Looking at Upgrading my DSLR. Any help would be appreciated.

[mk3]

i currently have a canon 1000D twin lens kit and i feel my photos are starting to hit there peek a little. Im looking for something to take my photos to the next step. should i start looking into lighting products ? or should i get a new lens (i only have the standered 2) or if i should upgrade the body to say a 500D or some thing.
To me i think its the lens's......the 50mm is to small and the 300mm is way to big......
Another issue im having is im having im not really getting the DOF that i want (im sure its some thing IM doing wrong but i dont know what....i see alot of the guys on here can snap a car driving past and they get awesome DOF out of the picture but i got to try real hard and it still turns out shit lol)

can any one recomend a lens? should i get a wide angle lens ? if some one could recomend a good lens for me i would greatly appreciate it. im looking to spend around 300, maybe a little more if needed.
allso, any "starting off" lighting kits out there that wont hurt the bank to badly....i do this more of a hobby rather then to make a carreer out of it.....


my flickr acc is www.flickr.com/turboa if any one can check em out and let me know/tips/equip/what im doing wrong or if i should upgrade it would be good.

thanks heaps, Aj.

[DeathLens]

I would suggest upgrading your camera. (T2i, 60D)

What is your 50mm that you have, 50mm 1.8? Try to find something like the Sigma 18-125mm lens, or the Canon 28-125mm.

Lighting kits are going to cost you. Take it from me don't bother buying flashes off ebay.

[Kielan]

If you really want speedlights, (I VERY rarely use mine), but if you do, buy used, you can typically get Nikon Sb-26's for 150ish a piece.. Pretty much some of the best speedlights around (even if they are 10+ years old).

For a camera I would recommend you get a T2i, not crazy expensive, video quality is the same as the 7D, its what I use and I love it.

If you want some good DOF shots, buy a 50 mm 1.8, and then get ready to start spending serious money on L glass. I think you will soon see that this is not a hobby that you can really skimp in.

[mk3]

i got EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II and the EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III.

[mk3]

went to check out the 50mm 1.8 tonight. every one seems to be telling me to get it. will it get me good DOF with normal car shots standing around a meter or 2 away ? thats what im aiming for.....or do i need a large lens and stand further back to get the nice blured back ground ?
allso checked out the 80mm 1.8 bit more pricey but guy at camera store reckons its a good lens (got priced $650)


*edit* at the moment im using my 70-300mm lens to get my DOF shots and im standing fkn ages away with it zoomed in hard. should i be setting my apeture high or low for the blured back ground look?

[Kielan]

You need a low aperture for the background to be "blurred", but the background also needs to be a certain distance away, it can't be right up behind the car, the further away the background is the more it will be "blurred", but this also seriously changes the look of the picture. I suggest you read your camera's manual, and read up about bokeh, what the aperture does, and the general overall functions of your camera, before you start spending lots of money on this.

And no I'm not trying to be an ass, but it really does seem like you should get familiar with the camera and what everything does before you start jumping into this.

[mk3]

na man i agree. i know most of the stuff in my camera....just wasent sure about apeture that much. never really played around that much with it. normally just focus, shutter speeds, white balance etc etc.

going to buy the 50mm 1.8 tonight and was allso looking at alien bees starter kit lights. does any one know if alien bees lights are any good ?

[Eric M]

Alien Bees are nice because a lot of them have built in slaves so you can trigger them from other flashes as opposed to buying another pocketwizard or running another sync cord. The main downside I see with them is how bulky they can get when you combined the weight with a battery etc... although the light output makes up for it.

Also, as Kielan said, depth of field (how in focus or out of focus) is determined by the aperture. The smaller the number the wider the aperture. Example f2 will have a shallower depth of field than f8.

[J. Evins]

- You have not reached the full potential of your camera body. It is very capable. I wouldn't worry about upgrading at all at this point. If you do want to spend money, remember: Glass > Camera Body.

- Keep working on your composition.

- Add more variety to your angles. While you're at it, use that telephoto a bit more for automotive - it will give good compression and square up the car nicely.

- The 50mm is a great lens, for the money (less than $100) you can't go wrong.

- If you don't have a polarizer then get one.

[Kielan]

na man i agree. i know most of the stuff in my camera....just wasent sure about apeture that much. never really played around that much with it. normally just focus, shutter speeds, white balance etc etc.

going to buy the 50mm 1.8 tonight and was allso looking at alien bees starter kit lights. does any one know if alien bees lights are any good ?

You're only wasting your money if you buy lighting right now, only if you really need it, buy it. Seriously after talking to a few people it really isn't necessary, get a speedlight if you really want to as they can be useful a fair amount. I don't honestly understand your rush to upgrade, you don't need to. Get more lenses and practice with what you have, like wise men have said in the past. Its not all the gear you have, its how you use it.

Let's face it, getting a new body isn't going to change your skills at shooting a stationary car, or for that matter any car really. Get your skills up, get really good, then upgrade.

[mk3]

i mainly do night photo shoots and i have trouble getting all the detail out of black cars in some locations, hence the reason i was looking into lighting. will a speed light give me nice soft light or will it give me a harsh light like the standered flash ?

[Kielan]

No light is going to be soft, unless its diffused in some way. Speedlights (especially used) are much much cheaper. And I **** to burst your bubble here, but shooting black cars at night is always difficult, you need to go to well lit areas, and get some real long exposures, and merge them all in PS so that you get 1 well lit picture. I mean speed lights help, but right now, I would say just don't take pictures at night go during the day, it would help you a lot more in terms of gaining skills.

[mk3]

ah ok, i never thought of merging normal photos like that to make it better.

[mk3]

sample of my canon 50mm f1.8......gettin apeture down pat.

[hover]

If you want some good DOF shots...

Go full frame.

You need a higher aperture, but it reads as a lower number. IE f/1.2 is a low aperture. f/28 is a high aperture. for the background to be "blurred", but the background also needs to be a certain distance away, it can't be right up behind the car, the further away the background is the more it will be "blurred", but this also seriously changes the look of the picture. I suggest you read your camera's manual, and read up about bokeh, what the aperture does, and the general overall functions of your camera, before you start spending lots of money on this.
.

Fixed that for you, and what is actually in focus, or blurred will depend on a lot of things such as how close you are to your subject, what aperture, et cetera, not just how far away something is. The OP wants to know, so I figure we might as well tell him the correct answer, not a watered down version that he is going to have to unlearn later.

Kielan is right though, the biggest upgrade you can make at this point is yourself, and knowing how it all works together. Reading, shooting, examining photographs, and then readin, shooting, and examining more photographs is a great way to teach yourself.

na man i agree. i know most of the stuff in my camera....just wasent sure about apeture that much. never really played around that much with it. normally just focus, shutter speeds, white balance etc etc.

going to buy the 50mm 1.8 tonight and was allso looking at alien bees starter kit lights. does any one know if alien bees lights are any good ?

aperture is part of the equation. Check out how if you put the camera in a programmed auto mode, how the aperture changes with the shutter speed. I shoot in manual 90% of the time, even in challenging and constantly changing light environments like weddings, and if I didn't know how it all worked together, I'd be *&^&$ed.

Alien Bees are great lights. Some photographers have reported WB issues with theirs, but they have shot WAY to many frames, look at too many pixels individually, and swap bulbs in one, but not all of them. Basically, for where you are, they are dope, but if you suddenly turn into a international hot-shot photographer, you will want to upgrade. For 95-99% of the world, and even pros, they are fine, IMO.

- You have not reached the full potential of your camera body. It is very capable. I wouldn't worry about upgrading at all at this point. If you do want to spend money, remember: Glass > Camera Body.

- Keep working on your composition.

- Add more variety to your angles. While you're at it, use that telephoto a bit more for automotive - it will give good compression and square up the car nicely.

- The 50mm is a great lens, for the money (less than $100) you can't go wrong.

- If you don't have a polarizer then get one.

/\ THIS.

i mainly do night photo shoots and i have trouble getting all the detail out of black cars in some locations, hence the reason i was looking into lighting. will a speed light give me nice soft light or will it give me a harsh light like the standered flash ?

Try doing some painting with light. Do a long exposure, and use any available light to paint some light in where you need it.

No light is going to be soft, unless its diffused in some way. Speedlights (especially used) are much much cheaper. And I **** to burst your bubble here, but shooting black cars at night is always difficult, you need to go to well lit areas, and get some real long exposures, and merge them all in PS so that you get 1 well lit picture. I mean speed lights help, but right now, I would say just don't take pictures at night go during the day, it would help you a lot more in terms of gaining skills.

OP, please don't listen to all of this. Shoot when you want to, and figure out how to make it work. Is shooting when there is more light available easier, YES. Why the heck wouldn't it be? Photography is in essence painting with light, or manipulating the light, if you have more of it to play with, or you are completely controlling it with your own lights, then of course it is going to be easier to get the shot you want. Saying that it is necessary to merge shots to get 1 well lit picture is pure and utter horseshit. Sorry Kielan. It just seems as if more and more people these days shoot to have something that they can correct in post, not get it right in the camera the first time. The entire point in taking, or making a photograph is to capture that frame with the camera, not with the computer.

If you want to shoot at night, then yes, having auxiliary lighting would probably help you a lot. But, so would learning everything that you and the camera are doing to make the image that you want.

ah ok, i never thought of merging normal photos like that to make it better.

You shouldn't have to think about merging photos to make a good one. You should learn how to take a photograph.

Kielan, sorry, I am not trying to go off on you, but if this guy actually wants to learn, then I'm down for helping him out. Learning how to post process photographs isn't ever going to make anyone into a better photographer. Honestly, I wish there was a block on people's ish so that they couldn't have an editing program on their computer for the first couple of years that they were shooting. Hell, I'm sure that there are many people on this site that know Photoshop a lot better than I do. I don't care. I like spending time behind my camera, not behind my computer.