I just bought a Cannon due to all the good reviews on Amazon

All the professionals swear by it. I plan on shooting my family on Thanksgiving for our Christmas card. I have all the details all mapped out from the tarp backdrop to the festive tablescape. Any tips from the professionals on DL on how to get the best results?

• a cannon? oh dear

• Make sure the tarp is waterproof, as it will be easier to clean up the blood after you shoot them with your cannon.

• What are you painting on the tarp backdrop? I tend to go for fluorescent beachscapes, myself.

• There's gonna be a lot of blood splattered, so make sure that tarp is big enough.

• [quote]I plan on shooting my family on Thanksgiving Don't let anyone overhear you make this statement.

• Once he sends out the cards it will be pretty obvious what happened, R5. It's certainly a switch from the yearly family newsletter, I'll give him that.

• I'm ready to piss myself reading this thread.

  Anonymous

• [quote]I'm ready to piss myself reading this thread. Please take a picture and add it to the guys pissing thread.

• Be careful, OP! Mike Bloomberg is on a roll with terrorist threats.

• Make sure you get the right sized cannon balls.

• I knew a girl who had a brother buy a Cannon, but then she and a lot of other people died.

• Hi OP. I have the Canon Ti2, and I just love it. It's a dream to use. I shoot in manual half the time, but the several auto exposure settings are great when you want to make sure you get the shot. Over the last two years, I have added 2 lenses, one a long lens and the other, the 50mm or short lens which is perfect for portraits. Make sure you do a practice run the day before you plan to shoot since it's a new piece of equipment for you. You don't want to lose shots or make a mistake when it's showtime. Have fun, OP!

• This thread made me laugh so hard my stomach hurts! O M G!!!

• Make sure you send a copy of the carnage to the "Awkward Family Photos" website. Those cannons pack quite a punch.

  Charlie%20%22Boom%20Boom%22%20Manson

• the rebel is great. consider buying a strobe kit...

• The Pros rely on Nikon...always have. It is all about the quality lenses.

• I have a low-quality digital camera that I really can't focus - I was raised in the age of auto-focus 35mm cameras. Is there a decent digital camera under $500 that you would recommend I get as a step-up from my basic digital camera that might be better for focusing?

• OP, a friend has an inexpensive little Canon, and she takes fantastic photos with it. Very crisp, great color, etc. And she's a total amateur. Have fun with yours. I'm probably going to get one, too.

• R17 -- Lumix. Has a spiffy zoom.

• Make certain there's artificial lighting up and off to both sides. And have the family hold something reflective beneath their faces, like mirrors or tin foil. A candlelit shot of the praying family seated around the turkey is always a crowd pleaser. My family had a professional shoot us like this dressed in Pilgrim and Indian attire. A mother holding a horn of plenty with her kids seated on the floor beneath her is also a popular motif. If there's a new baby, place it among the tables bounty.

• You will be posting pictures of your Thanksgiving shooting, right? You know that ol' DL saying...

• OP, could you please shoot R12 & R15-R20 with your cannon as well? You can practice your point & shoot technique before Thursday with the family.

• OP here. Geez, people, you knew what I was talking about. No one's talking about any killing. I just wanted to shoot them with my new toy on Thanksgiving since they're all going to be in the same place at the same time. Thanks to the people with serious tips. [quote]My family had a professional shoot us like this dressed in Pilgrim and Indian attire. How much did it cost, R20? I was also thinking about hiring a professional to shoot my family but they were all too expensive. Someone on Craigslist quoted me $1200 for a house call. Ridiculous! So I thought it would be just easier to do the job myself. [quote]What are you painting on the tarp backdrop? I tend to go for fluorescent beachscapes, myself. It's just going to be a white tarp. While I love beachscapes, they don't really fit the theme of Thanksgiving.

  OP

• [quote]OP here. Geez, people, you knew what I was talking about. Doesn't matter. You talk about buying a Cannon to shoot your family, and you're going to get razzed.

• I recently bought the 5D Mark II. Love it but it's a lot of camera if you don't know what you're doing.

• OP, you better be just another corporate shill or you are beyond douche.

  I%27m%20shooting%20my%20family%20as%20I%20type

• I thought about that approach, OP, but I couldn't figure out how to sneak a cannon into a faculty meeting.

  Dr.%20Amy%20%28BOOM%20BOOM%20BOOM%29%20Fisher

• Oops, Fisher is my maiden name. Dr. Amy Bishop

• [QUOTE] I just wanted to shoot them with my new toy on Thanksgiving since they're all going to be in the same place at the same time. Thanks to the people with serious tips. Sounds like you don't need serious tips, you have a very efficient plan: just corral them all together and start shooting. [QUOTE] I was also thinking about hiring a professional to shoot my family but they were all too expensive. Someone on Craigslist quoted me $1200 for a house call. Ridiculous! So I thought it would be just easier to do the job myself. While $1,200 seems like a lot right now please know this is a very fair rate, especially if you have a large family. Part of the value of hiring a professional is the peace of mind that comes knowing that, should you be found out, the charges for accessory are much less than those for 1st degree.

• I have a Canon 5dMk2 and it's wonderful except for the crappy low-res LCD screen; in manual focus mode or video mode I never know whether my pictures are in focus or not. It's also a bitch to carry around and the lenses are all so expensive. If not for the full frame sensor I'd want to trade it in and get a Canon 7D instead. I bought a Canon Powershot SX30 IS with a 35X optical zoom for tooling around with because it's so much lighter and more versatile than the 5DMk2; the telephoto is built in and zooms to the equivalent of 800mm, and when fully zoomed in it's got a nice wide angle mode and macro mode. 14 or 16 megapixels of resolution makes for relatively crisp photos (of course it's all compressed on a single little chip and if you take low-light photos or zoom in a lot the images lose clarity and look like Seurat paintings). It's got a built-in flash for emergencies, and I appreciate that the flash doesn't need to be disabled to prevent it from popping up of its own accord; if I want the flash on I just manually flip it up. As to the Nikon vs Canon debate, I love Nikons when it comes to film cameras but for digital I find that Canon gives you a lot more for your money. I also recommend the Panasonic Lumix line of digital cameras with their Leica lenses. OP, the white sheet backdrop for a family holiday card photograph sounds good; I would recommend taking the picture outside if you can (hold the backdrop up with a tree branch or attach it to a wall), preferably on an overcast day. Unless you have some off-camera photography strobe lights, outdoor natural light is going to look far, far better than any amount of yellowish lamp lights you've got in your house. Take it on an overcast day because the cloudy skies essentially become one enormous soft box; no harsh shadows across people's faces. Use a tripod to position the camera and set the ten-second timer. People will look distorted if the camera is set up too close to them (another reason not to photograph indoors) so ideally place the camera 12-15 feet away from the group and zoom in a little bit to compose your image. Do not use the flash unless absolutely necessary because it'll flatten everything out and create weird shadows and basically look horribly unprofessional. If you do ever use the flash, be sure to stand about 10-14 feet from your subject so they don't look like a deer caught in the headlights.

• OP, you should've asked for advice before you spent all that money. If you're shooting your family for holiday cards, I would've recommended an AK-47. A few sweeping motions and you'd be done. Now you're going to have to pour the gun powder, pack a cannon ball, light the cannon, fire, hope the projectile hits its target, and repeat...

• My(r20) professional photoshoot was $75 an hour and I have no complaints.

• I inherited my cannon from a Quebecois ancestor who used his on the Fields of Abraham. It's tres chic, if I may say so.

• Any news on the big shoot?

• It was a blowout.

• .

  http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x90ytr_cannon-opening-theme_shortfilms%23.UKgAfuQ72Ag

• OP, I'd pay you $1200 to come shoot my family -- quick, before I have to start Xmas shopping.

• Can you shoor a turkey out of a cannon?

• I remember this thread. It caused a wave of holiday spirit to wash through me, in the same way the first Christmas Carol will do...

• Does anyone have lens suggestions for a T2i? I am still on the kit lens and it's driving me fucking crazy. I'd like to get a nifty fifty, but I was thinking of saving for a decent longer range lens. I'd like to shoot urbex, animals and some interior (still lifes).

• [quote]There's gonna be a lot of blood splattered, so make sure that tarp is big enough. I wish people would stop stealing my bit.

  Jackson%20Pollack

• You like to shoot animals, R40?! FUCK YOU!!