Sony a500

[PrincesP]

I am a "green" amateur photographer but I LOVE it!! I've gotten some very beautiful pictures but am afraid a lot of it is luck. I've been lucky enough to receive many compliments from friends & family and offers to "photog" senior pictures, baby pix, beach scenes, etc... BUT I am scared because I know a lot of my success is accidental.

Can anyone help me better understand how to get crisp photos all in focus, crisp photos with a blurred background, and I've noticed a lot of photos have such vivid, vibrant colors. Is that editing or camera?? I have Photoshop CS4 but adept at that as well...HELP please!!

[Anbesol]

Bright and vivid colors can detail 2 unique, sometimes complimentary things. One of them is the brightness, which is controlled by the exposure. The exposure, of course, is 100% in camera. The other thing is color saturation, which is controlled both in and out of camera easily - I keep mine at 0 in camera (which is its default), for more natural colors, but its easy enough to adjust saturation after the fact. On CS4, just hit ctrl+u and the second slider bar is saturation, usually +5/10/15 will cover just about anything.

The background blurriness is controlled by the depth of field, which depends primarily on what aperture/aka f-stop setting you use. The smaller the f-stop, the narrower the dof, the included example was shot at f/1.7, and at that close distance, the dof is literally millimeters thin. Shooting at f/8-f/10 will almost always give you pretty wide depth of field. Though keeping in mind, this is all dependent upon your magnification: how close you are to your subject and focus point.

Always remember that the depth of field rests on a plane that runs parallel to your sensors plane, there is a bit more in the center of the lens than the borders.

Id consider two things as objective to your learning the craft first: understanding manual exposure for your photography, and understanding layer masking for your editing. Once you understand these things then you can really gain some control over your results.

[OldClicker]

Welcome, Pam. I think you came to the right place.

The best way to learn here is to post images you have questions on or just post your best and ask for critique.

One problem with learning from just advice is that you get it in bits and pieces and sometimes it's hard to put it all together. Everything you change to fix one thing also affects many others. Try a good book like

http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-...d=QBIRG3H6BZB7

Your first question is about Depth of Focus (DoF) which is how far in front of and in back of the object you focus on will still be in focus. This is mainly controlled by Aperture (f/stop) which is the size of the hole in the lens. The wider the aperture (smaller the f/stop number) the less DoF you will have. Try a couple of shots in good light - one with you lens set at the lowest f/stop and another with it set at the highest. (Do these in Aperture Priority mode.) The low f/stop will have a blurred background and the high f/stop will be in focus over a greater distance.

The colors come from post processing (PP). If you are shooting with jpg files, you can do some of this PP right in the camera with your Saturation, Contrast, etc. settings.

CS4 is a great program. Search for an on-line free intro course to pick up the basic ideas.

TF

EDIT: Oh, and welcome to the world of Sony/Minolta! - TF

[daisyallen]

# High-speed continuous shooting up to 5fps (with optical viewfinder) and 7fps in Speed Priority mode (A550 only)
# Enhanced Quick AF Live View captures fast-moving action, with Face Detection for beautiful portraits
# Auto HDR mode for high dynamic range exposures
# Class-leading shooting stamina (1,000 shots - A500)
# HDMI™ output and BRAVIA™ Sync for control from TV remote
# 180º tilt-angle 3” Xtra Fine LCD (A550) and intuitive new interface for clear, simple shooting
# ew 12.3/14.2 effective megapixel (A500/A550) CMOS sensor and new enhanced BIONZ processor for detail-packed, low-noise images with high sensitivity up to ISO 12800
# Manual Focus Check Live View mode for precise, convenient adjustment of focus and composition