How many books on photography did you read already?
kr
Aad

The *lens* is the important thing in low light!   For very little money you
could get a 50mm f1.8 lens which would allow you to take decent indoor
pictures without flash.

cheers adrian www.boliston.co.uk

We all were a newbie once.  You need more practice and should read the manual
again.  Do NOT dwell on those things you don't understand, just keep reading.  
Then, after a few days of shooting, read the manual again.  Do this every few
weeks and more and more information will make sense to you.  If the language
of the manual is not in your native language, you should get a translation.

I know what you mean.  My daughter's "new" Canon S2 IS...

<http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelDetailAct&fcategoryid=14
4&modelid=11368>

...takes photos often rivaling, in some cases exceeding, the quality that I've
gotten with my 20D.  It is VERY frustrating.  I obviously have more to learn.

You probably had something set wrong.  Your camera is more complicated than
your friend's PowerShot and, because of that, probably easier to set something
wrong.

Yes, I bought a Canon Speedlite 580EX...

<http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelDetailAct&fcategoryid=14
1&modelid=10514>

...but, so far, the biggest difference (compared to my daughter's PowerShot)
is that I never get "red eye".  Of course, I need to read the manuals again
and my work will probably improve.

Are the photos taken using the Auto setting "better" than the others?  Since
you said you are a "newbie in SLR", you would do well to use Auto most (all?)
of the time until you get more experience.  It's likely the camera "knows"
more than you at this early stage.   <grin>

Do not feel TOO badly.  You bought a GREAT camera (money well spent) that will
"grow" with you as you gain more experience.

One should never buy a new camera immediately before an important shoot.  That
is NOT the time to learn about the new camera.

You should practice as much a possible.  You are lucky:  You are learning with
a DIGITAL camera.  You can shoot as many "frames" as you like and it won't
cost you an extra penny - you can just experiment and "throw away" (delete)
the bad photos.

Congratulations on your new camera.  Your work will improve with experience.  
Good luck!

Analogy:  you have bought a new car and now complain it is bad, simply
because you never learned how to drive at all.

$                                                 On our Xmas eve dinner I
$shot lot of pictures. I don't like how they came out. My friend did bring
$Canon SD700 and his pictures looks much more better than mine. Help. Help.
$What did I wrong? Perhaps this is the reason why you guys invest +-300$ for
$external flashlight? I didn't shot all in Auto mode. Most of it I shot in TV
$mode RAW.

  Yes, an external flash would help, mostly because it would allow you
to bounce the light off something like a ceiling, to produce much
softer and more even light.  The other suggestion of getting a better
lens is also a good one; the 50/1.8 is dirt cheap, fast, sharp, and
while it's not absolutely the best *lens* in Canon's lineup, it's
easily the best *value*.  But ...

  You've had other suggestions to learn how to use your equipment
first.  That sounds harsh, but it's likely true.  Digital P&S cameras
are designed with the assumption that the person taking the picture is
an idiot; the camera is an appliance to be used by an unskilled user.
So they do things like cranking up the saturation and sharpness, to make
images look more vivid.  DSLRs generally do less of this even in their
fully-automatic idiot modes, and if you go out of the idiot modes and
into what Canon calls "creative zone" modes (such as Tv), it's assumed
that you really know what you're doing and will take control over all
of the settings yourself.  Shooting RAW takes this a step further; all
of the decisions about contrast, saturation, white balance, sharpness,
etc. are left for you to set whem you convert the photo using whatever
RAW converter you're using.  If you don't know how to use this stuff,
you'll be disappointed in your pictures.

  So you really do need to learn how to use what you've got.  Start
with the manual; it's small and won't take you long to read, and
while it will give you a bit of a start, it won't fill in a lot of
details beyond "this knob chooses between functions X, Y, and Z."
Have a poke around the "learn" section at photo.net.  Visit other
digital photography Web sites and see what information they have to
offer.  Shooting RAW lets you take advantage of the camera's full
capabilities, but it requires you to know a few things about digital
image manipulation, so read up on that.  Go to your local bookstore
and browse through some of the magazines and books, and if some of
them look useful, buy them (or see if your local library has copies
you can borrow).

  As well, if you were using flash, you need to read the EOS flash
bible at photonotes.org (it's in the Articles section).  You will never
be able to understand what the flash system is doing and why until
you read this (a lot of this information ought to be in Canon's manuals
but isn't), and unti you understand how it works, you can't control it.

------------------------------------------------------------------
    Say hi to my cat -- http://www.stevedunn.ca/photos/toby/

You didn't describe what is wrong with your pictures.
Are they too dark?

Some cameras (I do not know about yours) have the following
property in TV mode: you set the shutter speed.  If the scene
is dark, the camera tries to open up the lens aperture.
If the len aperture is open all the way but it is not far
enough for proper exposure, the camera takes the picture anyway,
and the picture is underexposed.

I NEVER use Tv mode.  There are only 2 modes I use:
Av (Aperture priority) and manual.  With aperture
priority, I do the following: use the aperture to
control depth of field I want, then use ISO to
set the shutter speed.  If depth of field is not an
issue and I want the fastest shutter speed I can get,
I open the lens aperture wide open, then if the speed is too
low, increase the ISO.  High ISO on a DSLR can still
give good snapshot pictures indoors at ISO 800 to 1600.
On some DSLRs, shooting at ISO 1600 is like shooting
at ISO 100 on a small pixel P&S camera, so don't
hesitate to use it.

Roger

That's not surprising, DSLR cameras are harder to use, for the same
reason a huge Ansel Adams style field camera is harder to use than a SLR.

Try some experimenting real slow and intentional. I recommend putting it
in 'A' aperture priority mode and then look at the shutter speeds you
are getting and adjust the aperture till the shutter speed is fast
enough to avoid shake blur problems. For indoor low light you will
probably have to put the aperture wide open, smallest f-stop number,
which gives shallower depth of field. And you probably will need to
increase the ISO setting also which will make the image more grainy,
perhaps as much as as a smaller camera but the advantage of the Rebel is
if you use a tripod at low ISO, you can get really clean images.

For flash, figure out how to turn down the flash power, the default full
blast often looks pretty bad but a little flash can help. If you have
low white ceilings, get a little piece of white paper to reflect the
light up & spread it out.

And you can buy a faster lens. The 50mm f/1.8 lens is under $100 and
excellent but be aware that it's kind of a long telephoto on digital so
try setting your kit lens to 50mm & see if that's useable for family
groups shots indoors, if so go for it, if you need wider look at the
Sigma 30mm f/1.4 though that is around $400 it would be super handy.

It is hard to say without knowing exactly why you do not like your pictures.
Are they blurry? Too dark? Too light? Are the people in front to bright and
those in the back to dark?

I think it would be a good idea to find someone whose photography you like
and work with him for awhile. Have someone teach you how to make pictures.

I think also you should avoid RAW mode for awhile until you know a little
more about what you are doing. RAW is for people who like to edit their
pictures heavily after shooting. If you just want to take pictures and show
them to people, RAW mode will not always give you what you want. RAW pictures
almost always require some adjustment in a computer.

Many camera stores offer photography classes. So do local community colleges,
senior centers, and park services. These can be a lot of fun. Some of them
may be free, or they might be expensive courses taught by famous
photographers, such as the National Geographic photography classes.

My absolute favorite book for beginning photographers is "How to Photograph
Your Life," by Nick Kelsh. He shows how to use a simple digital camera to
take some pretty decent pictures. The lessons apply equally well to a DSLR.
Nick does not like external flash, or any flash at all, for most situations.
He shows you why. The book is mostly pictures. He shows two pictures side by
side. The first is how most people shoot a particular subject. Then he shows
the right way, with a brief explanatory note on the difference. I know a lot
of supposedly advanced photographers who could learn a thing or three from
Nick. There is no math, no jargon, no talk of umbrellas or guide numbers or f
numbers or stops (though he encourages you to learn what these mean). Perhaps
the best thing you could would be to get a copy of this book, set your camera
to "Auto," practice what he is trying to show you there, and then, once you
have mastered basic composition and lighting, move on to the more advanced
functions on your camera.

You know this is really difficult to me. I went thru the a very difficult

As they say, KISS (keep it simple & stupid). Don't try to use all the
features at once.

I'd stay away from RAW for the time being, since that requires more work at
the processing end of things, and you won't be sure if the issue is with how
your handling the RAW end of things or if it was bad material to begin with.
The RebelXT jpg shots are pretty darned good, and I have no issue with
"sacrificing" RAW for jpg if I need to get a larger number of burst shots...
even for very important events (bicycle races, in my case).

Try to learn the ins & outs of just one mode at a time. TV isn't so bad
(despite what some say), but AV will probably be more useful. Avoid full
auto with the following exception- you can use it as a learning tool to see
what worked on shots that come out well.

ISO will be another very important thing to figure out, especially for
indoor shots. Some subjects will handle very high ISO quite well, while
others will appear noisier and display washed-out highlights & lack shadow
detail. But definitely don't fear ISO 400. It's only above 400 that you
start seeing the compromises in a serious way.

Remember also that, unlike the point & shoot cameras you've dealt with
before, you're going to have depth-of-field issues. This is a pain on one
hand (because you have to be more careful about what's in focus, while the
point & shoot does a better job of keeping everything in focus), but also
allows you to intentionally blur everything except what you're focusing on.
But if you want your Rebel to act more like a point & shoot, kicking the ISO
up higher will allow a smaller aperture (F-stop), coming closer to the
focusing characteristics of a point & shoot.

Don't fear your Rebel XT. Have fun with it, one function at a time. It's a
GREAT camera!

--Mike--     Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com

If I were you I would go ahead and shoot in Auto mode, and *not* in RAW,
until you are more familiar with and comfortable with the camera. Take a
good look at the exposure information that the camera delivers with the
photos to see exactly what the camera is doing in Auto mode under various
circumstances, *then* try to learn how you can make the pictures better by
controlling different aspects of exposure yourself instead of letting the
camera do it all. Since you're a newbie I would avoid Tv mode for a while (I
rarely have any use for shutter priority anyway), but you may want to
experiment with Av mode to get a feeling for how changing the aperture
changes your pictures, depth of field etc.

As you were shooting Christmas eve dinner I presume you were indoors and
using flash. That is likely to produce many problems in exposure when the
subjects are at varying distances from the camera -- people in the
background too dark, people close to the camera washed out. An external
flash will help some because it's more powerful, but still you'll have
problems with a single flash when the subjects are at varying distances.
Using Tv mode may only make things worse, if you don't really know what
you're doing.

Strongly advise you to get a book or two on digital photography, including
one that covers your particular camera model if possible. I'm sure there
must be books on Canon Rebels. Experiment a lot with the camera. Read the
book(s) to help you understand what the camera is doing and why it's doing
it. Check Amazon.com which has many, many books on this subject, and read
the users' reviews to see which ones are likely to be most useful to you.
Not all books on this subject are necessarily good.

Neil

Shoot in the green or scene modes until you learn the camera's
capabilities.  The camera you have can run circles around an SD700, or
any other P&S, in the right hands.  Your only problem is a lack of
knowledge regarding SLR photography.  You can learn the basics very fast
and see some great improvements in your photography.  When you buy a SLR
you also adopt a hobby.  If you don't want the associated "hobby" you
would be better off with a P&S camera.

One thing that I recommend is to shoot in RAW+JPEG mode.  You can
manipulate RAW files on your computer much more effectively and can save
an otherwise bad photo that was shot only in the JPEG mode.

Ahhh, flash with the Rebel XT.  Been there, done that.  The key to your
problem is that when in Tv mode the meter picks the exposure aperture
from available light and uses the flash for fill.  That is probably not
what you wanted.

When shooting flash use P or M mode.  The camera will then control the
flash to get a proper exposure.   Your pictures will look quite harsh,
though, unless you get an external strobe that can bounce the flash
off the ceiling or walls.

I took *lots* of practice shots and read lots of stuff before I found
what works for me.   I use the Rebel Xt with the 430EX strobe.   The
camera is usually set to M mode, typically with a Aperture of f/8.
Shutter speed is set to 1/160 -- fast enough to minimize most subject
motion blur.  ISO is set to 200 or 400 depending upon the ambient
light level.  I point the strobe up, typically at the 45 or 60 degree
level, and set about +2/3 EV of flash compensation.  Example results
(my grandson eating -- not a pretty sight)

http://www.snafu.org/pics/year/2006/1127-allistair/p-20061127-1925-2220.jpg

Selected exif info:

ExifToolVersion: 6.29
FileName: p-20061127-1925-2220.cr2
Model: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT
ExposureTime: 1/160
FNumber: 8.0
ExposureProgram: Manual
ISO: 400
Flash: On
FocalLength: 73.0mm
MacroMode: Normal
EasyMode: Manual
FlashBits: E-TTL, External
ExposureCompensation: 0
WhiteBalance: Auto
FlashExposureComp: +2/3
UserComment: Dinner time
Lens35efl: 17.0 - 85.0mm (35mm equivalent: 26.6 - 132.8mm)

Practice, practice, practice.

// marc

Guys,
Thank you all for your valuable input. I appreciate the time you spent to
write your replies. You gave ma lot of useful advices which I really need at
this time. I like this newsgroup at the first touch so much. I can fill how
people want to help me and no one is playing smart.
I took a second closer look at my pictures and I came to conclusion they are
not that bad as I stated before. I did some RAW processing and they look
better. BTW what program do you use for RAW processing?

I know that in the future I will improve my photographic skills. That was a
one reason why I did purchase this camera in first place.

One of my very first shot whit my new camera you can see here:
http://www.treklens.com/gallery/North_America/Canada/photo223432.htm
other pictures from my P&S era you can see here:
http://www.trekearth.com/members/jazu/

My Rebel pix look like p&s pix.  I don't know what I"m doing wrong.   I
don't use it as a p&s.  It's a hobby of mine.

Harry