Hello from Texas!

[Coach]

I found this forum/website through a friend, I like what I see so far! Great information and helpful site. I've also seen some great photos and wanted to add a few of my own.

Granted, I'm really brand new to photography and we just got a Canon 50D with a 28-135mm lens. It's taking some great pics, but some of them just seem off to me. I'm still learning how to get it to take better pics without jacking with the camera too much, LOL!

This first one was taken with full auto on "night" setting. I've seen some beautiful night time pics here and I want to take some like those, hehe.



This second one is of a spider that had caught a moth in its web...I took at least 15 photos before I got this one, but it's still off a bit.



While I was taking that picture, I glanced over and saw this praying mantis chomping on some bug, so I snapped that.



Finally, here's my little dog, everone takes pet pics, right?



So, now to read and learn more. Anyone suggest a good book to read? Magazine? Techniques, etc?

[Camellia]

Hello Jerry. I'm pretty new here too. There are some really knowledgeable and helpful people here. Don't be afraid to ask for advice because you will get honest and kind responses. I'm still feeling my way but it seems to me that this forum is almost like personal lessons.

I like your praying mantis. I'm waiting to find one in the yard! It looks to me that the white balance isn't quite right on your doggie. Have a look at the white balance settings on your camera - they are very useful. Play with them while you are learning your new camera. I was using auto white balance up until recently and adjusting afterwards. I'm now setting the white balance to the appropriate conditions and then tweaking on the computer if needed. There is lots to learn but it's fun, especially with the friendly experts here.

Enjoy yourself here!

I forgot: Scott Kelby's books are really good.

[Shadowman]

Jerry,

Welcome to the group, nice selection of photos. The insect photos are very good, nice DOF on these and the chihauhau. I see more focus on the dog's left eye and it's probably due to the angle of it's head.Both ears seem to be in focus and this can lead the eye to that section of the photograph as opposed to others, as the dog dish is out of focus.

The moon shot looks good, there is a series of moon shots from members within the forum.

The tutorials are a good place to start reading and you will find many suggestions for books as you read through the forum.

[Coach]

Jerry,

Welcome to the group, nice selection of photos. The insect photos are very good, nice DOF on these and the chihauhau. I see more focus on the dog's left eye and it's probably due to the angle of it's head.Both ears seem to be in focus and this can lead the eye to that section of the photograph as opposed to others, as the dog dish is out of focus.

The moon shot looks good, there is a series of moon shots from members within the forum.

The tutorials are a good place to start reading and you will find many suggestions for books as you read through the forum.

Yes, I started reading some of these...I think I'll go take a few college courses so I can get up to speed.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Jerry,

You've already had a couple of good replies from Raylee and John.

Looking at the EXIF for a couple of the pics (last two), you did well with the chihauhau picture at 0.2 seconds, but I am surprised the Auto WB didn't get it better than this - unless there was some scene mode that was over-riding the Auto.

If the feeder in the background is anything to go by, I think you may also have a bigger dog or cats too

I think you'll need some Post Processing software as PP is the 'other half' of the digital photography equation and Microsoft's Picture Viewer is going to be too limiting for some of the things people will suggest. I'd recommend PS Elements as a starter package - sure, there are alternatives (some free), but you'll get far more support by going popular/prolific over one of the less well known alternatives.

Update: You should also really downsize the images before posting - when I saved this to my HDD to tweak the WB, I was amazed to find it was fullsize.
I have taken an Auto WB off what I assumed was a white box in the background (looks more natural) and downsized to 700px and sharpened before reposting



and here's one our family has

Hmm, mine is a bit too contrasty - that was taken over a year ago, I could PP it better now, if only I had the time

Welcome to the CiC forums from ...

[Steaphany]

Hi Jerry, I'm another here from rural Texas, though I'm a bit North of you.

Do check out the tutorials on the CiC site. A lot of work goes into each and many discussions regarding content and scope. You'll find they are very helpful