New camera picspam!!

[lauraleellbp]

I just now tried out my new Canon Rebel T3 for the very first time, and I LOVEEEEEEE it! I only have the kit 18-55mm lens right now, but I'm still really happy with the pics I'm getting so far. I'm a total DLSR newbie, so I have tons to learn, but already these pics are a vast improvement over my old Canon P&S.

Starting off with my new male Emerald Swift, Antonio:



















Madero and Maeva, two of my P. standingi







A few of some of my brand new P. m. grandis hatchlings (they were very flighty and not very cooperative models LOL):

Julien





Nirina



Here's the original pic (have I mentioned how much I love this camera??? <3!)



And their dad, Amando





Closeup of Phelsuma skin



And I'm learning that taking pics of flowers is tricky... lots of depth and hard to figure out what you're focusing on...







... and that's it for right this minute.

[jkan0228]

Looks like Laurel is the lizard lady!

Did you edit these pics at all? What settings did you use?

[Da Plant Man]

WOW! When I saw the "Picspam" and you posted last, I thought it was closed because of spam!

Those are some pretty sweet shots for your first pics. Got any of your underwater friends? Those almost look as good as a Nikon! Almost...

Your going to be pro in a weeks time, because those are already pro looking.

[TickleMyElmo]

Once you go DSLR, you never go back! Why bother with point and shoots, might as well spend the money once and be set for quite a while

It's worth it for no shutter lag alone. I want to freak everytime I try to take a pic with a point and shoot and I click the button and it takes a picture when it feels like it (a second and a half later) lol!

[lauraleellbp]

Thanks guys! I'm really tickled with this camera.

And the only editing I did on any of these pics was cropping. I'm trying to keep a managable learning curve so working on learning just one thing at a time. My plan is to learn the camera first, and switch over to RAW and start learning processing (probably with Photoshop) at some point after that.

All camera settings were on auto except I switched over and started experimenting with manual focus for some of these (can't remember now which pics were taken with auto vs manual focus lol).

I'll work on getting some tank pics at some point too. The lizards are easier b/c they hold somewhat still some of the time... LOL

[Wasserpest]

Looking good!
The kit lens (if it is the IS version) is actually excellent for what it costs. Very sharp, great macro capabilities. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

An external flash can do wonders. That would be my next step. And perhaps some way to get it off-camera. The T3i has wireless capabilities, very nice. The T3 has not.

After many years of photographing and post processing I STILL shoot jpg only. The potential improvement of Raw isn't worth the added time and storage requirements to me (a non-professional shooter). I spend some more thought upfront to make sure the exposure is correct, perhaps bracket a few shots. Minor (or even major) color shifts can be fixed with jpg's just as well.

I do a lot of image processing... Here is Antonio with a bit of color correction and sharpening.

[zdnet]

Originally Posted by lauraleellbp

I just now tried out my new Canon Rebel T3 for the very first time, and I LOVEEEEEEE it! I only have the kit 18-55mm lens right now, but I'm still really happy with the pics I'm getting so far. I'm a total DLSR newbie, so I have tons to learn, but already these pics are a vast improvement over my old Canon P&S.

Starting off with my new male Emerald Swift, Antonio:

In that shot, were you stroking him with your index finger? Looks like he was savoring his moment.

[Craigthor]

Originally Posted by Wasserpest

Looking good!
The kit lens (if it is the IS version) is actually excellent for what it costs. Very sharp, great macro capabilities. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

An external flash can do wonders. That would be my next step. And perhaps some way to get it off-camera. The T3i has wireless capabilities, very nice. The T3 has not.

After many years of photographing and post processing I STILL shoot jpg only. The potential improvement of Raw isn't worth the added time and storage requirements to me (a non-professional shooter). I spend some more thought upfront to make sure the exposure is correct, perhaps bracket a few shots. Minor (or even major) color shifts can be fixed with jpg's just as well.

I do a lot of image processing... Here is Antonio with a bit of color correction and sharpening.

Nice, I just got the T3i myself and am having a blast messing around with it. Tons to learn and the telephoto lense is kind of fun to play with as well that I got.

Craig

[rainbowfishes]

I really like the Canon Rebel series of DSLR's, I'm on my third one with my T2i. I like them because they are much lighter weight than some of the heftier Canons. If you're waiting a long time for that perfect pic that extra pound matters. I don't really have a need to do a lot of full frame photos, like outdoors/landscape stuff so the 1.6x is fine, almost better for fish macro work. I do set up a few things on my camera that, to me, help me take better fish pictures. I normally shoot with my Canon 100 mm macro in manual mode. Most fast moving fish, especially the small ones are just too hard to capture with auto focus. I can autofocus sometimes with my 50 mm macro (Canon again). If I was buying one macro lens now I think I might start with the 65 mm macro, which in theory sounds like a good lens. I always shoot with the largest jpeg AND raw. If you really need a lot of work on a really unique image that you can't reshoot you'll appreciate having the raw file. One two different Canon Rebel cameras I've had my cameras "throw-up" while flying over the jungles of Papua. Whether it was set to "Auto white balance" or specifically sunny/shade/etc the photos always came out a very funny blue. By having a raw file it was just a matter of moving a slider in PS to get all of the colors back again. That would have taken hours to change with a jpeg. You can always toss them after you download and then decide, it's free film anyway.

For fish and small stuff I also shoot with spot metering and I use the center spot for autofocus metering, even though I normally don't use AF mode. It's because I set up the camera in "Beep enabled" mode. When I'm manually focussing on a fish I can press 1/2 way down and it will tell me if it thinks I really have focus by giving a beep. I always set up the camera in M, manual mode and for a 100 mm macro set up at f-16 or 22, sometimes F-11. For the 50 mm you can drop 1 true f stop wider to F-8. None of my Rebels has had wireless capabilities built in so the ST-E2 wireless for Canon has been priceless. Even better when you start to add a second flash. The 580 EX II is a really good flash for fish pix when used with Canon products.

The only time I really wish I had a full frame camera is when I shooting a big planted tank and I want to get all of it. The kit IS lens that comes with the Rebels now is pretty decent for that price. I really wouldn't try to rely on that so called macro in it though to take fish pics, especially in manual mode. The little fish are especially challenging but when you get them finally it's a lot of fun.

gary

[xenxes]

Cool pics, I learned to use the LCD more as opposed to the view finder on the T3i, seems to get better pics than using the focal points.

[2in10]

Congrats on the new camera and great shots already.