Hat

I bought a Canon Powershot A620 the other day and it arrived by courier today Fairly lower middle range, but it seems like a pretty good deal for the price (AU$539 incl. postage). I've been looking at the photos in this forum for a while, there are a lot of talented people on here! Anyway, this is the first camera I've ever owned, so if anyone has any very basic tips I'd appreciate them. Here are a couple of my first few photos...rather cliched subjects, but I don't have much else around my house -

1. my cat (note the poor use of focus and lighting)



2. close shot of some flowers out back because there's nothing interesting around here to take a photo of ffs!



Anyway, I look forward to (hopefully) contributing something more worthwhile in the future.

shakran

The second pic is nice.

Don't be too hard on yourself with focus issues. You are, after all, using a camera that you cannot focus, and which has you not looking through the lens (so you don't see what the lens sees as far as focus) You'll just have to experiment with the camera to figure out what it can and cannot do.

serlindsipity

you did well for the price. you can produce some good sized pictures with 7.1 mpx.

go forth and provide us with what you see! Good luck!

__________________
My third eye is my camera's lens.

Konichiwaneko

Basic tip one : Never stop taking pictures, even if people make snide comments about you taking so many pictures.

Basic tip two : be considerate when you take pictures though, I shouldn't have to explain when that camera should be out or not. Oh and do do do avoid doing something that will give other photographers grief in the long run

Basic tip three : Compisition is consistent, no matter the quality and the make of the camera. Understand that first, and you will be a happier photographer.

Basic tip four : avoid taking snap shots of people if the sun is behind you, it's not that you can't see them or they can't see you...but more then likely they will have a silly squinting "I look like Renee Zellwieger and just sucked a lemon" face.

Basic tip five : Keep extra batteries on you at all time. Digital is fun, digital is convenient, digital sucks battery power compared to film camera like a 15 year old high school girl who promised to keep her virginity til she gets married.

Basic tip six : Learn to organize digital files quick. I would suggest avoiding an album program unless you really like one. I personally sort the files myself, and have a naming convention similiar to "month/event name - date". Reason being is if you go 10 years shooting digital, more then likely you will not use the same program for 10 years to manage it, so if you keep it on a basic level then you are pretty much future proofing.

Basic tip seven : Pro photographers do not have a 100% success rate. You've heard of it before, and it's true. In the times of yore, when photographers carried broad swords and fought scurvy...they would go through 10~100 rolls of film for... 1 shot!. Talk about walking 6 miles uphill both ways for a sharp shot of a bird. Knowing that, make sure you look at your pictures and figure out what you like about them and just keep on shooting.

basic tip eight : Respect peoples rights, mostly ladies. Sometimes a camera is the key to removing girls clothing (and it gets easier the more expensive and bulkier your camera is) but by all means even if you get a super hot naked shot of your lady friend do not post it up on the internet without either a) her permission or b) a valid reason too. Valid reasons being posting on a forum for criticism of a non racy shot of her. Repeat...non racy which means yeah it can be implied nudity, but more then likely get her permission first. Same thing with dudes, but I think a majority of them if they pose naked or topless with you don't have problems with their schlong on a million screens from here to Tokyo.

basic tip nine : Your camera is a tool, you are the artist, and it does not own you. This is the last tip but a valid one. You bought the camera to use. I've seen plenty of instances where people would buy technology only to leave it on the shelf, or even worse get scared they will break it. Break it if you have too. Use the camera to take amazing photos of canyons, riots, and fires. Those are the pictures we live for, memories defined.

__________________

Hat

Wow, thanks a lot for taking the time to write that up, konichiwaneko. Sounds like some very good advice. And yes, I've been thinking about how the camera could possibly open up more possibilities with the ladies.

Thanks!

Sort of...it does have a manual focus, but I'm a ways off fiddling around with that.


Oh I will...I just need to buy a decent sized memory card and a battery recharger...man, technology's a money sink.

serlindsipity

Get an extra battery too, youll thank yourself later. and yea, memory will always be a pain in the ass, but the more the better i say! get at least a half gig. theyre cheap and that will suffice for 100 pics or so

__________________
My third eye is my camera's lens.

shakran

I'll second that one. Keep a spare memory card on you as well. It really sucks to be out in the field, see that great shot, and realize your only capture card is full. And if you don't already have one, invest in a CD burner. Do NOT trust your pics to a hard drive - you'll regret that eventually.

Konichiwaneko hit the nail on the head with this one. If you want evidence of that, listen to the next press conference from the whitehouse. You'll hear shutters going off like machine guns, then you'll see one picture of it (maybe) in the paper the next day. It's the same on my side of the photography fence. I'll shoot 10-20 minutes of video sometimes and wind up with just over a minutes worth on the air.



And here's some advice of my own: Remember that pictures should tell a story. This is why everyone looks at the posed photos where everyone says "cheese" and doesn't like them as well as candid photos where we see people doing something. People like stories. When you're shooting people, shoot them candidly. Don't tell them to do things. Shoot them doing whatever they'd be doing if you weren't there, and use your photos to tell whoever's looking at them the story of what's happening. If you go to shoot an event, take a few pics of the event, then turn around to the crowd watching and tell the story - the story is in their reactions. You can have a pic that's perfectly composed with beautiful lighting and that's in perfect focus of some dude saying "cheese" for the camera, and it won't be nearly as good as the pic that's got crap composition, inadequate lighting, and is slightly blurry, if that second pic shows someone genuinely reacting to something that is happening. As long as you keep asking yourself while shooting "what story am I telling here" your pics will be better. And BTW that doesn't mean you can't shoot stuff like those flowers you posted - that also tells a story - namely, it's spring/summer and the flowers are blooming.

denim

I like the second picture a lot. There are a few things to notice there for you to think about. See how everything closest to you and centered is in focus, and the rest is quickly out of focus? That has to do with a lens attribute called "depth of field". It refers to how much will be in focus beyond what you're focusing on. You can use this to emphasize part of the image by making sure unimportant bits are out of focus.

I don't know how much control that particular camera lets you have, though. Generally, the closer you are to something, the shallower your depth of field is going to be. You can fix this by adding more light, if possible. Or you can make it worse by removing light. Details about aperatures (f-stops) on request.

I agree that candid shots are better. It makes it hard to take pictures of small children, 'cause they can get to a point where they see a camera, stop what they're doing, and pay attention to the camera.

shakran

Not necessarilly unimportant - in fact in some of my shooting I'll focus on, say, a plant while my subject is out of focus. In the right situation, that too can tell a story. But the great thing that good use of depth of field does is to emphasize 3 dimensions. Whether you're shooting still or video, your image will be on a 2-dimensional surface. The whole thing is gonna be the same distance from your eye, so a big clue to your eyes that there is depth in the scene is now gone. But if you have something sharply in focus and something else sharply out of focus, it really emphasizes that 3D depth.



Yup, if you think the still camera's bad, try going in with a huge 35 pound betacam Several tricks you can use to get away from this - let the kids see the camera for awhile, they'll learn about it, then lose interest, or just be there for a long time and they'll eventually lose interest in you, assuming there's something interesting to pay attention to instead. As a last resort tell 'em "if you wanna be (on tv/in pictures) you have to pretend I'm not here) - - but that's a very last resort since you then have to sit through 10-15 minutes of the kids poking each other and telling each other to ignore the guy with the camera

It's a LOT easier, though with a still camera, and even easier with this kind of still camera. It looks like a regular little camera, the kids might be interested in you for awhile because you're a stranger, but eventually they'll lose interest. It's when you come in with the aforementioned giant video camera or the professional still cam from the newspaper (doesn't help when the supervising adult tells everyone you're from the media) that the kids start getting obnoxious about it.

denim

That's something I find annoying, myself. I come in with an SLR of some sort, and everyone asks if I'm from the newspaper. :/ Makes me think that maybe I should contact the newspaper and find out who I should contact if I come up with something good, and what their rates are.