My first photo taken with the t3i, 50mm f1\8 lens and no flash…
Not too bad. Try to mess with the AF points manually. The camera focused on his nose so his eyes, etc. are a bit blurry.
Welcome to the DSLR club.
Yeah… I set the camera to blur the back ground… I just didn’t do a good enough job of focusing on his face…
Good stuff man, like ilya said make note of the focus points. I’m sure you’ll figure it out on your own though 
When your using the lens wide open at 1.8 like that the focus area is very small, best thing to do IMO is set the auto focus to a single point and adjust that point as needed, or leave it dead center and use the focus lock for adjustments subjects position while keeping focus on the same focal plane.
Anyways have fun with it, I know im having a blast playing with mine all the time 
Don’t quit your day job
:lol jk
I’m jelly, I want a T3i
Practice practice practice. AF is great but it can be a bitch sometimes too. I usually take 3-4 pictures if I have the chance to do it so I can make sure I get my focus where I want it. I use a manual lens, but I’d probably do the same with an auto as well. Glad you went for it! You’ll be happy with the 50 and you can resell it for what you paid if you aren’t.
Would one of you guys mind meeting with me to help me understand all the settings and what they do? I’ve read the manual, but a hands on explanation would be better for me. If someone wouldn’t mind, that would be awesome.
I would man but i’ve only used my girl’s canon once and had a lot of trouble figuring it out. Hopefully someone else can give you a hand. Best advice i can give you though is take pictures of everything. Play around with it. Clicks on a dslr are free, so take advantage of that and play with it. Use full manual too, you’ll start to understand the more you mess with it.
Not a bad picture at all. In a situation like that bump up the f stop to get the whole face of the dog in focus
I’m not as good as Nick/CFD/KBB etc but I know camera settings pretty well :lol
IDK when the hell i could get out and show ya but theres always skype :number1
Honestly for now, dont stress yourself shooting manual and getting everything adjusted, take some time and get comfortable with taking photos. A lot of times unless your goign for some specific look, you can leave it in a programmed auto or something of the equivalent for cannon. Nikon Calls it Programmed Auto.
Basicly camera still takes care of shutter speed and aperture, but you can control the white balance etc to amke sure your getting the color you want and whatnot. If somethings not to your likeing it will still allow you to choose an aperture or shutter speed you want without fussing about the command dial
For the most part, with my ISO settings set how I want them, my D90s pretty good about selecting the correct apertures/shutter speed that I would have set anyways, though manual is nice just because you have full control, and nothing changes unless you change it.
for most situations, general shooting i guess you could say a form of programmed auto would be fine.
I only recommend using full manual because it will allow you to see how exactly each setting changes the outcome of your picture. Don’t ever stress over any of it, just have fun.
Yea I guess I kind of agree with this, though to be honest I dont think people give cameras enough credit. In general shooting situation, why dick with manual when your camera can do it for you in a fraction of the time it would take you? I’m not talking full on dumb green auto, but an assisted auto, where you can choose the picture settings etc, but just lett the camera take care of some of it.
I’m not saying this is the case for every shot, sometimes manual is the only way to get the desired outcome.
I guess I should say playu around with manual and see what the effect are just like crew said, when im just around the house, or if im just taking quick shots I use programmed auto, when im actually taking time to setup shots etc then I use manual always.
I’ve never used a programmed auto honestly so i don’t know much about it. I always set my iso as low as possible and my aperture i have to change manually because my lens is old, same with focus, so changing my shutter speed is nbd at that point. If you can use a programmed auto it sounds like an awesome setup.
It is very nice. Realistically unless your doing long exposures or are looking to use a specific aperture its the way to go, especially in those times when you really don’t have time to dick around. Still allows you to control white balance, color saturation, sharpness, ISO settings etc unlike the Auto side of the dial (Auto/Portriate/Sports/Landscape etc)
Sometime in low light its not the greatest, as it will choose a slower shutter speed then you really need. Auto ISO adjustment is really nice as well, keeps my camera at ISO 100 unless light is low enough to where you would need a shutter speed of 1/15 and start bumping it up automatically. This feature is great, though in manual can sometimes select an ISO you don’t want based on the sutter aperature you want even if light allows for it. I usually shoot a little underexposed which using anything auto tries to fight :lol
Is that your fucking thumb in the bottom middle of that pic dude?
Rocking chair arm.
Mo4r pics?
Best advice I can give you is set the camera to Manual mode and just shoot anything. Its the best way to learn.
In manual mode you can easily learn what each function does and how it plays a part in the final outcome of your photo. Basically there are three variables:
ISO: This is carried over from film cameras, ISO is how sensitive film is to light or film speed as its referred to. Its called ISO after the ISO standard to which film is produced. Your SLR should have an ISO range from 100 to 3200 or more, I cant remember off the top of my head what the T3i goes to. The lower ISO number the less noise or grain will be in the photo, the higher the ISO number the more grain and noise in the photo. So why not just set it at ISO 100 all the time and forget about it? The lower ISO number requires more light (longer shutter speed or smaller aperture number) to have a correctly exposed image. If you are in a low light situation without a tripod, you may need to bump up the ISO to say, 800 in order to compensate for the lack of light.
Low VS. High ISO:
Aperture: If you look into your camera lens from the front you will see a few black “blades” in the lens. These blades act like the pupils of your eye in different brightness levels of light, however in manual mode you can manually adjust how much they open.
A larger aperture (smaller number on the camera) opens these blades more to let the most light into the sensor, a small aperture (higher number on the camera) closes the blades and lets less light in. Again, why not just leave it at a larger aperture (smaller number on the camera) all the time? Because aperture plays an important role in how much of your image is in focus. At f/1.8 you will have more blur (referred to as “Bokeh”) in the background than you will at f/22. However as previously mentioned, f/22 will require more light to pass through the smaller aperture opening than the larger opening of f/1.8 would. Most landscape photos I take are at around f/8 - there is a saying “f/8 and be there” for landscape photos, at f/8 everything will be in focus and won’t require such a long shutter speed as f/22. Better quality lenses will produce rounded bokeh as opposed to “squared off corners” of other lenses.
Aperture blades:
Aperture comparison (notice the change in background blur):
The rounded bokeh of the traffic lights in the distance and out of focus hybrid badge; larger apertures will create more blur. I took this at f/2.
Shutter Speed: Shutter speed/exposure time/exposure value is how long the cameras shutter stays open after the shutter release button is pressed. Your T3i should do around 1/8000th of a second (fastest) to 30 seconds (slowest). As a common rule of thumb without the help of any image stabilization you should be able to take a photo hand held at 1/60th and still have it come out without blur from shaky hands. Some people can do handheld shots at 1/14th, all depends how steady you are.
If you look through your view finder when the camera is on you will see something that looks like this or close to it:
Shutter speed is displayed as you can see above in a numerical value, however if you look to the right you can see an EV Scale. This is your cameras built in light meter. That scale has a zero at the middle. When everything is properly adjusted for a correct exposure the flashing line above the scale should be over the zero. If its on the negative side (-1, -2, -3) it will be darker, on the positive side it will be just the opposite; lighter/brighter. In full manual setting with the camera on, hold the camera and look through the view finder. You will notice the scale change depending on where you point the camera based on how much light there is on what you are aiming at.
Now, you can see how each of the three factors affects each other. At f/8 you will need a higher ISO or longer shutter speed than you would at f/1.8.
The easiest thing to do if you’re outside and want to frig around taking photos is set your camera at ISO 100, f/4, and then adjust your shutter speed based upon what your light meter says when looking through the view finder. If you want to have more background blur, set the aperture to f/2, leave the ISO at 100 and adjust your shutter speed accordingly. Sometimes that light meter plays tricks on you if you are shooting a darker object such as a black car, the light meter will think you need more light than you do - so a little trial and error may be needed.
It takes time to learn, as I have said before I learn new stuff everyday. Take your time and enjoy it. And remember FULL MANUAL! The only auto I use is auto focus because my eyes suck.
THAT is why, ladies and gentleman he’s the local king ^ :bowdown
Welp, there ya go :rofl
I’d listen to KBB before me :lol
BTW wasnt discouraging manual use at all, only way to roll when your shooting a subject and everything ive posted here aside from a couple was all done with me useing manual. More or less meant don’t stress it to much while your getting comfortable with the camera. Maybe it did nto come off right.
I will add and say Don’t let the cameras manual, guides or anything like that overwhelm you, may seem all complicated at first, like KBB and Crew said just fuck with settings and see what they do. I really haent put my camera down since I’ve gotten it. You learn little tricks and your cameras quirks, much like KBB mentioned with the light metering, and you just keep note of certain things what work and waht dont, so in the future when shooting something you don’t have to spend as much time dicking around.
I’ve set up my camera and played with lenses in differant settings to find out whats sharp and whats not, what gives me the desired outcome and taken notes.