someone help a beginner please????

[tumbleweed]

I'm a complete beginner. I have a new dRebel XT set completely on auto. The battery is charged. I'm getting grainy pics....what am I doing wrong?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v454/tumbleweed5/2005/IMG_0623.gif

[elkootcho]

Can you post the technical data that you're shooting with?

[KevC]

It's most likely low light... and auto made it jump up to a high ISO.

Try shooting in the Creative Modes, and read up on things like Aperature, ISO, and shutter speed. That basically defines how much light reaches the "film" (in this case, the sensor).

Here are the basics, aperature is how wide the opening is. It controls depth of field (how much is in focus), and obviously the wider the opening (wider the aperature), the more light reaches the sensor.

Shutter speed is exactly that, how fast the shutter snaps open and shut. How long the sensor is exposed for. A longer shutter speed, the more light reaches the sensor. You use a high shutter speed to freeze motion, you use a low one to blur (like waterfalls). But be careful, if your shutter speed is too slow, it may be open too long for you to handhold. Mono/tripod works well in this situation. Or simply setting the camera on a stable platform.

Lastly is ISO. ISO determines how light sensitive the sensor is. Therefore, the "faster", higher number ISO... the less light is required to produce the same exposure. However, the higher iso, the grainier or noisier the image is.

That said, on auto, the camera probably set the aperature to a decent size to have a big depth of field like f/8 and to keep the shutter speed down, it was forced to use a high ISO. Therefore you get grainy images.

Try playing with Av (aperature priority) and Tv (shutter priority) modes to see the effect on each. Aperature Priority allows you to change the aperature while the camera takes care of the shutter speed. Shutter priority is the opposite. If you find there's too little light to work with, bump up the ISO. But always, the lower ISO the better (less noise!)

I know it's a lot to digest, but if you shoot shoot shoot, it'll all come to you easily.

Oh, and this is regarding available lighting. Don't even think of flash photography until you've somewhat mastered available lighting. It's a whole new ball game... :)

[tumbleweed]

Thankyou so much for your responses. The camera was set on auto on the portrait setting (little person icon) and the flash went off.

I will definitely try the different settings and work to learn the basics....thanks for the extra help getting started!!! I may have to ask again....I'm increadibly slow at this.

[LadyHawk]

Here are the basics...

Thank you, KevC. Some of the books include more information than you need to start. I'm sure you've just helped a lot of us beginners... appreciate it!

[sixshot]

No problem being slow...Just make sure you keep at it and you'll have great shots. Don't give up and put the camera back in its box for a week...or month. Shoot everyday........ Ohh, my 20D is still in the damn shop.

[KevC]

Thank you, KevC. Some of the books include more information than you need to start. I'm sure you've just helped a lot of us beginners... appreciate it!

You're very welcome, Karen :) (That's my sister's name, hehe)

One thing I forgot to mention is... The bigger the Aperature NUMBER, the smaller the aperature is. It's counter intuitative, ya just gotta get used to it.

So basically f/22 is really teeny tiny. And f/1.8 is really really wide. You can just memorize that, or realise that the number is actually the inverse (1/22 or 1/1.8 measures the opening relative to the diameter of the glass.... i think)

f/1.8 is very dangerous cos the DOF is so narrow that, if you're careless... the nose may be in focus but the eyes aren't (portraits...). Always make sure the eyes are in focus, that's the most important thing.

Lenses are inherently sharpest when they are stopped down (more strange lingo). "Stopping down" means narrowing the aperature (or making the number bigger!). So that nifty fifty (50/1.8) everyone's talking about is sharpest at aperatures smaller than around f/4.

And as sixshot said, don't be afraid of asking questions! That's the best way of learning. Grab your camera, shoot shoot shoot, then ask why. Hehe. :) It's digital! "Film"s cheap :D

[LadyHawk]

You're very welcome, Karen :) (That's my sister's name, hehe)

...Lenses are inherently sharpest when they are stopped down (more strange lingo). "Stopping down" means narrowing the aperature (or making the number bigger!). So that nifty fifty (50/1.8) everyone's talking about is sharpest at aperatures smaller than around f/4.

And as sixshot said, don't be afraid of asking questions! That's the best way of learning. Grab your camera, shoot shoot shoot, then ask why. Hehe. :) It's digital! "Film"s cheap :D

I hope all the newbies are taking note... thanks again, Kevin!

[tumbleweed]

Thanks again for the help. I'm struggling to take it all in. I'm sure it will be second nature...someday!!

[KurtKuhn]

Thankyou so much for your responses. The camera was set on auto on the portrait setting (little person icon) and the flash went off.

I will definitely try the different settings and work to learn the basics....thanks for the extra help getting started!!! I may have to ask again....I'm increadibly slow at this.

As you get more comfortable with your camera, you can migrate to the other side of auto, specifically to P, Tv, Av, or M setting. These are for when you want to learn what is going on "under the hood" of all the icon settings.

Most important: have fun while learning & don't get discouraged.

-KK

[britt777]

tumble, you may want to try looking at technics on this website. Hope you like. I find it to be very helpful and unbelievable site for pictures. www.ephotozine.com

[Jesper]

OK. Everybody starts to talk about ISO, noise, slow shutter speeds, ... That's all very useful info, but it's not the primary cause of your problem.

The problem is that you are using the wrong file format. When I look at the URL of your photo, I see this:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v454/tumbleweed5/2005/IMG_0623.gif

You are using the GIF file format. That format is not suitable for photos, because it doesn't support more than 256 colours. Save your photos as JPG and not as GIF.

[KevC]

OK. Everybody starts to talk about ISO, noise, slow shutter speeds, ... That's all very useful info, but it's not the primary cause of your problem.

The problem is that you are using the wrong file format. When I look at the URL of your photo, I see this:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v454/tumbleweed5/2005/IMG_0623.gif

You are using the GIF file format. That format is not suitable for photos, because it doesn't support more than 256 colours. Save your photos as JPG and not as GIF.

rofl!!! Ya. That's most likely the reason. Geez. I'm surprised I didn't think of that. Jesper, I applaud you :D

If you have photoshop, do use "Save As for Web" and choose JPG High.

[robertwgross]

You are using the GIF file format. That format is not suitable for photos, because it doesn't support more than 256 colours. Save your photos as JPG and not as GIF.

GIF is suitable for plain color graphics, but if you take a nice photo and save it in GIF format, it tends to look pretty grainy. Most stuff viewed over the web is JPEG (JPG). Many photos not sent over the web are stored in TIF.

---Bob Gross---

[tumbleweed]

Wow. Thanks everyone. That helps a lot. I'd been saving in jpg and changed editing programs (from PSE to PS3). The default setting was for gif and I didn't know to change it. I couldn't figure out why my pics were suddenly grainy....I wasn't doing anything different while taking them. LOL now it makes sense!!!!