What kind of photography are these lenses good for?

[twiggyb]

I just purchased a DSLR today and was curious what the lenses I got are good for. It's a canon T2i with the kit lens (18-55mm) and the 55-250mm. I know I need a macro for coral shots, but I am unfamiliar with the rest of the photography world and would like to know what would be best suited to take pictures of with these. still learning all the functions and bought a couple books to read about this camera and I'm trying to comprehend all the terminology.

 

[Brett9917]

18-55mm is going to be you go to lens for awhile. Especially for when you are just practicing and shooting stuff around the house. It is also really good for people, whatever. It's the utility infielder of lenses IMO. 55-250mm is going to be for things you need more zoom for. Such as birds or sporting events, something along those lines.

 

[twiggyb]

Thanks. Yeah I definitely need some practice with it, although I did catch a nice pic of my Lyertail that I've never been able to do with my point and shoot. Still trying to master the editing of RAW as well. What software does everyone use over the other? I think I want to invest into Photoshop, but what else is a good program to get? Any recommendations?

 

[Dino]

If you're just starting out you should have gotten some disks with the camera, one of the things on it is DPP. Canon's RAW editor, it's by no means as fully featured as some of the big RAW editors - Lightroom, Aperture. It's just fine though for figuring out just what RAW is and how to work with it AND its completely free.

I think what you'll probably find most using a combination of Lightroom + Photoshop. Since the professional version is pretty expensive ($600+) you might want to look into the Elements versions. They're MUCH cheaper (around $100) and are still very good, really - they're not lacking much on the big professional versions.

Alternatively - if you can't swing the $100 yet for one of the Elements versions you can download GIMP. Its a free/open source counterpart to photoshop and doesn't exactly slack.

 

[twiggyb]

Yes it came with the discs. I can't figure out how to make my coraline overly purple/pink without ruining the color of the fish. Is lightroom for Mac or windows only, I've seen aperture 2 and wanted it before I had a DSLR so is it able to do RAW as well? If so I might get that if it is a decent program to work with. Here's my picture

 

[Dino]

Lightroom is for both, here is the link. You can actually download it and try it for free for 30 days (same with photoshop). Be warned though, after 30 days you'll have to shell out the dough because you wont want to give it up :lol:.

http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom/

I've never used Aperture (windows guy) so I can't comment on it.

 

[Brett9917]

I have demoed both Aperture 3 and Lightroom 2 and I like Lightroom better.(eventually purchased Lightroom) Aperture is nice, because it has the "faces" and "places" features, but Lightroom has far better controls for individual color settings. Also, the ability to take a photo in Lightroom and directly edit in Photoshop is a huge plus too.

 

[xtm]

Daniel,

I suggest attending a photography class or a workshop and try to understand the basics of exposure, composition, and some technical aspects of using your camera. The book "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson is a great start. I think that you have all the lenses that you need at the moment while trying to learn the craft. Once you get to that level when you feel that your lenses are not capable of producing results that you're aiming for, then that's the time to upgrade. At the moment, I think that your lenses are very capable of capturing anything.