Any tips for a beginner?

[cpark]

I am about to shoot picture for a local skating crew and i was wondering what kinda lenes would be good for that. I shoot a 350d and i was wondering what settings you pros use.
Thanks
-Chris.:D
Oh and also!? When you shoot, use RAW? L? etc and how do i get the photos onto ps7 w/o losing so much quality and then onto a website?????
it never works for me. thanks again.!

[PhotoScout]

I'm surely not as experienced as many of the other poster are here but I'll share my thoughts. You would probably want a zoom lens. I use a 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS USM for shooting youth sports. I wanted a fast lens for low light conditions (indoors, etc.) and to have IS for those times I don't want to use a monopod or tri-pod. There are several other lenses that have similar ranges and features. It all depends on your budget. Many of us started out with less expensive lenses and as we got more proficient then we moved on to better optics and features.

As far as RAW. I shoot in RAW when my sessions are very important. I can easily shoot several hundred images at a event and then have so many to work on in PP which can take lots of time (hours). If I can set my exposures properly (checking the histogram often) I can use jpeg at the least compressed setting and still be able to have good images to prep for print without too much quality loss, if any.

Every time you convert, re-crop, re-size, etc., the number of pixels gets reduced and the image file size will become smaller. Most images prepped for web use smaller number of pixels. That's OK for sharing, etc. But, for prints, you would want the most pixels you can keep.

I hope this helps. If anyone can clarify my descriptions or correct me, please do so.

[Jim G]

For skating fish-eyes seem to be not uncommon.. I use a 17-85 for it and I'm often on the 17mm end of things. I find that the shots look more flattering (distances look greater, therefore stunts look more impressive and whatnot) when they're not compressed through a telephoto lens.

[allyv]

I agree with everything that everybody has said. I often use the 70-200 2.8 but in some gym's there is just not the light this leaves me using the 85 1.8 - great lens. For editing my photographs I use PSP 9, (heres where I get controvesal) I don't believe in touching up photographs. I know the benifits and amazing things that can be done, but I feel happier making an in-camera image insted of a computer one. Just my view. Hope that helps, keep clicking!. Ally

[zacker]

if you shot raw, youll need to upgrade to PSCS@ i believe for the 350D. or just use the canon software to convert the file to a tiff and PS7 should open it from there.id suggest you use jpeg fine mode for speed ans it sounds like your pretty new to this so mabey youlll want the camera to do mist of the processing...not trying to be rude but it might make your life easier and then alls youll have to do in ps is crop and resize and maybe adjust hue/sat and brightness/contrast.
hope this helps.
-zacker-