Photography Thread

Pross

Wheelspinner said:

Pross said:

Just treated myself to a Sony DSLR off eBay, if I get some use out of it I will then probably get people to give me money towards a new mirrorless for my big birthday in a few months.

Which Sony?

A58, it seemed a better spec than the Nikons and Canons in the same price range. Comes with an 18-55 kit lens and I also picked up a Sigma 75-300mm lens for an extra tenner.

pblakeney

Pross said:

Just treated myself to a Sony DSLR off eBay, if I get some use out of it I will then probably get people to give me money towards a new mirrorless for my big birthday in a few months.

Good first step. Going forward I have 2 pieces of advice should you proceed.

1. Ignore body specs (all are more than adequate), buy the body with ergonomics that suit you.
2. Spend more on lenses than the body. A cheap basic body can take award winning photos.

Wheelspinner

Those do quite well, good sensor. I had an A77 Mk II for a while, really liked it. Had both those lenses you’ve got, found the 75-300 a bit soft focus everywhere but likely just my copy of it. The kit lens is not bad though!

If you’re going mirrorless later, you can adapt the A mount lenses to Sony E mount bodies, but makes them a bulky thing, misses the point.

Pross

pblakeney said:

Pross said:

Just treated myself to a Sony DSLR off eBay, if I get some use out of it I will then probably get people to give me money towards a new mirrorless for my big birthday in a few months.

Good first step. Going forward I have 2 pieces of advice should you proceed.

1. Ignore body specs (all are more than adequate), buy the body with ergonomics that suit you.
2. Spend more on lenses than the body. A cheap basic body can take award winning photos.

Will keep an eye out for higher quality lenses, seeing one at £10 seemed worth it to increase the zoom facility but doubt I'll use it much to be honest. I found choosing a camera made my head explode, lenses really confuse me as there are just so many options that look very similar at first glance.

briantrumpet

Pross said:

pblakeney said:

Pross said:

Just treated myself to a Sony DSLR off eBay, if I get some use out of it I will then probably get people to give me money towards a new mirrorless for my big birthday in a few months.

Good first step. Going forward I have 2 pieces of advice should you proceed.

1. Ignore body specs (all are more than adequate), buy the body with ergonomics that suit you.
2. Spend more on lenses than the body. A cheap basic body can take award winning photos.

Will keep an eye out for higher quality lenses, seeing one at £10 seemed worth it to increase the zoom facility but doubt I'll use it much to be honest. I found choosing a camera made my head explode, lenses really confuse me as there are just so many options that look very similar at first glance.

Will look forward to seeing the results!

pblakeney

Pross said:

pblakeney said:

Pross said:

Just treated myself to a Sony DSLR off eBay, if I get some use out of it I will then probably get people to give me money towards a new mirrorless for my big birthday in a few months.

Good first step. Going forward I have 2 pieces of advice should you proceed.

1. Ignore body specs (all are more than adequate), buy the body with ergonomics that suit you.
2. Spend more on lenses than the body. A cheap basic body can take award winning photos.

Will keep an eye out for higher quality lenses, seeing one at £10 seemed worth it to increase the zoom facility but doubt I'll use it much to be honest. I found choosing a camera made my head explode, lenses really confuse me as there are just so many options that look very similar at first glance.

You may be surprised. I use my 70-300 much more than I thought I would.
Quite happy to help re lenses but that is for another day.

masjer

Pross said:

pblakeney said:

Pross said:

Just treated myself to a Sony DSLR off eBay, if I get some use out of it I will then probably get people to give me money towards a new mirrorless for my big birthday in a few months.

Good first step. Going forward I have 2 pieces of advice should you proceed.

1. Ignore body specs (all are more than adequate), buy the body with ergonomics that suit you.
2. Spend more on lenses than the body. A cheap basic body can take award winning photos.

Will keep an eye out for higher quality lenses, seeing one at £10 seemed worth it to increase the zoom facility but doubt I'll use it much to be honest. I found choosing a camera made my head explode, lenses really confuse me as there are just so many options that look very similar at first glance.

If you are unfamiliar with the camera settings and don't want your head to further explode, I'd set it to auto and get used to it before fiddling too much. Then move on to P-mode, then worry about aperture / shutter speeds.
There will be loads of functions you'll never use too.

pblakeney

masjer said:

Pross said:

pblakeney said:

Pross said:

Just treated myself to a Sony DSLR off eBay, if I get some use out of it I will then probably get people to give me money towards a new mirrorless for my big birthday in a few months.

Good first step. Going forward I have 2 pieces of advice should you proceed.

1. Ignore body specs (all are more than adequate), buy the body with ergonomics that suit you.
2. Spend more on lenses than the body. A cheap basic body can take award winning photos.

Will keep an eye out for higher quality lenses, seeing one at £10 seemed worth it to increase the zoom facility but doubt I'll use it much to be honest. I found choosing a camera made my head explode, lenses really confuse me as there are just so many options that look very similar at first glance.

If you are unfamiliar with the camera settings and don't want your head to further explode, I'd set it to auto and get used to it before fiddling too much. Then move on to P-mode, then worry about aperture / shutter speeds.
There will be loads of functions you'll never use too.

An alternative view, and it's only an opinion.
If you are going to stick to Auto or P-mode then there is no point in getting a DSLR.

masjer

pblakeney said:

masjer said:

Pross said:

pblakeney said:

Pross said:

Just treated myself to a Sony DSLR off eBay, if I get some use out of it I will then probably get people to give me money towards a new mirrorless for my big birthday in a few months.

Good first step. Going forward I have 2 pieces of advice should you proceed.

1. Ignore body specs (all are more than adequate), buy the body with ergonomics that suit you.
2. Spend more on lenses than the body. A cheap basic body can take award winning photos.

Will keep an eye out for higher quality lenses, seeing one at £10 seemed worth it to increase the zoom facility but doubt I'll use it much to be honest. I found choosing a camera made my head explode, lenses really confuse me as there are just so many options that look very similar at first glance.

If you are unfamiliar with the camera settings and don't want your head to further explode, I'd set it to auto and get used to it before fiddling too much. Then move on to P-mode, then worry about aperture / shutter speeds.
There will be loads of functions you'll never use too.

An alternative view, and it's only an opinion.
If you are going to stick to Auto or P-mode then there is no point in getting a DSLR.

Useful to get used to the camera, plus as you shoot you can see how the camera is setting the aperture/shutter etc. I use auto on my compact at least half of the time.

TheBigBean

pblakeney said:

masjer said:

Pross said:

pblakeney said:

Pross said:

Just treated myself to a Sony DSLR off eBay, if I get some use out of it I will then probably get people to give me money towards a new mirrorless for my big birthday in a few months.

Good first step. Going forward I have 2 pieces of advice should you proceed.

1. Ignore body specs (all are more than adequate), buy the body with ergonomics that suit you.
2. Spend more on lenses than the body. A cheap basic body can take award winning photos.

Will keep an eye out for higher quality lenses, seeing one at £10 seemed worth it to increase the zoom facility but doubt I'll use it much to be honest. I found choosing a camera made my head explode, lenses really confuse me as there are just so many options that look very similar at first glance.

If you are unfamiliar with the camera settings and don't want your head to further explode, I'd set it to auto and get used to it before fiddling too much. Then move on to P-mode, then worry about aperture / shutter speeds.
There will be loads of functions you'll never use too.

An alternative view, and it's only an opinion.
If you are going to stick to Auto or P-mode then there is no point in getting a DSLR.

Takes better pictures.

pblakeney

TheBigBean said:

pblakeney said:

masjer said:

Pross said:

pblakeney said:

Pross said:

Just treated myself to a Sony DSLR off eBay, if I get some use out of it I will then probably get people to give me money towards a new mirrorless for my big birthday in a few months.

Good first step. Going forward I have 2 pieces of advice should you proceed.

1. Ignore body specs (all are more than adequate), buy the body with ergonomics that suit you.
2. Spend more on lenses than the body. A cheap basic body can take award winning photos.

Will keep an eye out for higher quality lenses, seeing one at £10 seemed worth it to increase the zoom facility but doubt I'll use it much to be honest. I found choosing a camera made my head explode, lenses really confuse me as there are just so many options that look very similar at first glance.

If you are unfamiliar with the camera settings and don't want your head to further explode, I'd set it to auto and get used to it before fiddling too much. Then move on to P-mode, then worry about aperture / shutter speeds.
There will be loads of functions you'll never use too.

An alternative view, and it's only an opinion.
If you are going to stick to Auto or P-mode then there is no point in getting a DSLR.

Takes better pictures.

Yeahbut so will a compact on auto if that's the results you are looking for.
The compact will also be smaller, lighter, and still have override features.

TheBigBean

pblakeney said:

TheBigBean said:

pblakeney said:

masjer said:

Pross said:

pblakeney said:

Pross said:

Just treated myself to a Sony DSLR off eBay, if I get some use out of it I will then probably get people to give me money towards a new mirrorless for my big birthday in a few months.

Good first step. Going forward I have 2 pieces of advice should you proceed.

1. Ignore body specs (all are more than adequate), buy the body with ergonomics that suit you.
2. Spend more on lenses than the body. A cheap basic body can take award winning photos.

Will keep an eye out for higher quality lenses, seeing one at £10 seemed worth it to increase the zoom facility but doubt I'll use it much to be honest. I found choosing a camera made my head explode, lenses really confuse me as there are just so many options that look very similar at first glance.

If you are unfamiliar with the camera settings and don't want your head to further explode, I'd set it to auto and get used to it before fiddling too much. Then move on to P-mode, then worry about aperture / shutter speeds.
There will be loads of functions you'll never use too.

An alternative view, and it's only an opinion.
If you are going to stick to Auto or P-mode then there is no point in getting a DSLR.

Takes better pictures.

Yeahbut so will a compact on auto if that's the results you are looking for.
The compact will also be smaller, lighter, and still have override features.

The reason I hardly use my DSLR is that it is big and heavy and I have no time, but it takes much better pictures than anything else I have. I know technology in more compact cameras has improved, but I'd be surprised if the quality is the same. For example, the difference in a portrait between a lens at f/1.8 and f/3.5 is fairly glaring even to the highly unskilled like me.

pblakeney

Here's an experiment as it's a slow day at work.
I had to go to manual to get the effect that I was after, right or wrong, due to low light.

Lesson learned. My 28mm actually takes closer shots than my 50mm or 85mm due to focal distance restrictions. And shooting manual focus gets closer than auto-focus.

A brief reason for the simple shot. I once read on a forum that a uni student would get a text at random hours from his tutor to take a shot within 5 minutes and 10 feet from his current location. The mentor wasn't looking for excellence, it was just a way to force the student to get creative.

pblakeney

TheBigBean said:

pblakeney said:

TheBigBean said:

pblakeney said:

masjer said:

Pross said:

pblakeney said:

Pross said:

Just treated myself to a Sony DSLR off eBay, if I get some use out of it I will then probably get people to give me money towards a new mirrorless for my big birthday in a few months.

Good first step. Going forward I have 2 pieces of advice should you proceed.

1. Ignore body specs (all are more than adequate), buy the body with ergonomics that suit you.
2. Spend more on lenses than the body. A cheap basic body can take award winning photos.

Will keep an eye out for higher quality lenses, seeing one at £10 seemed worth it to increase the zoom facility but doubt I'll use it much to be honest. I found choosing a camera made my head explode, lenses really confuse me as there are just so many options that look very similar at first glance.

If you are unfamiliar with the camera settings and don't want your head to further explode, I'd set it to auto and get used to it before fiddling too much. Then move on to P-mode, then worry about aperture / shutter speeds.
There will be loads of functions you'll never use too.

An alternative view, and it's only an opinion.
If you are going to stick to Auto or P-mode then there is no point in getting a DSLR.

Takes better pictures.

Yeahbut so will a compact on auto if that's the results you are looking for.
The compact will also be smaller, lighter, and still have override features.

The reason I hardly use my DSLR is that it is big and heavy and I have no time, but it takes much better pictures than anything else I have. I know technology in more compact cameras has improved, but I'd be surprised if the quality is the same. For example, the difference in a portrait between a lens at f/1.8 and f/3.5 is fairly glaring even to the highly unskilled like me.

I agree, and that's why I sold my compact. I either use my phone for convenience or my DSLR. The DSLR takes more effort but it's worth it. IMO.
A compact is a compromise between the two which is neither as convenient as a phone (which I'll have anyway) or as good as the DSLR.
Thing is that you can get 1.8 compacts and most people won't notice the difference when looked at on a phone. Which is how most people seem to view photos these days, and that in itself is sad.

briantrumpet

pblakeney said:

masjer said:

Pross said:

pblakeney said:

Pross said:

Just treated myself to a Sony DSLR off eBay, if I get some use out of it I will then probably get people to give me money towards a new mirrorless for my big birthday in a few months.

Good first step. Going forward I have 2 pieces of advice should you proceed.

1. Ignore body specs (all are more than adequate), buy the body with ergonomics that suit you.
2. Spend more on lenses than the body. A cheap basic body can take award winning photos.

Will keep an eye out for higher quality lenses, seeing one at £10 seemed worth it to increase the zoom facility but doubt I'll use it much to be honest. I found choosing a camera made my head explode, lenses really confuse me as there are just so many options that look very similar at first glance.

If you are unfamiliar with the camera settings and don't want your head to further explode, I'd set it to auto and get used to it before fiddling too much. Then move on to P-mode, then worry about aperture / shutter speeds.
There will be loads of functions you'll never use too.

An alternative view, and it's only an opinion.
If you are going to stick to Auto or P-mode then there is no point in getting a DSLR.

That's where I'm at. I go for cheap phone + decent compact (total about £350) = less than upgrading to an expensive phone, the photos are better, and I've got 30x optical zoom with fantastic image stabilisation.

Pross

masjer said:

Pross said:

pblakeney said:

Pross said:

Just treated myself to a Sony DSLR off eBay, if I get some use out of it I will then probably get people to give me money towards a new mirrorless for my big birthday in a few months.

Good first step. Going forward I have 2 pieces of advice should you proceed.

1. Ignore body specs (all are more than adequate), buy the body with ergonomics that suit you.
2. Spend more on lenses than the body. A cheap basic body can take award winning photos.

Will keep an eye out for higher quality lenses, seeing one at £10 seemed worth it to increase the zoom facility but doubt I'll use it much to be honest. I found choosing a camera made my head explode, lenses really confuse me as there are just so many options that look very similar at first glance.

If you are unfamiliar with the camera settings and don't want your head to further explode, I'd set it to auto and get used to it before fiddling too much. Then move on to P-mode, then worry about aperture / shutter speeds.
There will be loads of functions you'll never use too.

Nah, that's the stuff I've been reading up on and why I've bought the DSLR. I've been experimenting with the manual settings, limited as they are, on my phone camera. I'm expecting lots of failures but will be fun trying. I'm also going to pick up a few basic filters

masjer

Evening sea mist

Pross

Playing about with the phone settings with the solar lights and flowers in the garden tonight.

Pross

That's the worst compression I've seen on the forum yet. The original, viewed on the same phone screen, is way brighter and more colourful.

pblakeney

Today's "I'm bored at work" shot.
Who knew a 28mm 1.8 could be so good for macro?

Ben6899

<

pblakeney said:

Today's "I'm bored at work" shot.
Who knew a 28mm 1.8 could be so good for macro?

I like the photo and also the concept for something we can do every day on here: "shoot something within 10m, or in the same room"

briantrumpet

Pross said:

That's the worst compression I've seen on the forum yet. The original, viewed on the same phone screen, is way brighter and more colourful.

Just forget about uploading the photos to BR. Waste of time. I use Wordpress blogs (you can have an unlimited number of them, each with 3Gb of storage, for free) for stuff like this.

Here's FOTD (fern of the day)... not enough contrast to black out the background, but nice luminance nonetheless.

pblakeney

Interestingly, when I open your shot and view them side by side* they look very similar. Just this specific example?

*Scaled to the same size on a calibrated screen.

Ben6899

3m away from where I'm sat working today...

Ben6899

Pross

Last night's photo direct from my Flickr link

Ben6899

Pross said:

Last night's photo direct from my Flickr link

That's better. You'll need that Flickr account to properly show off your DSLR photos.

Take time setting everything up with your new camera, so it's shooting at maximum settings and in RAW. And also start right out with Manual exposure - that way you'll learn very quickly exactly what your camera is doing and how you can manipulate it.

Pross

Camera has arrived, just waiting on a new memory card but intend playing about with it after work and might go out to try to get some sunset shots if conditions are favourable.

Pross

Quick test snap

Pross

Ben6899 said:

3m away from where I'm sat working today...

Your company might want to update their IT equipment, that makes even my setup look modern!