Newbie Questions

I'm not very familiar with much to do with photgraphy other than the actual taking of the pictures. My parents just bought me a Canon EOS 20D today and it's expected delivery date is this upcoming Friday, May 19th. One of my online buddies from the west coast is being generous enough to send me some literature on photography.

A few things I'd like to try to familiarize myself with right now are...

Bokeh, I've read that it is the 'quality' of the blur of the background compared to the subject. What exactly is meant by quality? I'm thinking they meant how blurry it is in comparison to the sharpness of the subject? Can anyone elaborate for me?

Aperture?

Focal Length? I *think* this has something to do with what is described on any given lense? F1.2? Or does that have to do with aperture?


Lastly, probably the thing I'm most interested in, has anyone any experience with reversing a zoom lense to use it as a macro lense? I've seen this setup before but I can't find it.

Any links someone can give me would also be of great assistance.

Thanks

Also, what's the deal with ISO? Lower to Higher? What's better for what?

Bokeh is a very subjective, but well used term. It isn't so much how much blur as how nice looking it is.

Appeture (f/1.8, f/5.6, etc) is how wide the opening made by the appeture blades in the lens is. Lower numbers are a wider opening. A wider opening lets through more light (so will allow higher shutter speeds) and will cause a shallower depth of field.

Yes some lenses can be reversed. Search around here, there is always lots of good info.

ISO in a digital camera refers to how much amplification takes place of the signal generated by light hitting the sensor. The higher the ISO the more amplification. This effectively gives better light sensitivity (again allowing for higher shutter speeds) but also creates noise, appearing as a grain like patterning on the image.

Focal length (for instance 50mm, 85mm, 28-135mm) gives an indication of the field of view for a lens. Lenses with a single number are referred to as primes, lenses with a range and referred to as zooms.

Why all this worry about shutter speed? Handholding a camera at a low shutter speed (thing 1/focal length as the limit - i.e an 50mm lens shouldn't be handheld at less the 1/50th of a second) can lead to blur from camera shake. Also, if your subject is moving a slow shutter speed will pick that up and lead to the subject being blurry.

Wow, thanks for all of the helpful information.

Hi, DallasG. The 20D is an awesome camera, you'll have to learn alot about it and its huge amount of features(keep in mind it's a semi-professional camera). Thank God it's so fun, making it so easy to learn.

I don't know if this counts for anything, but I currently work for a company managing their website and one of the aspects of that is photographing machines and putting them on the web. They have a Canon Rebel XT, I've had a little fun with it as well, they don't mind it since I'm actually doing it for work. My father just recently purchased a Rebel XT for his work per my advice for a good camera under $1000. I've been playing a LOT with that recently. Soon after came the question, "What do you want for graduation." I immediately knew what to say and came with the quick response, "A Canon EOS 20D"

It's being shipped today via 2nd Day Air.

Wow, I'm excited.

Well, looks like you're not totally noob then. What lens comes with the camera?

EF-S 18-55mm... The basic kit lens... I hope to get more, especially a zoom since they can be reversed...

well the 20d like the XT with its gamut of functions and capabilities will either make you or break you. I hope it's the latter. Exercise patience especially when you can't even tell what the ISO differences are. Lots to learn and welcome to the exciting, expensive & sometimes frustrating world of SLR photography!

There's a great book that can really help you called "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson. I just got it for myself a month ago and I can't seem to put it down. It's got some simple, yet very helpful steps to getting the best of your equipment.

lol... "functions and capabilities will either make you or break you. I hope it's the latter." The latter is 'break you' - Thanks a lot for your confidence in me =D

Kidding, lol... thanks for the welcome, I've been waiting a long time to get into it.

Dallas, no lens can be reversed on the camera without some accessories. If I were going to reverse a lens for macro work, I would choose to do it with a prime (fixed focal length) and not a zoom lens.

Changes in focal length will change the field of view of a camera. It's sort of like selecting different pairs of binoculars with different "powers". The "normal" focal length for the 20D is 31mm. Anything shorter than 31mm is "wide-angle" and anything longer than 31mm is "telephoto", both with varying degrees depending on the lens.

Aperture is the variable opening in the lens to control the amount of light coming through it. The settings are usually in "f-stops". The classic whole-stop settings are f/1.4, f/2.0, f/2.8, f/4.0, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16, f/22, f/32. The smallest number is the largest opening and vice-versa. A "faster" lens will have a larger maximum aperture (smaller minimum f-stop number). Some zoom lenses have a "constant aperture", meaning there is no change to the aperture when you change the zoom length. These are usually the expensive pro-caliber zooms. Consumer-grade zooms usually change the aperture when you change the focal length by zooming.

To get some spelling straight () - the word describing the opening in the lens to let light through is aperture (only one "a"). Lens is not spelled with a second "e".

You got me on aperture, but lense and lens are both acceptable. =)

Yes, Skip is right. They don't use reversed zooms, but small primes like 50mm or 35mm.
But if you're really interested in macro photography, you'll eventually want to invest in a good quality specialized macro lens such as the Sigma AF 50/2,8 EX Macro (mounted straight ahead, ofcourse ).