MikeWs Fish Posted January 20, 2006 Share Posted January 20, 2006 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ndoboi Posted January 20, 2006 Share Posted January 20, 2006 Very nice : Both photo and fish are awesome. Cheers Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timmy2422 Posted January 20, 2006 Share Posted January 20, 2006 Very nice pics/fish mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lepperfish Posted January 20, 2006 Share Posted January 20, 2006 Wow Mike, looks like that new camera is becoming a part of you! Im impressed!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cuong Posted January 20, 2006 Share Posted January 20, 2006 They're fattening up very nice. Any spawning activity witnessed so far? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simonauv Posted January 21, 2006 Share Posted January 21, 2006 Some 350D tips... I have the 300D and have been using it quite extensively for about a year now and am starting to get results that I am very happy with so far. So these tips should give you something to think about next time you want to take a peckolita pic... From your image I can tell that the photo was taken with your kit lens (18-55mm EF-S) @ f5.6 and 1/60th second@ 400ISO using photoshop CS2 as your processing software. 1/60th is the slowest speed you can safely hand hold the camera at. Do you have a tripod? The problem with f5.6 is it has a very shallow depth of field but the program mode doesn't know what effect you are trying to achieve and will choose the one that mostly closely fits the light conditions. By shallow depth of field I mean that the parts of the image that are in focus are very closely positioned a small distance either side of the point at which the image is focused. This might be fine and the result certainly is quite good. BUT peckolita and other similar type catfish don't move a hell of a lot (well they stay still long enough to experiment with different camera settings lol) which makes them suitable for longer exposure shots at up to f22. The advantage of f22 shots is that your depth of field will extend a long way in front of and behind the point of focus meaning your whole fish (in this shot) would be in focus. The shutter speed would have to be longer and you would need a tripod but the results are worth it. I never shoot in program mode anymore because I like to control certain aspects of the image to get a particular effect. I either use Av, Tv, or manual mode now. Using Av (aperature priority) you can set your f-stop to f22 (or f8 and over) and the camera will calculate the exposure time for you. Another tip is use your timer to take images if you do not have a cable release. I bought a cable release for mine but before I did the timer was used extensively. This means you aren't touching the camera when it fires minimising the shake and blurring that occurs as a result during long exposures. Doing these things you will get a properly exposed image with a large depth of field which is good for shots like this when you want to show as much of the fish in clear focus as you can. The other problem with shooting at f.5.6 is the 18-55mm lens is a very cheap (and nasty) lens that does not perform well at f5.6 which is it's smallest f-stop at 55mm. It causes fringing and softness especially around the edges. You can, however, make this lens take excellent photographs if you use smaller aperture settings (high f-stops) and this lack of uniformity in focus in all parts of the lens can to a large extent be avoided. If you can, drop your ISO down to 100 or 200 to reduce noise. If you do this the RAW settings on that camera will allow you to take images that can easily be used to produce high quality publishable images. If you can get it there is an extremely good and very well priced lens you can get for your 350D that will help you take some beautiful shots of very good quality. The lens is a 50mm prime (that just means that it's only focal length is 50mm and you can't zoom in or out but since your focal length in this image is 55mm you are at about the same distance anyway). This lens costs bugger-all (I picked mine up for $80 off Ebay) but is quite fast with aperture settings down to f1.8 which is excellent for low light situations like shooting fish where you don't want to use a flash cos it freaks the fish and causes bounce hot spots of the glass. If you want to look for it you need to look for "Canon EF 50mm f1.8 MKII". There is a MKI which is a little more expensive because it has a metal lens mount but for the price of replacing the MKII I think bugger it, if I break I'll just go buy a new one... There is also an f1.4 which is faster again but you will pay much bigger $$$$ for it. But be warned..... Once you start playing with these things you will become addicted. I started with the 300D body, 18-55mmlens and a 55-200mm lens and have since sold the 55-200mm lens, but bought a 28-90mm lens, a 50mm prime, a 90-300mm lens, two tripods, a macro slide, a reverse mount lens (breaths...) cable releases and so much other stuff I had to go out and buy a big backpack just to fit it all in and have taken more than 8000 images with it in just on 1 year!!!! And there are no bloddy fish over here to photograph... I wish I had the $$$ to buy some L-glass *dreams*. I don't have my EOS 300D at home atm as it is away being serviced, but I took a demo pic with my little point and shoot Olympus C740 UZ to show the effect of f-stop on D.O.F.: Both pics were taken with the same camera in the same place. Only thing I changed was f-stop from f2.8 to f8 - so changes to f22 would make a huge difference. This was a pretty good explanation of DOF here: http://www.azuswebworks.com/photography/dof.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeWs Fish Posted January 21, 2006 Author Share Posted January 21, 2006 Thank you Simonauv, You certainly do know your stuff I am just a novice when it comes to photography and not afraif to admit it I do have the prime lens you mentioned, due to excellent advice from Lepperfish. I was experimenting with the cheap and nasty kit lens becuase I simply hadn't used ot yet. I havent used RAW mode, but this is something I will be using in the near futtre. I think now that I have aq decent camera, I will try to use it to maximise its capabilities. I will probebly need to spend some money to get a good macro lens also. Thanks for the great tips! Cheers, M. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiger Posted January 21, 2006 Share Posted January 21, 2006 you should use spell check Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeWs Fish Posted January 21, 2006 Author Share Posted January 21, 2006 you should use spell check Mike Technically, it should be: You should use spell check, Mike. I hope you see the humour Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke Posted January 21, 2006 Share Posted January 21, 2006 Great post Simonauv you made it very easy to understand for us newbies Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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