Although i can't afford another lens as of yet for my new Canon 1000D i'm looking at a couple of cheaper ways to spice up my pics slightly, and i've been looking at wide angle filters like these: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/58mm-0.45X-Wi...n-Olympus_W0QQitemZ370218581845QQcmdZViewItem Which can be had for around 20, has anyone got any experience of them? Apparently they can result in some vignetting at extreme settings but nothing that couldn't be cropped out/worked around i'm sure! Also re. editing software; What does everyone use? Got some basic Canon software with the camera but haven't played with it yet, thought i'd be better off learning with the software i'll be using all the time rather than having to re-learn things in different programs afterwards. Guy in the camera shop mentioned PS Elements? Or a free piece of software called Picasso i think it was? What is best in terms of cost (cheap/free is better) and features/ease of use? Cheers, James
Hi, Never tried a wide angle filter before but alot of technology goes into the wide angle lens market hence the hefty price tag associated with buying one. I doubt a 20 filter would achieve the same result. However you can't really go wrong at that price can you? I picked up a Sigma lens for about a third of the price of the equivalent Nikon branded lens. Although this still isn't cheap. Not tried Canon post production software but I doubt it's much different to that provided by Nikon in terms of functionality. I would imagine you can only carry out minor/basic image correction/manipulation. What do you want to be able to do to your photos? If you're looking at heavy image manipulation then something like photoshop/elements is probably the way forward. If your budget is next to nothing spend time learning your existing software inside out and save up for a decent package once you are certain you will get your monies worth. I use Nikon transfer/ViewNX to transfer images from camera to desktop then export/import them into Adobe Lightroom which is a post production tool designed around the workflow of photographers. This software allows me to adjust all manner of settings, add metadata/copyright information and export them in a wide range of formats. What do you want to be able to achieve from image manipulation? Perhaps if you start there we can recommend some good tools You may have already considered/achieved this but consider your camera angle or composition when taking photographs sometimes a change of perspective can add a whole different dimension to your photographs. Images taken low down looking up at your subject can make them appear much more dramatic or artistic depending on your taste. Hope this helps
Agree mostly with ^^^^^ However, not all camera software is bad and I believe Canon give away decent software, whereas teh Nikon Capture NX you have to pay for and at 100 it is not cheap. It is good, but quirky and not a particularly easy learning curve. I use Photoshop 7, but this is now several versions old (CS, then CS3, then CS4 is the latest). However, it still does what it always did and is a very powerful piece of software, but again with a fairly steep learning curve. Picassa is a freebie and OK-ish, but I didn't like it. I bought Photoshop Elements 7 on Amazon for 30. It wa billed as second hand, but arrived as a sealed package. It is a cut down version of Photoshop but a lot simpler to use. It also has Adobe Camera RAW software in it, allowing you to manipulate RAW images, which are a lot better than .jpgs. Overall, I think you will be best, as a beginner, buying this package. There are loads of free tutorials on the Internet and any serious photographer will know loads about it, whereas the Canon and Nikon software isn't so well known. Also, I would recommend a magazine called Digital Photo, which is about 5 a month. It comes with a DVD with tutorials on each month, with blow-by-blow articles in the magazine. And you can always come on here and ask for help. Good luck!
^Brilliant advice. You are never far away from good info on Photoshop, and there are some superb books out there too. Arguably the best ones are by Martin Evening.
I've managed to acquire Photoshop CS so i'll get cracking on that, and have a look for some tutorial books, all i've done so far is crop and sharpen up this image slightly: but i'm going to a few shows over the next couple of weeks so i'll have lots of material to work with! Should i be shooting in RAW mainly then if i'm going to be playing around with the image afterwards? I'm borrowing one of the wide angle filters off a friend for an evening to see what results i can get, i'm obviously not expecting miracles but for the price i think it could give me another dimension to some of my pictures. Thanks very much for all the advice, it's been really helpful
That's a nice image there what shutter speed where you using for that? RAW gives you the most flexibility when it comes to post processing - JPEG's wont allow you to play around with things like white balance in photoshop very easily. This will impact on file size though as they are cramming alot of data onto your SD card/computer. If you're only importing the image into your Canon software then onto a website say you should be able to carry out the conversion to jpeg/TIFF or whichever format turns you on. You've got a good eye for a photograph though.
Always work in RAW where you can - there is so much more scope for enhancing your pictures afterwards. Except when you're going for speed - such as if you're at a track day. RAW files are much larger, so take longer to write to the memory card, so even on continuous shooting, you won't get any decent shots (or so I've found).
