Can someone help me with my Cannon D20?

[rjmayes34]

I have been trying to take close up pics with my Cannon D20 with a Tamron 1:1 Macro lens. I am able to get good close up pics but the colors are not a vibrant when I up load the pics to my computer. I have read that I should shoot them in Raw format and afterwards use an editing program to change the white balance but when I try to use a "creative setting", the camera's shutter speed slows way down and the pics turn out blurry. What settings do most people use when trying to take up close Raw pics? Any advice would be appreciated!

 

[Misled]

"creative setting"

I really don't know what that means. You should be shooting in either manual or aperture priority. Your camera should be on a tripod. If you don't have a tripod you have to make sure you're using a fast shutter speed. You can do this by changing the aperture, or the ISO, but without knowing what you're doing, I can't help much. And does Canon make a D20???? Never heard bout that, maybe a 20D???

 

[JBen]

"creative" modes are the manual/semi manual modes. I guess it's a way of saying ging the person more creative control.

As Misled said, your going to need a basic understanding of exposure.
ISO
F/stop
Shutter Speed

And how those relate to give you "proper" exposures. Once you have that you can start changing the settings. There are dozens of resources for you.
If you really want a quick start set the camera to AV, ISO 800 and you f/stop anywhere between f8 and f14

 

[rjmayes34]

thanks,it is working mint now!! Ill have to post some pics. Id like to get bigger tripod or one of the photo boxes to put in the tank.
I was messing something up, thought i was on the proper setting but was not. I was flipping thru and not actually selecting it.
And yup, its the 20D, smart @$$

 

[Misled]

The thing is, D before is Nikon, D after is Canon. And yes, yes I am.

 

[rjmayes34]

lol ya learn something new everyday!!! I did not know that about how, and where they place their D's. I didnt even know canon used a D in theirs, but i dont know much about camera either
Im sure you can tell, their is def a lot to learn but we are getting some good pics now!

thanks again!

 

[astrogazer]

Hope to see you post an image soon.
If you're new to photography, using a macro lens is going to complicate things a tad for you. I prefer to use one myself when shooting critters in tanks, but due to their nature they have some characteristics that can make them challenging to master discouraging many new aspiring photographers. Depth of field ((DoF) the amount of subject matter in apparent sharp focus, or lack thereof), can be frustrating to deal with when first starting out with a macro. DoF should be your friend, it can be creatively used to add drama and effect to your images.

Yes, you want to shoot in RAW mode as a JPG is highly 'color compressed', you'll never be able to properly color correct a JPG image.

It helps if you can properly set the white balance setting to the lighting your shooting under, check your 20D's documentation. You don't have to be on the money, but it sure helps if you're in the right neighborhood.

Adobe's Camera RAW does a nice job of converting most manufacturers RAW file formats to a more usable TIFF, PSD or JPG file.

If I'm shooting corals I turn off all filtration and power heads to make the water column as still and non-refractive as possible.
I shoot in an all manual mode (setting the f/stop and Shutter Speed) using a low ISO 100 if possible i shoot a f/22 @ 4" - 20", obviously you will need a good sturdy tripod and a remote shutter release. If you don't have a remote release cable you can simulate it by using your cameras self-timer feature.
Starting at about 4 second exposures you can use your cameras Histogram feature (I'll let you look that one up in your users manual) to get an exposure that 'fills' the scale. If your image is too dark add more time onto the exposure and visa versa if it's too light.

Just my $0.50 worth, hope I didn't confuse you any more ...

Here's an image of my Frogspawn Coral, I shot it using my Nikon D200 with a Nikkor 105mm Micro lens (similar to yours) I images at ISO100 f/22 @2.5 seconds, converted with Adobe Camera RAW and I did some (very little) editing in Adobe Photoshop CS5

Good luck, and most importantly have fun!
Looking forward to seeing some of your images.

 

[Hookup]

I have the 20d (two of them actually). Shoots well, very well. ISO 800 is noisy as is 1600 and 32000 but i find those two are creatively noisy, where 800 is just a disappointment.

Bryan Petersons book is your bible. Ok well its mine anyhow. Look up on amazon.com for Bryan Peterson's Understanding Exposure.... and Learning to See Creatively is also good (but not a substitute for the first).

IMO it should be standard equipment sold with all DLSR's and many Point & Shoots... Its just that good.

 

[rjmayes34]

Photo editing

Photo editing

Thank everyone so far for all of the help. I can now get way closer pics! Now I just need some help figuring out how to change the white balance. I have never used a photo editor besides to crop an image. I have the photo editor that came with the cannon 20d camera and also have used a free online editor at pixlr.com . I searched both editors for a white balance option but didn't find one... unless by white balance you mean to change the levels of red blue and green? My pictures are turning out ok but are not as vivid as they truly look in my tank. Any tips would be appreciated and thanks so far for everyone's help!

 

[Recty]

You might try downloading Picasa, it's a free image editing app from Google. It will white balance very easily, and it is probably better software than the stuff that came with your 20D however many years ago that was.

 

[rjmayes34]

ok, yeah i wasn't sure ill check that out. It came out in 05 i believe so its not to terribly old, but old enough!!

 

[astrogazer]

Thank everyone so far for all of the help. I can now get way closer pics! Now I just need some help figuring out how to change the white balance. I have never used a photo editor besides to crop an image. I have the photo editor that came with the cannon 20d camera and also have used a free online editor at pixlr.com . I searched both editors for a white balance option but didn't find one... unless by white balance you mean to change the levels of red blue and green? My pictures are turning out ok but are not as vivid as they truly look in my tank. Any tips would be appreciated and thanks so far for everyone's help!

Are you shooting in a RAW format? If not you should be, you can set your camera to shoot a RAW and JPG every time you press the shutter button. The JPG is fine for viewing the basic composition and general overall exposure of the image, but it's the RAW image that will give you greater flexibility in post processing, which is key to getting the color balance corrected in your images.
The Canon Digital Photo Pro that came with your camera will allow you to make this and many other changes to your RAW files and then save in any format you wish. Here's an image showing where these settings are, I'm not sure which version of Canon's DPP this is as I'm a Nikon shooter, but this will show you what to be looking for, there are also some good videos on youTube that cover this topic.

Hope this helps a bit ... keep shooting, that's how we learn :reading:

 

[Misled]

I must not have noticed this as I was reading this post, but having just noticed it, I really must make a comment about this.

Learning to See Creatively

Once you have a DSLR and some quality lenses, it's really what will make you either a run of the mill photographer or a really good photographer. Being able to see something and able to use what you see with the camera takes some getting used to. Anybody can take a picture. The ability to get your camera to see what you want it to see is another matter. There are some things about a shot that you may not be able to change, but the way you take the photo may give you the ability to reduce, blur it out or eliminate it all together.

Figuring out ways to use available light or light you apply from an outside source can make a average shot a tremendous shot. I'm not saying you have to buy the book. While it would probably be helpful, there are other ways to get the info, but when most people ask how I did something, it's hard for me to explain, it was just what I saw. Moving a shot from one side to another, using a fill flash, shadowing the shot. All these things will give the shot a different look. I'm rambling again. Time for lunch. :hmm4: