My very first picture ever!

Well, I have been reading and reading about how to take a picture. I finally tried to put it to use. I have not got my 40D in yet (should be here Monday), so I just tried to use the XT I bought a couple of weeks ago.

First thing I had an issue with was the fact that I couldn't tell what the number in the view finder were, they were hard to read.

Second thing was, I couldn't remember all the stuff I had read (it was like I froze).

Anyway, I tried a few things and snapped a couple of shots. This was the best of the bunch. I dont know what I was using as far as the setting because I don't remember which order the pics were haha.

I tried to blur everything but the dog, but it did not turn out so good for me. I think I still have some reading to do.
Anyway, it does not look that good, but I figured it would be fun to put up my very first picture!!

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You picked a good place to start learning. I have learned so much from these forums, it is amazing. In a lot of ways it is more helpful than books, because you get to interact with people and ask questions.

That being said, since this is the critique forum, I thought I would critique your picture, and "try" to give you advice on how you might have improved this picture.

1. The background is not that interesting, and it takes up the majority of the picture, since you took it in landscape mode (horizontally. If the background were interesting, then it would make sense. In this case, I would have rotated the camera to get more of the dog, less of the yard furniture.

2. Maybe try a different angle, so the fence, or something else is behind the dog instead of the chairs.

3. I agree that blurring the background would have been better. You are limited with the kit lens if thats what you used. You need to zoom in, and set the aperture as low as possible, but if you are using the kit lens, you are limited. That 70-200 2.8 will help a ton. Stand back, zoom in 200mm, if there is room, and set it at 2.8. You will have a very blurry background!

I am by no means an expert, but I hope this helps!

Wow, that was great!! I was not even thinking of the background, all I was thinking was, "please don't move dog". Next time I will pay more attention to what is actually in the picture. Thanks for the tip.

As for the lens, it was the kit lens (17-55 I think). I figured it would be best to take my first pictures with it. The 2 new lenses I have are a little more complicated to work, so I thought I better wait to try them.

Thanks for taking your time to help me out!!

Couple of quick things -

You had your ISO set at 800. This is for low light, indoor shooting, that type of thing. Not for outdoors in relatively low light.

Change your ISO down to 100 or 200, put your camera into AV mode, turn your aperture down to 2.8 and you will get more background blur. Oh, and zoom in and stand back, that will help too.

Also what CanonLaw said about checking your background and rotating the photo orientation to exclude as much "messy" background as possible.

Good luck and have fun!

No problem. Paying attention to the background is one of the biggest things to learn to do. It is so hard to notice everything, but it can make or break a picture. As far as the other lenses being to complicated, I say just start shooting with them. With the exception of the IS, they function about the same.

Also, when beginning, I say try and set your camera to AV, which is aperture priority. That gives you the most creative control while still learning. The camera then controls everything else.

For instance, if you want a nice smooth blurry background, just turn the wheel on the back (I think that is for aperture) all the way to the left to 2.8 and the camera will do the rest. If you want everything in focus, then turn it to the right to about 11.

One thing to keep in mind also though, is that if you drop the aperture to 2.8, and try to take a picture of a bunch of people, most of them will probably be out of focus.

Got it, Aperture all the way down for blurry background. Outside should have low ISO, AV mode is the best to start with!

I lost my manual, but I found a good tutorial on Youtube that showed me how the functions on the camera work. It was just a little harder like that though because I did not have anything to look at while I was out taking my shot (I should have took notes).

Anyway, Ill get it (thanks to all of y'all).

One more thing, How do you know what my settings were??

Oh ya, if my ISO were to be 100 in this picture like it should have been, how would it have changed it?

pprice wrote in post #5906788
One more thing, How do you know what my settings were??

Your EXIF (the details of your picture) are embedded in it, unless you "save for web" which strips it all out. If you right-click on the picture (or on any other photo on the web) and select "view EXIF data" or something like that, it shows all the settings on the camera from when the pic was taken.

You can use this to your advantage. When I was in the very beginning stages like you are, I would look at lots and lots of photos taken by very good photographers. Things like composition and having an "eye" for a good photo can be trained but not learned, but the settings that other people use for photos that you like can be a good starting point. Things like landscapes under similar light conditions, you can see what other people have done and copy them to see if that gets the picture you want.

The ISO determines how "sensitive" the camera is, so a high ISO will increase sensitivity to light. BUT it will also increase the amount of noise (or grainy stuff) in your picture. Generally speaking the lower the ISO, the more clear your pictures will be. But you want to increase the ISO if you can't get a good exposure with a fast enough shutter speed to eliminate the movement caused by your hands shaking.

Confused yet? Try here: http://www.digital-slr-guide.com/iso-and-image-noise.html .

Buy a good book (Understanding Exposure by Scott Petersen is generally widely recommended) and read. And practice. Don't get bogged down by the complications of it. You aren't paying for printing, and you can delete anything you don't like. Just shoot and learn!

Great link!

I am in New Orleans right now for a school. I did bring my camera to practice, but left my charger at home (oops). I did try to take a picture using the advise given here, but I still could not get the background to be blurred out. I only brought my kit lens and I noticed when in AV mode, I could only go down to a f/5. Maybe this is why I could not do it.