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After an age of deliberation, I have grabbed a Canon 700D, with a bunch of accessories of fleabay.
Chose this one particularly for the flip screen & mic port as SWMBO wanted to try vlogging, now she can't moan when I tell her the price :naughty:
So, any beginner tips you can impart on using the thing will be gratefully received :D
I'll pop up some test shots when it arrives next week!
If you're going to do videos, grab a tripod, or at least a monopod.
Agreed, but would add, get a good tripod, don't get a cheap one that will topple over at the slightest breeze so that camera lands lense first on the ground. Look on Youtube for advice on picking a decent tripod.Quote:
Originally Posted by g8ina
When you get it, take lots of pictures, and look at this Groupon offer that's on at the moment, you might find it helpful.
Some local councils offer cheap or free one-two day training courses, our's offers photography. Might be worth checking out.
Ok so got the camera, and it's the difference in photo quality is amazing. This is not surprising when comparing to my Sony Cybershot.
Ordered a tripod too, and looking for a plug in mic so she can be heard. Now, I have changed the settings to save the files in both RAW and Large (for ease...) Raws will be deleted unless the photo needs a touchup.
I have only used the base settings so far; Macro, Auto+, Action, Portrait and Scene as the many other options confound me. I don't want to start messing with aperture and ISO etc until I know what they are meant to do. I'll be grabbing one of them magazines for a beginner soon to teach me. I'll take a look at courses too once I know my way around it.
Does all the editing software cost a bomb, or is there a decent free / cheap editing suite out there?
Good editing software is free - if you're manipulating jpegs then GIMP is excellent and has powerful layer tools. Canon provide free RAW conversion software which is OK, or you can use something like the free RawTherapee for more control.
But then there's also a case for buying software for even more polished user interfaces - I just use Adobe Lightroom (+GIMP if I need drastic edits), which was good value for money, but you can now get LR + Photoshop on a fairly reasonable subscription.
Paint.Net I find a lot nicer than the gimp for simple stuff, the UI is just much better, and it runs a hell of a lot faster too.
Fast Stone is a good image viewer that is free.
Whilst RawTherapee is good, it's about as stable as a Greek economic policy, I ended up buying lightroom.
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/ have some excellent tutorials, you won't need to buy any magazines after reading them!
As others have said Paint.net / GIMP are good options but I think Lightroom is well worth the price (pops up on HUKDs for £70 quite often).
Personally I would keep the RAW files - you can always make jpgs but jpg quality reduces with saves. For software I fully agree with Photoshop and Lightroom, well worth what you might have to pay. You could also consider Corel draw suite.
Magasines - depends on whether you enjoy reading. I have tended to buy Photoplus (Canon edition) when it has items that attract me. The magasine often includes video discs of photography/software lessons. It may also pay to visit your local library where you should find some useful advice. Finally look on Youtube - amazing what short instruction sets exist there.
Thanks for the advice, I'll look into paint.net and Lightroom.
At the moment, all I have is the usual family pics and they are coming out quite nice. The RAW files are just taking up space (I need a new HDD badly). But your right, when I start actually utilising the camera for high end photographs like (but no where near quality wise) g8ina's I will keep the RAWs. Who knows, I may be half decent in a few years and re-touch them all up!Quote:
Originally Posted by oldboy47
You might already do this but maybe think about a backup system, either online and or use an external HDD just in case.