my boysfriend mom just handed me down her canon eos rebel with 2 lenses quantaray 52 mm (?) and a quantaray 75-300 mm, i have definetely no clue about aperatures and shutters and stuff, but im really interestd in photgraphy, ive already started takin pictures with it with black and white film, i think thats gonna be my thing, b&w pics of public transporation like subway, buses, homeless people, drugged out kids and stuff anything thats like depressing and full of emotions shots like close up pics of un rehearsed poses and stuff, so what i need from you experts is how do i go about this stuff! i need tips on developing, do i go to a lab or just any convinience store developing and tell em i want it matt finish???? or contact prints? i definitely dont have money for photog school. i have developed the pics i took but they came out so ordinary, it doesnt talk to me, heheheheh nevertheless the subjects wer awesome just the developing i guess, any technical terms i can use on the labs about phto finishuing or developing? im quite a shy boy. heheehhe. do i really need filters? do i need a tripod? i just need expert easy advice ! like tricks and stuff. i hope u guys can help me out!! thank you so much! love eian. peace out.

-- eric lim (eianlim@msn.com), January 28, 2002

Answers

i dont even have the manual of the camera so im just always guessing and experimenting with it.... can anyone tell me where to find 1? liike whats iso, SF DEP, M, Av, TV, P???? i need help guys!

-- me again. (eianlim@msn.com), January 28, 2002.

You need to find an owner's manual and read it. Several times. Until you understand all the functions of the camera. There is a Magic Lantern guidebook for the EOS Rebel series of cameras. Buy it. You then need to do a lot of research on the technical aspects of photography. Go to a library and find some beginning photo books and read them all. There are many photo websites dedicated to photography and learning photography. Find them. Do a Google.com search. Read everything you can and then read some more. At this point you have too many questions to even begin to answer. You can find the answers yourself in the material available. It will mean more to you when you do the research.

-- Lee (Leemarthakiri@sport.rr.com), January 28, 2002.

hi eric,

you have knocked the wrong door. this forum is just for canon EOS camera and related equipments like lenses, speedlite etc. your question is completely different than this. you can find various sites giving very useful information about this. couple of such sites are

src="http://www.photo.net/">

and

src="http://www.betterphoto.com/">

guess the links are fine.

-- sajeev (chack74@yahoo.co.in), January 28, 2002.

one thing you should know is that not all places do black and white and some ones that do usually charge an insane amount ($10 per 36 exposures). you should look for a proshop that does the developing for around $3 and printing for around another $3. if you get a darkroom you can print only the ones you like and save money.

i have one question though. you say that your boyfriend's mom gave you this camera, but then later you claim that you yourself are "quite a shy boy." am i missing something?

-- Jeff Nakayama (moonduck22@hotmail.com), January 28, 2002.

hi there pal... the net is full of some amazing stuff for beginners...and full of people who are only too eager to share their wealth of knowledge..all u have to do is search the web,follow links etc and read up as much as u can...subscribe to a few more groups as these...u should be well on ur way...here are some links which were extremely useful to me when i started..

http://www.geometer.org/index.html - awesome site...terrific guy with a flair for explanations....he has a whole section on SLR basics and concepts.

http://www.photo.net - gr8 resource center.

http://www.camera.canon.com.my/photography/art/archive.htm - the canon malaysia homesite...this section explains all u need to know abiut the basics and the best part is it is more in the content of canon equipment...read all the archived articles and the new ones.

-- Venkat (venkat_p_iyer@yahoo.com), January 28, 2002.

good question jeff !!!! i overlooked that one ;-)

-- Venkat (venkat_p_iyer@yahoo.com), January 28, 2002.

thanks so much guys! i really really appreciate it, yeah i guess i'll really have to do some reading, and not resort to just "quick fix" EIAN!

peace out!... ps. as soon as i have the pics developed, can i just send anyone of you guys a scanned copy and tell me what u think about it... im really excited. THANKS again.

-- eian (eianlim@msn.com), January 28, 2002.

Doesn't look like you missed anything Jeff, and you're fully up to speed. Eric, if you want to email me directly, that's fine.

-- Isaac Sibson (isibson@hotmail.com), January 29, 2002.