I noticed today that lenses are expensive.

[jtsmith]

You didn't think how expensive the equiptment was when you were in front of the lense now did you?

[img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

J T

[MartinaSmith]

I had no clue.
Sunday I start my pic taking. I will use the Nikon first it's lighter than the Canon.

Marty

[SamBeasley]

Hey there Marty,

Looks like you've got a pretty sweet setup there. I can't really say anything about the Canon F1, as I don't have any experience with it, but I do own the Nikon N75, and I can tell you right now that it's a nice little camera (the only thing that it's really missing for me is the ability to manually set the ISO like your F1, but I've learned to work around it the hard way [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]).

I've always been a believer in learning photography with a manual camera, or at least with an automatic camera set on manual mode. For example, sure you can set the N75 on full automatic and probably get a decent exposure, but you won't learn very much.

One of the single most important things you can do is learn how to use your light meter.

I agree with what most of the people above have said about a hand-held meter if you're using studio strobe lighting, but if you're only using available light like the sun outdoors or a window or whatever, it may not be all that necessary. If you feel confident in using the meter in your camera, you can feel confident that you'll get a good exposure in just about any lighting situation (I'm strictly speaking of the technical side of things -- I'm gonna leave the artistic side up to you [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]).

Now, after having said all that, a hand-held meter IS nice to have around. Like I said, you need it when using strobes in a studio, and a hand-held spot meter is great for nature/landscapes (a meter like the Sekonic L-558 does all of that, but be prepared to shell out some cash).

Your N75 has three metering modes: 3D matrix, center-weighted, and spot. Of the three, if you can get good with spot metering, you'll be able to pretty much meter any type of scene and nail your exposure every time. That takes a lot of practice, though, and it's something that I'm STILL working on myself. To make things easier, you might want to get a Kodak gray card and take a meter reading from it in the same light as your subject/model.

Hmm... did I get off topic? Probably. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img] All I know is, like's been said before, take a photography class, buy a book on photography basics and read it front to back. "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson is good. Heck, I think I've got one you can have for free around here somewhere if you want it (I lost mine, bought another copy, and found the lost one [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]).

Get comfortable with the meter in your camera, and experiment like crazy. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Okay crazy girl, get out there and shoot, and start postin' some pics! [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Sam