Thread: Newbie questions!

Hey guys...I really am interested in photography. I've never taken a class before and havent ever odne more than just play around with my dads camera. But seeing the pics posted up on here has really inspired me to learn more.

I love the type of photography that makes the cars look like they are coming out of darkness...with heavy shadowing. It gives the picture mystery. I hope i explained that right. Anyway, I was hoping for some tips and tricks from you guys. What is a great, but modestly priced camera out there. Are there any HDR cameras? I really know nothing about this stuff so excuse my terminology and lack of knowledge

any information would be really great. Thank you in advance!!

Autoluxe

here are some of my pics that i did like you said above!!!

are you looking for a D-SLR? (example. camera that you can change lenses on, Nikon D40,60,90,3100 ETC)

Originally Posted by autoluxe

Hey guys...I really am interested in photography. I've never taken a class before and havent ever odne more than just play around with my dads camera. But seeing the pics posted up on here has really inspired me to learn more.

I love the type of photography that makes the cars look like they are coming out of darkness...with heavy shadowing. It gives the picture mystery. I hope i explained that right. Anyway, I was hoping for some tips and tricks from you guys. What is a great, but modestly priced camera out there. Are there any HDR cameras? I really know nothing about this stuff so excuse my terminology and lack of knowledge

any information would be really great. Thank you in advance!!

Autoluxe

Technically, HDR is an editing technique, more so than a function of a digital camera. Most any modern digital camera will be able to do HDR, assuming you have the computer software to do it. HDR stands for high dynamic range and it is used to capture a greater range of values than what is normally possible with just one image. The dynamic range that a camera is able to achieve is dependent on its sensor. For example, the CMOS sensor of my Canon 5dII is able to capture a greater range of shadows and highlights than my older Canon 300d which has both a smaller and older sensor. However, using HDR I could essentially multiply its potential dynamic range.

If the look that you enjoy the most is deep shadows, than you actually wouldn't want to use HDR. Doing so, would only lighten the shadows. As far as cameras, anything in the Canon or Nikon family will do just fine. There are differences to both, so I would recommend going to Best Buy or your local camera store and playing with them and seeing which one feels right.

L4MBORGH1NI those are some great shots!

The camera my dad has is a Nikon D40, thats what I have to experiment and play with. There are a lot of settings and adjustments that i need to learn how to use in order to capture the looks that I would be going for.

The only thing I know about HDR, and this might sound ridiculous, is that my iPhone 4 does it lol. But, when i take the pics WITH HDR opposed to without HDR, the resolution and color fullness and clarity are astonishing.

Honestly, I give you photographers so much respect, it is quite an art form that most people take for granted.

So is the Nikon D40 that I share with my dad a good camera that can take the kind of pics that I want?

Again, thank you guys so much for the input. I love this site and the people on it that are willing to help others out.

Autoluxe

It is definitely capable. Most of the pictures that you can find on my buddy's site, Scott Chu, were done with a D40. In most cases, it's not the camera...it's the photographer.

Scott Chu Photography

The "shadowing" effect is called a vignette. It's where you have a loss of light and/or clarity around the edges of the picture. It gives and interesting look but can be overdone. Programs such as Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom can give you an effect. Lightrooom creates a better outcome but Photoshop can be equally as useful.

Like the past posters explained, HDR is a technique, not a feature of the camera. It can be done Photoshop by merging a set of 3 shots that cover the whole exposure spectrum. The best outcome will come from taking RAW format images. This format, unlike traditional JPEG, will leave all the saturation, contrast, sharpening, and colors for you to edit.

You can get a HDR technique with one shot if you want as seen in this tutorial -http://www.digital-photography-school.com/correcting-and-creating-hdr-images-in-lightroom .

The vignette is best done in post. Do not try to get the vignette out of the camera if you don't have to. This will leave lots of flexibility with the photo later on.

I don't know what your camera is now but if it is a DSLR it will probably have RAW format, try asking your dad. Nikon and Canon cameras are great, anything over 8MP will suffice for good photography. Cameras that shoot over 12MP can get better optical clarity but the lens also plays an very important role in sharpness. Like the previous poster mentioned the Canon 5D MKII, which you probably are unfamiliar with, is a work horse of a camera... at $2500 for the body. A majority of DSLR cameras today shoot over 10MP and will give you good HDR outcome.

Thank you Mr. Creech and sowhatever, you guys are great. Im going to look into Lightroom and Photoshop.

The brief tutorials I read online said something about setting your exposure to -2, 0, and +2 and combine those three shots to make a HDR photo. I am really very excited to learn about this stuff, and hopefully one day soon I will be able to post up some pics that I have taken! Any further input at all is greatly appreciated. Im going to continue to play around with the settings and try that "RAW'' setting, I believe I saw it on the camera.

I'm definitely going to learn more about the vignette, thank you btw for teaching me that term, now I know what to search for!

Again, thank you all for commenting!

Autoluxe

I know what effect you're talking about. Basically, you need to be good with photo shop, have the right lighting, or both. Ideally, you'd have a dark background that doens't reflect light (or is too far to reflect light) behind the car, with you being between the car and the light source. This way when you do post processing on the image, it's much easier to get the desired effect without excess amounts of work. I'm not any good at it nor have I really tried, but some other photogs have done an excellent job with it.

Originally Posted by alexD

I know what effect you're talking about. Basically, you need to be good with photo shop, have the right lighting, or both. Ideally, you'd have a dark background that doens't reflect light (or is too far to reflect light) behind the car, with you being between the car and the light source. This way when you do post processing on the image, it's much easier to get the desired effect without excess amounts of work. I'm not any good at it nor have I really tried, but some other photogs have done an excellent job with it.

Awesome! I'm definitely going to have to look into many of these programs because I would really like to get better at photo editing and be able to have some great looking pictures that I can actually say I took!

Again, thanks for the feedback guys, it is a lot of great information that will really help me out!

Autoluxe