Kannan_madhu
Well-Known Member
RE Bull ?
Thinking of going for a P&S with Aperture and Shutter modes.
In January 2012 I sold my Nikon D40 DSLR with which I had been pointing and shooting for close to 4 years. At the time of the sale the shutter count was around 7000. The exif data of the 2000+ pictures which I had retained shows that all the pics were shot in the Auto mode. For four years I used a Nikon D40 with it's kit lens, blissfully ignorant of what a digital SLR was capable of achieving :sad: Today when I look at those pics the shortcomings of expecting the DSLR to do all your work are blatantly obvious to me. Now I feel that shooting in the auto mode may sometimes give acceptable results, but one would rarely get a memorable picture.
Every step which I have taken to gain manual control of what I am shooting has yielded an improvement. After shedding the Auto mode I gradually played around with the program, aperture priority and shutter speed modes. Now I have finally, and forever, settled on the fully manual mode. I tried the Auto ISO and White Balance settings on my Nikon, and finally rejected them, as they are at best a hit or miss affair. To get the right exposure, color and focus it is essential that your mind and hands can fluidly take control of many inter related factors. The most important being:
aperture setting
shutter speed
white balance
iso
exposure compensation
matrix/center weighted/spot metering
single point/dynamic area/auto area focusing
Beyond this, understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the body and the lens you are using is absolutely essential. Before I made the decision to acquire my present kit, I gave serious thought to the kind of photography that I wanted to do. I made a list of my preferences and interests:
I was absolutely convinced that I only wanted single focal length (prime) lenses. I believe that true high resolution pics require an affordable prime or ( for me ) an unaffordable pro zoom lens. Therefore ONLY primes.
I am only interested in natural light photography and absolutely require the wider apertures from 1.8-3.5. Therefore ONLY primes.
I love both Hollywood and Creamy bokeh's therefore ONLY primes.
I wanted a semi-pro portrait lens for half body and head shots. I wanted a general purpose lens which could also double as a portrait lens. I wanted a lens for landscapes. And I wanted a lens for micro shots. All for a cropped sensor DSLR with a crop factor of 1.5.
I wanted a reasonably priced DSLR which felt nice in my hand, had a pentaprism viewfinder, manual buttons for all the essential features and the right weight. Both for carrying around and for balancing the prime lenses I would be using.
I wanted to shoot people, streets, nature. Primarily in a candid, non posed, reflective mode. I wanted to attempt to take photographs which revealed the inner essence of a person or an object rather than the dumb mask of their outer essence. Sounds ambitious!
A couple of weeks ago I finally decided on the following kit. I have highlighted what I have already acquired and the rest will be bought in the future.
Nikon D90 (body only) 36K
Nikon 85mm 1.8D 20K
Nikon 50mm 1.8D 5.5K
Nikon 24mm 1.8D 20K
Nikon 105mm 2.8D 30K
Expecting enthusiastic contributions from the pro's/semi pro's and amateurs on the forum
My recent pics on Flickr. Ordinary but improving.
Flickr: rublev's Photostream
I was hunting around for some books on photography and shortlisted the following:
The Photographer's Eye/Michael Freeman
The Art Of Photography/Bruce Bambaum
Chasing The Light/Ibarionex Perello
Understanding Exposure/Bryan Patterson
Mountain Light/Galen Rowell
The Camera/Ansel Adams
The Digital Photography Book/Scott Kelby
Digital Exposure Handbook/Ross Hoddinott
The Complete Guide To Digital Photography/Michael Freeman
I have already placed an order for The Photographers Eye. It is available on Flipkart for 1341 with delivery within 2-3 days. I preferred to economise and ordered it from Pustak.co.in for 910 with delivery within 4-6 weeks. Four weeks have gone by and I am still waiting
pustak.co.in: Buy Online Magazines store in India