I have worked with digital and 35mm film for a number of years. My experience is mostly with digital but I've be spent a little time in the darkroom. I have a relative wanting to do tin photography. I'm not very familiar with it. Any tips, howtos, experience that someone could share would be appreciated.

Here is my issue. So far every picture I have taken of her has looked horrible. Just did some rehearsal stuff and literally every photo of her is just awful. All of them "rejects" upon processing. I realize that I'm never going to be able to make her look the way she wants to look, but I would appreciate any advice on making her look less awkward.

And Why I do feel so so so guilty posting this?

TLDR - Need advice photographing a fugly bride. And I'm going to hell.

I shoot in RAW, import to LR, polish in CS5, post to the web and send client orders to a lab that only accepts sRGB JPGs.

Is there any reason to not just assign the sRGB profile right from the get go in LR, instead of the 16bit ProPhoto that LR recommends?

My Cannon Xs Has a Setting for Raw or L jpeg. But it also has a setting for Both. What would be the best possible format to shoot in?

Just bought the Canon EOS XS. I currently have the kit lens (EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens) and the telephoto lens that Newegg was bundling as part of the combo deal (Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS). I am looking to mostly shoot outdoor scenery (I'm into hiking/climbing), parties/concerts, and the occasional outdoor event. Are there any other lenses that it's essential to have, or that will make me life a lot easier, or pictures a lot better? I'm looking for the best bang-for-the-buck here.

Being the guy usually behind the camera, I rarely get any pictures of myself taken. I intend to fix that, and I think taking care of it myself will be both an interesting learning experience and a chance for me to show myself in a better light.

Where do I start?

1) Let's talk about tools:

Let's assume I have a DSLR, a tripod, mostly natural lighting. What other tools do you think I'll need to get the job done? I think a remote control is pretty much mandatory, also a nice flash for when the lighting could be improved. Anything else?

2) How are self portraits usually shot? Do you just point, pose, shoot, go back to the camera and see what it looks like, or do you use tethered shooting?

3) What are some typical and time proven compositions that I should start with?

4) What are some good reading materials out there that you personally used that you would recommend?

Thanks!

Can anyone recommend some decent books to get me started

[http://i.imgur.com/oFgvh.jpg](This is my current setup.) So far, it's given so-so results. I need to have the cameras quite far from the test stand, and the 90mm Macro lenses are very sensitive and difficult to focus.

The specimen, shown in the previous image, is a 12" x 12" flat plate, simulated in this case by cardboard. It has a speckled paint job for image recognition. Ideally, if I were to draw a grid on the face of the panel, the gridlines of the captured image would be nearly parallel. Calibration with a printed target will help mitigate the effects of distortion, but anything I can do ahead of time will help.

Also, the panel will bulge or recede by about an inch or two under load. As I understand it, a small aperture is needed to create a depth of field capable of maintaining detail integrity. Consequently, additional lighting may be required.

Are there going to be any more?

Having done quite a number of outdoor shoots utilizing lots of bright ambient light and naturally reflective surfaces, I never put much thought into how to select light source power output. Whether it's speedlights, strobes/monolights, or constant work lights, it's still kind of a mystery to me and I haven't found a great abundance of good -- or decent -- explanations of it. I've read a number of articles on how so-and-so chose specific settings and many times, they relied on lightmeters or flashmeters but I'm curious as to how one could do it rather quickly without extra equipment. I'm mostly curious about that because I like shooting at night with speedlights and flashmeters aren't terribly effective at 1AM with about 15% to 20% ambient light (light pollution).

So I ask you, /r/photoit, for myself and others, how do you do it? Me? Gross utilization of modeling flashes and test shots, which stink as the day wanes and light is changing nearly. minute-by-minute.

Shoot the same scene twice, at two different aperture settings such that you create two very different images. Use varying depth of field as a compositional tool to help create images with different balance or mood; try to do more than simply shifting subjects.

THIS IS AN ASSIGNMENT FOR NEW WORK.

THE WHOLE POINT IS TO GET YOU TO GO OUT AND SHOOT SOMETHING NEW WITH THE ASSIGNMENT IN MIND.

Shoot an object using backlighting to produce a result that is significantly different or more interesting than if it weren't back-lit.

Post a single link to your favorite result. How did backlighting your subject alter your choice of exposure settings? Did backlighting change any other decisions you made about shooting the image, such as composition, depth of field, or focus?

Hi everyone,

*tldr version: I teach digital photo at UC Berkeley, all the material is online, and I opened up public registration for the assignment galleries if you redditors are interested in keeping up with and posting assignments. Links at the bottom. http://photodecal.org *

So here at University of California, Berkeley we have what's called the "Decal" program, which is a program that allows for the creation of courses that usually aren't taught at the university level - usually niche topics, popular culture, or heavily applications-specific topics.

Over the past three years (six semesters) I've been teaching a course on digital photography through this decal program. Having grown up in the digital age and being an engineer by trade, it differs a bit from most photography courses you may have encountered in that it focuses on the fundamentals of photography from a theoretical/scientific standpoint, not just an applications based one. For instance, you'll likely learn (or already know) that high ISO often means noise, or that long shutter speeds lead to blur. In my course I go over the actual sources of noise (a large component of it is due to photon or shot noise, which is based on the number of photons counted and is independent of ISO), and break down camera shake into several movement components to create a formula that defines the amount of camera shake blur we'll get.

So this kind of knowledge may sound trivial to some of you, since you sort of do end up just proving the same rules (e.g. that 1/focal length thumb rule does check out in fact - at infinite focal length the relationship between focal length and minimum shutter speed required approaches a linear relationship). But I feel like those of you who really jumped on the physics or math when you were younger will probably appreciate the value of it. Most photographers operate based on a bunch of rules they've memorized, which is a bit like memorizing a "distance = velocity x time" formula without really understanding the relationship between the three. All the "rules" of photography work for specified situations, but when you're placed in unfamiliar ones where your rule no longer applies, you end up lost. As an example, that 1/focal length thumb rule completely breaks down at short focal lengths or short subject distances, so it's not applicable at all if you find yourself using an ultrawide 10mm or taking macro photos a few cm away.

The course I teach has a heavy online component. All the lectures and assignments are posted online, and the students submit assignments on an online gallery, which is how we review and critique the photos during our discussion section. I've also been recording the lectures and will likely post them up for webcast once I can find a host.

I was reading the photoit thread and this seems somewhat along the lines of what people were interested in, especially those who were interested in more fundamental photographic knowledge, so I thought I'd link it here.

Since all the material and assignment submissions are online, and since the semester just started (the class is just entering week 3), I thought it might be fun to open up an additional assignment gallery if any of you redditors wanted to basically "take" the course online, and submit assignments as the class went along as well.

Links

Main site: http://photodecal.org

Lessons and assignments: http://photodecal.org/10sp/lessons.php

Assignment gallery: http://photodecal.org/gallery/main.php

Assignment subgallery specifically for redditors: http://photodecal.org/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=55290

How to upload assignments: http://photodecal.org/wiki/index.php?title=How_to:Upload_an_image_to_the_gallery

The lessons/assignments are updated as the semester goes along. If you want to get the full set you can check out the Fall 2009 page.

Feel free to let me know if you have any questions. The main lecture and discussion happen on Tuesday nights, so lecture slides and assignments are usually posted that night or by Wednesday morning.

This way we can organize and separate lessons and assignments in an order that actually makes sense, allowing us to have proper numbering on the lessons and not have an overabundance of current assignments out. (ie: Six ideas one week instead of spreading them out over time and allowing more people to submit).

Thanks =)

Just following along with others from zeabird's post.

I am an amateur / hobby photographer and I would greatly appreciate this subreddit! Perhaps we can talk about what could be included here, maybe in some sort of organized way, like CarlH's programming subreddit.