OH. But in an effort to start at least TRYING to learn how to use a #DSLR I am sending my million-year-old Sony A200 off for a servicing and sensor clean. I refuse to accept that I am somehow a walking magnet that makes every piece of digital equipment I touch shit itself. Any #photographers out there have some great places to learn the settings? I'd like to know the why of them rather than just copy a list of recommended ones for specific types of photo.

@RaeYcrep Well, I only shoot astrophotography, so I'm fully manual, but here's 2 rules of thumb to get you off Auto mode:

If you want to control DoF - Set it to A (aperture priority). To get a nice bokeh, you'll want a shallow DoF (f1.8-ish).

If you want to control blur - Set it to S (shutter priority). Fast moving subjects such as pets, sport, etc will need something like 1/500. Waterfalls will need a tripod and a slow speed: 1/10 maybe.

What kind of subjects do you usually shoot?

@UnixAnt Portrait seems to be easy-mode for me as I got the hang of DoF from analogue cameras. With those I do a lot of double exposure, use expired film, play with lenses. Digital is a little too precise for me to get the experimental shots I get with analogue. And I STILL don't know what to do with long exposures as they all become whiteouts!

@RaeYcrep I keep my shutter open for around 10-15 seconds when I'm shooting the night sky, but during the day the trick is to minimise the amount of light entering the lens, when all around you there is strong light.

There are 2 options:

Shoot first thing in the morning or late in the afternoon when there is less ligh.

Invest in a Neutral Density filter to restrict the amount of light entering. I'd still avoid long exposures around noon, however...

@UnixAnt Filters! God I had a tonne of them back in the day - I need to a. find them, b. see if I have something like that in there. At the end of the day I suppose playing around and making mistakes is one of the things I should do.

I did have some success with night sky photos! We have a big dobsonian telescope and I have got some great shots of the mood from a point-and-shoot.

@RaeYcrep I wish I had the space for a decent sized dobsonian. Something around 14" and above.

But I don't xD

Currently rocking a 6" Maksutov-Cassegrain, which is a planet watchers wet dream, but isn't particularly great for nebulae & DSOs. In fact, it's almost impossible, even with the big, dark skies of Norfolk where I live now.

@UnixAnt I looked at one of those! But I figued I had the space so went with an Orion Skyquest XT4.5. I wish I had the motorised version because it's a bit of a bitch finding things in the night sky. But it's a great starter telescope and I have zero light pollution on our mountain so it comes in to its own up here.

@RaeYcrep I'm currently saving up for a goto mount. Soooo much easier!

That's a nice starter dob. If I ever find myself over in Ireland, I may have to look you up!

As much as I love pin-sharp images of Jupiter & Saturn, my first love is the Orion Nebula and my telescope just isn't designed for nebula observation. A dob would be perfect for that.