First shots with a Canon 350d

Fenster

Any and all feedback wanted. I'm more interested in landscape and ruins than more closeup items, so you shall find no photoshopped spoons here.

All of them taken with my brand new Canon EOS-350D. It's a cracking camera, I have to say.

Terryland Castle: Clicky

Swans over the River Corrib: Clicky

And my cat as a booby prize: Clicky

Ruu_Old

The first one i like, its a nice shot. The second has an awful lot of lake in it, distracts me kind of. As for the cat, i have a little kitten here, the spot on your cats nose is an unusual marking. Nice job though

Zombrex

Nothing to do with the 350D you are using (excellent camera I have heard), but the shots are a little boring, and to be honest a waste of the capabilities of your new SLR.

A suggestion for the cat one would be to put some proper depth of field into the shot (ie have a slightly out of focus background) and maybe some movement. At the moment its just a cat, sitting on a pillow. Your photo should try and capture something that we would not be able to see properly normall, like a cat at full stretch or in motion.

It looks like the cat was just about to move, which brings me to the next point. It is a good idea when shooting an animal (or anything, but especially an moving target) to take a number of quick series of shots at the object is moving. that way you can look back over the photos and see if you captured some interesting movement. It is the great advantage of digital that you can delete the rest of the series and no time (or money) is wasted.

The point of getting a SLR camera is to experiment with the different angles, settings and shutter speeds to see what different set ups you can get.

I would go back to the cat with a ball of twine or something, in a well lit room or outside so you can use a high speed shutter (100+). Set the camera to a middle f setting (f.7 or something) so you don't have to worry too much about focus, and just start snapping away. Mess around with the shutter speed and f settings. Fill up the CF card on the cat, as it runs around the place. Then go back over your 40 or so shots and select 2 or 3 and post back up here for us to. I guarrentee you will get a least 2 or 3 interesting shots

Thumper Long

Sorry couldn't resist is the cat a reincarnation of auld Adolf Hitler, has a hitleresque cat mustache goin on, apart form that I like the first one but would have tried to frame the ruin without the fence, just my 0.02 Eur

Fenster

If you think she looks like Hitler, you should've seen the rest of the litter. O.o.

Once I figure out how to change shutter speed (its my first SLR, I'm still learning), I most certainly will. Getting my cat to perform on demand...is easier said than done.

As far as the other two go, they would probably benefit from tighter cropping.

Fenster

I finally got my cat to perform tonight. The lighting is a little off as it was a dark room and I was using the flash, but it was loads of fun taking these:

Clicky and clicky.

Zombrex

Fenster wrote:

I finally got my cat to perform tonight. The lighting is a little off as it was a dark room and I was using the flash, but it was loads of fun taking these:

Clicky and clicky.

Much more interesting shots, though its a pitty the cat wasn't facing the camera, but getting a cat to pose properly is a bit like ...er .. herding cats.:D

It is the advantage of digital though that you can just shoot shoot shoot without worry.

You will also unfortunately always have problems with shutter speed with indoor lighting, which means it is harder to catch motion without it being blurry.

For a quite well know portfolio of a cat that was published in a book have a look at
http://accad.osu.edu/~tmendoza/
I love the one "Ernie and the cat"

Fenster

I count myself lucky that she deigned to play with the cable for me.

Also, fantastic link