One pic with the new camera

[A4TUNE]

I just bought a Canon XTi a week or two ago and am still getting used to it. It's my first DSLR and I'm only using the kit lens (18-55mm). Did a little post processing to for fun (took a shot at HDR). I'm still a newb so please give me some tips photo guys. And yes I know the background is very drab, haven't had time to go to a location or wait for a sunset .

[pyro]

dont move your hands.

[jrau13]

Doesn't look in focus, could be the post processing though.

[AudiA4Turbo22]

^^what he said, but ur still driving bone stock performance wise???? once ur chipped there's no going back!

[thebikedoctor33]

^^what he said, but ur still driven bone stock performance wise???? once ur chipped there's no going back!

say what?!??!?! you can chip a dslr? haha

[n7plus1]

eww...bad lighting and out of focus...practice makes perfect...keep trying

[LampyB]

you'll need a tripod for good HDR photography...

[A4TUNE]

I used a tripod. It may be the post processing.

[B6Lovin]

looks like you shook the camera when taking the pictures and then it blurred out when you compiled it.

what program are you using for HDR?
did you do any tone mapping afterwards? or go straight to PS?

if you don't mind sending me the original exposures in an email I'd love to play around with them. (you can watermark them if you want, its just for me to mess around with.)

[mxrz]

The sky is completely blown out and there is no shadow detail on the car... That’s the absolute opposite of HDR.

[AudiA4Turbo22]

dude the guy took a pic for the first time with his NEW camera! he'll get better, thats better than i could ever take trust me!

[drmarcj]

It's cool to have a 10 megapixel (or whatever) camera but still, consider resampling your pics to a lower jpg quality and size before posting on the interwebs. That way it loads faster. Also the forum resizes big pictures so most folks won't be seeing it at 1:1 pixel anyway.

Blurriness could be because you are pressing the shutter button manually, which shakes the camera even on a tripod. If you're in really low light, use the timer to snap the shot, or get a remote release. Also some cams have a "mirror lockup" feature that also reduces camera shake at long exposures by flipping up the mirror before the shutter releases.

Go AV club nerds!!!

[Maverick]

Max, your camera has a really nice lens 18-55mm, damn

[Exanimas]

Nice meng, but like the other guy already said, the sky is blown out and the shadows are pretty dark. I'm guessing you did this from a single RAW file rather than 3+ exposures?

Anyways, keep practicing, you'll get it soon enough. I'll be in the same boat as you soon enough as I'm going to buy an XSi once they are in stock at Best Buy.

[Colt556]

It takes a while to get used to a DSLR. I'm not gonna restate what was already posted so just keep practicing and it will come to ya. You might consider getting a better lens also. The 18-55 is ok but Canon makes some other fantastic lenses!

[A4TUNE]

thanks for the info guys. this is literally the second time i've used the camera although i've been into photoshop for a couple years. i was just messing around with the tones and levels in ps. I took 3 diff exposures at -3, -2, -1 (for some reason I don't know how to switch it to -2, 0, 2?)

Guys I'll post the 3 diff pics in a little bit, see what you can do. and yes i'm pretty much still stock performance wise haha.

[Exanimas]

thanks for the info guys. this is literally the second time i've used the camera although i've been into photoshop for a couple years. i was just messing around with the tones and levels in ps. I took 3 diff exposures at -3, -2, -1 (for some reason I don't know how to switch it to -2, 0, 2?)

Guys I'll post the 3 diff pics in a little bit, see what you can do. and yes i'm pretty much still stock performance wise haha.

Hmm, that doesn't sound right. Try and find in the manual / google the auto-bracketing feature on your camera (i.e. google "auto bracketing Canon XTi") and see what comes up. That's generally the best way to get the needed photos for an HDR. Any other questions PM me, but I'm no photo guru, I've just been reading a lot lately.

[A4TUNE]

i just realized one of the pics was slightly in a diff position so thats prob why its blurry. here are two that are the same:

[A4donkey]

tripod + timer shutter

[B6Lovin]

here's your two pictures compiled and with some tone mapping -- i apologize for how grainy and noisy it got.. didnt' mean to detract from the quality of the pictures, but it was hard to not blow out some colors and get the noise when i was trying to create the image from only two exposures, when i was lying to the computer about the "value" of the exposures (i entered them as 1 and 0 instead of their real values), and when they were so close in exposure. anyways, the first one is the straight, tone-mapped image so you can see what it looks like, and the second is edited further in PS just to mess around and see what kind of recovery i could work on it. hope you like em. (i use photomatix pro to do HDR stuff)

[B6Lovin]

and for the record -- here's a couple small examples of things you can do with HDR (keep in mind, these are all low-light/no-light images.. imagine what you can do with proper lighting)







all photo credit goes to my friend sean -- i edit/compile most pictures of MY car but he takes all the pictures. the shots above however, were done entirely by him, and i admit, he's much better at it than i am hahaha

but yeah, just wanted to show you the kinds of things you can now look forward to with your new camera (and some exaggerated examples of the "glow" and highlights you can achieve through HDR)

[A4TUNE]

Thanks a lot, that's exactly what I was going for. How did you learn to do that? Can you give me a site or something that has some tutorials?

[mxrz]

Thanks a lot, that's exactly what I was going for. How did you learn to do that? Can you give me a site or something that has some tutorials?

http://www.vanilladays.com/hdr-guide/

[A4TUNE]

Well I only have CS3 not photomatix.. I thought it could be done with photoshop as well though?

[B6Lovin]

i think it can -- but you can get photomatix for free online if you look around. (it makes it SUPER easy) my friend put it on my computer for me, i think he got it of warez.com or something like that - i cant remember. I can ask and try to find it for you though.

[mxrz]

Pshop does it, but it's more basic and not that good really. Download Photomatix, as a trial (we trust you'll pay for it if you like it )

[B6Lovin]

^exactly im still trying to decide if i like it.... i guess i'll continue to "try before i buy"

[Maverick]

just want to share, I just bought a Camera online.
Canon SD870 IS Digital ELPH Lens is 28-105mm 8mega pixels. I am so effing excited for some reason. I weren't as excited when I bought a RNS-E, maybe that crept in me now. muhhahahahaha

[mxrz]

just want to share, I just bought a Camera online.
Canon SD870 IS Digital ELPH Lens is 28-105mm 8mega pixels. I am so effing excited for some reason. I weren't as excited when I bought a RNS-E, maybe that crept in me now. muhhahahahaha

That's great but if you're even semi-interested in car photography, that kind of camera won't be good for anything other than regular snapshots. These small lenses can't achieve a shallow depth of field (DOF), even at f/2.8, and when you zoom in at 105mm you'll be at f/5.8 which in terms of DOF, is equivalent to something like f/13 on an SLR camera... In other words, too much foreground and background will be in focus. 28mm isn't quite wide enough, and 105mm isn't long enough to achieve a dramatic field of view (FOV). DSLR's don't have to be expensive. There is very very little you can do with a top of the line, 5000$ Canon 1D, that you can't do with a used Canon 10D for example (180~300$ on eBay). And even the cheapest SLR lenses are fairly superior to anything attached to all these Point & Shoot cameras.

But by all means, enjoy your ELPH.

[Maverick]

i know, I just bought it for some quick photo shoot much better than my phone camera.
when I have more money, I will get a DSLR camera either Nikon or Cannon

[Exanimas]

B6lovin - You might be able to get rid of some of that noise if you raise up the shadows smoothing slider.

A4TUNE - PM me / AIM me (xnickmackx) if you want Photomatix.

[B6Lovin]

B6lovin - You might be able to get rid of some of that noise if you raise up the shadows smoothing slider.

A4TUNE - PM me / AIM me (xnickmackx) if you want Photomatix.

i tried - but i lost a lot of the detail i was looking for from the photo to begin with. the point was to show him a small example of what you can get from HDR using what he had.