How to buy your first Digital SLR camera

So you're thinking about buying a Digital Single Lens Reflex Camera (DSLR). First off, good for you. You've finally joined the rest of us in the 21st century. I know how hard it was for you to let go of the vintage feel of watching your film develop in a dark room, but really, how much time do you have for that anymore? And, unless you're an over eager hobbiest, my guess is you don't have access to a dark room anyways. So DSLR it is. But now what? There are so many choices, and so many dollars to be spent, and potentially wasted on a camera far too advanced or far over priced for your photographic needs...Luck for you, you found my blog ;)
Summing it up
First off, you need to figure out what you are going to be taking pictures of. I like to break DSLR consumers into 3 categories. If all of the below fit, you are wise beyond your years. =)
1.) The Sporty Parent: Little Timmy and Sally are weekend warriors, and your life revolves around getting 300 pictures of their game winning goal, their home run swing, or just capturing the kids playing in the pool. You want photos of activities. You are generally on the sidelines observing and cheering on the situation. You want to show off your kids / friends in sports illustrated style action shots. Uses: Sports, Action, Telephoto lenses, shooting from greater distances.
2) The Quarter Life Artistic Crisis: On your road trip away from the daily grind, you find solace in the open road. The expansive skies. You find emotion in a sunset, or a dew encrusted flower. You love hiking, hugging trees, vibrant colors, and you want to capture these natural wonders with a camera capable of doing so. Uses: Landscapes, nature, sunsets, low light situations, tri-pods, wide angle lenses.
3) The Budding Wedding Photographer: You like people. You want to make people look good in your photos. You're tired of eyes half closed from blinking, washed out faces, red eyes, and tiny subjects. You aren't afraid to get close up and shove your camera into any moment. Uses: Portraits, Weddings, Parties, Indoor, People, Products, Tight shots with Flashes.
Of the three there are well suited options, which I will get to below. Of all three there are great versatile camera set ups that will allow for shooting in any situation.

Pricing It Out:
How much do you want to spend on this? DSLR camera bodies (without the lenses) range from $400 dollars to $2000. Lenses range from $200 to $10,000.
First, ask yourself if there is any way to make money from your shots. Are the hordes of soccer mom's willing to shell out some dough for their kids captured at their greatest. Are you thinking of doing some photo gigs on the side with your friends? If you camera, can in any way return some investment, spend as much as possible.
If you are doing this for personal endeavors, you want every dollar to count. This camera will last you for a while if you buy it right, and you should buy just the right product. Too little camera won't allow for any growth in the subject area, and too much camera might be wasted in areas you never utilize.
A incredibly good base model DSLR is the Nikon D40 (photo left). (about $600 w/ lens)
and or the Canon equivalent the 350D Digital Rebel (about $650 w/ lens)

See dpreview's review of the D40 here and the Canon Digital Rebel here. These cameras would be great for somebody who doesn't expect to grow much in the hobby, and wants a little more control over the photos than a typical point and shoot camera will provide. You will still find some shutter lag (time between clicking the shutter button and when the camera actually takes the picture) And you will find a limited selection of lenses for these models. Keep in mind for less the $200 more, you can get a substantially better camera.

A mid-ranged pro-sumer (not quite a pro, better than average consumer) model would be the Nikon D80 (about $900 w/ lens) and the Canon Digital Rebel Xti(about $800 w/ lens).

See the Nikon D80 dp review and theCanon Digital Rebel Xti review. Both of these cameras are great. Leaps and bounds better than the entry level models mentioned above. These two will give you everything you could ever need in a camera on a non-professional level. Although, even some professionals have been known to use these cameras. The lenses compatibility with these are far greater than the lower models, and even some of your old film SLR camera's lenses will work with either of these.
In case $900 is too much for this camera. See the Nikon D70. The model the D80 replaced. The price has plummeted on this model, and it is still, by all means, an incredible camera. One I have worked with for well over 2 years. For maybe about $700, you can score one of the D70s. See the D70 review.

There are higher model cameras available, the Nikon D1x and D2x, but well...if you're about to drop 2000 dollars on a new camera, you're one of two people who shouldn't be here. 1. A professional who is very bored. 2. Somebody with no experience, far too much money, and a learning curve ahead of them that would challenge even Ansel Adams.

Lenses:
The above prices and were quoted with the assumption that when you purchase the camera it will come with a standard DSLR lens. Generally something like a 18-70mm lens. What does that mean? 18-70mm is a fancy way of describing the effective depth of field your lens is capable of attaining.
18-77 mm lenses are good for landscape photography and subjects you can get up close to. If your subject is relatively still and within 10 feet, this is a great lens for all around shooting. This is the go to lens for most amature photographers. It is also good for relatively wide shots, of open landscapes or sunsets. Good for the quarter-life-artistic-crisis consumers. And the budding wedding photographer.
70-300mm lenses are good for sports photography that you can get within 100 ft of your subject. Say the sidelines of a little league game, or soccer. This won't get you close to pro sports athletes from the nosebleed seats, but if you're on the field with the players, this size lens will get you tight up shots of your subject. These can also work dramatically in portrait photography. Getting very tight on the face and blurring the background for a very professional look and feel.These lenses are great for the Sporty Parent and the budding wedding photographer.
300-700mm lenses are for subjects very far away. These are you standard telephoto lenses and can get extremely pricey.

The Megapixel Myth
No, more megapixels does not necessarily mean better photos. Basically what megapixels refer to is the amount of data that camera stores for each picture. Just because there is more of it doesn't make it better. A ton of poor data will still give you a poor picture. What really matters in digital cameras are the nitty gritty components of the camera that most people are unaware of. The digital processor for example, the light sensors, and the quality of the optics inside both the lens and the camera body all add up to the quality of the image. Megapixels are nothing more than "sponges" soaking up the information all those aforementioned parts put out.
So, it is possible for a 6 mp camera to take better photos than an 8 mp camera. Keep this in mind when looking at cameras. Megapixels is a catchy sales word that takes attention away from the more important pieces of the camera. David Pogue wrote a great article about this in lehman's terms at His article here

Accessories
Still with me? Bravo!
So, if you aren't overloaded enough by now, don't worry...it gets worse. Buying a DSLR requires a small amount of required accessories. The most important being the flash. If you want decent indoor pictures with no red eye, and dramatic lighting, this is the cheapest (relative term) and easiest way to do so. No I'm not talking about the built in flash, no DSLR on the market has a decent one. I am talk about this:

A giant, geeky, photographer must have, the speed light. If you buy nothing else make sure this is it. This model sells for something around $200 and is great.
Other accessories that are just as important:
The Tripod: Buy the heaviest, simplest tripod you can afford. The heavier the better, as light weight tripods tend to vibrate more to the camera and blur images. Try to look for tripods with quick release heads.
The Memory Card: The fastest card the best. I'm talking about the speed at which the card stores the image. You'll see this advertised on clearly on the front of the box. What this means is, if you are trying to snap rapid shots of someone running across a soccer field, if you card lags and takes a while to write the images, the camera will stop taking pictures and wait for it to catch up. Cameras will buffer this, and instead of being able to take 10 shots in 2 seconds, you might only get 6 or 7.
The Battery: Buy and extra battery and keep it charged. Nothing is worse than being in the middle of no where when your battery dies. Most of these cameras use rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, meaning you can't just pop in 8 AAA batteries and get back to work. You need to specific battery for your camera, and at least 2 of them. Especially if you're doing a lot of indoor flash photography.

Why Nikon? I chose to compare Nikon and Canon in this guide primarily because they are the industry leaders. My father, being a professional photographer (The LA Times, NY Times, Time Mag, etc.), only uses Nikon. Much of my life was paid for by that tool. So yes, I am somewhat biased. I own a couple Nikons myself. And while I've never used a canon, and don't have anything against them, I highly recommend Nikon. Nikon consistently produces better optics and sensors, and while canon seems to be turning this trend, Nikon will give you the best value for your dollar at the present time.

Obviously there's a lot to consider here. I barely glazed the surface. I hope it helps. If you have any further questions, please don't be afraid to contact me at www.davidhgatley.com.

-David

How to take better photos

First off, I don't care what you say...you are NOT a horrible photographer. ANYONE with a camera can take incredible photographs of their friends, scenery, sunsets, whatever...all you need to do is pick up the camera, keep a couple basics in mind, and shoot as many shots as you can.

First off, before I go any further. If you read nothing more than this paragraph, remember this one thing, take more pictures. Wether you're shooting a group shot of 5 of your best friends, or a beautiful sunset, always take at least 2-3 more photos than you think you should. Granted popping the flash inside some restaurant 6 times will inevitably make the entire place hate you, and blind your friends....but... well you get the point, its better to take 10 shots and get one good one, than to take 3 shots and have nothing worth keeping. So many great photos can be ruined by the smallest changes in light, the blink of an eye, etc...SO TAKE MORE PHOTOS than you think you should.

Alright, that being said, here are a few simple steps that will change the way you compose your photos, improve your existing pictures and impress your friends.

When you look at a photo you, for the most part, like it or hate it instantly. You may not even realize how much you dislike a photo at first glance, but try this; look through your own gallery right now (or after you're done reading this) =), and take note of the photos you have to squint at to see better, or the ones you just breeze through without a second glance, and focus on the ones that just seem pleasing for no apparent reason. There are a lot of reasons why you don't really like the image, and if you have the time, and understand why, you can generally fix each one of them or prevent repeating that photo in the future.
Compositional factors are at work in every image on a subconscious level, the most powerful is the rule of thirds.

The Rule of Thirds
If you split every image into three sections (top to bottom or side to side) you'll start to find that the photos that are most pleasing to the eye have excluded the subject from the middle third and moved it to the outer thirds: see below: ( this rule doesn't always apply, centering your subjects can still be powerful and moving, but for the most part you want to avoid centering)

Notice that the tree is the main subject and it's located in the right 3rd portion of the photo.
Where as a centered subject isn't as aesthetically pleasing:

Most people don't realize the brain interprets negative space and positive space when looking at a photo. Balance and weight are added to subjects as your eye moves from point to point on the photo. Your brain typically interprets this data in distinct patterns. Photos that go against the natural flow of eye movement break that pattern and are less pleasing to the eye.

The Diagonal Rule
Following the principle behind the rule of thirds, comes the diagonal rule. And like it sounds it has to do with the natural diagonal lines found in a photo. When you look at a photo your eyes naturally want to be guided towards the center of the image. Diagonal lines in the photo will direct your attention in that order, if there aren't any, it becomes distracting to the brain and less aesthetically pleasing. For example:

Notice how the natural lines in these photos grab your attention and constantly pull your eyes back to the center of the photo.
I often find this to be more difficult to be conscious of while taking a photo. I generally have to edit photos after the fact to follow the rule of diagonals, but keeping it in mind while composing the photo will definitely improve your shots.

EYE LEVEL and CAMERA ANGLE
Probably the most common problem in boring/unflattering photos is the angle at which the picture is taken and the position of the subjects eyes in the photo. The worst and most unflattering way to take a picture of someone if from a low point of view (kneeling with a camera taking a picture of a person standing up). Unless double chins are your thing, you generally want to raise the camera a little taller than feels normal, and position the eye level of the subject in the top third of the photo. Following the rule of thirds.
For example:

In this photo the eye level is such that it positions the subject in most of the frame. Something you want to stay away from would be this for example:

The average eye level is towards the middle of the photo, leaving too much open space above the group of guys. Had the picture been angled down slightly, exposing more of the body and using less of the empty dark space above, the photo would be nice to look at. This is that same photo cropped:

Notice here that while the same amount of the guys bodies are in the picture, they fill more of the frame. The eye level has been moved to the upper third portion of the frame, and its more pleasing to the eye. That is of course if you find a photo of 7 drunk guys pleasing to the eye, I think its difficult to look at the photo either way, but it illustrates my point nicely =)

(It's also a good practice to take pictures of subjects (not people) from an unnatural perspective. Don't just stand straight up, bring the camera to your eye level and shoot something. Get close to your subject, put the camera on the ground, or directly above your subject and take a picture of it in a way you normally wouldn't view it.)

There are a lot of editing techniques you can use to correct most compositional problems with photos, but in doing so you lose a lot of the original image. I will go over some basic photo editing techniques in another blog soon.

Hope this helps,

-David