New New New! Any help useful

ohsogorgeous1

I'm getting my first really nice camera, Canon 40D, it came highly recommended by my family. I'm looking for any useful tips for shooting pretty much everything, and also what are some must haves that I should look into adding to my stuff. I want to be able to do portraits, landscapes, nature, etc...tap into a little bit of everything. Look forward to any advice and tips. Thanks a bunch!:help

ziggy53

Welcome to the Digital Grin and congratulations on the new camera.

I presume you are not familiar with either manual controls or interchangeable lenses and accessories like external flashes, etc.

Let's start with what type of photography you would like to pursue?

ohsogorgeous1

ziggy53 wrote:

Welcome to the Digital Grin and congratulations on the new camera.

I presume you are not familiar with either manual controls or interchangeable lenses and accessories like external flashes, etc.

Let's start with what type of photography you would like to pursue?

Well I supposed what I'd be starting out with things like portraits, candids with family & friends (casual), maybe some small scale nature stuff around where I live. It's so hard to choose right off because I'm interested in everything. But I'm pretty sure, the stuff I'll start off with the most is taking constant pictures of my daughter, boyfriend, pets, close family, and some outdoors stuff. As for manual controls and interchangeable lenses, my brother is kind enough to shed light where needed and when he can.

ziggy53

ohsogorgeous1 wrote:

Well I supposed what I'd be starting out with things like portraits, candids with family & friends (casual), maybe some small scale nature stuff around where I live. It's so hard to choose right off because I'm interested in everything. But I'm pretty sure, the stuff I'll start off with the most is taking constant pictures of my daughter, boyfriend, pets, close family, and some outdoors stuff. As for manual controls and interchangeable lenses, my brother is kind enough to shed light where needed and when he can.

Cool.

For portraiture and candids, especially indoor images, you should consider an electronic flash unit or two. A flash with an autofocus assist light is a tremendous benefit, speeding focus acquisition and accuracy. Learn how to use the light from the flash to provide light that doesn't look like it came from a flash and you will improve your photography leaps and bounds over ambient only or built-in flash photography.

I recommend either the Canon 580EX and/or 430EX or the Sigma EF-500 DG Super (or the EF-530 version.)

Izzy Garavito

ohsogorgeous1 wrote:

I'm getting my first really nice camera, Canon 40D, it came highly recommended by my family. I'm looking for any useful tips for shooting pretty much everything, and also what are some must haves that I should look into adding to my stuff. I want to be able to do portraits, landscapes, nature, etc...tap into a little bit of everything. Look forward to any advice and tips. Thanks a bunch!:help

Hello hello! and welcome to Dgrin. You'll find people here most helpful. I started with photography at around november of 2007. here is what I got (and what I'm still shooting with)

40D
17-55mm 2.8 EF/s lens
and a relatively cheap tripod (about $200)
and a backpack for my camera

That's all I have and it's proven quite flexible--from landscapes to portraits (up close), etc.

Now i want a 70-200 to cover a wider range.

I would DEFINITELY get a tripod with a ballbearing head--it's been invaluable and necessary in many situations--and a GOOD lens or two!

Hope this helps

Izzy

ohsogorgeous1

Izzy Garavito wrote:

Hello hello! and welcome to Dgrin. You'll find people here most helpful. I started with photography at around november of 2007. here is what I got (and what I'm still shooting with)

40D
17-55mm 2.8 EF/s lens
and a relatively cheap tripod (about $200)
and a backpack for my camera

That's all I have and it's proven quite flexible--from landscapes to portraits (up close), etc.

Now i want a 70-200 to cover a wider range.

I would DEFINITELY get a tripod with a ballbearing head--it's been invaluable and necessary in many situations--and a GOOD lens or two!

Hope this helps

Izzy

THanks, seems like a good place to start. I know right off the bat I wanted to pick up an extra lens on top of what comes with the camera itself. I'm looking into a macro lens. But yes, you helped so thanks a bunch to people, but any tips and stuff can keep coming...I welcome everything and I look forward to sharing my results.

dmmattix

Oh you will like it here. The information is great and so are the people. The only problem is that you always seem to find something you HAVE to have and hence money flows very freely to vendors (B&H, Adobe, etc).

Welcome. Hope you find it as inviting as I have.

ziggy53

ohsogorgeous1 wrote:

THanks, seems like a good place to start. I know right off the bat I wanted to pick up an extra lens on top of what comes with the camera itself. I'm looking into a macro lens. But yes, you helped so thanks a bunch to people, but any tips and stuff can keep coming...I welcome everything and I look forward to sharing my results.

Be sure to check out the "Holy Macro" forum where Skippy (the forum moderator and fantastic hostess and great macro shooter) and Lord V. (a macro guru) have tons of ideas and information about all things macro, micro and close focus.

My own recommendations for macro lenses include the honorable mentions in this thread:

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=78112

ohsogorgeous1

cool, thanks