A few newbie questions, new to SLR

[Paul_B]

Hello all, researching the dRebel I found a link to this forum. Have been reading a few of the different forums here for the past couple of days. Lots of great info, and excellent photos here.
I have a A80, and just got my first SLR yesterday. I got the kit with the supplied lens. I'm saving now for the EF 70-200 F4L.
The wife has given me untill Spring to learn this new camera for my Daughter's soccer games. Yes, I convinced her the rebel would make great photos if we bought it :D
I've been doing a fair amount of reading on digital photography lately, and I'm learning slowly. But I have some questions, hope they don't sound to silly. I tend to take on one subject a time, and learn it as best I can.
AWB - while reading up on this, I found someone saying to take a white piece of paper, and use it for awb. I never really cared for the skin tones with the A80, so I tried it. Well it got worse when I did this trick. Mind you everyone had a great looking suntan (sunburn). Way to much red in everything. I tried it indoors and out. At the camera store, I saw a GreySheet 18%. Why do you use grey and not white if you want White Balance?. Does everyone use awb for the everyday shooting.

RAW - this is very new to me. I believe I understand what it is. Picture taken with minimal settings applied. You adjust them in software, and then save it (tiff, jpeg...). I bought a 512meg card for the new camera, and wondering if I can mix up settings. ie - take photos at Large jpeg, then for a couple take a few RAW images on same card. Perhaps you use a card for jpeg, and another for RAW ?.
One last question, the store I bought camera from offers classes on a few different things, SLR photography is one. Would it be worth it, or is it better learning through trial and error and just reading more on the net and books ?.

Here is my little page of pics (http://www3.sympatico.ca/vad3r/) taken with A80. Hope to update it soon with dRebel 8)

"note - created in linux, pics are fine with IE, but the text will not look correct"

thanks in advance for any info.

[robertwgross]

...
AWB - while reading up on this, I found someone saying to take a white piece of paper, and use it for awb. I never really cared for the skin tones with the A80, so I tried it. Well it got worse when I did this trick. Mind you everyone had a great looking suntan (sunburn). Way to much red in everything. I tried it indoors and out. At the camera store, I saw a GreySheet 18%. Why do you use grey and not white if you want White Balance?. Does everyone use awb for the everyday shooting. ...


Auto White Balance is very convenient. On the other hand, if your eye can easily recognize what kind of light is present, then you might find it more accurate to switch to the specific white balance setting on the camera. Then again, setting a custom white balance isn't that hard. You can use a pure white card or a pure 18% gray card. The point is that it must be pure and not have any trace of color in it. For example, if the card has a touch of cyan in the white, and if you set a custom white balance using it, then the resulting images will have a red tink to them.

As a result of this, I generally do not use custom white balance for anything unless I am doing something a little weird, like using quartz hot lights.

---Bob Gross---

[Boosting1Bar]

RAW - this is very new to me. I believe I understand what it is. Picture taken with minimal settings applied. You adjust them in software, and then save it (tiff, jpeg...). I bought a 512meg card for the new camera, and wondering if I can mix up settings. ie - take photos at Large jpeg, then for a couple take a few RAW images on same card. Perhaps you use a card for jpeg, and another for RAW ?.

Let's see the best way to answer this. RAW is basically the image stored just as the sensor sees it. No compression, sharpening, etc is done in the camera. It's just that...raw. This gives you a great deal more power for post processing because it will be much easier to correct exposure errors and the like. Another point of advice I would offer along these lines is to shoot in the AdobeRGB color space, it gives you a wider gamut of colors to work with.

Yes you can shoot jpg and raw on the same card. As a matter of fact I believe the DRebel is like the other EOS digital cameras in that it shoots RAW with an embedded jpg, so you in essence have both when you're shooting in raw.

One last question, the store I bought camera from offers classes on a few different things, SLR photography is one. Would it be worth it, or is it better learning through trial and error and just reading more on the net and books

For this I would say yes. It never hurts to spend a day playing with the camera when there is someone who knows more about it than you around. Even experienced folks will benefit from this type of thing as someone may offer you a point of view that you had not previously considered. At the same time, a class will be a good intro but certainly will not replace trial and error as your main source of learning.

Just my $0.02.

[robertwgross]

Photo classes vary tremendously in their content.

In one location, the photo classes taught at camera shops seemed intent on explaining how you need more lenses and camera tools to do photography better. Oddly enough, the shop offered those very lenses and tools for sale.

Local community colleges and adult education centers will often teach a class that is less about buying stuff and more about learning basic techniques.

Traveling seminars sponsored by the big camera manufacturers can be good at the intermediate or advanced level.

---Bob Gross---

[blinking8s]

I am taking intermediate photography at East Tenn State University right now, my teacher seems to care less about gear although it does play an issue, metering techniques and knowledge of good...and i mean GOOD...exposure techniques is what we are working on now.

[Paul_B]

thank you all.

[ahmadof]

i'm still in the learning atge like you. I also like to take one topic and really figure it out before moving on to the next one. Usually classes are not taught this way, so i find them of limited benefit. One think i would like to add is look atthe EXIF data. That tells you why one shot was different from the next. look atthe exif data from others shots as well. to me that is where you get the most learning.... composition and post-processing aside.