Question from Ahmed re new camera

[ahmed]

Hello everyone I'm Ahmed , 16 years old , from egypt , i loved photography 3 yeras ago and i have a fuji s4500 and I'm willing to buy a new dslr and i want to ask you about wich type i could buy ... i love portrait photography and macro too but I'm not very fond of landscapes , of course you will say " you're in egypt how's that ?!!!" but i can tell that i dont have avery creative eye in landscape photography ,,, waiting for you advices
Cheers
Ahmed ...

[Donald]

Ahmed

As you can see, I have moved your latest post from the 'New Member' introduction thread to here. More people will see it in this section of the forum and be able to reply to you.

[jcuknz]

Perhaps to re-assure you I will mention the comment of the lead tutor [ headmaster at photo school] told us when we started. "There will be no discussion about landscape photography and it is the hardest form of photography"
That was sixty year ago and I still feel inadequate when I see what appeals to me with a landscape. The ironical aspect of this is that many if not most beginners jump in and take endless landcape photos. I believe that the same guides affect all forms of photography so what makes non-landscape good applies to landscape but that is as far as I go.

Checking out your camera I suggest that you have everything in it to progress as a photographer because how you progress will be in yourself not the machine in front of your face. It does have some limitations in that for best quality I suggest you lock the ISO onto 64 or 100 ISO. This means unless you have a means to support the camera it is likely subjects in low light levels will be out .... this was how I used/use my bridge camera for the past decade of digital. This maybe an intolerable restriction on you but it didn't unduely bother me ... there are lots of other subjects. The most used accessory I have is a moderate close-up lens, a two dioptre, which with your 720mm Angle of View at full zoom should enable you to fill the sensor with a subject about 20mm across. The idea here is that I do not go in close for tight framed shots but use the narrow angle of view of my lens ... this is the bridge camera owner's approach to the matter and is a very quick and easy way to get tight framings. You apparently do not have provision to mount a close-up lens or filter on your lens so the way I solved this with my original Nikon bridge was to glue on a step-up ring to the camera lens mount. Before you do glue it on check it doesn't cause blacking of the corners [vignetting] at wide angle of the zoom and go for a bigger size if it does. They are quite cheap.

Finally my personal stance is that I enjoy having one lens to cover all the range of AoV and when bridge cameras didn't develop the way I wanted I have the past couple of years been using MFT where I have duplicated what I had with my first Nikon bridge but gained a larger sensor which opens up options to use faster ISO ... not that 'wonderful' but the best that is made currently. Panasonic GH with the Lumix 14-140 giving me 28-280 AoV. When I bought my first MFT the Pany G3 with its 14-42 lens I felt incredibly restrained and handicapped after using a 420mm zoom That is most likely what you would get with a DSLR and kit lens, a 28-85 lens or similar.

Edit ... .Checking at Wikipedia your home looks as if it has lots of subject material

[shreds]

Hi Ahmed,

The one place I have been to in Egypt is....Hurghada!

One of the reasons I came was for the underwater photography, but then you need to start looking at totally watertight stuff which is relatively specialised, but you do have some fascinating waters right on your doorstep.

The other thing that stood out to me were the mountains and some of the sunsets, but you say that landscapes are not your thing so fair play...leave them for now.

So macro...yes that is all around us and it is just a case of developing an eye for interesting subjects. A macro lens does help, as will a tripod and you should budget for these if you are going to spend some money, as they can double for your other favoured subject, portraits.

Whether you are looking at formal or informal portraits you do not say, lighting may play a part and so there is much on this site about that, and living in one of the 'World's favourite holiday resorts', a lot of people will be quite relaxed about being photographed if you approach them in the right sort of way.

From memory, with the sun being quite strong, fill in flash and reflectors to prevent shadows are going to be much the order of the day, (Early morning starts and later evenings to avoid the strongest sun are recommended), so don't blow all your budget on the camera alone. (However a lot of things like reflectors can be created from other materials very cheaply and do just as good a job....even a newspaper in front of a subject can throw back some essential light onto a subjects face).

Good luck and do post some of your shots so we can see how you are getting on.

[ahmed]

well , Ian i hope u enjoyed ur stay in hurghda and if u are willing to come again just tell me so we can meet and have some shots , and jcuknz u were very helpful thank youu and i hope to hear more of some tips about portrait photography
waiting
Ahmed

[jcuknz]

In Shred's posting you find the usual comment of the DSLR owner that you need a 'Macro' lens where as bridge owners we have the alternative and perfectly viable option of using a 'long' zoom with a CU lens ... different routes based on our equipment to the same destination. Even though I now have a sort of DSLR I continue to use a long zoom/CU lens with no need or thought of a macro lens

In a similar manner you will be told for portraiture you need at least an f/1.8 or better an f/1.4 lens for minimal depth of field. However when people tell you what they actually do use we find them admitting that most portraits are taken at f/5.6 so that they get the people in focus The main thing with portraits as far as the lens is concerned is to use a moderate telephoto setting which will be between 90 and 135 depending on how much working room you have. Using a short focal length leads to distortion with large noses on small faces for example.

Unless your portrait is "Mr. XYZ in their environment" you should avoid cluttered backgrounds and have it as far behind the subject as possible and avoid bright areas attracting attention away from the subject. Of course all 'rules' are broken when you have a good reason to do so

In all this I would add that I hope that you are practicing with your editor as with your camera as they are tools of equal importance.

[AB26]

Ahmed,

Use the Fuji and spend some time here at CiC posting images and requesting advice. Hold back on buying a new camera until you are more experienced and know where you would like to go with photography.

[shreds]

Andre makes a very good point!

(Oh and thanks Ahmed, but at present I am very busy and it may be some time before I have time to travel again).