need help with canon rebel xti

[purpletang26]

i'm a newbe with cameras and i need help with this camera i just bought on friday. well as you know its the canon rebel xti with the 18-55mm lens. been reading the manual but its not sinking in, i want some closeup pics like the macro shots of my tank and fish. any help would be great, i know how to keep fish alive but this camera i need to figiure out how to use it.

 

[gregr]

Best thing to do is learn what the pictures will look like with the different camera settings. For close-ups you generally need to use small apertures [big f-numbers] to get decent depth of field, and for fish pictures you need fast shutter speeds. Here's the gist of it: the smaller your aperture the slower your shutter speed, and conversely, the faster your shutter speed the bigger your aperture. As the aperture increases in size [to allow more light thru, which allows faster shutter speeds] the depth of field decreases.
This article explains how the camera/lens/light meter work together. Photography is all about compromising between depth of field and shutter speed