Portfolio Issue

[cpaton1993]

Trying to put together a portfolio together with designs and operations I have done.

But I need a camera that picks up light well enough to not just look like I'm using open white when I use unsaturated gels.

However I can't afford to buy £500 SLRs

Anyone know anything about cameras?

 

thanks

[timtheenchanteruk]

whats your budget, there are loads of second hand digital SLRs out there.

You can get good shots from a lot of cheaper cameras too, if you have the time to get the shot right, you can set most features manually, but not usually that easily.

 

example, Canon EOS300D, ok, not a new camera, but still good quality sensor and lenses can be had for around £130 off fleabay with the standard lens.

The trick is usually to ignore the light meter and set the camera to under expose by a couple of points, you can then brighten up the colours and keep the saturated colour in photoshop or similar.

[ninjadingle]

Obviously you're not using flash, just a good support and long exposure??

Try playing with your cameras White Balance setting, find something that works?

[paulears]

My wife's fuji cost about a couple of hundred quid and takes excellent pics of stage lighting levels. It's not quite so crisp and image size is a bit smaller than my Pentax - but it's quite ok for most purposes.

[ramdram]

Do the exposure bracketing thing. Read up on the methods, aperture or speed selection, and choose the shot you feel is the very essence of, or definitive "you".

 

This presumes of course you elect to buy a camera which will allow you to play with the parameters...ie, read the specs first and badger the bloke(ess) in the shop 'til you know the camera will do what you want.

 

Or, plenty of forums on photography to help you make that decision...and buy the right camera if you were thinking of buying from Argos, say, or online.

[Oldradiohand]

Buy a second hand 35mm SLR (a few tens of pounds on ebay these days) and load it with fuji 400 slide film, get it processed and scanned. You should get really saturated colours.