New to Photography

[The1]

also, after seeing some of the pictures, my best recommendation for you is, don't be afraid to crop, your original picture size off the camera if printed at a 1:1 ratio would take up about half your wall. So if you crop closer to your subject in some cases, you're still going to be able to print large pictures, maybe even posters off the cropped version as the quality will still be high enough.

this will help you get rid of car mirrors and such.

[Chewy734]

Originally Posted by silvergray545

I really like this picture because you seem to focus on the AW E36 M3 but when you look to the left in the distance, you see the IB E46 M3.

This rolling shot kinda bothers me. It looks like the car is stationary but you know it's not because the wheels are spinning.

In the first one, you pretty much have the rule-of-thirds in play. The blue M3 is is in the left third, and if you crop it right, the white one is in the right-third.

In the second one, I think the problem is your shutter speed. Take a look at FStop7's photos (racelap, I think). He does awesome rolling shot. Check out his flickr page and see what settings he uses.

[silvergray545]

Sorry guys, I've been busy with school. Project was due by midnight and I was applying for internships. So I didn't get a chance to reply on here. I might be shooting my buddy's car today. It will be in the evening after I get out of class and he gets home from work. It's not for sure yet but I'm interested to see how the shots will come out if we do go.

Originally Posted by The1

what ISO is, is sensor sensitivity.

think of it like an amplifier, when it's nice and quiet, everything is crisp and clear, but as you turn the volume up, you still hear everything, but you sooner or later start to get distortion as you turn it up.

ISO sort of responds the same, the higher the sensitivity, the more noise it gets, but that being said, a lot of people are scared of noise when it really isn't something that we should worry about as much as we used to.

Generally you want it low, but if you need a higher shutter speed, but you want lots in focus, you're going to have to compensate for the slow shutter speed by raising the ISO so that in turn you can bring the sutter speed up.

ISO can be a good friend when you get used to using it.

Keep watching the Zach Aries videos, I believe he explains how they work in conjunction with eachother.

Dave/Dcstep shoots regularly at high ISO and I very very rarely notice noise in his photography. Part of that is because he shoots in RAW and part is because he has a great understanding of how to compensate for noise (amung other things) whie shooting in that format.

I won't be surprised if you see 20,000 shutter clicks before you're really comfortable with all the settings and it all becomes natural. Just shoot, and shoot, and when you think you're done shooting, shoot some more.

also since you're starting to shoot in RAW, i'm going to try and find a link for the codec so your computer can read RAW files so you don't have to worry about jpeg files.

I wasn't sure what exactly noise was so I googled it. It's the grainy effect that you get on an image. I've noticed that in some of my photos and I had no idea why it was doing that. But now I know! So turning down the ISO will in turn, reduce the noise. ISO and shutter speed are directly related to each other.

I will watch those videos when I get a chance.

I agree with what you said in bold. I feel like I've learn quite a bit from you guys but it doesn't mean much if you can't apply it. I'm going to do some shooting this weekend. I'm eager to try what I've learned so far. Practice makes perfect.

Originally Posted by The1

was easy to find....

http://software.canon-europe.com/software/0039964.asp

Thanks for finding that for me but I have a Mac. I'll have to find one for my Mac if it already doesn't read RAW files. Aperture 3 might be able to and I have it. I'll have to try it.

Originally Posted by Chewy734

Dave, that's true, they are related to one-another, and it's important to see your final settings before pressing the shutter. What I meant was that (for me) it's much easier to usually think of aperture than shutter speed in many instances. You shoot a photo of someone sitting indoors, lit with a lamp... do you think f/2.8 or 1/200s?

On the other hand, as someone previously posted some killer lightning shots... I'm thinking more about shutter speed (1-5s) as opposed to aperture (f/8+).

It's interesting how certain applications require you to focus more on aperture or more on shutter speed.

Originally Posted by The1

also, after seeing some of the pictures, my best recommendation for you is, don't be afraid to crop, your original picture size off the camera if printed at a 1:1 ratio would take up about half your wall. So if you crop closer to your subject in some cases, you're still going to be able to print large pictures, maybe even posters off the cropped version as the quality will still be high enough.

this will help you get rid of car mirrors and such.

I've cropped a few of my photos and they do look better. I posted the untouched photos to make sure I'm shooting them right. I'll crop a few and post them. Just for feedback.

Originally Posted by Chewy734

In the first one, you pretty much have the rule-of-thirds in play. The blue M3 is is in the left third, and if you crop it right, the white one is in the right-third.

In the second one, I think the problem is your shutter speed. Take a look at FStop7's photos (racelap, I think). He does awesome rolling shot. Check out his flickr page and see what settings he uses.

I'll crop that picture and post it.

FStop7 does some nice rolling shots. I think the blur is a little intense though (not saying the pictures are bad but just a little much for my taste).

[silvergray545]

I did another photo shoot yesterday. I'll try to get the pics up tomorrow.

[silvergray545]

IMG_0866 by dsaadeh, on Flickr

IMG_0884 by dsaadeh, on Flickr

IMG_0886 by dsaadeh, on Flickr

IMG_0891 by dsaadeh, on Flickr

IMG_0897 by dsaadeh, on Flickr

IMG_0914 by dsaadeh, on Flickr

IMG_0935 by dsaadeh, on Flickr

IMG_0954 by dsaadeh, on Flickr

IMG_0961 by dsaadeh, on Flickr

IMG_0971 by dsaadeh, on Flickr

IMG_0986 by dsaadeh, on Flickr

IMG_0987 by dsaadeh, on Flickr

IMG_0993 by dsaadeh, on Flickr

IMG_1058 by dsaadeh, on Flickr

IMG_1063 by dsaadeh, on Flickr

IMG_1064 by dsaadeh, on Flickr

What do you guys think? I shot in Av and Tv mode. Played with different shutter speeds and aperture settings. I didn't shoot in RAW because I wasn't sure if my mac would read the files or not. I'm gonna look into that next.

P.S. None of these photos are edited. Straight from the camera.

[dcstep]

Better.

On the last three, since you washed the sky out totally, you might have increased exporsure even further to get some color into the car.

You might have just posted the best of each basic pose, rather than all of shots that look almost the same. You're right to take many shots, but then you need to be ruthless with your own editing and show only your best shots.

Dave

[infinitekidM2C]

Yeah waaay better..didnt mean to be mean last time lol.

[dcstep]

Originally Posted by infinitekid2002

Yeah waaay better..didnt mean to be mean last time lol.

Welcome back, kid.

[silvergray545]

Originally Posted by dcstep

Better.

On the last three, since you washed the sky out totally, you might have increased exporsure even further to get some color into the car.

You might have just posted the best of each basic pose, rather than all of shots that look almost the same. You're right to take many shots, but then you need to be ruthless with your own editing and show only your best shots.

Dave

Thanks.

Next time I'll try that. I'm not used to shooting at night.

I noticed that too after I posted it. I threw it together in between classes today lol.

P.S. I looked at your flickr and you have some AMAZING shots!

Originally Posted by infinitekid2002

Yeah waaay better..didnt mean to be mean last time lol.

No worries man. As I said last time, no hard feelings. Thanks though.

[dcstep]

Originally Posted by silvergray545

Thanks.

Next time I'll try that. I'm not used to shooting at night.

I noticed that too after I posted it. I threw it together in between classes today lol.

P.S. I looked at your flickr and you have some AMAZING shots!

...

Thanks.

There's lots to learn, but you're doing the right thing by shooting a lot and asking questions.

Dave

[The1]

yeah, shots are coming along well, and if you get yourself some flashes, your night time will change forever.

also like DC said, since the background is already going to be blown out (or completely white) don't be afraid to push a bit further into the over exposed area and you'll make the colours of the car pop. Light colours actually have more colours in them, so when you bring the exposure down in post processing, the car will still look normal

otherwise if you shoot too dark and try to bring the exposure up, you get something called "banding" which is where the colours separate because the computer is just taking a wild guess at what colour something should be, so it just groups like colours together, and you start to see lines.

Do like they do in Finding Nemo, but instead of swimming, "Just keep shooting"

[silvergray545]

Originally Posted by dcstep

Thanks.

There's lots to learn, but you're doing the right thing by shooting a lot and asking questions.

Dave

Originally Posted by The1

yeah, shots are coming along well, and if you get yourself some flashes, your night time will change forever.

also like DC said, since the background is already going to be blown out (or completely white) don't be afraid to push a bit further into the over exposed area and you'll make the colours of the car pop. Light colours actually have more colours in them, so when you bring the exposure down in post processing, the car will still look normal

otherwise if you shoot too dark and try to bring the exposure up, you get something called "banding" which is where the colours separate because the computer is just taking a wild guess at what colour something should be, so it just groups like colours together, and you start to see lines.

Do like they do in Finding Nemo, but instead of swimming, "Just keep shooting"

Thanks guys. I feel like I've learned so much but there are still loads of stuff yet to learn.

I'll keep this thread going with more pictures. Hopefully I can get out a little bit this weekend and go shoot some.

[The1]

also, if in doubt about the amount of noise you're getting in high ISO applications, print a picture on a 4x6 sheet, and you'll be amaized how little shows up compared to on computer, so if your moms business is printing images, it may be worth making some samples. however, if most of the things you are shooting online, then try to keep it in the mid to low ranges, and you'll be happy.... 1600 will be about the limit of acceptability on that camera depending how you shoot, and if you stick to raw.

[silvergray545]

Originally Posted by The1

also, if in doubt about the amount of noise you're getting in high ISO applications, print a picture on a 4x6 sheet, and you'll be amaized how little shows up compared to on computer, so if your moms business is printing images, it may be worth making some samples. however, if most of the things you are shooting online, then try to keep it in the mid to low ranges, and you'll be happy.... 1600 will be about the limit of acceptability on that camera depending how you shoot, and if you stick to raw.

ISO is something I need to play with a little more. I shot all the still shots of my buddy's Si at 100. Most of them came out pretty good (I think). I have to play around with it and see what works.

[The1]

Originally Posted by silvergray545

ISO is something I need to play with a little more. I shot all the still shots of my buddy's Si at 100. Most of them came out pretty good (I think). I have to play around with it and see what works.

If you're shooting bright day light, 100 is usually sufficient unless you need to get stop motion when you're shooting really fast objects. things like the cars that you're shooting on a roll, you'll want a bit of blur, so 100 works there as long as you don't close your aperture up too much.

for your evening photos of the car, you might want to bump up to between 200 and 400 unless you're using a tripod, if using a tripod, use the 2 second timer and let go of the camera (obviously attach it to tripod first) then you can shoot at 100ISO all night long at any shutter speed and aperture opening.

[dcstep]

When I use a tripod I lock the mirror up and use a remote release. If the lens has IS, be sure to hold the shutter half way down for a fraction of a second to allow the IS to spool up, particularly with a big lens.

[silvergray545]

With the end of the beautiful summer, I don't see how I can shoot cars in the winter. So I was thinking of other things I can shoot. One of my hobbies is snowboarding. I'd like to do some shooting of my friends snowboarding. The only problem is that I can't snowboard and shoot at the same time. I could, but my T3i is too expensive for me to experiment with. With that being said, I will have to be stationary while snapping pictures of my friends hitting jumps, rails, etc. What mode would you guys shoot objects in motion? Any specific setting that I should use?

Here's a picture for taking the time to read/reply. I really love how the sun is hitting the building. It does need a little bit of editing though.

IMG_1003 by dsaadeh, on Flickr

[dcstep]

Originally Posted by silvergray545

With the end of the beautiful summer, I don't see how I can shoot cars in the winter. So I was thinking of other things I can shoot. One of my hobbies is snowboarding. I'd like to do some shooting of my friends snowboarding. The only problem is that I can't snowboard and shoot at the same time. I could, but my T3i is too expensive for me to experiment with. With that being said, I will have to be stationary while snapping pictures of my friends hitting jumps, rails, etc. What mode would you guys shoot objects in motion? Any specific setting that I should use?

Shooting digital in snow yields at least two surprises. First, most of your shots will look unexposed because the exposure meter reduces exposure to try to make whites look grey. Also, there'll often be a blue cast to snow shots.

Both problems are easily fixed. Shoot in Av or Tv mode and use +1EV as a baseline setting. Take a test shot and if hightlights are blown out on a bright day, then reduce EV until the highlights aren't blown out any more. On an overcast day you may need to add even more +EV.

To get the WB (white balance) right, shoot in RAW and adjust the whites to be white in conversion to jpeg. This is one reason to always shoot in RAW, so you can correct of WB issues after the fact.

Use shutter speed up in the 1/1000th to 1/2000th second to stop your movement and the SBoarders, except if you want to show blur intentionally. Don't be afraid to shoot up to ISO 800 to get all the +EV and SS.

Dave

[silvergray545]

Originally Posted by dcstep

Shooting digital in snow yields at least two surprises. First, most of your shots will look unexposed because the exposure meter reduces exposure to try to make whites look grey. Also, there'll often be a blue cast to snow shots.

Both problems are easily fixed. Shoot in Av or Tv mode and use +1EV as a baseline setting. Take a test shot and if hightlights are blown out on a bright day, then reduce EV until the highlights aren't blown out any more. On an overcast day you may need to add even more +EV.

To get the WB (white balance) right, shoot in RAW and adjust the whites to be white in conversion to jpeg. This is one reason to always shoot in RAW, so you can correct of WB issues after the fact.

Use shutter speed up in the 1/1000th to 1/2000th second to stop your movement and the SBoarders, except if you want to show blur intentionally. Don't be afraid to shoot up to ISO 800 to get all the +EV and SS.

Dave

Very interesting. Thanks! This is something I will have to try when the snow falls. It's been rainy and I've been slammed with school so I haven't had time to do any shooting.

[silvergray545]

My buddies and I got together today to go for a little cruise. I brought the SLR along to shoot a little bit. This was the first time I ever shot in RAW. I didn't realize the files were so big! But I really didn't get many quality photos. The sun was killing my shots today. When I was doing the rolling shots, I decided to switch to Av to try to compensate for the sun but they came out horrible. I completely forgot that the shutter was on auto. There is no motion blur at all. The wheels don't even look like they are spinning. I'm just really disappointed because I thought I was getting better. Practice makes perfect I guess.

[dcstep]

You're allowed to "chimp" (look at the preview). With strong light, try a setting then chimp and move the f-stop up or down then chimp again until you get something you like. Of course you usually want the sun at your back.

Dave

[silvergray545]

That's a good idea but time was a major issue. Trying to shoot 9 different cars on the highway takes quite a bit of time. But next time, I'll just need to take my time and adjust accordingly.

Note to anyone who wants to attempt rolling shots: If the sun it's directly over head, avoid taking highways that run east and west.