I'd Like A Few Pointers...

I bought an EOS rebel T3i with a 18-55mm and 75-300mm lenses I had film loaded SLR’s (Canon FTBn and A1) and I had been wanting to get a DSLR for a long time. Anyway, I want to see if I can get to the next level. I’ll just post 3 of the pictures, which I have on my photo blog at word press. I do not have my camera set for RAW, I’ve never work with RAW files and do not really understand the benefits. I’ve got the camera set in large format JPG 5184 x 3456 and I have yet to reformat my memory card, I’ve shot over 2,000 pictures. I guess I’m due for reformatting my memory card.

When I’m shooting wildlife, I have my camera set on the action / sport mode. I will shoot a series of pictures in that mode of one subject, just to get THE picture, or close to it.. Sometimes, they’re all junk. The camera doesn’t always rapid fire as I’m taking a series of flight pictures, at times it stops shooting, and that’s the end of that idea.

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well for starters for the love of god get rid of your email in the middle of the pictures,they are incredibly distracting,for action shots do u set the drive to high speed continuous,{i don't have a t3 so not sure if its called that}for action fast shooting i would shoot in tv mode and drive on continuous,your memory card may be slow or maybe your cam was buffering,the bird shot looks great by the way if your email wasn't posted in front of it,

I took my camera when I got it and ran off the latest instruction book from the manufacturer. I then printed it out (yes it was a pain), three hole punched it and put it in a three ring binder. I started on page one and read the WHOLE thing with my camera in my lap, I highlighted and made margin notes as I went and backing up and checking if I did not understand something.

It helped a lot, one thing I had to get over was the little calculator in my head that was counting the shots I had left on the roll, the cost of developing and whether I had any more fresh rolls available.

There are some great tutorials on this and some of the other forums that are for DSLR users. Have fun.

By the way the first two shots look great. Remove the e-mail label no one here is going to take your picture and take credit for it.

Agree with the others: get rid of that distracting signature in the middle. They are nice photos but not so nice that people will want to pinch them....
The "sports" and other modes on the dial of your camera are "pre sets" which means that the assume a certain optimal average setting will work in the situation you are shooting. And I am sure you now what "assume" does to you...

Start to take control and decide if you want shutter or aperture priority and decide which aperture you want to get the required depth of field and what shutterspeed is best to freeze the motion (or het some functional blur instead).

Most camera have a limited buffer for burst shots like 8 - 15 shots maximum in one burst before the buffer needs to be emptied. Some cameras show that number in the righthand bottom corner of the view finder. The max number of burst shots depends on the camera and on the write speed of your memory card.

Thanks for the input, sorry about the watermark. Those are just down sized samples which I embedded from my photo blog at word press, I probably should make the water mark a little smaller and put it off to the side. I am trying to get to the level to where my pictures are nice enough to want to pinch. But still, I want to protect my work in some way, which is why I bought that watermark software. I'm confident nobody here would want to pinch photos, but, this is the internet, after all.

I will agree that it's the buffering that stops the camera from shooting continuously. But it probably would not happen as often with a higher end camera.

I'm going to give the Tv mode a try as Gene suggested, see how that works for me.

And yes, I have read the manual, and have it stuffed in my camera bag for reference.

Thanks again for the input....

@ Santora57
One good thing to find is a local photo club. You can meet with like mined eager to learn and share individuals like you find here on POTN.

You should be using a class 10 memory card. They are cheaper than a slower class of card.This will allow the highest continual shots that your camera will allow.Having the in camera setting of "reduce iso noise" will reduce the number of shots you can take before the cameras buffer fills up.I forget the exact name, but it will be a camera setting or in your manual.

Be sure that you have the latest firmware as sometimes the burst mode is improved in updates.

Sports mode is actually a good mode to be in for moving wild life photography. You should learn to take a more manual control over the settings to get them even better, as the others have suggested.

A couple of things that sports mode does is to change the cameras AF mode from one shot AF to AI-Servo AF. Meaning that it tracks the moving subject.
It turns on the continuous shooting mode and it chooses the AF point to use.

The camera does a good job in sports mode, but with practice and knowledge, you can do a better, more accurate job than this setting.

Raw vs Jpeg.
Jpeg is the cameras representation of an image, based on the settings it is given. Meaning things like standard mode, landscape, extra sharpening, contrast color etc.Jpeg allows higher FPS shooting than Raw.

Raw is a digital place holder for the pictures information. Meaning that you will have to edit it via a computer, but it holds a higher dynamic range from the available light. It is not set in stone then only limited editable as jpeg, you choose the setting via a computer. Raw also has a larger file size.

Raw vs Jpeg is less important for now then learning Depth of field via lens aperture, what shutter speed, metering mode and getting good composition are more important in an image.

There are also a lot of great free resources out there for learning. Some of my favorite are youtube and creativelive.com. CL has a lot of video series of how to. Be it posing, lighting, fundamentals of digital photography 2014. The newest classes are streamed for free, other courses are for purchase.

Firmware, manual etc:
http://www.usa.canon.c​om …slr_cameras/eos​_rebel_t3i

Thanks Micro, that was good info, just what I was looking for. I do have a class 10 memory card that came with the camera. And I live out in Southern California. But I have found some resources online, and I'll check out that link.

Appreciate the post.

I think I really like #1 but that water mark just kills it....

santora57 wrote in post #16937396
Thanks Micro, that was good info, just what I was looking for. I do have a class 10 memory card that came with the camera. And I live out in Southern California. But I have found some resources online, and I'll check out that link.

Appreciate the post.

Lol, i had just got done reading someone else's post about living close to Yellowstone, that is why i was thinking you lived in Bozeman..

Micro5797 wrote in post #16938716
Lol, i had just got done reading someone else's post about living close to Yellowstone, that is why i was thinking you lived in Bozeman..

LOL, I'd like to head up that way, some day. Always wanted to get in my car and just drive up the coast. Someday.

tmoore323 wrote in post #16937451
I think I really like #1 but that water mark just kills it....

Fixed. Thanks for the input. Glad you like the picture.

buy 'understanding exposure' by bryan peterson, so you can learn how to use the camera...instead of just setting it in a bunch of different modes, and hoping one comes out right

.... and that circle is still annoying. One of the regulars on this forum got a signature that says:

DreDaze wrote in post #16939638
buy 'understanding exposure' by bryan peterson, so you can learn how to use the camera...instead of just setting it in a bunch of different modes, and hoping one comes out right

Thanks, I'll check it out. So nice that some people can give some constructive, welcoming advice, rather than just throw out barbs.

vk2gwk wrote in post #16939720
.... and that circle is still annoying. One of the regulars on this forum got a signature that says:

You're beginning to annoy me. I have a right to protect my work, I know I'm not the best photographer in the world, as I told you before, that's why I'm here.

I don't post anything on the internet, without some kind of watermark. If you or anyone else has a problem with that, that's your own personal problem. I'm tired of hearing about the watermark, from you or anyone else. I refined the watermark, and that's that.

Peace...