Erika
Im no professional, I do photography as a hobby. I just got an olympus e-420 and im not so sure about changing the settings and what would work best. My nephew was recently born and i'd like to take some nice pictures of him with this camera. I love how alot of the newborn photographs are blurred just in background. I have learned that people a large aperture and a shutter speed of 1/250 or above. Im reading the manual for my camera, thought i had it through the manual setting but as im playing around with the camera and taking pictures it's not quit doing what i want it to do. Any advice, or different ways to change settings would be helpful. Thanks
I was also playing with it in the aperture priority as it seems a little easier for me. The lowest it will go is a f 3.5... then on the side i can adjust from -5.0 to a +5.0. Im not understanding what thats for either.
Answer
Learning to balance the exposure triangle isn't something that you will learn from your manual. That is what photographers go to school for. We study ways to use it to create the image in our heads for YEARS and discover different ways of doing things constantly. There are many good books and websites for learning photography out there.
Newborns are tough because of the baby skin issues. In fact with newborns you need to slightly overexpose them to get the nicer skin tones-and then you need to raise the luminance of the reds, oranges and yellows in post processing.
To get the blurred background you need to use your widest possible aperture. IF you are using a kit lens it'll be probably 3.5. No zoom because then your aperture will increase. Zoom with your feet. Be as close as you can to your subject will also help with bokeh/blurred background. It's not as easy to achieve with a kit lens. A nice f/1.8 is much easier.
So... shutter of 1/125 or higher, f/3.5 and ISO appropriate to achieve proper or slightly overexposed.
Aperture priority is a great way to start out. You have to watch to make sure your shutter speed isn't dorpping too slow. Theoretically if you are using an 18-55mm lens you can let your shutter down to 1/50 without shake, but the baby may well move in that time too. My rule of thumb is if it is alive no slower than 1/125. Just keep your eye on that.
The +or -5 will probably be your exposure compensation. That's giong to be how you tell the camera that you want to expose the image a little brighter than it normally does or a little darker. If you are shooting and you notice you wish the shots were brighter you would put in a + compensation. How much depends on how much brighter you wish the image was. Just play a little and get a feel for it.
3.5 is the lowest aperture your kit lens goes to. If you zoom you will notice that your aperture automatically changes without you touching it. that is because as you use the zoom in the kit lens it's lowest capable aperture increases-which is why I said to "zoom with your feet."
Learning to balance the exposure triangle isn't something that you will learn from your manual. That is what photographers go to school for. We study ways to use it to create the image in our heads for YEARS and discover different ways of doing things constantly. There are many good books and websites for learning photography out there.
Newborns are tough because of the baby skin issues. In fact with newborns you need to slightly overexpose them to get the nicer skin tones-and then you need to raise the luminance of the reds, oranges and yellows in post processing.
To get the blurred background you need to use your widest possible aperture. IF you are using a kit lens it'll be probably 3.5. No zoom because then your aperture will increase. Zoom with your feet. Be as close as you can to your subject will also help with bokeh/blurred background. It's not as easy to achieve with a kit lens. A nice f/1.8 is much easier.
So... shutter of 1/125 or higher, f/3.5 and ISO appropriate to achieve proper or slightly overexposed.
Aperture priority is a great way to start out. You have to watch to make sure your shutter speed isn't dorpping too slow. Theoretically if you are using an 18-55mm lens you can let your shutter down to 1/50 without shake, but the baby may well move in that time too. My rule of thumb is if it is alive no slower than 1/125. Just keep your eye on that.
The +or -5 will probably be your exposure compensation. That's giong to be how you tell the camera that you want to expose the image a little brighter than it normally does or a little darker. If you are shooting and you notice you wish the shots were brighter you would put in a + compensation. How much depends on how much brighter you wish the image was. Just play a little and get a feel for it.
3.5 is the lowest aperture your kit lens goes to. If you zoom you will notice that your aperture automatically changes without you touching it. that is because as you use the zoom in the kit lens it's lowest capable aperture increases-which is why I said to "zoom with your feet."
Best lens for newborn photography?
Mandy
What would be the best recommended lens to use for newborn photography using natural light indoors and outdoors? I have a Canon 40D SLR camera.
Answer
You haven't said what your budget is - if it's limited then you can't go wrong with the 50mm f1.8. If you have more to spend then I'd recommend the 24-70mm f2.8.
You haven't said what your budget is - if it's limited then you can't go wrong with the 50mm f1.8. If you have more to spend then I'd recommend the 24-70mm f2.8.
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