Houston Nesties
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Photographers or anyone who knows something about cameras
My husband bought me a camera this weekend that I have no business owning because I have no idea how to use it. But its a Canon EOS 60D and I have two lenses for it one is 18-135mm the other is 55-250mm. Can someone tell me in basic almost non-photographer terms what the differance between the two lenses are? Or can you just tell me which would be better to use on my non-moving soon to be born child? I am sure someday I will learn how to use the dang thing but I only have 3-4 weeks before the baby gets here and I would like to be able to get some decent pictures of him with the camera and by no means will have time to learn anything about the dang thing before he gets here. TIA.
Re: Photographers or anyone who knows something about cameras
pick up a 50mm f/1.8 for indoor shots of the kiddo. and it'll help you learn the differences in lenses... between the two you have, you'll be using the 18-135 more, but unless you want to use the pop up flash on the camera...you'll want that 50mm f/1.8. It's only $100 anyway, and will allow you to take photos indoor without the flash.
The 55-250mm is more zoom-inny than the 18-135mm.
FTR, I dislike the 50mm on cameras w/ a crop sensor. My house is too small and I can't back up far enough from the subject when I use that lens. I much prefer the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 for indoor use.
sit on your couch, put lens #1 on your camera, look around through the viewfinder. see how much you can see... how far you can see.
now remove lens #1 and put lens #2 on the camera. look around through the viewfinder and see what you can see, how far you can zoom.
go outside, repeat.
this will help you understand the difference.
it's also a good idea to read through your camera owner's manual. with most things, you don't "really" have to read the manual but with a new dSLR, it can be pretty helpful!
if you can get one of the 50mm f/1.8 or 50mm f/1.4 lenses, that will be best for your low-light stuff.
you will probably want to set the camera to "program" or "auto" for now. reading the manual will help you understand your different modes.
in all likelihood, no amount of telling you what to do is going to be as helpful as if you just take it out for a day and do some shooting. pay attention to where your light is coming from, and how that affects the look of the pics you take. the camera won't see lights and darks exactly like your eyes, so just experiment and see if you can try and understand what the camera's seeing!
when you have an infant in the house, good filtered window light is always great for pics. not the super bright direct sunlight (like light coming through blinds that throws lots of bright spots and shadows all over everything)... but nice gentle bright light. lamplight will make your baby look reddish/yellow until you learn more about "white balance", which is generally too much information for beginners.
if the baby is in blankets or lying on the ground, put him/her on a white blanket to reflect more light on to their face. once baby is ready for tummy-time, this is even more important if you want to have nice light on the face.
my photography blog
There is a lesson I followed about halfway through before life got in the way. It was actually pretty helpful in breaking down the camera piece by piece. Each thing(aperture, shutter speed, etc) was a different lesson. If you Google Two Peas 12 week photography it should take you there, or ask for the link on the Photography bump board.
Also, take a lesson. I took a groupon one, but Monkey-Tree offers them and I've heard hers are good. I want to start the Two Peas thing again, but I just haven't had time. I also wouldn't mind taking another lesson.
And that lens mentioned above is going on my Christmas list!
12 Weeks to Better Photos