Newbie needs help

[jhixson]

OK so I am new here and I am not sure if I am posting in the correct forum. I just got my Cannon Rebel today. It is not digital because I have lost many photos with my digital camera in the past and I wanted to go a little more traditional this time since my wife is expecting we would like some nice quality prints of our child. I am still in the learning phase. I do not have much experience with manual photography. Although the Rebel has many auto settings, I do not want the manual settings to go to waste.

I was also interested in buying filters and new lens (my Christmas present probably). I am not sure where to start and I can not find much info on the web. I guess I am not looking hard enough. I have seen many different filters like (red, orange, neutral density) and a few others not mentions here. What are all of the different filters for and is there a site I can get all of this information from.

Also I have read through the operating manual and I have tried a few of the settings and still need some help on most of them. I am not sure about the over exposure, under exposure, timing and a few other things. I got the red eye reduction down though :P

Please send me in the right direction for more help on these things. I am really getting into taking pictures. I would also like to be able to take some family portraits during Christmas. Please help.

Thank You.

[bosamar]

Practice, practice, practice.

[Curos]

Well, practice is good, but you cannot do it as much with film as you can with digital...or something like that. I would suggest some simple filters, UV for protection, and a circular polarizer. This eliminates glare from water/glass, and gives a little more saturation at times. As far as lenses go, i would suggest the cheap nifty fifty. This 70$ lense is my primary lense right now, mainly because i don't have any L yet...that's a different story, though. It is a great little lense for the price

http://www.adorama.com/CA5018AFU.html - the 50mm f/1.8 can be found there. I would normally suggest B&H, but their website is down at the moment.

Not sure what you mean by timing, but I can give you a very brief thought on over/under exposure before I go to bed. Over exposure is when you let too much light into the camera, basically making the image too bright. Underexposure is the exact opposite, letting too little light in. Hope this helps some, sorry if i missed anything. :)

[Andy_T]

It is not digital because I have lost many photos with my digital camera in the past...

Believe it or not, there are people who have lost images in film cameras for reasons like radiation, technical malfunction or user error ... :?

Best regards,
Andy

[PhotosGuy]

Believe it or not, there are people who have lost images in film cameras for reasons like radiation, technical malfunction or user error ...

And lab miStaKes, mail problems, budget films...