The numpty questions start here...
Discussion
Now that I've had the camera a few days I've been experimenting and trying to get my head around the features. I'm trying to keep myself away from the 'Auto' setting as it seems a waste of the cameras abilities. So this leads me onto which settings are best to start with.
I have been trying to use the full 'Manual' setting which is proving quite difficult. My problem is not knowing where to start really. This morning we took the dog into a shady coppice and I was trying to take some action shots. Obviously the shutter speed had to he fast but this limits the light, so I tried with the flash on. This improved things but limited the shutter speed. I just couldn't get it right. When assessing a possible picture what is the first thing you look to set up?
The WB is pretty straightforward, but how do you tell what a suitable shutter speed/aperture and iso would be? Is it a case of experience and just knowing ball park settings to get you to a suitable starting point?
I have been trying to use the full 'Manual' setting which is proving quite difficult. My problem is not knowing where to start really. This morning we took the dog into a shady coppice and I was trying to take some action shots. Obviously the shutter speed had to he fast but this limits the light, so I tried with the flash on. This improved things but limited the shutter speed. I just couldn't get it right. When assessing a possible picture what is the first thing you look to set up?
The WB is pretty straightforward, but how do you tell what a suitable shutter speed/aperture and iso would be? Is it a case of experience and just knowing ball park settings to get you to a suitable starting point?
As a fellow dog walker, I can sympathise. Shady woods are both a brilliant and a lousy place to take photo's. The problem is you just don't realise how dark they are as your eye is so damn good at compensating and where this is a decent bit of light it totally overwhelms everything else.
Try setting the camera on a fairly high ISO, say 400 at this level you shouldn't have much noise but will have bought yourself a couple of f stops to play with. Then rather than going in for full manual why not try aperture or shutter priority settings depending on the type of shot you are taking i.e. whether depth of focus or freezing action are your priority and then let the camera sort the other one out. Look at what you get with those settings, put it onto full manual and tweek as you see fit.
You will find that you start to get a feel of what works after a while. Back in the days of yore when I first started taking photos on a TLR camera with no light meter the film used to come with an exposure guide showing the appropriate shutter speed at f5.6 for bright sun, overcast, cloudy etc. after a while you will get an equivalent to this embedded in your mind or you could devise one yourself. You also start to develop more of a sense of actual rather than perceived light levels.
Don't feel it's a waste to use the camera's auto facilities, just try and understand what they are doing and in particular when they might be misled. After all a considerabe percentage of the price you paid for the camera went on developing them.
Try setting the camera on a fairly high ISO, say 400 at this level you shouldn't have much noise but will have bought yourself a couple of f stops to play with. Then rather than going in for full manual why not try aperture or shutter priority settings depending on the type of shot you are taking i.e. whether depth of focus or freezing action are your priority and then let the camera sort the other one out. Look at what you get with those settings, put it onto full manual and tweek as you see fit.
You will find that you start to get a feel of what works after a while. Back in the days of yore when I first started taking photos on a TLR camera with no light meter the film used to come with an exposure guide showing the appropriate shutter speed at f5.6 for bright sun, overcast, cloudy etc. after a while you will get an equivalent to this embedded in your mind or you could devise one yourself. You also start to develop more of a sense of actual rather than perceived light levels.
Don't feel it's a waste to use the camera's auto facilities, just try and understand what they are doing and in particular when they might be misled. After all a considerabe percentage of the price you paid for the camera went on developing them.
What Rusty says.
My camera stays on auto, and each time I take a pic I decide if changing from that will help. Often it doesn't. As Rusty says, I think S/A priority are the ones to move to - If you need to. If I'm by a race track, I'll use 'S' - If I need foreground/background in focus (landscapes), I'll use 'A'.
It's really rare to need full 'M' with the abilities of modern SLRs. (edited to add... unless you are a clever bugger - like some in here).
>> Edited by GetCarter on Monday 10th October 13:25
My camera stays on auto, and each time I take a pic I decide if changing from that will help. Often it doesn't. As Rusty says, I think S/A priority are the ones to move to - If you need to. If I'm by a race track, I'll use 'S' - If I need foreground/background in focus (landscapes), I'll use 'A'.
It's really rare to need full 'M' with the abilities of modern SLRs. (edited to add... unless you are a clever bugger - like some in here).
>> Edited by GetCarter on Monday 10th October 13:25
GetCarter said:
It's really rare to need full 'M' with the abilities of modern SLRs. (edited to add... unless you are a clever bugger - like some in here).
wrong!
use M when flash is your main light source (i.e. when you are taking pictures inside). that way you get to choose both your shutter speed AND your aperture, the optimal solution. It's not difficult, I promise!
dcw@pr said:
GetCarter said:
It's really rare to need full 'M' with the abilities of modern SLRs. (edited to add... unless you are a clever bugger - like some in here).
wrong!
use M when flash is your main light source (i.e. when you are taking pictures inside). that way you get to choose both your shutter speed AND your aperture, the optimal solution. It's not difficult, I promise!
I don't use a flash. (as I said... clever buggers!)
>> Edited by GetCarter on Monday 10th October 15:08
Cheers all. I think diving into full manual might have been a bit over the top. I've just been out for a walk on a local fen and tried a few different things. I've now taken to leaving the camera on aperture priority so it sorts out the shutter speed and I can then see what it uses and learn from that.
rude girl said:
dcw@pr said:
KarlosFandango said:
I've now taken to leaving the camera on aperture priority
good man, thats the way the proper photographers do it
Would you generally leave it on aperture priority for everything except where you want to freeze or capture movement then?
I think that may be DCW's particular art ('cos of his subjects?) If I left my camera on Aperture, I'd miss most of the wildlife shots I get - hence mine stays on idiot mode / *quick grab it and hope* (which kinda' suits me) - then when I'm composing shots I'll decide which suits. (forgive me butting in there DCW!).
>> Edited by GetCarter on Monday 10th October 17:52
If neither aperture or shutter speed are important to a shot, I use 'P'. I still have the option of popping up the flash or not.
If I want to control DOF I use 'A'.
If my main concern is shutter speed, eg at airshows, I use 'S'. It can also be handy to avoid falling into the camerashake trap with long lenses.
'A' and 'S' are two sides of the same coin; as you change one parameter, the other changes to compensate - so you can still get a particular shutter speed using 'A' and turning the dial until you see the speed you want - but 'S' is easier, and vice versa.
If I want to control DOF I use 'A'.
If my main concern is shutter speed, eg at airshows, I use 'S'. It can also be handy to avoid falling into the camerashake trap with long lenses.
'A' and 'S' are two sides of the same coin; as you change one parameter, the other changes to compensate - so you can still get a particular shutter speed using 'A' and turning the dial until you see the speed you want - but 'S' is easier, and vice versa.
rude girl said:
KarlosFandango said:
I've now taken to leaving the camera on aperture priority
good man, thats the way the proper photographers do it
Would you generally leave it on aperture priority for everything except where you want to freeze or capture movement then?
well, i'm glad you asked that question
yes, basically you are correct. imho using S over A in a day to day situation is very silly. it boils down to the fact that most of the time you want a "fast" shutter speed, i.e. one that doesn't introduce movement into the picture. when you want this, the there is no point in using S - let me explain.
Say you want a shutter speed of 1/1000 to take a picture of a racecar, so you set the camera on S to 1/1000. If there is lots of light, you will get a small aperture, which is "bad" because there will be too much DOF, the quality of the lens is reduced, and your dust speckled CCD will annoy you, and there is the possiblity of over exposure. If there is too little light, then your picture will be underexposed 100% of the time. What you want to do is set your camera to A, then choose your preferred aperture, balancing it with the ISO to get the shutter speed you want, or maybe slightly higher to give yourself a bit of flexibility. In this case if there is too much light then the shutter speed goes up, and the picture remains the same. if there is too little light then the shutter speed goes down, but you still have a correctly exposed photo, and since you left yourself some room here its not a problem. basically what i am saying is that if you want a fast shutter speed then using S mode is really the last thing you want to do. just set the fastest aperture and then you will always have the fastest shutter speed available.
i would be interested to hear a single good reason to use S mode when you want a fast shutter speed, can anyone oblige me?
again, what it comes down to is that the aperture is the main creative tool in making photos, most of the time, so it makes sense that this is what you control. ok so sometimes you have to compromise and open up the aperture more than you would like if there is low light, and this means that you will have to keep a constant eye on what shutter speed has been chosen, but until you can do this you will never reach the potential of your camera.
disclaimer - there are, as always, exceptions, but in the large majority of cases, S mode is totally redundant. so there
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