Ok, I have been getting a LOT of questions about digital photography over the past few months. So I decided I will take the info that I have posted on all the various threads. I will probably add to this once we start getting more questions and whatnot or as I think of more stuff to add.

So here we go:

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MY EQUIPMENT
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First I will start out with my setup since people have been asking about that:

Cameras: Nikon D80 Digital SLR, Nikon 35mm Film SLR Camera
Video Camera: Canon XL1s
Lenses:
1. Sigma 28-70mm f/2.8
2. Sigma 70-300mm f/4
3 Nikon 60mm f/2.8 Macro
4. Nikon 28-90mm f/2.8 (Came with the film camera. I don't use it much)
Tri-Pod: Bogen / Manfrotto 190XDB Tripod Legs with 3265 Ballhead (Quick Release)
Misc: Light Meter, Camera Backpack, and a bunch of other little odds and ends.
Software: Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom all running on a 17inch MAC Book Pro, yes i said MAC because it is better then a PC.

Ok, here is a picture of all my still and video gear:



Sorry about the quality. It was off my camera phone since my camera is in the pictures. HAHA

SO now on to everything else:

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CAMERA BODY'S
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When looking for a camera body or any camera for that matter there are a couple things you should remember and ask yourself BEFORE you buy the camera. You don't want to buy the camera and then end up not liking it and wanting something different. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

1. What will you be taking pictures of?
Depending on what you will be photographing there are different types of cameras for different things. If you are going to be just taking pictures for your myspace and other random things then a nice P&S, Point and Shoot, camera will do just fine for you. If you are going to taking pictures of landscapes and what not and are planning on printing them at decent sizes a nice entry level DSLR, Digital SLR, or if you really want to be technical it's a Digital Single Lens Reflex, will do well for you. Then the next step up are the semi-professional DSLR cameras. This is where my camera falls. It has almost all the options as a full blown professional DSLR camera but it does not come with the price tag. Buy one of these if you are planning on getting into professional photography but don't have the money to shell out for a professional DSLR camera. These cameras start around $2000 for just the body w/out any lenses.
2. What will the pictures be used for?
This kind of goes along with the first question. However if you are planning on just posting pictures on-line you don't need a camera that has a huge MegaPixel count, unless you are going to be displaying the full size pictures. For those of you who don't actually know what a MegaPixel is it is the number of dots of color in a picture. The same thing as your computer monitor. Here is how it's calculated: If I have a picture that is 1500 pixels by 1000 pixels that would mean it has 1,500,000 total pixels in the picture, 1500x1000=1500000. This would be said to be a 1.5MegaPixel camera. The higher the resolution the more clear the picture is. If you are going to be printing most of your pictures then you will want a higher MegaPixel camera.
3. Are you planning on getting more into photography or is it just a thing for you to do?
This is an easy one to answer. If you are just wanting a camera to play around with and it's not going to turn into something more that just a little hobby you DON'T want to go out and spend 1K on a camera, unless you have a butt load of money to spend then by all means go ahead and do it. If however it could turn into something more then you might want to look into getting a decent entry level DSLR. Once again, answer the questions above and see where you fit in.
4. Do you already have a preference on a manufacturer?
The reason I ask this is because if you have previously used a digital camera from a certain manufacturer then you might want to stay with them. Most manufactures will use the same menu systems throughout all of their digital cameras with just little tweaks here and there. However if you have not played with any other cameras...See below...
5. PLAY AROUND WITH THE CAMERA BEFORE YOU BUY IT!!!! I can't stress this one enough!
Never buy a camera that you have not actually used. Even if you just go to your local Best Buy or any other electronics store that carries the camera you are looking at buying and just pick it up and play with it for a while. There are many different factors about buying a camera other than the features it has. How well does it fit your hand? If you are going to buying a camera to USE then you want a camera that fits your hand well and feels comfortable and isn't going to cramp your hand up after 10 min of shooting. Another thing. Go through all the different menus on the camera. See if it has the features you want. Even if you are not planning on buying at the store you are looking at it at it's still a good idea to go down and play around with it and then buy it somewhere else, like online. Oh and a Side note about buying online... if you get one online MAKE SURE it's a reputable company... or you could end up with a grey market camera. These cameras are the exact same expect they will NOT be warranted in the US. They will be from China or India or someplace like that.
6. What do all the little symbols mean on top of the camera? See pic:

Please note that this dial WILL look different depending on the camera you have.
I am not going to go into all of them. Just some of them.
The first one and the ONLY one that I use is the "M" setting. The "M" is for Manual. This means that you, the camera operator, are the one who controls ALL the different aspects of the camera. Everything from shutter speed, F/Stop (AKA Aperture), to the ISO. This is the best way to shoot because you can get the exact look you want. However, it is also the most confusing to use because you need to remember what each thing does and how it will affect your picture.

As for the "P" and "A" you should also have an "S". Those stand for the different priority to shutter speed ("S") or Aperture ("A") or a combination of both ("P").

Here are examples of when you would want to use them:

1. Say you want to take pictures of someone running and you want to freeze the picture of him so there is no motion blur. To do this you will want to set the dial to "S" and then you can choose a faster shutter speed, anything about around 1/50 or so should be ok depending on the lighting conditions. WHen you do this the camera will automatically adjust the aperture to give you the correct exposure.

2. If you want to take DOF pictures then you will want to set the dial to "A" so you can choose your f-stop number. Just remember the higher the number the more DOF there is and the lower the number the less DOF there is. Also watch out for your shutter speed. If you set your aperture to a high number your shutter will slow itself down to still give you a correct exposure. If the shutter speed gets anywhere under 1/10th of a sec you will need a tri-pod or else you will get blurry pictures due to camera shake.

3. The "P" mode is a setting that will automatically set both your shutter and aperture to the correct exposure based off of what you are shooting. It will however let you control your whitebalance and a few other little things. I don't use this mode ever... actually I don't use any mode other than Manual on my camera.

The best thing for you to do is use your camera's manual (instruction book) that came with the camera. That will give you all the information about all the different settings/options your camera has. Or just PM me and I can try and help you out.


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LENSES
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As for the lenses then make a big difference depending on what lens you have and what your are shooting. Here is what I have:

1. Sigma 28-70mm f2.8
2. Sigma 70-300mm f4
3 Nikon 60mm f2.8 Macro

Here is what all that means:

Sigma and Nikon are the brands. The nikon lens is much nicer than the sigma lenses because they have better glass in them and are just overall built better.
The XXmm numbers are the zoom. Once you get to SLR you don't really have a "10x" optical zoom or anything like that anymore. It's all measured in mm. The mm is the "Focal Length" of the lens. This is basically how far the lens is from the sensor. The Bigger the number the farther away the lens is which will result in a closer looking object. The smaller the number the farther the object is. The f number is the aperture of the lens or how much light the lens lets in. This is kind of confusing to understand because it's all backwards on how stuff works. LOL. The smaller the number the wider the lens opening is and will let more light in. The larger the number the smaller the opening is and the less light is let in. You can use this along with your shutter speed to get different exposures when taking pictures. You also use this to change the DOF or Depth Of Field when taking pictures. The more DOF you have the more things will be in focus in your picture. The less DOF the less things you have in focus in a picture. Here are some examples:

DOF: Depth of Field - This is how much of the frame is in focus verses out of focus.


This picture was shot at a low f-stop number which gives me less DOF as you can see by the out of focus objects in the foreground and background. A general rule of thumb is if you want less DOF use a lower f-stop number. To get more DOF use a higher f-stop number.


This picture shows a huge DOF. As you can see the car is in focus along with the hill in the background. This was shot at a higher f-stop number.


Here is an example of the zoom capabilities of the 70-300mm lens. I was standing around 30 feet away from this when I took the picture.

if you want a picture with your subject in focus but the background all blurry then yes you want to use a lower f/stop number (f/2.8). If you want everything in focus then use a higher f/stop number. The f/stop number is only on the lens. THere are not 2 f/stop settings. If you use the camera to change the f/stop number then it will automatically change the lens when you take a picture. Some DSLR cameras have a DOF preview button that you can push and it will show you what the picture will look like. If you have it it will be on the front of the camera by where you hook the lens in.

One other thing... A lot of P&S cameras have something called a Digital Zoom. DO NOT EVER USE THAT!!!! You know how if you are on your computer and zoom-in on a picture past 100% and it gets all blurry and pixelated? Well Digital Zoom does that except just on your camera so when you take your picture it is already going to be blurry and or pixelated depending on how your camera does it. DO NOT USE THIS!!!!!!

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EXPOSURES
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To get a correct exposure your camera is going to meter for a middle grey. This is the median between full black and full white. On your camera you will probably see a little bar with lines and numbers under it that looks like this:

|----|----|----|----|
-2 -1 0 +1 +2

This is your exposure meter. 0 is a correct exposure. If you are to the right of it up by +1 or +2 then you are getting brighter or over exposed. If you are to the left of 0 you are under exposing or getting darker. If you are shooting in "M" mode then you will use this to get the correct exposure. HOWEVER you can use the different exposures to create different effects for your pictures. Here are a few I took last weekend that show the difference between the different exposures that helped give the picture a certain look:


Under Exposed.


Correct Exposure.


Over Exposed.

Notice how each picture has it's own feel due to the exposure. Start experimenting with it and see what you can come up with. BTW you have to shoot manual to do that.

There are a couple different ways you can change your exposure.

1. Shutter Speed.
The shutter speed is what controls the amount of time the shutter is open for. The shutter is what allows light to pass through to the image sensor on the back of the camera. On a P&S camera you do not have a true shutter. It is all digitally controlled. The faster (higher shutter speed number) the less amount of light is allowed to the sensor so it will result in a darker picture while a slower shutter speed (lower number) will allow more light to pass through resulting in a brighter picture. One thing to keep in mind is that once you get below a certain number, which varies for everyone, you will start to see motion blur in your pictures.

2. F/Stop Number or Aperture (Same Thing)
This was covered already in the LENSES Section but I will go over part of it again. The Higher the F/stop number the less light is let in due to the lens closing down. While a lower F/stop number will result in a wider opening in the lens allowing more light through. Here is a picture of what I mean. Keep in mind that the F/Stop number also controls the DOF in your picture!

3. ISO (AKA Film Speed in the Film World)
Ok... Here is a question I get asked a lot as well as see a lot of people asking in general. "Why do my pictures look all grainy?" Well the simple answer is that your ISO is set too high. The ISO determines how sensitive the camera is to light. In a digital camera this is all digitally figured out and done while with a film camera the different ISO's mean how sensitive the film is to light. The lower the ISO number the less sensitive to light it is which means you will need either longer shutter speeds and or a wider aperture (lower f/stop number). The lower ISO numbers also will give you a clearer picture with less grain in it. The higher the ISO number the more sensitive to light it is which will result in a more grainy picture. I personally NEVER shoot above a ISO 400. Most of the time I shoot at ISO 100. Here are 2 different pictures shot at different ISO speeds. Notice the grain difference in each picture?


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TRIPODS
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When looking for a good tripod there are a few things you want to keep in mind; durability, weight, sturdyness and most important the head. There are a couple different head options out there. If you want one that allows you to easy change your angle and is just sweet to use get a pistol grip like mine:



Here is the kit I got: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...Legs_with.html
which looks like it is now sold out! HAHA

It's all about how you are going to be using your camera. If you are going to be consistently taking your camera on and off your tripod during a photoshoot get a tripod that is easy to carry around and a head that has a quick release plate on it so your not having to unscrew and screw your camera back on everytime (that is a HUGE Pain to do). However if your doing more studio work then thats not as big a deal.

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SOFTWARE & FILE FORMATS
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Ok, here is the deal with RAW and programs...

First the program... If I were you I would go out and buy Adobe LightRoom. That is one of the most amazing programs I have ever seen! It is designed entirely for photographers and you can edit all your settings you want with it and it's really easy to learn. Pretty much every picture I have ever posted on here has been slightly edited in Lightroom. If you want more information on it just let me know and I will go indepth with it. Oh and it manages all your pictures in a very nice library system. I hate the iPhoto library but Lightrooms is really nice and easy to manage. I am managing almost 2000 pictures that I have taken with mine and it's so easy to find what you are looking for. It's also REALLY REALLY fast. The program does not slow down at all. Which is amazing considering almost all my pictures are about 10mb a piece.

Here is a screenshot of Lightroom:



As for RAW, RAW is a format that when you take the picture you can put it on your computer and in a program that will allow you to edit RAW pictures, like Lightroom, you can go back and change ANYTHING you want about the picture W/OUT affecting the quality of the picture. Think of it as a complete reshoot of the picture w/out actually retaking the picture. You can go in and change exposure, fill light, blacks, saturation, tone curves, and SO much more. Once you shoot RAW you won't want to shoot anything else.

BUT for those of you who do NOT have a camera that will shoot RAW you will want to shoot the highest quality JPG that you can to give you the best looking picture.

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CONCLUSION
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Ok, WOW that was a lot... Hopefully there is stuff in there that you can use and that answers some questions that you may have. This will be updated periodically if new questions arise. If you have any suggestions for this please PM me with one or post it here.

NOW GO OUT AND SHOOT!!!!

Josh

 

This is great stuff Josh, thanks for putting in the time to do this. I like taking DOF pics but my current camera doesn't do quite a good job at it (or maybe it's me). I'm still a little confuse about what lense touse for DOF. So if I take a pic of an object and blur out the background, I will need to set the camer atthe lowest f-stop (my cam's lowest is 2.8) and use a lense that has low f number correct?

 

This should be stickied there is ALOT of good information in there

Thanks for the write-up Josh I think this is gonna help me quite a bit

 

Yeah if a mod/admin wants to sticky it that would be sweet.

socaljoe, if you want a picture with your subject in focus but the background all blurry then yes you want to use a lower f/stop number (f/2.8). If you want everything in focus then use a higher f/stop number. The f/stop number is only on the lens. THere are not 2 f/stop settings. If you use the camera to change the f/stop number then it will automatically change the lens when you take a picture. Some DSLR cameras have a DOF preview button that you can push and it will show you what the picture will look like. If you have it it will be on the front of the camera by where you hook the lens in.

Josh

 

Great write up. Stuck this to the top. also for any one wanting a great book on digital photography i would check out George Schaub's book "Hands-on digital photography" it has a ton of information on cameras and how they work to using photoshop and other sw programs.

 

Yeah i have heard about that book. I should get it too.

Oh and thanks for stickying this. Hopefully someone finds it useful. LOL

Josh

 

one thing, I don't believe you ever did mention what DOF stands for, you might want to add that into your original post.

(depth of field if it doesn't make it in)

 

Yup, it's in there already. Not very pronounced but it's in there. I think I will change it so it's easier to find though. Thanks for the heads up!

Josh

 

can i be ur friend Josh?[sm=wootwoot.gif]

nic3 write-up man

 

LOL, sure!

Thanks! Stupid thing took me almost 2 hours to write! HAHA

Josh