"Better pics to come"

[P4GTR]

Got a Canon Rebel. Excited to get more into photography, it's something I've liked since childhood. Any suggestions on where to go about learning to use the camera proper-like, would be appreciated. I look forward to sharing some better imagery with my fellow RWG.

[Guest ThePhilosopher]

You could try to find a local photo forum and do some reading there (we have texasphotoforum.com) or ask here. Practice, ask specific questions when you run into problems (so you can get a specific answer), practice some more, read, practice more, get frustrated, read, buy macro lens, read, practice.

Edited December 28, 2009 by ThePhilosopher

[P4GTR]

I need a suggestion for a macro lens purchase.

[Guest ThePhilosopher]

Canon 180mm f/3.5 Macro, Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro, for extreme close ups: Canon MP-E 65mm Dedicated Macro

[redwatch]

Lighting will become your best friend or your worst nightmare! Make sure you learn how to adjust the white balance on the camera. That will help out a lot. Your first shot is a little on the yellowish side because of your lighting and white balance setting. The white balance is probably looking for daylight, not incandescent. If you adjust the white balance setting for incandescent, the colors will be more correct.

Good luck! Although this is mainly a watch forum, I have learned a great many things from some amazing photogs here!

[P4GTR]

Thanks P and red. I agree, definitely yellow. I have a long way to go.

P- I'll look into those, thank you for replying.

[P4GTR]

Canon 180mm f/3.5 Macro, Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro, for extreme close ups: Canon MP-E 65mm Dedicated Macro

Oh my God!! A macro lens is going to cost me $1500? How about a $100 or less macro lens w/ free shipping?

[redwatch]

I love my macro lens. It's a Tamron 90mm f2.8 Di macro lens. Mine is for a Nikon mount, but they make one for the Canon as well. Great lens for the money. New it's about $460 from amazon.com, but you can probably get a used one much cheaper.

Here's one on the bay for $346.00

[Guest ThePhilosopher]

Oh my God!! A macro lens is going to cost me $1500? How about a $100 or less macro lens w/ free shipping?

Those are just the Canon lenses, go to bhphotovideo.com and look around. There are plenty of other makers of glass - Tamron and Sigma are good 3rd party makers. The Sigma 150mm f/2.8 Macro and Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Macro are also viable options (I'm using the Tamron 90mm on my Nikon setup). I'm looking for a macro lens for my Bronica, but those are so hard to come by it's seemingly impossible.

[P4GTR]

Thanks guys. I don't know why my hobbies are always so expensive! Why can't I like quilting or coloring books or something!

We need replica glass....

[Guest ThePhilosopher]

Sigma IS replica glass .

[hiker01]

Thanks guys. I don't know why my hobbies are always so expensive! Why can't I like quilting or coloring books or something!

We need replica glass....

I use Kenko Extension Tubes for my Macro Shots! Here's one for your camera at Amazon!

Goodluck and enjoy the road to Photography!

Hike

[P4GTR]

A few.. I am losing quality resizing. I know BT said to keep the files as bmp until the final save, but the cam puts out jpeg. With some of the big brother assists turned on, RAW is no longer a choice. I'll get the hang of it...

The sun was setting on the rear of the house.

Grainy..... Ugh!!

Thanks for the reply's and letting me pain your eyes.

[Guest ThePhilosopher]

You'll get the hang of it. I only shoot RAW, save PSD files, and save two Max quality JPEGS (one web size and one print size). Noise happens at high ISO with beginner cameras - it's not an $8000 D3x.

[Hugo Alves]

if you want a dedicated macro lens i would go for the Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro as suggested. There are better macro like the L series but then you would be spending around 1000 euros for a lens alone which would be more than double the price of your camera. The MP-E 65 is not meant for somebody starting, not at all...

Nowadays you can find them pretty "cheap" (100 mm 2. or you can also look into sigma or tamron, they also have acceptable lens for a cheaper price. Anyway if you just want to play with your new toy, you can use the kit lens that has a macro mode as well, if is the same thing? no, but will give you an idea...anyway the more you go into photography, the more you will realize that the technique you use will matter more than the gear.

good luck and remember to keep on posting your new pictures

[Jkay]

As Pugwash states in his amazing macro tutorials here, even pro-sumer cameras come with mediocre lenses. Your next major purchase is a good lens to go along with the good camera.

For your "grainy" images, force the camera into a lower ISO I guess, and use a tripod

[deltatahoe]

i've been told the book "understanding exposure" by bryan peterson is a good starting place...

deltatahoe

[Hugo Alves]

i have plenty of that books available in pdf (send me a pm if you interested in a photography book, there is a fair chance i might have it).

they are too many to name here....

[dvn]

Here are some books: http://www.freephotoresources.com/collection-of-free-photography-ebooks/