New to photography? Read this.

cedge

I am tempted to give some of the tips a go here, I've got a point and shoot (Panasonic DMC-FX500) but it does have some manual exposure controls, I just haven't had the time to play in the 2 years of owning it yet to see whether I should make the jump to a DSLR.

The camera has a lens of about 25mm - 125mm I believe with Shutter speeds of 40s - 1/2000s and apertures of F2.8 to F8.  Any ideas whether this is enough to give me a guide on how a DSLR will be?

Thug

Tricky one really.

A P&S will never be the same as an SLR, but a P&S will give you a good understanding about composition. But you have to be aware that it will be slightly out if you use the eye piece due to it not being through the lens. Using the screen will be better, but the screen wont give you exactly what the sensor sees (or vice versa).

A P&S may be all you need if you dont want to improve, but just want the odd family snap etc. If thats all you want, then an SLR can actually be frustrating due to less focal length (from 1 single lens).

Your P&S having f/2.8 to f/8 is not the same as an SLR. There will be no where near the depth of field (or lack of) using a P&S as you will get with an SLR (due to a smaller sensor).

Not sure if you know (so sorry if you do), but your lens stating f2.8 to f8 does not show min and max aperture. It should go a lot higher (smaller aperture dont forget) than f8. The scale you have stated will be the fastest (largest aperture) that you lens will do at its min and max focal length. In other words at 25mm it will allow you to use f2.8 up over (maybe to f/32 for arguments sake), where at 125mm it will allow f8 up over.
These figures (or the way they effect one another) are still the same for a DLSR, but will be different as f2.8 will be a lot larger aperture on a SLR than what it is on a P&S.

If you are more serious about photography then it will still help, but you may need to relearn what you learnt when you get an SLR as things will change a bit when using one.

chou4555

I Liked what PCthug said about a P&S as compared to a digital SLR...  yes, you can have the most sophisticated camera in the world and still take rubbish photos.

Same is true in all walks. Take my first passion, music. With a poor quality guitar or keyboard or voice, you can still work up a good song.. and only later might you need the technology to shape it into something that the media may like.. or that you want to perfect!

avfomer

oh, terrific pictures! I'm a new learner of studying photography, I Know composition is very important as you mentioned, but I don't do it well even I practiced a lot. Somtimes I think my compostion is satisfied, but my teacher says a rubbish in his professinal sight. I'm down by it always.

Thug

Dont get down by it, just keep practicing.
I promise it will get easier, and to a point where you do it automatically and dont even have to think about it.
You can aslso do your composition on the computer later by cropping, but its best to do it in camera at the time of taking the photo.

malky78

Good read, thanks for the tips I've been really lazy of late with my SLR. I bought a cannon S95 P&S & haven't touched the SLR since. I now feel more motivated after reading the thread.

Although it now seems like common sense, I really appreciate the tips on shooting moving objects (dogs). I just assumed I was rubbish rather than professions deleting all their crap shots.

Thug

Ha ha, moving subjects are SOOOO difficult to shoot.
You need LOADS of practice and be prepared for LOADS of failures.

Why do you think that more up to date cameras shoot at 7fps? Its so you dont miss a shot.
You will still have loads of failures, but will stand more of a chance of getting a good ONE.
You will of course have more to delete too.

I am still going to write part 3, but not sure what content to put into it.

I may make one on studio photography too.

guardone

excellent tutorial. the grid is also useful for checking that your horizon is horizontal, especially at sea, and your building lines are vertical. For some wide angle shots it  will be difficult to get upright verticals, but it helps you decide.  When cropping, you can sometimes rotate the image a few degrees to align your verticals.

When cropping, you usually want to remove empty space and concentrate on the important/interesting aspects of the picture. I suggest you crop in very tight, then gradually expand around the subject, asking.... does this expansion make it better? At the end of the day, there is no right and wrong, just YOUR judgement call on what pleases you.

guardone

On moving dogs and other fast moving items such as motorbikes. The professionals will often prefocus on a patch in the road. When the bike enters the patch, just before, you press the shutter. That way you can still take 3 shots but have a better chance of a good one. Make sure you have switched off the autofocus when you are ready to shoot. If the bike is not central or at the focusing point on the screen, the bike will still be in focus as your image is focused on that particular distance from you, across the whole plane of your view.

Sorry, just read page 2 and see I have duplicated some ideas on shooting a moving target.

If you can, always use a tripod as it will reduce your camera shake. Telephoto pictures will show the problem of camera shake more acutely than a wide shot.

guardone

The connection between iso, aperture and shutter speed. For a good exposure, you need a certain amount or volume of light to hit the sensor. Assuming that the iso, or sensitivity is constant at say iso100. If you double the aperture you can half the shutter speed. So a well exposed scene at f8 and 1/100 second, will also be well exposed at f5.6 which means the lens aperture is twice as open as it was at f8, and 1/200 second or half the time that the shutter is open.

On a dull sunset when light levels are low, the exposure may be 6 seconds at f16 or 12 seconds at f22. If you double one you can half the other. The sequence for aperture is f2 f2.8. f4, f5.6, f8, f11, f16, f22,f32
Some very expensive lenses will go beyond these figures at each end.

Now it gets interesting when you alter the sensitivity of the film or the sensor. The sequence is 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200. Each figure is double the previous number. so iso 800 is 2x2x = 4x more sensitive than iso 200.

This means if you keep the aperture at f16, you can move the iso from 200 to 800 making it more sensitive, and so shoot at 1.5 = 1 and 1/2 seconds instead of 6 seconds. 1.5 is a quarter of six, seconds.

If your sunset includes the moon, there will be almost nil movement in 1.5 seconds, but you may detect motion over 6 seconds, so you can choose your iso and affect your other adjustments. Likewise, by adjusting the iso, you can achieve a different aperture and thus adjust the depth of field. Each setting affects the other two. You have to decide which is the most important, speed, depth of field or quality. Each is a trade off and you must make the best of a bad job as you cannot have all 3 of best quality iso25, maximum depth of field f64 and instant 1/8000 second shutter speed. Perhaps if you stood on the sun and took a photo of the nearby planet Mercury??

There are also intermediate iso settings including 6,25,50,64.125,320,640. An advanced camera will let you tweak this further in 1/3 increments.