New Camera

Hi everyone, I'm new here and I just bought my first real DSLR.

It's a Canon Rebel T2i. I have no experience in photography but I did go to film school and majored in cinematography so most of the stuff I learned in school transitioned well in to photography (I think).

These are my first shots on my new camera, let me know if there are some things I should adjust for future reference.

On a side note, I have no clue how to use photoshop or whatever other complicated software programs there are.

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Byte size: ZERO | PHOTOBUCKET ERROR IMAGE

What mode was the camera on? I noticed all the shots were taken at f3.5 which doesn't give you the largest DOF.

I really like some of the shots, like the one of the tree (6th photo).

Some could use more DOF. As for the last one... the horizon is slanted which gives me a bit crazy, there isn't really a focal point in the photo, and a large part of it seems out of focus/blurry.

Keep shooting!

Oh that last one is all over the place lol. I think that's one thing I need to think of when shooting landscapes is that I don't really have a focus point, I just shoot whatever I think might look nice. I do agree with you, look at that photo, it's very poorly executed.

I put everything on manual. I tried to do MF for the most part but I ended up going to AF cause I was getting tired of trying to focus on something so far away.

Wait, how can you tell it's at f3.5?

All photos have the settings embedded into them unless you strip that data.

1st photo:
1/400
f3.5
ISO 100
18mm

2nd Photo
1/500
f2.5
ISO100
18mm

3rd photo:
1/400
f3.5
ISO 100
18mm

etc etc

Anyways, now that I look at the EXIF (the embedded) data closer, it does say you were in manual, that is good =)

LOL! That's pretty awesome.

Exactly how do you find that? That'd be awesome to keep track of.

I like the 2nd one...the exposure seems off on the others

#1 seems oversaturated and the sky is blown out. Were you using a picture style that enhanced contrast and color.

#2 is a nice shot. However, you lost the focus on the point in the distance.

#3 is an uninteresting scene. Sorry.

#4. I see what your goal was for this one. Put this in the "experimenting" category.

#5 & 6. Not bad.

#7. The eye is drawn to the man and dog. So why have that blown out blotch of the sun in the frame?

And the last one... no. Just no. Nothing is in focus. Straightening the crooked horizon won't fix it. Kill it. There's nothing redeemable.

I really want the sun to show and I couldn't get it on any shot. I'm thinking it's probably because I didn't have ND filters on my lenses.

Especially on the first shot. I really wanted that sun framed on the left side of the picture but it just came out as overexposed mess. (Oh and yes I was using a basic photo editor for contrast and saturation) I want to know if it's possible to get the sun to come to come out without underexposing the rest of the shot.

Is that possible with camera settings and filters?

BTW thanks for your replies, both good and bad. It's been my passion my whole life, that I'm just now really getting in to lol.

All of the photos were taken in the Manual Mode, or at least that is what the EXIF data shows.

Photo #1:
Camera Maker: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS REBEL T2i
Image Date: 2010:12:11 16:09:13
Focal Length: 18mm
Aperture: f/3.5
Exposure Time: 0.0025 s (1/400)
ISO equiv: 100
Exposure Bias: none
Exposure Mode: Manual
White Balance: Auto
Flash Fired: No
Color Space: sRGB

Photo #2:
Camera Maker: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS REBEL T2i
Image Date: 2010:12:11 15:47:14
Focal Length: 18mm
Aperture: f/3.5
Exposure Time: 0.0020 s (1/500)
ISO equiv: 100
Exposure Bias: none
Exposure Mode: Manual
White Balance: Auto
Flash Fired: No
Color Space: sRGB


Photo #3:
Camera Maker: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS REBEL T2i
Image Date: 2010:12:11 16:07:25
Focal Length: 18mm
Aperture: f/3.5
Exposure Time: 0.0025 s (1/400)
ISO equiv: 100
Exposure Bias: none
Exposure Mode: Manual
White Balance: Auto
Flash Fired: No
Color Space: sRGB

Photo #4:
Camera Maker: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS REBEL T2i
Image Date: 2010:12:11 16:10:08
Focal Length: 18mm
Aperture: f/3.5
Exposure Time: 0.0010 s (1/1000)
ISO equiv: 100
Exposure Bias: none
Exposure Mode: Manual
White Balance: Auto
Flash Fired: No
Color Space: sRGB

Photo #5:
Camera Maker: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS REBEL T2i
Image Date: 2010:12:11 16:26:49
Focal Length: 18mm
Aperture: f/3.5
Exposure Time: 0.0063 s (1/160)
ISO equiv: 100
Exposure Bias: none
Exposure Mode: Manual
White Balance: Auto
Flash Fired: No
Color Space: sRGB

Photo #6:
Camera Maker: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS REBEL T2i
Image Date: 2010:12:11 16:28:29
Focal Length: 18mm
Aperture: f/3.5
Exposure Time: 0.0031 s (1/320)
ISO equiv: 100
Exposure Bias: none
Exposure Mode: Manual
White Balance: Auto
Flash Fired: No
Color Space: sRGB

Photo # 7:
Camera Maker: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS REBEL T2i
Image Date: 2010:12:11 16:16:38
Focal Length: 55mm
Aperture: f/5.6
Exposure Time: 0.0010 s (1/1000)
ISO equiv: 100
Exposure Bias: none
Exposure Mode: Manual
White Balance: Auto
Flash Fired: No
Color Space: sRGB

Photo # 8
Camera Maker: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS REBEL T2i
Image Date: 2010:12:11 16:17:25
Focal Length: 18mm
Aperture: f/3.5
Exposure Time: 0.0016 s (1/640)
ISO equiv: 100
Exposure Bias: none
Exposure Mode: Manual
White Balance: Auto
Flash Fired: No
Color Space: sRGB

All of the photos are very nice and you have a great looking area to take photos. The color saturation on all of the photos is way up there on the scale and it makes every photo a pleasure to view.

I do notice that the photos are all highly saturated on the Red/Orange/Brown scale. Or is the grass and brush in that area so vividly colored?

The reason I asked is it is like your White Balance is either being fooled or you have it set in "Cloudy" mode. I say this because every time I use the "Cloudy" mode it puts a lot of Red/Orange/Brown into my photos.

I personally like photo #4 the best out of the series! The sun reflecting off the water and up the cliff through the tree is a very pleasant image.

If you would like to get an EXIF Viewer you can simply Google search EXIF Viewers. There is literally hundreds of them out there. Download a copy and when you want to see the EXIF of a photo you simply right click on the photo and you have the EXIF.

Exif viewers are an excellent way to learn from other people's photos!

Dick

Hey Richard, thanks for the comprehensive feedback! I finally figured out you can download the images, go to properties and it'd have all the information on there.

Actually the only thing I had set to auto was the white balance. I did take a lot of these pictures during sunset so I did try to give off a lot of the red and orange tones.

If you use Firefox, there's a couple add-ons that will let you see EXIF data by right clicking an image. I got one called FxIF and it works fine. There's others out there for various browsers so do a little search and see.

Ooooo tobias!!! I just installed it and it made my life a lot easier! Thanks!

You're welcome. Also thanks to the various folks I saw mention it here before I decided to get it myself.