My first outing with the T2i - Feedback please!
 

I've only been able to spend about 10 minutes with the camera since I got it, but I went with my daughter's girl scout troop to a fire station today so I figured it would be a good chance to practice.

While I've occasionally been able to get some great looking images, on the whole I'm very much underwater here. I've got virtually zero still photography background, and while I've been able to become a fairly decent videographer I'm really starting with a blank slate.

I've read what I can here about ISO, shutter speed, aperture, etc. and I think I've got a decent idea of how those operate and function, now it's just a matter of learning what the different settings look like.

So I offer up my very quick work here to be shredded. :D Whatever it takes to help me improve my image quality.

I know shots are shaky, and I know many are soft. Those issues I know how to fix. ;) I'm really hoping to get some info about how to shoot better in low light indoors, or what I should or shouldn't do in particular situations.

The day was very overcast and right before dusk.

I shot everything 108024p. Interiors I used ISO 400 and 800, never above. Outside stuff was 100. Would change the aperture to lower the picture on the outside stuff.

My sister is a professional photographer and she let me use one of her favorite lenses. It's a Canon 24-70mm 2.8. So I think the glass should be fine, it's the operator that needs work. ;)

Anyway, please hold nothing back. I need to get better with this camera.

Thanks!

to my "video" eye, overall it looks great and can't wait for the UPS guy to show up tomorrow with mine!

The interiors look a touch dark for my taste and the exteriors seem a bit off color-wise. white balance not set?

lens manipulation is great! DOF and rack focus! wooohooo!

Desperately needs a tripod or stabilizer and as you mentioned a few shots are soft.

The ones that stuck out as being great was the truck pulling out and the shot right after with the kids.

That's a great lens...don't give it back to your sister!

As far as tips...I'm a couple of days behind you on the learning curve so I will be following the rest of this thread anxiously!

I went with some of the WB presets for inside and out. Didn't change anything in post. I'm typically a hard nose about setting custom white balances but didn't really have time on this one and wanted to see how the presets performed.

Very nice demonstration of the camera, Bryan

good to know about the presets and also that you didn't do any grading in post. shows the camera's abilities.

After playing inside my house with it, I was scared to go above 800 ISO. The footage just looked like junk to me, very noisy.

So in these interiors, I went up to 800 but wouldn't go above. Aperture was wide open, so what else can you do? Fire up a light or accept some noise I guess. Or am I missing a DSLR trick?

The images seem to "studder". Is this because it's shot in 24p?