First photographs from new camera, plus bonus feminist snark.

[summer_jackel]

Circuit CIty going out of business is, I know, a very bad sign of a chilling economic crisis...although I must admit that I boycotted the place because they were rotten to their employees, and I am kind of glowing about their death. Regardless of whether I should be scared or chortling about the chain's demise, however, I have been making out like a bandit on scavenging its bloated carcass. New scanner, external hard drive (to back up my data, because I know that eventually this aging computer will die and lose all my stuff), and a prize toy I've been coveting for years: an actual camera of the type where you can change the lenses, etc. It's a Sony DSLR-a200, it was very cheap (relative to its usual price, not my budget...ow), it is bewilderingly shiny and I have no idea how to use it in a competent fashion. Photographers out there, feel free to give helpful input. Please.

Oh yeah, that reminds me of something I meant to rant about. During some downtime at work, I was reading through the manual for this new scary electronic thing I inflicted on my life. After awhile, my mystified cohort says "wow, I've never seen anyone actually read one of those before." We both have a few laughs over this (me thinking of that T-shirt Thinkgeek sells which says 'RTFM,' as well as all of the computer experts/tech support people I know who I can easily visualize snarling, "yes! Read the *&^! manual! PLEASE"). Cohort then follows up with, "yeah, I usually just get a man to explain these things to me."

I must have given her kind of an eloquent look (I didn't intend it, I swear), because when I looked up from my manual, her eyes went huge and she started backpedaling like crazy. Keep in mind that this is a smart, reasonably well educated and self-sufficient 30something woman who I somewhat enjoy as a friend, and that I'm convinced she was totally serious when she said this.

Face, meet desk. Oh, so much feminist fail.

So anyway, feel free to give me pointers on how to use my new device. I did actually read the manual, but I remain full of amatuerish lack of clue. I am inviting advice from men too, although of the three semi-pro/professional level photographers who I know read this journal, two are women.





OK, I've had my rant and feel much better now. Here are the first pictures.



What I had conveniently strewn about to test the camera on were cats. The interior of my house has really, um, challenging lighting conditions for any kind of photography (the BBC crew who came here were amusingly annoyed by this). It was interesting to see what new camera did. Promising results, though: I'm sure that if I knew how to use the thing, I'd get better results.



Blurry, but awwwwwwwwwww look at his pretty little paws all tucked in.




OK, onto a real challenge: lighting conditions of doom plus Nocturne, world's least photogenic cute kitten.


My new palm tree probably has a .001% chance of survival in my house over a month. Between the low lighting and the kitten, you know, but I still hope it lives. My live Yule tree is still doing fine outside, at least.
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She eats hellhounds too.


A lot of spice from Arrakis too, apparently. Muad'kitteh.






Lastly, can't help it.



no idea why the above is showing as a broken link, sorry, but here.

Comments

[leora.livejournal.com]

In all fairness, while the sexism of saying "a man" rather than "someone else" does point in that direction, there can be good reasons for not reading the manual and getting someone else to explain it to you if you can do so. Mainly in that not everyone has the same learning style. Some people are better able to learn from manuals than others. And it can be a lot faster and easier to learn from someone else working with you if you're able to get that. Especially if it's someone whose learning style does work well with learning from manuals.

I used to never read instructions to new games. My brother and I almost always made my other brother read them and then just explain the game to us. It tended to work better.

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

You totally have a point about learning styles, and in fact for simpler devices, I don't tend to do more than glance at the directions myself. This camera is so 'spensive and complicated, I was half afraid to touch it, and the manual gave me courage.

Cohort's comment, though, really emphasized the "man" part, and she followed with something to the effect that "I always have my boyfriend do that." I weep for humanity.

[troubleagain.livejournal.com]

Well, and yeah, some men just LOVE to explain shit. But she still needs slapping.

[troubleagain.livejournal.com]

Eeeeeeeeeee! That's my camera, too! You're doing great! RTFM, for sure. Take the camera in one hand, the manual on the other and play with buttons. It's not like it's going to break. :-) Every time you turn it off and back on, it's going to reset stuff anyway, so play with spot metering, play with manual focus, play with the autofocus settings, play with the white balance, EVERYTHING. Pixels are cheap! And I LOVE the macro setting on this camera. Did you get the longer lense, too?

And oh, my God, kitties! That lolcat is hilarious, too.

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

Oh, awesome! So you like yours?

I am just starting to play with the thing. It's fun. :)

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

Oh, and yes, I have a longer lens too, though I've done very little with it yet.

[troubleagain.livejournal.com]

I love my camera. I haven't done much with the longer lense myself, because my hands are shaky. I need a good, solid tripod to hold it for me. The tripod I bought is cheap and not very steady.

[kynekh-amagire.livejournal.com]

Luverly photos. I can't wait to see how pictures of your parrots look, once you get the hang of it. Hinty hint. :>

Included at no additional charge, a mini-rant: At work, I was often "she who puts shit together" because I a) have a fair amount of downtime between bouts of manning (har!) the register, b) have plenty of out-of-customers'-immediate-path-of-travel floor space, and c) am good at it, and... yeah, I really enjoy it. It's fun! Display racks, barbeques, patio furniture, wheelbarrows, garden carts, anything that needs a display model, I've probably built one. Anyway, tinkering away near my register, I can't tell you the number of times random customers of all ages, genders, and apparent cultural backgrounds have wandered up to me and said something like "isn't there a man in the store who can do that?"

I can usually manage a "yes, but it's his day off" or "no, we had to fire all the men, due to budget constraints" with a smile and a chuckle which I hope doesn't sound too pitying. People often just don't think about what they say.

[dhlawrence.livejournal.com]

A woman in hardware at my store had that problem, and my mother suggested she reply "I used to be a man, does that count?"

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

Heavens forfend that a woman actually enjoys putting stuff together and figuring out how things work!!!

Great (?) story. Yeah...people just don't think, sometimes.

[troubleagain.livejournal.com]

I'm better at the "putting stuff together" stuff than my husband, because I have more patience, and I have no issue with RTFM!

[joreth]

I get that all the time at work. Usually it's some smartass asking why the girl is pushing the heavy box while the guys are pushing the smaller boxes. I have a variety of responses: "because the work gets done when a girl does it"; "because I can"; "I guess the men just can't keep up"; "I'm pushing it just fine without help".

Once, a female co-worker tried to help lift something heavy that took several people, and she was elbowed out of the way by the guys with some comment about men doing the lifting. She responded with "Oh, I'm sorry, you're right. I better go before I get estrogen all over it!" I plan to use that the next time I get muscled out of the way for something I am capable of doing myself.

[dhlawrence.livejournal.com]

Did she mean that women didn't know computers, in which case feminist fail, or did she mean that men are stupid enough to explain everything with the futile expectation of a reward, in which case feminist win?

[aris-tgd.livejournal.com]

The thing I found most useful to have bookmarked somewhere:

In order to get a decent exposure, you can fiddle with the ISO, the aperture, and the shutter speed.

A higher ISO gets you more light and more grain (see Nocturne licking her lips? Like that.)
A wider aperture (smaller f-stop number) gets you more light and a shallower depth of field (less of what is in front of you will be in focus, meaning you'd better get the autofocus to hit RIGHT on what you want to look at)
A longer shutter speed gets you more light and more blur, especially if you're handheld.

So usually what I do is crank the aperture as wide as the lens will allow--you can do this if your camera has an "Av" setting, which means Aperture Value--set the ISO down around 400, which is fine for most light, and snap away, letting the camera control the shutter speed. If you wander into different conditions you can adjust from there. Distance blur looks pretty, and it's what our eyes do naturally.

http://www.strobist.blogspot.com/ <-- For when you want to start playing with light more!

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

oh, thanks!!! useful!

[pelzig.livejournal.com]

Here are my tips. :)

First, yes, read the manual. Some of these cameras have manuals as thick as the space shuttle flight manual! When I bought my Canon Rebel XT, I'd already been using a Canon PowerShot G5 and there was enough similarity between the two that I was able to navigate around the XT with little problem. But, I still refer to the manual when I can't figure something out. Otherwise, since pixels are cheap, just shoot away, trying different settings and record what settings produce the results you like.

ISO. I do not shoot any higher than 100 when doing studio work. I despise image noise. The XT can't go any lower than 100. My G5 went as low as 50 and it stayed there. It takes extra steps for me to adjust for noise during post-production so if I can avoid it from the outset, I do. :)

Try to use as much ambient light as you can when shooting. Open up blinds, curtains, etc. to let in sunlight. If you have to shoot with artificial light, you can either let the camera adjust the white balance or set it yourself as "tungsten". Or, for as few bucks, you can get a white balance lens cap and make a custom setting based on your current lighting situation. You can set the camera for longer shutter speeds (to allow for more light in low light situations) but I'd invest in a cheap little tripod for shooting more static things. If your lens has a vibration compensator, you can hand hold it to a certain degree and not get blur...unless you want blur.

You can make DIY lighting using lights from Home Depot. But, you will need to adjust for the yellowish light they will give off by making sure your white balance is correct.

The Strobist site, as mentioned, is a really good resource. If you plan on using a non-Sony flash unit (I never shoot with the onboard camera flash), you MUST get a Wein Safe-Sync unit. This regulates the trigger voltage of the flash unit down to 6 volts. This lets you purchase a inexpensive, third-party flash unit and not have it cook the guts of the camera through trigger voltages that may exceed what the camera can handle. For example, Canon cameras can't tolerate voltages over 6 volts. I use a Sunpak flash that cranks over 200 volts but using the Wein, I'm golden. I use a $1.50 flash unit found in a thrift store on my XT. Works fine if you can stand slow recharge rates.

With memory cards, do NOT shoot until all the photo space is used up. Always leave a few left "at the end". If you fill up the card totally, you risk corruption. I did that one and lost nearly half a shoot worth of photos. Bad!

If the lenses you have allow for the fitting of filters, get a quality UV filter, such as by Hoya. The filter will do little in effecting the images but it does prevent dust and scratches from reaching your actual lens. A $25 to $40 filter is FAR cheaper than having to replace a lens due to scratches on the glass.

I'd also invest in a lens hood. You can get them very cheaply on eBay. Asides from keeping the sun from directly hitting the lens, it acts as a shield, again, protecting the lens. If you have to pass on a UV filter (don't low ball a UV filter...cheap glass can mean distortion in the image) due to price, at least get a hood.

Hmmm...that help some? :D

[troubleagain.livejournal.com]

Oh, and a polarizing lens is an awesome thing to have if you're shooting outdoors. Cuts down a LOT of glare and gives truer sky-colors.

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

oooh, thanks for the suggestion!

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

Those are all really helpful suggestions! A lot of it will probably make more sense as I get out there and use the camera more. I appreciate it lots.

[dustmeat.livejournal.com]

I love daffodils!!!

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

Me, too! They make me so happy.

The ones in the pic are from the first daffodil bulbs I ever planted. I am extremely pleased with this.

[joreth]

"I jut get a man to explain it to me"

I usually respond with: "funny, most men I know call me to explain it to them!"

[summer-jackel.livejournal.com]

Oh, good one! I like that.