Gorgeous pictures above. Those trans am pics look really good for no editing too, very impressive. Yea, I believe canon cameras are very easy to start with and still produce quality pictures too. I wanna get my hands on a T2i next. Gotta stop droppin $ in the toys though.

 

I like my nikon D5000 as for as beginner models go. A local camera shop had it on a heck of sale about this time last year which is the main reason for getting it. I just haven't got around to using it much except on auto mode until recently. I finally decided I need to learn how to use it properly especially since having a new baby around.


What is HDR?

Any recommendations on inexpensive all purpose editing software?

Thanks

 

Photoshop and Bridge are the best softwares I have run across for editing.

HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. It basically brings out all the colors present in the photo and them some. It's close to what our eyes see, and recovers what is lost in translation between the sensor and the computer.

 

Is photoshop elements worth buying? I don't have the budget for the full version.

 

You don't have to buy anything if you know where to look.

 

Bingo, but it's not just a button you can click on the camera. There are photo programs that allow you to take a picture then "make an HDR" but a true HDR is best done using the same picture captured the different times @ 3 different ISOs preferably then layered on top of each other to create one vivid image. When overdone it can end up looking like something completely unreal..

a few more of my shots:










Gonna try to shoot some today too

 

Not 3 different ISO's, but 3 different shutter speeds. The ISO and aperture should remain constant. What should vary is the shutter speed based on the metering you have selected for your bracketed shots.

Typically, you have one normal exposure, then one underexposed and then a third overexposed. The varying exposures are usually one or two stops above and below "normal."

You then "merge" the 3 photos into one using a program. You then use the most appealing parts of each exposure to create one "perfect" exposure, or closer to how we see in dynamic range. You would use the shadows and dark spots from the overexposed image and the highlights from the underexposed image combined with normally exposed parts and then merge them.

Having a sturdy tripod is a must. Also a scene that is not changing constantly helps as well, IE:clouds moving, tress swaying in the wind, water flowing, this can also cause issues creating one photo from 3 if there are different things in each frame.

 

That is what I was thinking. I just don't have the software to do it at the time.

 

as derek said, I bought his roommates Canon 40D and I've been taking pictures here and there. I really wish I had some different/better lenses, they are wayyyyy too expensive for me right now. Here's a few pictures I've taken....

 

A loaf of bread! That's great!

 

you have to go over the river and through the woods to find that kind of bread!

 

These aren't my best but I dont have time to pick and re-upload a few of my best. If I started picking pics there would easily be 50+ worth making poster sized prints. I've been using a Canon PowerShot SX110IS with breathtaking results. It is small enough to fit in my drybox but has 40 power zoom. For $200 it cannot be beat. I've got a few picture threads here on the PHP forum and on the TMC forum. I think they were all taken with this camera.

 

^^^1st pic is a poster for sure

 

Thanks, I need to figure out where I uploaded some of my river and mountain pics. I entered a photo contest last month and it took me over a week to pick my top 4 out of 120. Any one of them I would have considered likely candidates for submission...and that was just the ones from a specific area the pictures had to be taken in. I never realized just how many pictures I took until I had to go through them. It is kinda sad I take lots of pics but never look at them, but to me it is more fun to remember the trip, location or day I took them than to actually evaluate the quality.

 

Hmm, kinda seems like whatever I upload there gets super compressed/loses quality.

Re-upped to photobucket.