Total Noob here...

BlackParis

Hi ALL! My friend Zac told me to check out this site as I got a new camera and have no IDEA what any of the settings doo...

I've gotten pretty good with Point and shoot cameras so this past week I purchased an Olympus E-Volt E500 2lense kit... About all I have figured out how to do with it is manual focus and zoom and take pictures...

I don't know what White balance or exposure do, or how to change them...

This summer I will be taking a Photography class, I have wanted to for some time now...

Anyways is there any Tutorial online, that teaches about camera functions, camera terms, etc... ?

Here are some pics I took this weekend with a point and shoot, panasonic...

http://thomas.nmmr.org/Auto-X4-29-07/Auto-X4-29-07%20024.jpg
http://thomas.nmmr.org/Auto-X4-29-07/Auto-X4-29-07%20030.jpg
http://thomas.nmmr.org/Auto-X4-29-07/Auto-X4-29-07%20066.jpg
http://thomas.nmmr.org/Auto-X4-29-07/Auto-X4-29-07%20101.jpg
My Favorite....
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/208/480094186_0420b65d79_b.jpg

I think they are damn good considering, they were done with a cheap simple camera...

I love taking pics of cars, especially beauty and racing shots and am looking foward to learning some new techniques witht this new camera... Once I become aware of what all the buttons do!

digismile

Hi BP,

Welcome to Dgrin . You did a good job of panning with your camera on the last shot. The front of the car is sharp and the background and rear of the car are blurred showing its motion. This is something that people don't always do well. Good job.

As far as some of your questions about white balance, aperture, etc. I'm sure Google will find something! But in short, White Balance is something that you need to adjust for different types of light, ie. daylight, florescent light, tungsten light, shade, etc. For example, try taking a picture in your home at night with just a table lamp. Do the colours look right? Or is your picture very orange? The issue is, our eyes and our brain compensate automatically for different lighting conditions. But our camera does not. Generally you have an Auto White Balance on most cameras that usually does a pretty good jov and picks the right white balance. But sometimes you need to help it along and set it to the correct light conditions.

Look under your setup menu on your camera and I'm sure you'll see white balance somewhere. Actually, just try changing the white balance for your car shots. You'll get the idea of what happens! You will see the terms warm and cool, and they are related to the white balance (color temperature) that is set.

Maybe someone here has your same camera and can help you find the settings.

There are a number of car enthusiasts, so I'm sure you'll get a comment or two.

pyroPrints.com

Here is an awesome tutorial for this the E500 http://www.wrotniak.net/photo/oly-e/e500-using.html
Look around the sight on more tips and accessory reviews.

Feel free to PM me on here if you have any specific questions, I'm no pro but I had the e500 since september so I kinda getting the hang of it =c)