Digital Newbie :)

[Skeevie]

Hi all...

Just surfing the web and excited to find this forum. I'm a newbie to digital photography (unless the Nikon Coolpix 800 ebay photos count) and will be spending plenty of time reading your posts and learning.

My wife loves photography and has always used the Canon EOS line of products. When she decided to "go digital", I bought her a Canon D60, an Epson Perfection 2450 Photo Scanner, and an Epson 2200 Photo Printer.

We both like playing with the D60, but since there are two of us and only one D60, I feel left out. I looked at getting another D60 and ran across an article about the 10D as the "replacement" for the D60. After a bit more research, I've just preordered my 10D and am waiting -almost- patiently.

Right now I'm more of a "put the setting to AUTO and start shooting" type of photographer, but will be paying more attention to the finer points of photography now that I will have a real camera (no offense intended to the other Nikon Coolpix 800 folks out there.)

I look forward to asking lots of dumb newbie questions and probably providing a chuckle or two for the "oldtimers".

Pleasure to meet you all. Have a great day!
-Skeevie-

[Pekka]

Hi and welcome!

Right now I'm more of a "put the setting to AUTO and start shooting" type of photographer, but will be paying more attention to the finer points of photography now that I will have a real camera

As soon as you dial in the M mode it starts getting interesting. Manual mode combined with quick ISO changes (easy to do with digital EOS's) is for me the only way to work.

Auto mode does can't possibly decide what you really want to achieve. Auto mode calculates aperture and speed based on simple exposure table which is adjusted to fit the focal lenght you use. Auto mode also does not allow RAW file format.

When you control camera manually, you do a quick setting evaluation for each photo you take:

Aperture, based on:
- the depth of a subject I need to capture and what needs to be out of focus
- mood of the photo
- angle of the camera relative to subject
- sometimes based on sharpness needed
- need to reduce level of flash output
- subject movement (e.g. in sports you can use small apertures (big f-numbers) to compensate slow autofocus and fast movement).

Speed, set to
- stop subject movement
- blur subject movement
- stop hand shake (relative to focal length), adjusted to current camera support method (e.g. monopod)
- do special effects (e.g. with flash)

ISO, changed
- so that it is possible to get aperture and speed combination you desire (as above).
- in order to affect mood of the photo (different ISO's have slightly different dynamic range).
- need to reduce level of flash output (let more ambient light in)

Focus mode is also not in full control when in auto mode - I feel much more comfortable setting focus to * button and locking center focus point and recompose than letting the camera decide focus points. With * button focus you can do one focus lock and then keep shooting the same subject without need to lock again.