Argh, this is HARD!

I have had my Rebel for about 2 years now. Shooting exclusively in automatic. I have interest in learning more about photography, and in YEARS down the road, maybe going professional. So I am taking a course. I had my first class last week, in which the professor said NO MORE AUTOMATIC. It is so confusing to me! All my manual pictures turned out like this...

it's just practice, practice, practice! i learned manula using film cameras so the process for me was really slooow. you'd take a shot, finish a roll, bring to developer. it's a cycle. i was first self-taught. then, last year i took black & white photography 1. and everything kinda came together. and from that class, i still continue to learn. to get a feel for the aperture and shutter speed and light combination. i guess it's in my commitment to better myself in photography. and i've come to accept that this will be a lifelong journey with a lot of misses but having that one beautiful shot out of 1,000 is still an awesome experience. just one shot...

I bought my xt alittle over 1 month ago and never put it on automatic; so far i've had my camera in m mode for 99% of the time... i'm still learning, and have alot more to learn... but honestly it dosen't feel too difficult to me.. (flame suit on).. That pic looks to me like you had the lens on manual.. it's ok to use the af (auto focus) function on your lens maybe you could have put the iso up alittle too...

but then again you probably shouldn't listen to me since i'm a newbie too!

You are right, I did have the lens on manual. I haven't tried leaving that on AF. I didn't know if that would counteract the camera being in M mode or not!

OpticNein wrote:
it's just practice, practice, practice! i learned manula using film cameras so the process for me was really slooow. you'd take a shot, finish a roll, bring to developer. it's a cycle. i was first self-taught. then, last year i took black & white photography 1. and everything kinda came together. and from that class, i still continue to learn. to get a feel for the aperture and shutter speed and light combination. i guess it's in my commitment to better myself in photography. and i've come to accept that this will be a lifelong journey with a lot of misses but having that one beautiful shot out of 1,000 is still an awesome experience. just one shot...

Yea, just about me too.

Practice is the best method. I recently found an adapter which allows me to use an old set of screw-mount lenses on my F-mount (yea, yea, save your flames, and no it's not a Nikon) body...long story short, I can only operate the Camera in full manual; changing the aperture on the lens like old times. Its refreshing to have to resort to traditional techniques.

m mode just sets the shutter and apeture...well it also adjusts iso, white balance metering.... haa i guess actually you adjust everything yourself.. but mainly shutter and apeture... set your lens on af.. you're pics will look alot better..

Great! Thank you for the tip!

I learned on a 35mm Nikon SLR in High school. Learning on film SLR's kind of forces you to learn :P

When I first got my 350D I shot in the green box just to get used to the camera and read over the manual to learn how to use the shutter and apature controls since it's different than most OLD 35mm SLR's. The day after that it was all M, Av, and Tv.

Just keep doing it, and then do it some more.

yes! we should not be tied to one technique. just because you're a newbie does not mean that you have nothing to say. don't get intimidated by other members who have thousands of posts. not all posts are photography related you know? and one can easily reach a thousand posts by just hanging out at a thread commenting on anything. share your knowledge and be willing to be open minded to anything.

the good thing about digital is you can make mistakes over and over and over! the difficult part is... are you learning from those mistakes?

This is not too bad, considering the light situation. I assume you had to use ISO 800 or even higher? The problem is mainly noise which you can remove with one of these programs: Noiseware, Neat-image or Noise Ninja. Free downloads are available.

Next : did you apply any sharpening (USM)? Did you shoot RAW?

I played with your pic for only 2 seconds (just noise removal and USM, which works better in the original) but here it is:

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I have had my DRebel for almost 1 1/2 years and just this weekend I used Manuel almost exclusively for a family portrait shoot. All you need is a lot of practice and patience. I know I will need it.

Art

As a newbie, I don't think it is a good move to go straight to manual (M) mode. IMHO, start with either Av or Tv mode. Once you feel more comfortable controlling the aperture, shutter speed, ISO, Exposure Compensation, then you know what you are doing when shooting in M mode. Just my $0.02.

That looks much improved! I tried to use sharpening, but only on Microsoft Picture it, and it didn't come out like that. But It doesn't have noise removal either, which was to me the worst part of the photo! I shot in JPG, and the ISO was 800. Though I am still learning when to use what ISO in what circumstances. Thank you for the touch up!

noelle... try taking good pics without using software to improve it. do that later. if you rely too much on software then you won't develop a good eye for taking pictures. instead, you'll always say to yourself... "eh, i could fix that later".