Hi All, So after having my 1100D for about a month and a half, i finally understand the relationship between aperture, shutter speed, and iso! Its like a whole world has just opened up before me. Things are infinitely clearer to me now. A quick question: How do you decide the framing for your shots? If the basic rule is "Focus, Frame, Shoot", then how do you (personally) decide where your subject will be in the photo? Edit: Another question: Do you all follow the rule of thumb that 50mm = 1/50", 100mm = 1/100th etc? Thanks muchly, Betty
As a general rule for subject placement, the rule of thirds is a good place to start. If your subject is moving, give them room to move into the frame. Once you're happy with those, try to start breaking them in creative ways. Once you're a bit more comfortable with the Rule of Thirds, try variations like the Phi Grid or the Fibonacci Spiral.
it's like sniping in BFBC2, you can also try no scoping and saying "eat it!" after each shot sorry, can't resist, first time on this section of forums. also looking at getting into photography myself.
That's a good rule. Using a cropped sensor size body may mean that a 50mm lens actually has a more of a 75mm angle of view so you may want to up that speed accordingly. The narrower your angle of view is, the more your hand movements are magnified. For example, if I have my 200mm lens on my full-frame camera body, I know that I can shoot at around 1/160 - 1/250 and get good results. But if I put the same lens on my cropped sensor body, I may start at 1/250 and up. It also depends on what your subject is doing (movement-wise) and how steady you can hold your camera. If you can hold the camera like a statue and you avoid coffee, you could get the same shot at 1/30th. But it is a good rule to follow.
from personal experience My hand holding technique is rubbish, so I always try to keep shutter speed at 1/200, my 70-300 has OS so I can increase the required time from 1/300 - 1/450 to 1/200 as well. if I'm needing slower shutter speeds I reach for the tripod.
Thanks guys. Yeah i find anything slower than 1/125 and i'm a bit too shaky for a sharp image. whisper i had a look at your flickr and those are some amazing glass jelly shots. What background are you using? Just a plain white board?
Nope I upgraded my white background to a lastolite hilite a while back, stupidly expensive but makes a white background so much easier to achieve in a small flat like mine. its also allowed me to take it to other people houses and set up a small studio quickly and easily for portrait work. My only problem can be knocking light fixings with it, its 7 foot tall in a 7.5 foot ceiling height
Wow. Stupidly expensive doesn't quite describe that price. Thats almost as much as my 1100D body! Any cheaper alternatives for a beginner?
You could probably mod a rudimentary version. Pine timber frame would be simple, sufficient lighting could be a bit tricky but not insurmountable throw enough led's at the problem... I'm not sure what the actual back ground material is. You'd need something sufficiently translucent to allow the back ground light to pass through but opaque enough to diffuse to a solid light source.
So gloss white paint on a sheet of wood wouldn't work then? How about matt white or matt off-white paint?
Matt paint would probably work ok though you'd be into normal studio lighting setup and you'd be as well with a curtain back drop. You'd need an extra lamp(s) to light the background so you don't get shadows. Have a read on studio lighting setups, whisperwolf's device is clever because it saves at least one lamp and doesn't require as much setup if you've not got a permanent studio.
yeah the hilite reduces the room needed for a on white studio, normally you need white curtain background, then 2 lights one each side to light the white background and they normally need to be far enough back to light the background fully say 1-2 meters, then you need the subject and flags to stop the background light hitting the subject then the lights for whatever your taking a picture off, still life or portrait, and then you need the distance from the subject to the camera, it was getting to the point where I would have needed the camera in a separate room to the rest of gear just to get the right spacing, the hilite drops the distance required to about 2 foot for all the background gear, it’s fantastic, easy to set up, can be lit with a single flashgun if needed and gives your brain a puzzle when it comes to taking it down again. but the convenience comes at a cost. They do a cheaper 3*4 foot version, but its still not cheap. Oh and the material feels like a sort of parachute silk on the hilite as an idea of what its made from if you’re doing small scale shots you could try using a piece of white acrylic and lighting from behind. or maybe some cheap opaque white shower curtains and lighting from behind again. The thing with the jelly shots I took the hilite is the only light being used there are no front facing lights at all. Both of these earlier glass shots of mine used a white 1m reflector as a background and lit with a single flashgun, I didn't get quite such even lighting with this method, One of the reasons why I bought the hilite, but still probably the simplest for starting glass shots. Shots5 by whisperwolf, on Flickr New Blush wine 2 by whisperwolf, on Flickr
Even high-end studio portrait photographers use white paper as a backdrop which is very affordable (unless you need a roll 12' wide). If you need to light through the backdrop, you can try common diffused materials like shower curtains or even cheap, white sheets. Photographers use these as well to create large light sources out of speedlights.
