Questions for Photographers (1 Viewer)

[Mr. Ected]

I am 'graduating' in the world of photography. I recently purchased a new camera because my family is going on a trip around the country this summer, and I wanted to be able to take better pictures than I could with my iPhone 5s. I didn't have a huge budget, and wanted something more than a point-and-shoot. I ended up choosing a Sony A3000, mostly because I liked the ability to use multiple lenses, and having the view finder. I figured that if I bought lenses that fit this camera (e-mount), I could upgrade to a better camera at a later date and still be able to use them.

The camera came with an 18-55 lens, and I found immediately that I needed something more to zoom, especially with taking lots of pictures of kids in school events. I think I should be OK with something like a 55-210 lens like this one (much cheaper ways to get that lens ~$200).

So, based on that, here are a couple of questions that I have for you guys. Any help is greatly appreciated!!

1) For the most part, am I decently covered with those two lenses? Do I need a wide-angle lens, or at this point will I not really notice the difference? My eyes aren't as sophisticated as some of yours!

2) What sort of filters should I get. (Leads me to next question...)

3) Recommend a Photography for Dummies kinda book.

What do you guys use to store/manage your pics? I don't take as many as someone like Pantagrapher, but I have 13k+ pics that I have taken in the last 12 years. I'm sure that I have taken more/year recently than at the beginning. I had been using iPhoto on my Mac, but was forced to 'upgrade' to Photos recently and dislike it. I do however like the ability with Apple apps to combine all of the pics from the different sources (camera, iPhone, iPad, etc.) and import them automatically when the device is connected to the computer.

I am a bit of a hoarder when it comes to data. If you take a picture and do something like clean up red eyes, do you save both? I know if you crop one, you probably want to save both, so you can have the whole pic, but I sometimes end up with bunches of seeming duplicates of photos taken ten years ago.

Any thoughts??

 

[AcerFC]

I think you will be covered fine with the lens. I have a Nikor 18-200 and I very very rarely take it off for anything else.

http://www.amazon.com/Nikon-18-200mm-3-5-5-6G-Telephoto-DX-Format/dp/B002JCSV8A

In terms of books, this is one of the most recommended.

http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Exposure-3rd-Photographs-Camera/dp/0817439390/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1430503816&sr=8-1&keywords=Understanding+exposure

However, Ill do you one better. If you are really serious about taking good pictures, or learning how to. Spend the money and take this class.

http://www.ppsop.com/unexa.aspx

The class is based off the book I just posted. Phenomenal learning experience. I have gone on to take 4-5 classes from them

 

[Mr. Ected]

I think you will be covered fine with the lens. I have a Nikor 18-200 and I very very rarely take it off for anything else.

http://www.amazon.com/Nikon-18-200mm-3-5-5-6G-Telephoto-DX-Format/dp/B002JCSV8A

In terms of books, this is one of the most recommended.

http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Exposure-3rd-Photographs-Camera/dp/0817439390/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1430503816&sr=8-1&keywords=Understanding+exposure

However, Ill do you one better. If you are really serious about taking good pictures, or learning how to. Spend the money and take this class.

http://www.ppsop.com/unexa.aspx

The class is based off the book I just posted. Phenomenal learning experience. I have gone on to take 4-5 classes from them

Thanks for responding.

So if I buy the 55-210, I will be covered, I just may need to switch every now and then If taking a close-up.

 

[AcerFC]

Yes, I get most everything I need to at 200. Im not shooting animals or anything

 

[Brony]

Lens

I think you're covered with those lenses. In the rare case you need something wider, it's not too difficult to stitch together pictures nowadays. Either use the camera's in-camera tool to do this, or take multiple at same settings and merge afterwards. If you're doing this a lot, then look into wider lenses. I'd be surprised if this need comes up a lot.

Filters

Polarizing filter will be most common to use and I'd use this anytime that your eyes like to wear sunglasses to reduce glare. Even then, it's a nice to have, not must. I have other filters but have only used when doing long exposure shots on waterfalls for example. The answer depends on what kinds of shots you do, but for most situations, the answer is no filter necessary. Some people will put a cheap lens protection filter on the end to sacrifice the filter over the expensive lens. I don't bother with this and I"m just careful with the equipment.

Storage / Organization

Lightroom is the most popular way to organize lots of pictures. I haven't tried it but heard good things. I'm cheap and I use Picasa (free) to organize and do light editing (crop, vignette, saturation). I use PS Elements for heavier editing. If there's been one regret in my photography is that I didn't always shoot at the maximum resolution since the beginning. Shooting HD video is the only time that you really need to watch the megabytes nowadays. Hard drive price and capacity move much faster than photo sizes. When in doubt, keep it. It is much more better use of my time to buy an extra HD than to spend time reorganizing old pictures even if dups.

 

[Mr. Ected]

Yes, I get most everything I need to at 200. Im not shooting animals or anything

Yeah, I showed what little I know ( ), I mistyped my response. If I need to go wider, I switch to the 18-55.

 

[Don Quixote]

I think it's useful to have a good prime lens as well. I find it good for portraits, and for low-light photography. I have this 35mm prime for my Nikon.

For zoom, you are probably okay with the 18-55 and 55-210, assuming you are okay with changing lens. I had that combo for several years, along with the prime, until very recently upgrading to a 18-300.

 

[AcerFC]

I wish I could take better pics with my 50 prime. I just find that I cant get the eyes right.

sorry, dont want to ruin the thread

 

[pantagrapher]

I don't take as many as someone like Pantagrapher

I actually don't shoot many photos. You'd be surprised! Editing before you ever shoot saves a lot of time and storage space later. Think about your shot before you pick up the camera. Don't fire away willy-nilly.

 

[pantagrapher]

I wish I could take better pics with my 50 prime. I just find that I cant get the eyes right.

sorry, dont want to ruin the thread

You using single-point focus? If you do, you should be able to set focus on the eyes, then recompose and shoot. Or you can manual focus. Also: don't overdo low-aperture. Lots of times people shoot at 1.8 a subject they should be shooting at 2.8. I find 1.8 almost useless. Eyes in focus and cheek blurry? Way too shallow. If the eyes are giving you trouble, stop down and try to have a nice catch light to really nail the focus. Of course, I say all this and I still suck at portraits. Portraits are the toughest things to get right. That's why people make good money if they can do them right.

 

[Brony]

If you're doing a cross country trip and want to get better pictures, try to get most of your pictures near sunrise or sunset time. Lighting is just better for 90% of shots at those times of day

 

[Brony]

I wish I could take better pics with my 50 prime. I just find that I cant get the eyes right.

sorry, dont want to ruin the thread

You using single-point focus? If you do, you should be able to set focus on the eyes, then recompose and shoot. Or you can manual focus. Also: don't overdo low-aperture. Lots of times people shoot at 1.8 a subject they should be shooting at 2.8. I find 1.8 almost useless. Eyes in focus and cheek blurry? Way too shallow. If the eyes are giving you trouble, stop down and try to have a nice catch light to really nail the focus. Of course, I say all this and I still suck at portraits. Portraits are the toughest things to get right. That's why people make good money if they can do them right.

Man it took me a long time to learn this. So many shots at 1.8 when my second kid was born.

 

[Mr. Ected]

I wish I could take better pics with my 50 prime. I just find that I cant get the eyes right.

sorry, dont want to ruin the thread

I don't care if this thread is just about my initial questions. Didn't think I should interrupt the POD thread with these questions.

Would love to see more questions and answers. I'd probably learn more!!

 

[Mr. Ected]

Another question. With my big trip this summer, I only have a 32g SD card in the camera and I'm not planning on taking a computer. I have a way to get the pics off the card, so I shouldn't need a larger SD card, right?

 

[Don Quixote]

I wish I could take better pics with my 50 prime. I just find that I cant get the eyes right.

sorry, dont want to ruin the thread

I don't care if this thread is just about my initial questions. Didn't think I should interrupt the POD thread with these questions.

Would love to see more questions and answers. I'd probably learn more!!

You can also check out this thread for more discussion: https://forums.footballguys.com/forum/index.php?/topic/509694-dslr-camera-guys/

 

[pantagrapher]

Another question. With my big trip this summer, I only have a 32g SD card in the camera and I'm not planning on taking a computer. I have a way to get the pics off the card, so I shouldn't need a larger SD card, right?

32 gig should be more than enough, but you can always buy an SD card on vacation.

 

[KCitons]

I wish I could take better pics with my 50 prime. I just find that I cant get the eyes right.

sorry, dont want to ruin the thread

You using single-point focus? If you do, you should be able to set focus on the eyes, then recompose and shoot. Or you can manual focus. Also: don't overdo low-aperture. Lots of times people shoot at 1.8 a subject they should be shooting at 2.8. I find 1.8 almost useless. Eyes in focus and cheek blurry? Way too shallow. If the eyes are giving you trouble, stop down and try to have a nice catch light to really nail the focus. Of course, I say all this and I still suck at portraits. Portraits are the toughest things to get right. That's why people make good money if they can do them right.

Man it took me a long time to learn this. So many shots at 1.8 when my second kid was born.

Agreed. I took my daughters graduation pictures last year with my old Nikon D60. After the first few sessions, I was convinced there was something wrong with the camera. I was never happy with the focus.

On the plus side, I convinced the wife I needed a new camera.

 

[flgator]

Best photography book I read is Understanding Exposure by Brian Peterson. Explains the triad of aperture, shutter speed, and iso to get the desired exposure and uses photos to demonstrate changing these settings.

 

[Mr. Ected]

Best photography book I read is Understanding Exposure by Brian Peterson. Explains the triad of aperture, shutter speed, and iso to get the desired exposure and uses photos to demonstrate changing these settings.

That's a second vote for that book, which makes me happy I bought it this afternoon!

 

[BoltBacker]

Another question. With my big trip this summer, I only have a 32g SD card in the camera and I'm not planning on taking a computer. I have a way to get the pics off the card, so I shouldn't need a larger SD card, right?

Imo you are better off with multiple cards instead of one high capacity card. It would be awful to have all your photos from the entire trip on a single card if there was some sort of technical malfunction. ALWAYS have an exrtra battery and memory card with you, they are both so cheap.

 

[Mr. Ected]

Another question. With my big trip this summer, I only have a 32g SD card in the camera and I'm not planning on taking a computer. I have a way to get the pics off the card, so I shouldn't need a larger SD card, right?

Imo you are better off with multiple cards instead of one high capacity card. It would be awful to have all your photos from the entire trip on a single card if there was some sort of technical malfunction. ALWAYS have an exrtra battery and memory card with you, they are both so cheap.

Good point. Easier to charge two batteries at night than figuring how to do one in the van!

 

[AcerFC]

Another question. With my big trip this summer, I only have a 32g SD card in the camera and I'm not planning on taking a computer. I have a way to get the pics off the card, so I shouldn't need a larger SD card, right?

Imo you are better off with multiple cards instead of one high capacity card. It would be awful to have all your photos from the entire trip on a single card if there was some sort of technical malfunction. ALWAYS have an exrtra battery and memory card with you, they are both so cheap.

Good point. Easier to charge two batteries at night than figuring how to do one in the van!

get this grip while you are at it. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004IRNG8E/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?qid=1430567203&sr=8-3π=AC_SY200_QL40&keywords=dslr+battery+grip+sony&dpPl=1&dpID=51MnCQHx3eL&ref=plSrch

 

[FreeBaGeL]

If you're doing a cross country trip and want to get better pictures, try to get most of your pictures near sunrise or sunset time. Lighting is just better for 90% of shots at those times of day

This is probably the best single thing that you can do to vastly improve your photos. I'm not sure if you're on your own or with a wife/family but just by the nature of family trips you end up doing all your sight-seeing in the middle of the day (terrible for photos) while the evening is for dinner/drinks and the early morning is for sleeping it off and getting the kids ready.

Took me a few years to break that routine and now it's a constant struggle of deciding whether to just relax and enjoying the trip as normal (mid-day sightseeing, bad photos) or adding a little more stress to be in the right spot at the right time but getting much better photos.

 

[Courtjester]

I just bought the Sony A6000 for my wife a month ago and we have both those lenses you referenced in your post. So far it is a pretty awesome camera. Way too many settings to even figure out. That zoom lens seems to be good for general use,, but since I bought it for my wife to go birding, I think she will need something stronger. That lens that was included works really well for general use. I honestly found the best source of info is you tube videos. I am going to have to check out that book referenced above. That grip is shown above is really cool as the Sony camera bodies tend to take a little getting used to . My next purchase for her is going to be a good photo editing program. I am looking at Sony Vegas (any other suggestions)