[atax112]

Hello and warm greets to everyone!

I am Attila Tamas or atax112 for short. A 24 year old single (lol) network admin from Slovakia, Central Europe with a passion for nature, hiking, cycling and of course great image quality.
I love taking pictues, my current K-30 is the third camera and first DSLR I have ever had. After trying out the Canon of my buddie I fell in love with all the possibilities and of course the quality of the photos taken. That was around when the K-m or K-r was out.

So after a few years, finally managing to save up and in a great turn of events finishig my studies and getting my first full time job I got myself a K-30 set with the oh so classic 18-55 and the 50-300 ED. Considering the options available at that time I couldn't have chosen better.

The thing is, I have a passion for taking photos but not much skill or experience with composition or all the functions my camera provides, so I might be waisting a lot of potential.
I really love macro shots and maybe some day I'll get a nice lens for that to take my hobby to the next level

Looking forward to be part of this surely great community of photographers and camera geeks, artists and amateurs. Lovely people with the best bulit DSLR's in our galaxy

So that is my story. Love feedback so don't hold yourself back. Happy to be here, I'll try to follow my interests around here through a 100% Pentaprism with manual focus, haha.

Love you all.

[patrick9]

Welcome to the Forums..

[savoche]

Welcome, and thanks for the intro! Good to have you with us. The K-30 sure is a capable camera, and it would take an excellent photographer to fulfill it's potential

I think the best way to learn is to take pictures with some special aim (composition, light, focus, shapes, colours, telling a story...), then post some of them here for comments.

The first steps for me was to get the framing right and to watch the background. The easy part is to get what you want in the frame. The hard part is to exclude what shouldn't be there...

Most important of all: Have fun!

[Kerrowdown]

through a 100% Pentaprism with manual focus

Welcome to the forum, that's the way I work all the time.

[atax112]

Thank you all for the kind words and tips. On Saturday I'll have some free time so I will check out some interesting topics and the galleries. I'm sure I will find some basic tips and tricks, how to's for the mentioned topics. Looking forward to finally learn how to shoot excellent frames

[zekewhipper]

Welcome!

I would suggest that you work on mastering exposure first. Histograms and exposure compensation are your best friends for that. Learn to use those tools on the camera along with ISO, aperture, and shutter speed; and you will be off to a good start. Everything else follows exposure in importance.

[atax112]

Great tip zakewhipper! Thanks.

What should be my goal when trying out different settings? Should I look at the histogram ? Get an exposure around 0? Normally I adjust the three basic settings, keeping ISO at the lowest possible value depending on the conditions. Usually I am please with the overall quality of my photos, but sometimes I have some issues with blur. I am afraid to use fast shutter speeds and higher ISO settings as I don't want any noise.

I probably need to get more used to the great abilities of the K-30. I need more time to go through some tips and tricks around here.

So far I have noted framing and exposure. No idea how to begin

I will do some research.

[TER-OR]

Don't be afraid to let the ISO move up if you need to keep your shutter speed high. A good shot is worth pushing the camera. I think the sensor can make very good images past ISO 6400, but you should experiment with your style.

If you like to practice manual focus, look for used 50mm kit lenses. They should be available for very little money. Even the 50mm f/2 lenses are pretty good.

[zekewhipper]

Great tip zakewhipper! Thanks.

What should be my goal when trying out different settings? Should I look at the histogram ? Get an exposure around 0? Normally I adjust the three basic settings, keeping ISO at the lowest possible value depending on the conditions. Usually I am please with the overall quality of my photos, but sometimes I have some issues with blur. I am afraid to use fast shutter speeds and higher ISO settings as I don't want any noise.

I probably need to get more used to the great abilities of the K-30. I need more time to go through some tips and tricks around here.

So far I have noted framing and exposure. No idea how to begin

I will do some research.

You're welcome.

Your goal should be learning the pros and cons of how each setting change affects the image. The most important realization that you need to make and understand regarding photography is that it is almost -constant compromise- amoungst variables depending what your goal/s are with the photograph.

It's good that you try to keep the ISO low HOWEVER, don't obsess over noise. It is better to get -a- noisy photo than -no- clean photo. Remember, the principle purpose behind most photography is to capture and incident in time.

Your blur issues can be caused by...
...too slow a shutter speed to freeze the action.
...too slow a shutter speed for the focal length you are shooting at - even with image stabilization.
...poor camera handling technique.
...subject is out of focus.
...a dirty lens or lower quality filter.
...inconsistant performance of the lens, like at the extreme ends of the range of a zoom.
...shooting with the aperture wide open.

If you don't already have a tripod, get one and start using it. A lot of your blur issues will go away naturally, because a tripod allows you to use the full spectum of settings at any given time.

If I could figure out how to post it, I made a diagram once showing how to identify the nature/source of blur in photographs if one didn't already know.

When it comes to photography basics, and I mean those things that are not specifically digital technology related, any decent book on photography written since maybe the 1960's will be of use. Why, because the fundamentals of photography have not changed in nearly 100 years.

The series of videos put on by AdoramaTV on YouTube are great! They are short, well presented, and concise. I recommend them highly!

Here is an example:

You Tube

You Tube