How To Take Great Photos

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Do you know of a camera under $700 that takes great-quality photos?

Nikon d5000, Canon EOSs, Panasonic, etc, etc. Please be specific.

I don't know "camera-speak," so when looking for a camera, is there a number that I should be looking at that's going to tell me how good the picture quality is (like pixels and things like that?)

Do you know of any websites that have samples of pictures taken from the camera so that I can judge the quality for myself (a site that's not sponsored by the camera company?)

Thanks, guys!

For that price, you could go for a Rebel XSi (or equivalent in Nikon or sony ... i just shoot Canon so that's what I am most familiar with) ... it's my backup camera to my T1i at weddings ...

Megapixels aren't that important unless you want to start printing billboards really. Anything over 6MP will do you fine so the Xsi (at 10MP or is it 12MP ... I forget) is good enough.

These are portraits my wife took at a wedding ... we offer a service where we take portraits of all the guests (that want to) and have them sign in a book and I merge that into a photobook as their guestbook. My wife is NOT a photographer, she just does this for me at weddings while I do reception shots so we don't have to hire a second shooter and that way we keep our operating cost lower.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/51633413@N07/4824410992/in/set-72157624447483747/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/51633413@N07/4823800907/in/set-72157624447483747/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/51633413@N07/4823804967/in/set-72157624447483747/

These were taken with a Rebel XSi in RAW, they are unedited (other than nudging the contrast and shadows a tiny bit), they were shot with one off camera flash behind a shoot through unbrella and with a backdrop. I usually also have a second flash shooting at the backdrop to drown out the shadow created by the light from the umbrealla (look at the left hand side) but we were short one flash that day ... buying some cheap flashes (40$ each) for off camera work this week to supplement my 3 current flashes.

I can print these at poster size and they look absolutely gorgeous.

Start with a starting DSLR with a kit lens and learn about apperture, shutter speed and ISO to start ... once you understand what these things are and how they interact to create a picture THEN you can start looking at more lenses, a shoe mount flash ... by then, you should know what type of photography interests you most (portraits, landscape, sports, wildlife, macro ...). Each type of photography uses different gear.

The best site for reviews and examples of shots, I find, is www.DPReview.com (DP as in Digital Photography). They compare similar cameras, show exmaples, explain what the pros and cons are ... just a great site for reviews.

A good site to learn about the use of flash (on and off camera) is http://strobist.blogspot.com but first learn about shutter speed, ISO and aperture.

How to Take Good Pictures : How to Adjust the Lens Aperture


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