any clickin moms??

[suze]

what do you say is it worth the investment?? 200 dollars is a huge chunk to drop on something. Ive thought about the trials and was wondering.

yay?

or

nay??

[Megan Turnidge]

I LOVE CM! Is the $200 for the lifetime membership? I just pay a year at a time.

[nesser1981]

I do the $30 every 6 months and I really like it. Try it first and see is what I'd say.

[Shawna]

Another super happy CM'er here! I definitely think it's worth it, I just pay for a year at a time though which is $50

[Julie Billingsley]

they had a sale on the lifetime memberships over the weekend. It was 40% off. I don't know how often they run those deals, but sign up for their newsletter and you'll get emails when they do run those sales. That said, I'm not even a member. LOL I need to get more serious about my camera. I keep thinking about the classes that CM offers, but they are just sooo expensive.

[krystalhartley]

Originally Posted by Julie Billingsley

they had a sale on the lifetime memberships over the weekend. It was 40% off. I don't know how often they run those deals, but sign up for their newsletter and you'll get emails when they do run those sales. That said, I'm not even a member. LOL I need to get more serious about my camera. I keep thinking about the classes that CM offers, but they are just sooo expensive.

I just did the 40% off lifetime thing. I am just now starting to get more excited about photography and didn't know when they would do another sale.

[Kara]

I'm a monthly member, I think I get charged every 6 months. I got in at a really good price, I think I pay $15 every 6 months! Even so, I haven't been able to spend a whole lot of time there. It has been helpful in a lot of ways, though.

[Leah]

I pay every 6 months too - 30.00 I think. It's a little overwhelming over there, but you pick up lots of neat tricks!

[sprauncey1]

I've been a member for almost a year now, but only recently REALLY started reading and practicing things. It is very worth the money in my opinion if you USE it! I did get in on the 40% lifetime membership thing too, too good to pass up and I have a ton more to learn from all of them there!

[melmos75]

I have learned so much from CM! If it weren't for that site, I would still be stuck in auto mode. Now, every shot I take is in manual mode.

[suze]

Thanks ladies!! Ill for sure start with the monthly or yearly thing and see how it goes. I wanna be more passonate with my camera!!!

[Kat Stokes]

I'm a monthly member and have been for some time now. Unfortunately, I rarely visit the site. I feel so lost over there. I am such a hands-on learner and as much as I would love to take my camera off of Auto and start learning how to use it better, I can't even seem to find a starting place over there.

Any pointers of where to go over there from those of you who started out on Auto and now use manual? Unfortunately I can't afford the classes they offer right now so I'm just going to have to sit down with my manual and some instructions and start from there.

[g8rbeckie]

Another CM lifer here!! I love CM.

Kat - I did take one of their classes, but I did realize that what I always thought of as a "good" photo is, in most cases, definitely NOT considered a good photo in true photography standards. So I really tried to develop my eye for a great photo by reading their "Serious Critique" section. Limb chops: bad. proper exposure: a MUST. complete, almost unreal crisp focus: a MUST.

The benefit of watching the serious critique thread is that people asking for feedback are required to give their settings for the shot. I learned a lot in the beginning from the group's feedback on what should have been different in the camera settings (ISO, shutter speed, aperture).

The single most common issues are:
not keeping shutter speed high enough. Most of us here are chasing kids around, which means that they're always moving. Keep your shutter speed over 200, which means increasing your ISO or opening your aperture (making the number lower) to get enough light.

Not using the right aperture. Once people start getting more expensive equipment (even the "nifty 50" - the $100 lens) - they're tempted to use an open aperture (low number, like 1.8) for portraits. It is VERY DIFFICULT to get good focus at these aperture settings - the focal plan is tiny and the photo won't be "great" unless it's right on the eye(s).

You'll see lots of great examples of this on that thread, and eventually you'll start to see them yourself as soon as people post them!

[sprauncey1]

And one thing I've learned is that it is better to up your ISO higher than you normally would to overexpose slightly (or fully expose) a photo than to underexpose and then bring it up in photoshop. There is so much more information in the exposure end and as long as you don't fully overexpose you will end up with better photos with a little grain vs. photos with lots of noise due to underexposure.

Just start with the beginner threads one by one and take notes. That is what I did, and taking the notes really helped.

And yes motion blur will always ruin a photo, so keep the SS up for kiddos (I always thought 120 was safe, but now know it isn't).

LOts more info there too about color correction and skin tones which I really want to play more with.

Maybe take one day a week and devote to photography! I'm betting your scrapbooking self will thank you!

[g8rbeckie]

Originally Posted by sprauncey1

And yes motion blur will always ruin a photo, so keep the SS up for kiddos (I always thought 120 was safe, but now know it isn't).

I guess it depends how much your kids move, LOL! I also saw people saying to keep it above 120, but I have problems with photos of my 3yr old coming out blurry. Truthfully, I do what you do - up my ISO higher than necessary (to like 300-400 if I'm in the shade) so that I can keep my shutter speed really high - like 400+. You need to know how well your camera handles ISO (i.e. - how much grain/noise it introduces and when it becomes too much) to do that with confidence! It has really made getting good focus much easier for me!

Photography and Digi Scrapping are like chocolate and peanut butter