General Photography

bwana said:
While I have my doubts that you can load magic lantern, primarily a video app, you can load chdk to enhance the 400D. http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK
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Amounts to the same thing - I just couldn't remember where things switched over to Magic Lantern :P
*edit* Also, on the 500D as an example, Magic Lantern has a roughly 10:1 ratio of photo:video features. Though the 500D's video features were super limited to begin with.
 
Ok, so yesterday I bought myself some books:

Digital Photography Top 100 Simplified Tips & Tricks
Scott Kelbys Digital Photography - Books 1 - 4
Absolute Beginner's Guide to Digital Photography
Digital SLR Cameras and Photography for Dummies (Third Edition)

I have been reading, and quite a lot of what you guys have been saying makes sense. I now need to actually practice with the camera and understand what I am reading.

Any advise on the best place to do an introductory course would be appreciated. I see Cape Town School of Photography offers a 9 week program, but it has unfortunately already started. I don't want to do a mickey mouse 1 hour course, but something decent, and I don't mind spending money as knowledge is priceless.
 
Nicci, I've done a few classes here, I can really recommend Jeremy. Classes are very interactive and good blend between practical and theory. Jeremy is quite a character! These are shorter courses (e.g. 2 hours for 4 weeks etc. depending on course)

CameraWise
 
Perfect, thank you!! I will give them a call! I see they offer Intermediate / Advanced, so I will have to ask if they also do beginners.
 
Nicci said:
Ok, so yesterday I bought myself some books:

Digital Photography Top 100 Simplified Tips & Tricks
Scott Kelbys Digital Photography - Books 1 - 4
Absolute Beginner's Guide to Digital Photography
Digital SLR Cameras and Photography for Dummies (Third Edition)
Click to expand...

Nice selection , also maybe consider the following range of books , have seen them around Exclusives Books
http://www.photoworkshop.com/pages/books.html
http://www.photoworkshop.com/

3 Magazines that i find quite usefull are:

Digital Photography Enthusiast - nice articles and tips and tricks
digital version http://www.digpe.com/ns/index.php/digital-edition

What Digital Camera - nice reviews on lenses and equipment, some good articles
http://www.whatdigitalcamera.com/

Pix - Local Magazine
http://www.pixmag.co.za/
 
Perfect!! Thank you for the books / magazines. I will see if I can get hold of them!!
 
undesign said:
Might as well refer you to the book most people will recommend to you in any case, it's a classic and recently revised -

Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson
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Another book where the Kindle version costs more than the printed one ... what is it with Amazon these days?! When one then considers the very sensitive legal/DRM issue (for me at least) about transferring books to others (especially our kids) then printed books seems to be ready to make a comeback. Kindle books should never ever be more than the printed version.
 
Ok, got the book now on my iPad, the Understanding Exposure one.

Just a quick question, I see some photographers carry an iPad or tablet with them in their bags. What is the reason for this, and if it is to transfer photos to see what they look like, how do you transfer it from the camera to the pad?
 
Nicci said:
Ok, got the book now on my iPad, the Understanding Exposure one.

Just a quick question, I see some photographers carry an iPad or tablet with them in their bags. What is the reason for this, and if it is to transfer photos to see what they look like, how do you transfer it from the camera to the pad?
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Put your camera manual on your iPad too. :)

As for carrying an iPad. . . I do. You can either use the camera connection kit to transfer images or something like a eye-fi card to do it wirelessly. I might be wrong but IIRC the 500D has built in eye-fi support.

Edit. It might be the 600D I was thinking of with the enhanced menu controls for eye-fi but the card works in any camera with a sd slot.
 
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Thanks Bwana! Yes, I will put the manual on there as well. Oh wonderful, this would be very helpful if I can transfer the images onto my pad and see what I did wrong / how I can improve, and what it will look like!
 
BeVonk! said:
Another book where the Kindle version costs more than the printed one ... what is it with Amazon these days?! When one then considers the very sensitive legal/DRM issue (for me at least) about transferring books to others (especially our kids) then printed books seems to be ready to make a comeback. Kindle books should never ever be more than the printed version.
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Agree, it should never be. Interestingly, I received an email from Amazon yesterday to expect credits on my account for purchases made in the past ito a DoJ settlement, pending approval by court in Feb 2013.
 
Nicci said:
Thanks Bwana! Yes, I will put the manual on there as well. Oh wonderful, this would be very helpful if I can transfer the images onto my pad and see what I did wrong / how I can improve, and what it will look like!
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There are also plenty of very powerful and wonderfuly simple to use editing tools available through the app store.
 
bwana said:
There are also plenty of very powerful and wonderfuly simple to use editing tools available through the app store.
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Yes, I saw these, whilst browsing for books. Which editing apps do you use, or recommend please?
 
Thank you! I will have a look.

Btw, I was going through Nat Geo Photo contest for last year, oh my, such stunning pictures!! Look at this one for example:

s_n12_3402011-.jpg


Some more pics here - this is extremely inspiring looking at all the pictures and what one can achieve with the correct techniques.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/7Zb5Kh/:-XE!$w+n:PZgFCj94/m.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/11/national-geographic-photo-contest-2011/100187/
 
Nicci said:
Yes, I saw these, whilst browsing for books. Which editing apps do you use, or recommend please?
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As mentioned snapseed is pretty good if you like the cookie cutter approach but for full in editing filterstorm can't be beat. Photogene is also very good.

I'm playing with a new app called gridditor which takes an interesting approach to editing.

0bdbbd6693157e15a54ee2762659f3f2_zpsca51ce42.jpg
 
Thanks Bwana, I will have a look at the above mentioned apps!

Edit: bought both snapseed and filterstorm now on the appstore. Will test it out with some current photos of mine. Thanks for the recommendations.
 
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Nicci said:
Yes, I saw these, whilst browsing for books. Which editing apps do you use, or recommend please?
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Slightly off-topic (not editing related). Not sure if you get them on iPhones/iPads (I'm an Android boy), but I'm pretty sure you would: download a Depth-of-Field (DoF) calculator. You just enter your camera model, aperture, distance from subject and focal length and it calculates the DoF and hyperfocal distance for you.
 
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