Camera Labs

Can anyone help me choose the best book or books for portraits using the equipment I have at this moment in time?

A beginner’s guide to get me started and a more intermediate one for digital portraits.

I also need a book that will explain the technical terms (a beginner’s guide to get me started and a more intermediate one) and reasons for varying the F number etc, exposure (why and when to extend it), aperture priority (when to use fast and slow) and the combination of using all of the many different aspects pertaining to taking excellent pictures using the features and settings available using a Canon 40Dm Canon 24-70 f/2.8L and Canon Speedlite 580 Mark 2.

Martin told me to learn what I was using first but do I need a special cloth, like the white ones. I know you can get green and blue too but these are used like for movies and blue screening - yes?

I will leave the flash umbrella for the time being.

All I want to do it take indoor portraits in homes, take some action shots of my dogs within the range of the 24-70 f/2.8L, and have enough range to take pictures of my family laughing (and may be not laughing) as they go on the Disney rides in Disney land etc. I think I will have the range for this as with a FOVCF of 1.6 it really has a range up to 112mm.

Any help would be very much an appreciated.

I just want to take the best pictures I can for now ready for the end of April for our family holiday.

Thanks.

See my post on my equipment so far at:
http://www.cameralabs.com/forum/viewtop ... 4837#14837

Well here are some books I have bought to help me learn:

1) 100 Ways To Take Better Landscape Photographs (less than £10)

2) Digital Photographers Guide to Filters (Digital Photographer's Guide To...) (£14.99) (There are some amazing filter pictures that make this a must for anyone interested in the power of filters etc.)

3) Understanding RAW Photography (Less that £10)

4) Skin: The Complete Guide to Digitally Lighting, Photographing, and Retouching Faces and Bodies (Paperback).

From the library

1) The Adobe PHOTOSHOP LIGHTROOM BOOK: The Complete Guide for Photographers (The problem with this book and others like it, such as this one, is that it is based on the non-public released beta and any others are only up to about LR V1.1. So I am just going to use this from the library only).

2) Light: Science and Magic: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting (Paperback). (What to see what it is like first as it is over £20)

No worries. I got the above books and some more. That should do it

Look out for some pixs fro me some time post April holiday.

_________________
Canon EOS 40D, Canon EF 24-70 F/2.8L USM, Canon SL 580 EX Mark II, Canon Battery Flash Unit CP-E4, Canon BG-E2N (Battery Grip), Canon Right Angle Finder C, B+W 77mm Kaeseman CP (MRC) Filter, B+W 77mm UV Haze 010 (MRC) Filter, Canon Timer RC TC-80N3, etc.