30, 2010 by AdamW

[Billy.]

Thats a little scary.. you know the setting of my camera when I took the shot! big brother is watching me! (just not taking pictures I hope!)

 

 

[dunganick]

Even scarier is if you own a camera which is capable of geo tagging, then you can tell where the shots were taken (as well as all the EXIF data)

[Billy.]

Even scarier is if you own a camera which is capable of geo tagging, then you can tell where the shots were taken (as well as all the EXIF data)

 

Yeah. You can freak someone out if they take a pic on their iPhone

[dunganick]

Here is a guide i wrote for Mungler a while back, will fill you in with the basics.

 

The basics behind how a camera works is this: You control How much light is let into the camera (aperture) for how long (shutter speed) and how sensitive you want the camera to be to this light (iso)

 

 

Shutter speed is the time the shutter on the camera is open (exposing the sensor to light) during the shot. This can vary from 1/8000th of a second to 30 seconds. The longer it is open the more light that gets let in, but the greater the chance the subject will have moved during the shot.

 

Aperture This is a system of blades that control the amount of light allowed to enter the camera. This can be anywhere from F1.2 to F32 depending on the lens. Confusingly the smaller the number the greater the opening and the more light is allowed in. Aperture also effects Depth of Field (how deep the area of photo in focus is). A large Aperture like F2.8 will produce very shallow depth of field.

 

ISO Like Film this is how sensitive the Sensor is to light. Typically this will vary from iso100 to iso1600 (or even higher on recent models) The higher the number the more sensitive the sensor is to light, but the more noise in the photo.

 

 

 

How to use my DSLR:

 

There are 3 main settings to consider on your camera:

 

There are Auto settings (green box) or P will sort out the camera so you get a photo in the light conditions. They don’t take into account however if the subject is moving, if it is stationary etc… We don’t like these settings.

 

 

The more complex settings are TV and AV (or S and A on a Nikon)

 

TV is Shutter priority mode. In this mode you set the shutter speed/ISO and the camera will work out a suitable Aperture for your current ISO/Shutter speed to get you a properly exposed photo. Adjusted using the little wheel just below the shutter release.

 

AV is Aperture priority. In this mode you set the Aperture/ISO and the camera will select a suitable shutter speed so the picture is exposed correctly. Adjusted using the little wheel just below the shutter release.

 

With both of these settings the camera still doesn’t know what you really want to take a photo of, however it allows you to set the shutter speed/aperture to a suitable setting.

 

TV/Shutter priority is the more common mode to use as you need to make sure the shutter speed is not too low and you don’t end up with a blurry shot. There is a simple way to make sure the shutter speed is correctly set. It should always be no lower than the length of lens you are using.

For example if I am using a 250mm lens (or a longer zoom lens set at 250mm) then I would set my shutter speed to 1/250th as a minimum. Faster is always better. I very barely drop below 1/400th of a second, this will allow for shots of most things moving with little chance of blurr.

 

Why would you use AV/Aperture priority? If you wanted to control the depth of field, either having a very shallow area in focus (low F Number) to help seperate the subject from the background. Or a large area in focus (large F number) if you wanted everything in the shot to be sharp.

 

An example:

 

 

 

What do all the other buttons do?

 

Without writing an explanation for every single camera the basics that you will also need to work out are:

 

AF Points

 

This is where you tell the camera where it is going to look to auto focus.

 

When you look through the camera you may have noticed there are a number of boxes dotted around the view finder in a diamond shape. Well you can choose any of these boxes individually or all of them at once or just let the camera take a wild stab in the dark.

 

Say in the below shot i have used one of the l/h side AF spots as the thing i want in focus is on the l/h side of the frame.

 

 

I would try and always use a specific AF point, even if you just leave it on the centre one and make sure your subject is always in the middle of the frame. The logo for this is a diamond of squares like you see through your viewfinder.

 

 

 

 

 

Metering mode

 

This in lamens terms is where you tell the camera to work out how bright it is. There are normally 3/4 settings

 

 

Evaluative, Gives it a good guess, will work for 99% of stuff unless the background is very bright/dark as it takes an average based on your AF point.

 

Partial Looks at the middle 10% of the image

 

Spot Just looks at the middle (or selected AF Point). Good for subjects that are very dark/bright compared to background.

 

C/W Average Just looks at the whole photo, but considers the middle's opinion slightly more valuable than the outside.

 

 

 

The button to change the ISO

 

Either set this to auto or try and keep it as low as possible. Auto may be better while you get used to the new settings.

 

The Auto Focus Mode

 

There are 3 modes here, They do the following:

 

One shot AF You focus on subject (first stage of the shutter release) the camera beeps, it has now held focus and so long as you keep your finger held down it wont change. Good for things that dont move. Castles or walls or something.

 

AI Servo This mode never locks focus, as long as you have your finger pushed down on the first stage of the shutter it will focus wherever you point it.

 

AI Focus The camera does a bit of both of the above settings. This is used when a subject might move a small amount. Trying to do portraits of the family or dogs or something. I've never found a use for this mode.

 

Shot Type

 

Nice and simple, do you want 1 shot per press, or do you want the camera to keep taking shots untill you take your finger off the shutter release. I would use the later as we all have such fine trigger control on this forum. The logo to find this is normally lots of boxes ontop of each other. You can also set timers for self portraits/family pics, but this isnt for men.

 

 

This is how to work a camera. I can do another post on how to compose photos/settings to use in what situations. But unless your going to carry around this guide then you need to know the above first. I also appreciate for those slightly more camera savvy users that some things might not be spot on accurate or relevant to some of those evil Nikon users.

[Ashbiker]

 

How did you get the camera settings details mate?

[dunganick]

Try EXIF Viewer if you use MAC

 

http://homepage.mac.com/aozer/EV/