Need some picture taking help.

[Shipkiller]

I am going to Bimmerfest East on the 6th. I borrowed a friends Canon EOS Rebel XT so I can take some great pictures.

Instead of staying in 'Automode' does anyone have some suggestions on settings? I have already set the storage mode for the highest resolution and I set it up to save the pictures in JPGs and RAW format. Both will be saved for each shot.

It should be sunny and bright out...

I have 8Gig, 4Gig and 2Gig compact-flash cards set up...

[Caddyshk]

Stick with Auto - that's why these cameras have these featuresSo old guys like us can take decent pictures...

[vachss]

Auto mode will make sure everything's exposed properly, but there are other things you might want to consider - particularly stopping motion blur and making sure all of the portions of the image you want are in focus (depth of field).

The first of these comes from having a high enough shutter speed (typically figure 1/focal length - i.e. if you're shooting with a 50mm lens then you'll need to shoot at 1/50th of a second or preferably faster). If you're shooting fast moving action then you may need to bump this up to something considerably faster to freeze the motion.

The second depends a bit on what you're shooting. For portraits folks generally like to blur out the background and use a relatively low f number (I don't know what lens you'll be using, but if it's a standard kit lens then as wide as it will go - f/3.5-5.6). For everything else, though, you probably want a much larger depth of field top keep everything in focus. For this you'll usually want at least f/8.

On Canon cameras the simplest way to control these parameters is to go into P, Av or T modes. In P mode the camera will guess at a shutter speed and aperture, but you can modify them as you see fit. In Av mode you pick the aperture and the camera sets the shutter speed. In T mode it's the reverse. All these modes work, but you may find one or another more convenient - I personally find Av mode easiest to deal with.

Finally, there's the question of ISO speed. Setting this to a high number like 400-800 allows you to use high f numbers and short shutter speed, but gives a noisier (grainier) result. Noise isn't the prettiest thing, but it's generally better than out of focus images. In bright sun I'd probably start with ISO 200 (which most DSLRs can handle with minimal noise) but be ready to bump it up if you're not getting the f number and shutter speed you want.

That's all I can think of that won't take the next hour to write...

Have fun!

[Caddyshk]

Shipkiller won't be able to figure all that out This is not a weapons system, it's a camera damn it

[ZStig]

Originally Posted by vachss

Auto mode will make sure everything's exposed properly, but there are other things you might want to consider - particularly stopping motion blur and making sure all of the portions of the image you want are in focus (depth of field).

The first of these comes from having a high enough shutter speed (typically figure 1/focal length - i.e. if you're shooting with a 50mm lens then you'll need to shoot at 1/50th of a second or preferably faster). If you're shooting fast moving action then you may need to bump this up to something considerably faster to freeze the motion.

The second depends a bit on what you're shooting. For portraits folks generally like to blur out the background and use a relatively low f number (I don't know what lens you'll be using, but if it's a standard kit lens then as wide as it will go - f/3.5-5.6). For everything else, though, you probably want a much larger depth of field top keep everything in focus. For this you'll usually want at least f/8.

On Canon cameras the simplest way to control these parameters is to go into P, Av or T modes. In P mode the camera will guess at a shutter speed and aperture, but you can modify them as you see fit. In Av mode you pick the aperture and the camera sets the shutter speed. In T mode it's the reverse. All these modes work, but you may find one or another more convenient - I personally find Av mode easiest to deal with.

Finally, there's the question of ISO speed. Setting this to a high number like 400-800 allows you to use high f numbers and short shutter speed, but gives a noisier (grainier) result. Noise isn't the prettiest thing, but it's generally better than out of focus images. In bright sun I'd probably start with ISO 200 (which most DSLRs can handle with minimal noise) but be ready to bump it up if you're not getting the f number and shutter speed you want.

That's all I can think of that won't take the next hour to write...

Have fun!

newer canon and nikon DSLRs don't really show noise until ISO 1600 or so

[Kgolf31]

Originally Posted by Roffle Waffle

newer canon and nikon DSLRs don't really show noise until ISO 1600 or so

Yep. This shot was with ISO 3200 when I was still learning the camera in winter: Still little noise.

Nikon D3100

[Shipkiller]

Originally Posted by Caddyshk

Stick with Auto - that's why these cameras have these featuresSo old guys like us can take decent pictures...

Originally Posted by Caddyshk

Shipkiller won't be able to figure all that out This is not a weapons system, it's a camera damn it

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