rubiton

The settings - P is the auto setting gets an image on the camera but why buy a DSLR and just use P forever. Good to start with but best to learn over time how the settings work (buy a DSLR for dummies type book - I did for Photoshop 4 though for PS it was a little hard to find but handy reference) and move onto the other three main settings. AV & TV - one is you select the aperture and the camera picks the speed while the other is you pick the speed and the camera picks the aperture. IN the 50D the camera it also has a setting where even if you pick the aperture or speed it will adjust slightly if the camera cant expose an image properly in AV & TV. M - fully manual you control all the settings and then ther are the other various setttings on the different cameras which you would have to check the manual for. As for focus - which setting depends on what the subject of the photo is doing - running dog needs AI servo but posed dog and one shot is better.

OMG - persephonie you have the same printer I have!!! I only use it for proofs though and the very few images to put up at work - while it does a good job on photo paper its much much cheaper to get photos printed at the lab printers. Whle it does go through the ink with all the proofs do prefer the fact it has the individual colours as seem to go through more yellow than anything else for some reason.

YOu need more information - why do they want to paint your photo? Is it to sell? Is it for, I dunno, an art class? To sell you can ask for a fee up front and then a percentage if it sells after that - however beforehand you can also ask if they have a website and then judge the quality of their work and if you want to have them paint your photo. I had a well known horse artist ask about one of my photos and after seeing her work (had heard of the name) and being impressed I had no problem at all with her using one of my pics. Painting turned out really well too. However there are some artists out there that I just dont like their work and wouldn't let them paint one of my photos.

Wouldn't you just try to rinse off with water? Would that clear the salt or at least dissolve it? Sorry cant think of more options at the moment have been out in that 40 degrees all day taking pics and still not quite recivered (and we have another day of it tomorrow oh yay bet the cool change comes in about 6pm after we've all finished) Always leave the filters on the lens ALWAYS - protects them at all times.

I use skylight filters - they are basically the same as UV filters but better for some outdoor stuff than the UV filter. Did get a polarising filter but never have had time to use it.

What sort of photos are you planning to take? Are you looking for a camera to learn more and eventually upgrade to one of the higher versions (as someone is planning above going to the 7D)? The 1000D would just have a few less features than the 450/500D series. You can check them on www.dpreview.com to see if the missing features are actually something you need/want. Also for a body buy in Australia and make sure it has the full Australian Warranty unless you are happy to ship back OS if there is a problem (many people wont buy 'grey' imports due to this but I cant remember what the rules are re warranty on those cameras).

IF you get a 100-400mm get a monopod to hold it steady - slightest movement at extreme zoom with fuzz the image. Same rule applies to the 70-300 (or similar) if you are right at the extreme hold it very steady - hold your breathe - though hard it can be done without a monopod.

I buy mine new from Quality Camera sales - support local business especially since he answers email on a sunday afternoon evening.

I found the site a little hard to navigate at first as if you miss a vital few words when choosing options with your photos they just dont show up. Havent been back for a while but then have been flat out with other photo stuff - will get back to it eventually when everything calms down again in a month or so.

ISO 400 Shutter Speed 1/1000th and Aperture of F8 stand with your back to the sun so its lights up the dog. Pan with dog and keep the auto focus points on dog and you will freeze frame dog. Cant help with auto features as they will jump around a bit with speed and aperture settings as it tries to read the entire image.

Freezing mtion is all about high shutter speeds - 1/1000th will freeze motion and any lens will do that (though the bigger the lens the more light you need but most normal lenses 1/1000th at F8 freezes things like FA18s, cars and horses just fine

I emailed the council about the pair of agressive shih tzus that are let off the lead in a local on lead park and they did ring me back and say that they would keep my email on file just in case ( basically we agreed the owners was an idiot that didn't care and thought it was funny his little dogs were menacing my bigger one) as they gave me a number to ring that would hopefully give the ranger a chance to get there and have a few words (warning, fine) with the moron who has no idea about walking his dogs.

Exactly as huski said - growling at it and foot stamping doesnt work and it ignores me and charges past at my dog its going to get kicked either the mirco second before it contacts her or as happened once when it jumped in her (I didnt kick it hard enough but owner appeared to control dog as it had slipped out the gate accidentally).

Just wondering if anyone has had experience with a 'hot pixel' ie a small red dot appearing randomly in an image and can be intermittant. Apparently caused by dust.

Just make sure that you put the right settings in for printing - makes all the difference to choose the correct paper type.

Added a layer and multiplied - left opacity at 100 percent but you can pull it down if the colour is too rich - in photoshop. It is also possible to add extra layers the same way but you have to be careful as you can go too far which makes the colours too strong. Overexposed images are difficult to fix

Agree with kja - never heard of it or the seller. For that price easier to stick with the name brands point and shoot.

Superiority complex - whoops sorry was trying to make a point will be far more careful in future when discussing photography. Was just saying you dont have to shoot raw & edit everything to be happy with your own photography. For myself personally I am useless at graphic design or arty stuff so set my own goal to get what I want in the camera. Photoshop will often save you if you make errors but my type of photography just doesnt have the images to put the special effects on (such as Luke Ws dogs on the bridge that he amended the colour and sepia toned a month or two back - this is an example of images that can be enhanced in PS) - you either get it right or you discard it.

Sounds like it works well for those who choose to use lightroom etc. I prefer to get what I want when I take it - thats the challenge of photography to me for the photos I take. Nothing wrong with either method if it works though.

Poo d'etat and kja I should explain - at a Royal I take 400-600 photos a day of horses which can be white, grey, chestnut, bay, brown or black. The sun can be out then it can be overcast and then it can pour down with rain on the same day. Some will be fully lit some on an angle or in the case of presentations some can be backlit given difference times of the day. The backgrounds vary depending on if you are at the end of the oval (grass mostly in background) or right out the other end with the trotting track & fence right behind them. The estimated 400-600 is after culling though this happens when going through every single shot and naming it with the rider & horse id (and this can take til midnight alone). I would not have time to go through and pick out similar images to use shortcuts/presets on so its easier to cull the ones that had problems (focus, stride, missed the right exposure) and leave them as taken by the camera. So its up to me to get it right when they are taken - I'm also not patient enought to sit at the computer to edit since I'd be kicking my self thinking why did I not do this when I took them! Once they are ordered they would be cropped and sometimes might need to bring up the shadows etc but for the proofs they go as is. Now as for photographers that take a different type of photography such as landscapes, piers, bridges, similar backgrounds etc then I can see the idea of being able to enhance the image - have seen countless ones at work on the email forum especially night shots (lit bridges, piers, etc) that look much like those posters you see out there. Its amazing what you can do in photoshop even with high qual jpegs but I never have the time to even try some of the fancy effects (have instructions here for cloud mist taking over the image as is the subject is bursting through but wouldnt quite work with the horse photos as an image).

Wow so I crop an image send it to the printers and even though they dont touch it the fact it goes through a machine to print means its edited with colours etc. OK fair enough but it certainly isnt like wasting hours taking photos in RAW and editing every single one. On a small scale if you took pics and then had talent in graphic design (I have seen some very impressive night time shots taht have been worked on to enhance them) but not when its 400-600 pics a day. Its nearly Royal show time again and when you download then rename those 400-600 pics each day for 8 days the last thing you want to do is post processing on them unless you get actual orders for that image! I do like the sharpening tools in CS4 - saved a few photos that I completely stuffed up at the yearling sales.

They often ran it through as is on whatever the setting was for the brand of paper (some chains had workers that didnt care) or they darkened them a touch apparently. The latter was once I was a regular customer - most places were so busy on a Monday they printed as is. IF you found someone who had the time and talent to work on the images it was fantastic as even if you missed slightly (since film if you overexposed it was ok) theyd fix it.

I take jpegs since to edit every shot would be ridiculous - what is taken on the day needs to be as correct as possible (and no the camera is not on any special settings though they are there under the menus - its takes the same photos using the same settings I used for the film I used). But then I came from a film camera background where you had to get it right and only found out a day or two later and couldnt just edit in photoshop. I do crop most images before printing but with digital images its better to allow that tiny bit of space when taking them as the dimensions for various prints vary a fair bit when you crop them for printing (the out of camera image is the correct size for a 4x6 inch or 8 x 12 inch print but other sizes are a lot different).

Have you not attached the camera strap? Then its around your neck and you wont drop it

The sand at the beach will help you as it reflects light so will help with the black dog - you would have to try some different settings as you can get away with the white dog being overexposed a touch and you can bring up the shadows (black dog) in post processing. The one and only wedding I did had a very pale skinned girl in white and a darker skinned bloke in the black suit but when the light was in the right place (sin or flash) it all worked ok. The problem starts when you have bad lighting such as being backlit or overcast and darkish.