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PostPosted: Wed May 07, 2008 12:18 pm 
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T88 Hybrid

Joined: Wed Nov 08, 2006 8:33 pm
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Location: Sydney
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Dear all,

Just bought a nikon d40 camera off ebay at a bargain price. Was wondering if anyone have any exp photographing cars and whats the best way to take pics. Any info will be great.

O yeah the lens is 18-55, so will this do or would I need something else? Also, planning on taking pics of cars that is stationary.


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PostPosted: Wed May 07, 2008 12:58 pm 
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if your lens is plastic, ebay it and buy something decent :P

kit lenses are good, but images will be sharper the more you spend on them.

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PostPosted: Wed May 07, 2008 1:16 pm 
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practice practice practice is the best way, find what works for you and what looks good and not so good :P, everyone has their way of doing it, thats what makes everyones pictures different :P

18-55 is ok if you are taking stationary cars from not too far away.

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PostPosted: Wed May 07, 2008 6:46 pm 
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ZEi20T wrote:
kit lenses are good, but images will be sharper the more you spend on them.


I guess that is a generalisation. More importantly, if your photographer is not good, throw him/her out and get a more expensive one.

LOL

Nikon D40 is a great entry level dSLR camera and you'll be able to take some very nice shots. Practice is important, and don't be worried if you only get 1 great shot out of 50.

If you're not familiar with SLR cameras, do some research on Aperture, Shutter speed, fstop, iso, and the one that screws most people up (for correct colour) is whitebalance.

Invest in a good quality tripod so you can take night car shots.

Once you've taken 5000-6000 photos, upgrade to a more expensive lens of metal construction, features like Image Stabilisation (IS) and Ultra Sonic Motor (USM) will add to the price and (possibly) help produce higher quality images. (USM might be cannon specific - unsure, Nikon will probably have something similar).

Any zoom lens will never be as good as a fixed length lens. (something to consider if you do upgrade)

lots of practice helps.

oh, and most screw ups can be fixed in photoshop - so some practice with photoshop isn't a bad idea. Avoiding the screw up in the first place is good too :-)

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PostPosted: Wed May 07, 2008 9:57 pm 
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if you can master aperture then youre doing ok. thats where a lot of creative photos come from. ohh and good cropping :) im lazy i never crop so i just try to get the subject in the shot to begin with :P

ill totally agree with getting 1 good pic from 50. thats the beauty of digital, keep snapping because its not costing you anything.

USM (canon) = silent wave for nikon i think its called ASF or AFS. its design is like a stargate and has no gearing inside it.

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PostPosted: Wed May 07, 2008 10:08 pm 
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ohh and another thing, get yourself a decent flash when you can get the money. because the built in ones are shithouse.

PM me if you want extended batteries for flash/camera for studio/portable work.

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PostPosted: Thu May 08, 2008 10:12 am 
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T66
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Zei - do you have access to cheapy photography bits?

any yep, internal flashes are terrible. I got the 400d and the flash has no chop.

Mind you, with the IS lens I have, I hardly use it - I just tell people to stand very very still - hehehe

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PostPosted: Thu May 08, 2008 10:35 am 
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yeah im working on a few people here for cheap camera gear, i work with two camera nerd and we have a professional wedding photographer here as well who used to own a camera shop!

ahh 400d, nice, thats what i have. i bought a 430EX a month ago and its awesome.

i dont even have canon lenses (yet) i bought a cheap sigma, for the price i paid its not a bad lens! yes it has IS

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PostPosted: Thu May 08, 2008 10:45 am 
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I got the 17-85mm IS USM Cannon lens. Its not a cheap lens, and it is of very high quality. However there are times I just think the shots should come out better, particularly long exposure night shots at the widest angle. The sharpness isn't there - even though I use a rock solid tripod.

(which is why my statement about expensive lens don't always equal sharper images)

I hold sigma lens's in high regard.

I've been wanting to buy a new lens for the last couple of months... but haven't got of my arse to do something about it. Hundreds of them on ebay - choice is pretty limitless (well as limited as one is prepared to spend - lol)

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PostPosted: Thu May 08, 2008 11:00 am 
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make sure you turn off IS when its on a tripod. i bet its the gyro stuffing up the image

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PostPosted: Thu May 08, 2008 11:12 am 
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yep i need to do some more tests with IS switched off... funny thing is, I have taken some excellent shots with IS on - its a bit hit and miss.

example :-

Image

I think this is a fantastic shot - but it does have a "softness" to it, possibly could be caused by jpg compression...

FYI - Jin - you can easily take shots like this with your Nikon, just have patience and practice.

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PostPosted: Thu May 08, 2008 11:31 am 
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thats a nice pic mate!!!

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PostPosted: Thu May 08, 2008 11:46 am 
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Thanks, only took about 60 shots to get that one LOL.

Here is an example that I think might be affected by IS...

Image


It just shouldn't be that soft. I use a solid tripod, I use the timer to trigger the shutter, and there was hardly any wind...


ok I'm inspired to try some more without IS.

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PostPosted: Thu May 08, 2008 11:47 am 
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that is an awesome shot mate! Do you have a bigger version of it, i'd like to have a copy of it :)

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PostPosted: Thu May 08, 2008 12:17 pm 
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its the light and the exposure time, could drop it by a few seconds next time. i assume you had the smallest aperture that your lens will do??

check out my flickr and youll see the same things done by me when i was in Melbourne. search for zei20t in people and youll find my account.

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