john_valjean

<p>Forum members, hello.<br>

A question for the experts but before the question some background. I am using an XTI around the house and mostly to take shots of the kids (5 years old and younger). Lighting situation is low since it is mostly incandescent light. I don't want to use a flash, so right now my only option is to go ISO16000 on my 50mm f1.8. Pictures are coming out OK, you can see some noise in the pictures.<br>

I am considering to get the lens in subject, it is going for about $630. Reviews are so-so, so I decided to ask for your opinion since I am sure most of you already got your hand on such a lens or at least an equivalent.</p>

<p>So my question is do you think this lens will satisfy my need if I use it along with less than ISO800 on my camera? and/or what alternative do you suggest of course staying in the same price range.</p>

<p>Thank you in advance for your time.</p>

<p>I would give them their money back if they ask, to me that would be a valuable customer service experience, especially that these are not normal circumstances. They would pass that story to their friends and you might get more business through that word of mouth. Also, they will re-hire you when or if they change their wedding dates.<br>

please note I am not a paid photographer but I am giving you my opinion, thanks</p>

<p>sorry don't mean to hijack this post, but anyone knows of something similar in the detroit suburbs area? thanks ...</p>

<p>Hello Everybody,<br>

First of all thanks for all your replies to my initial post when I ask for suggestions, I did get some good and some bad advice, but that's the beauty of it.<br>

I like to post some feedback on my own in case someone else would find himself or herself in the same situation I was couple of weeks ago.<br>

1. First of all, it was very hard, especially the kids never did what you asked them to do, or how to pose, you help them to strike a pose and then you take few steps back to shoot and they move or something.<br>

2. Since I was not able to move locations all the shots came from one angle sort of speak except for the ones after the church, but during the mass all the shots were taken from the same spot.<br>

3. Lighting was a challenge since in some areas it is an intensity/color and in other areas it is a different intensity/color<br>

4. Things happen too fast so if you miss the first "good" shot on one kid, you can't recover.<br>

5. I ended up doing a lot of post processing to fix the white balance, to crop and to add some light to the pictures.<br>

6. I was lucky to have a friend let me borrow his camera (5d m2) with the package lens and on my xti i put the 50mm f1.8, so between the 2 I took about 200 pictures total and I have about 120 that I gave to the parents. Not a great hit rate, but again I am not a professional.<br>

7. Next time I would definitely charge some money, since it took me about 2 hours in church for the shoot and about 4 hours at home to work on the pictures.<br>

8. I am posting some pictures just to show you a bit of what I ended up with. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/32838515@N02/" target="_blank">http://www.flickr.com/photos/32838515@N02/</a><br>

9. Again thanks for your suggestions and I hope this post would help someone else.</p>

<p>Greetings, bunch of my friends at church asked me if I would be willing to take pictures of their kids for their first communion. I have an xti that I will use. Lighting is so-so inside the church and no flash is allowed. I am thinking to use my 50mm all the time and use my legs as the zoom. Anyone has done this before? I would love to hear some pointers. The other lenses I can use are the 25-135IS or 24-105L IS. Thanks ...</p>

<p>Hi Mike, thanks for the quick reply, aren't you afraid that you might by accident scratch the glass on the lens?</p>

<p>What a decent UV filters brand that you recommend to be used on Canon L lenses series, thanks for the help ...</p>

<p>Jean Valjean is the character from les miserables, I get this a lot ... thanks for the advice.</p>

<p>I like to share a story with the forum members and maybe somebody can give an opinion or make a comment. I have been using an XTI body for a while and I became very comfortable with the camera and the lenses I use with it. I know the shortcomings and I know what results to expect in different scenarios. So my kids are playing at the Gym (very poor lighting), so of course tried to take some pictures with no flash that turn out to be garbage material as expected. A friend of mine buys the 5D Mark 2 and let me use it. I bumped the ISO to 6400 and took some shots using an aperture of 4.0 and variable focal lengths, I was so impressed with the pictures, for a 5x7 no issue whatsoever with noise due to the high ISO etc.<br>

So my question is, forget the full frame advantage and the better built quality, is it possible that having this camera would make it so easy for me to take such pictures, I mean everything I have been hearing is that it is not the equipment but the techniques etc. I was very very impressed with that camera. Of course I can't justify it to myself or my wife to fork the $2500 on the camera.</p>

<p>Dear forum members,<br>

I have been blessed over Christmas with our 3rd baby. he is about 4 weeks old and still can't sit or support his neck on his own. I am wondering what can I use as equipment (chair, etc) so I can take some nice shots of him. If anyone of you have some experience with that please let me know. I tried the bouncer but it did not go well with the background drops that I have. Thanks ...</p>

<p>yes 60foot it was, sorry made a typo</p>

<p>3200 iso in my camera is not possible, it is a canon xti. Also, I wasn't just trying to frame my son but couple of kids around him to give an idea of the setting.<br>

I really appreciate your responses, but I think this begs the 2nd question: with the fixed lenses, I believe you have to be absolutely sure of what you want to do with the lens and can't be used for general purposes, I mean the 85mm vs the 135mm vs the 100mm we're talking few steps forward or backward? am I wrong?</p>

<p>I tried both 800 and 1600</p>

<p>Hello Forum members,<br>

let me start by wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.<br>

I am seeking some adivce to deal with the following situation:<br>

my 5 year old son had a performance inside the church, so I was facing him on the balcony about 60 yard or so. The church was lit but not very bright. I am using an xti body and I tried all the lenses I had and none of them worked (since no flash is allowed, not that it would have made a difference at that distance), I used the 28-135 IS, and my zoom lens the 70-300 IS but neither worked.<br>

So I am willing to purchase the right lens for that situation, what would you recommend? having a zoom up to 100mm should be ok, don't need more reach. Thank you.</p>

thanks again for your responses, the pictures I got are not blurred due to motion or movement, I tend to believe

it is either out of focus (the whole picture) or something wrong with my lens at the 300mm end. I am attaching an

example picture.<div></div>

thank you all with all your responses, it is amazing how much experienced people can help, really thank you. Just a follow up, a lot of times my shutter speed was above 500, but still the pictures were blurred, would it have anything to do with setting the focus to AIServo? I know it tries to predict the movement of one thing, but when you have multiple players running in different directions, the AI is confused?. Or am I wrong on this one? again any suggestions are welcomed.

Hello forum members, I have a quick question, I went to a college football game this saturday and took my camera

with me, when I got home I was very disapointed with my shots, so I need some feedback. Game was in the afternoon

and it was cloudy, so I used ISO400 and ISO800 (cycled through them), I was shooting in P mode, I used my

70-300mm IS, and I was high behind the inzone. I did set the focus mode to AlServo, but most of the shots were

blurred. So can you please tell me where I made a mistake, any feedback regardless of how harsh it is is welcomed.

I am planning to take golfer pictures in a golf outing event, shotgun at noon, so far forecast shows 85F sunny

with no clouds. I am using a canon xti with a 24-135mm IS canon lens. I am worried that I will have a lot of

shadows on the faces and dark shadows in the pictures, since I will be shooting players about 20+ feet away, so

probably a flash on the camera won't help. Any suggestions or techniques, thank you in advance.

thank you so much for your helpful feedback, I really appreciate it, especially the fact that you took the time to reply, thanks again.

I currently have the EFS18-55 that came with my xti, a friend of mine has the

sigma 18-125 DG that he wants to sell, is it a good lens? would it give me a

better images than my kit lens? besides the zoom capability is it worth spending

the money on it? thanks ...

Experts, I am seeking some advise. equipment used: xti, 580EX, EFS 18-55 and

50mm 1.8. Weather conditions: 1PM, sunny with no clouds, temp 65F, light wind.

task: portrait photograpy in a open field (no trees, green grass, open area)

positioning: one shoot facing the sun and one shoot at 90 degrees to the sun.

 

so I started with ISO200, Tv mode at 1/80 with my EFS first, no flash, the set I

took turned out to be full shadows on half of the face of the subject. with

Flash, the pictures turned out to be too "white" not just bright. So is my

setting wrong, do I need to bump my shutter speed, do I need to shoot in Av

instead. I do not like to use the flash to fill in, I like to get the photo from

natural light. Please help, thanks.

ISO was at set at 200. Flash was directed to the subject, the ceiling was too high to bounce. what through me off when I was shooting is that my historgram on my dinky screen seemed fine.

Dear forum member,

I am using an XTI with a 550EX flash in Tv mode with 1/60, flash set to ETTL

mode. I noticed that parts of my subject which is about 3 to 4 feet from me is

always overexposed, for example the forehead and the nose are very overexposed

but the rest of the picture is OK. So I like to get some help or advise:

 

1. What am I doing wrong?

2. Can I fix this problem using SW, if yes, then what do you recommend and a

brief description on how to do it.

 

As usual, thanks for your help. Note that I did change lenses and the problem

did not go away.

just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has responded, at this point I have decided to go with the 17-40L since it would replace his kit lens. Thanks again for the great responses.

hello Bob, usually he takes nature scenes like trees and mountains and waterfalls. i am thinking to spend around $1k. his lenses currently are cheapo 18-55 that came with his 350D and a 75-300usm, and a 50mm 1.8. thanks