Neilp Posted April 27, 2015 Share Posted April 27, 2015 Grundy, do you have dropbox? Do me a favour, drop some RAW images into a folder and send me the link for me to have a play with them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neilp Posted April 27, 2015 Share Posted April 27, 2015 If you want to see some cool photos check this guy out on Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnsonbarros Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grundy Posted April 27, 2015 Author Share Posted April 27, 2015 (edited) To blur out background you want to use a lens which gives a good shallow depth of field. Usually you would use something with a very large aperture i.e. f2.8, f1.8, f1.4. What camera/lenses are you using? On Canon you can use the manual focus points to help create the shallow depth or to move the focus of the camera. I'm currently using a Canon EFS 18-55mm 0.25m/0.8ft (it's what came when I bought it (2nd hand) ) Going to be very hard to create a shallow depth of field with that kit lens unfortunately. Have a look for the 50mm F1.8 it can be picked up very easily. Also, what 18-55mm lens is it- theres various types, does it have the IS on it? My favourite lens which was a reasonable price was my 28-135 USM IS lens. This is my camera - Seems that is does have IS on it. Just flicked my camera on, Goes down the F5.6 - Now will it go lower on different settings? As I'm currently shooting in AV mode. Or is this just down to lens/camera? Always shoot in full manual, which means you can control your aperture size and shutter speed. When you have the lens at full zoom it will always be at f5.6 for this one. You can buy lenses with fixed aperture throughout the zoom but these are costly. Search 70-200mm IS L (my dream lens) What camera are you using also mate? Canon EOS 450D Just out of interest, do you understand how aperture works? Only from what I've listened to on videos - Aperture is in simple terms, 'the size of the hole in the lens' So this can be adjusted to increase or decrease the amount of light let in?Now is Aperture the F numbers? or is it the 1/80 ratio? as if it's the ratio numbers, then I've had that on auto by the looks of it As I think that balances out to what F setting I have it on. That picture is incredible Neil! I was never in to photography etc, only bought the camera as I was sick of my iphone photos and wanted to be able to take photo's of my mod updates and photo's of events throughout the year....But I really am enjoying this and getting into it a bit too much I could see my self spending some money on this hobby.... Edited April 27, 2015 by grundy225 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neilp Posted April 27, 2015 Share Posted April 27, 2015 lol you will get sucked in. Whats the details of that tamron lens, looks like a decent bit of kit? Yep aperture is the size of the hole the light goes in. If your taking photos which require the background to stay in focus you will, as a rule of thumb, use a higher f number. However the larger the aperture the more likely you are to get lens flare (which you can see in the photo of my mate). This is my favourite lens without going into the L series canon professional lenses http://www.amazon.co.uk/Canon-EF-Zoom-lens-3-5-5-6/dp/B00006I53S/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1430164282&sr=1-1&keywords=canon+28-135mm+is+usm+lens I pretty much dumped all my other lenses for this one and my 50mm F1.8 The 18-55mm lens you are using is a good all rounder and has image stabilisation which is a must on a camera with a cropped, slow sensor. It will be suitable for most photos. If you are wanting to go down the route of getting shallow depth of field then you will need to always use your 18-55mm lens @18mm as this is where the aperture is the largest. It will be hard to achieve though. Keep an eye on gumtree for lenses as bargains do come up from time to time. The 28-135mm IS lens is a great lens and you can pick them up at a decent price. The 24-105L lens is much more expensive and there isn't that much difference between them, especially when being used on a cropped sensor (aps-c cmos) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neilp Posted April 27, 2015 Share Posted April 27, 2015 Looking at your photos, you have IS turned off btw, just keep an eye on that and make sure you have it on the correct setting for the photo you are taking Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grundy Posted April 27, 2015 Author Share Posted April 27, 2015 Looking at your photos, you have IS turned off btw, just keep an eye on that and make sure you have it on the correct setting for the photo you are taking So I do - What exactly does the IS do? I know it's an image stabilizer, you can just point me to google if that's easier Just waiting on some photo's to upload with my other response. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grundy Posted April 27, 2015 Author Share Posted April 27, 2015 Grundy, do you have dropbox? Do me a favour, drop some RAW images into a folder and send me the link for me to have a play with them. Slow upload speed in this house - Uploading now (1st time I've used drop box) But I think this is a link to one of the images... Once they've uploaded hopfully I can get a folder link https://www.dropbox.com/s/v13wkzkqkb0x7lv/IMG_2534.JPG?dl=0 lol you will get sucked in. Whats the details of that tamron lens, looks like a decent bit of kit? Yep aperture is the size of the hole the light goes in. If your taking photos which require the background to stay in focus you will, as a rule of thumb, use a higher f number. However the larger the aperture the more likely you are to get lens flare (which you can see in the photo of my mate). This is my favourite lens without going into the L series canon professional lenses http://www.amazon.co...5mm is usm lens I pretty much dumped all my other lenses for this one and my 50mm F1.8 The 18-55mm lens you are using is a good all rounder and has image stabilisation which is a must on a camera with a cropped, slow sensor. It will be suitable for most photos. If you are wanting to go down the route of getting shallow depth of field then you will need to always use your 18-55mm lens @18mm as this is where the aperture is the largest. It will be hard to achieve though. Keep an eye on gumtree for lenses as bargains do come up from time to time. The 28-135mm IS lens is a great lens and you can pick them up at a decent price. The 24-105L lens is much more expensive and there isn't that much difference between them, especially when being used on a cropped sensor (aps-c cmos) The Tamron lens is - LD DI Tamron AF 70-300mm 1:4-5.6 TELE-MACRO (1:2) A17, With a macro and normal switch Maco - 180-300 (I'm literally listing what ever is on the side of this, I have no clue ) I think this might of been taking with it - Haven't used it much as it's like a telescope, but it does seem to have a more clearer image. This one is with the 55mm lens This on with the 70mm lens I think it's all just a learning curve for me, as I was on fully auto, but over the past couple of weeks I've been experimenting and understanding more and more. I'm sure these lenses you suggest are awesome - But it was hard enough me spending spare money on the camera instead of the car , going to be a tough choice between mods and camera toys! Managed to pick my camera up off Gumtree for £200, theose 2 lenses, some lens filters (yet to use as I have no idea which mood/scene/setting they're for) 2 batterys, sd card and a backpack Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grundy Posted April 27, 2015 Author Share Posted April 27, 2015 Oh and I also have is it the macro filter? or something? The plastic shroud that goes over the end of the lens (Like an umbrella ) I've not used it as it's only for the Tamron lens Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BulletMagnet Posted April 27, 2015 Share Posted April 27, 2015 Took this with my cheapy Canon 50mm lens on a beginner 1100D 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
350zedd Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 Nothing wrong with the pics you are taking, but if you are colour blind, then you may be struggling a bit with certain colours, I dont know. The prom pic is a bit heavy on the blue, but I dont know if you can see that or not? I don't bother with white balance settings in camera, I'll adjust in Lightroom if necessary, but only if you are shooting in raw....... In jpeg..forget it! The chinese flash guns are good value and a lot cheaper than Canon. Dont buy the cheapest tripod out there, as it will be useless, and probably break after a couple of uses. Spend a bit more if you can. Tell us what kit you have got, then we can advise on other stuff. It's just blues/greens and red I see a different shade/tone to others, so it's hard for me to get those right - I.e. I over did it on Amy's I've been told. Prom pic? - If you're referring to the 3rd image, I intentionally enhanced that one to bring out the blue in the sky. I've only been adjusting it minor, as I was watching a few videos online about how you will get dead pixels on over exposed shots etc. And I'm shooting in RAW now I'll have a look thank you, When I said cheap, I didn't mean a £20 flimsey thing, just that I didn't want to pay £200 for say something that £50 could do what I'm after. (Random prices btw) - It's not something I'd use all the time, but would like to have one for certain photo ideas. My camera's a Canon EOS 450D your base image look a lot better than what your lightroom edited pictures they look fuzzy/grainy you got a canon? if so you can try my 10-18mm lens I think some of them are a bit grainey from Incarnation because I upped the clarity a bit, just mainly because for me, the lighting was dull due to lack of sun and mostly cloudy. So just wanted the photo's to pop a bit more.Another reason as you can see in the images below...The Sea had to much white and you couldn't actually see the ocean. If I could of captured the ocean without enhancing the car I probably would of had that picture. My final question of the day is... Focus points. Is there a setting or technique to allow the camera to focus more on the central point whilst bluring out the rear/surrounding area, or is that done in photoshop? Yeh, sorry Matt, I was referring to the pic with Amy's car in. Instead of enhancing the colours in the whole photo, try the graduated filter in Lightroom. You can use this to just darken the sky and bring the colours out, and it wont affect any other part of the pic. (Its in the Develop module- there are 6 icons top right under the histogram.....its the 4th one along) Again in the pic where you say the sea had too much white, use the grad filter to darken the sky and water only. I'm glad you are shooting raw....you should see a big difference when using Lightroom. Editing Jpeg files just messes them up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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