I owned a Canon Rebel Xsi for over 3 years but never learned to shoot outside of the Auto functions. The beginning of December I finally started learning to shoot in manual so I have a lot to learn and a long way to go. I will say I have not reverted back to Auto even once since switching to manual. For Christmas I received a Canon 60D body as I'd already realized my Xsi was going to limit my ability to capture the hockey action shots I desired (Both of my children play). Right after Christmas I added a 50mm 1.8, my very first prime lens. I'm very open to and would welcome constructive criticism, as long as it isn't mean. One thing I have even less skill/ability/familiarity with is editing. I have PSE7 that I refuse to upgrade until I learn how to use what I have.
I ain't looked at your pictures. But PS7 is what I have and its got loads to use, everything you need. I would say two things. First, manual is ace, but know why you're doing it. I can switch to manual type in f8 and 125th and get a fine shot most times, and indoors drop it to f3.5 125th and it might be fine for that, but what does it all mean? And the juicy bokeh on your f1.8 is lovely but its addictive and limited. I would suggest for fast action hockey games I'd neither use manual or 50mm. I'd shoot on a longer lens with shutter speed priority because your camera can stop down faster than you can when the suns behind the goals. And for street shots - which you could use your fifty for, you'd probably want full auto so you can shoot fast shots without messing with your settings. That you're working on it is half the battle. youtube shows some good ps7 editing videos.
@chewyteeth thanks for the suggestions & hints. I will definitely check into youtube for the ps7 help. I have a Tamron 70-300 4-5.6 that I currently use for the hockey games. Fortunately/unfortunately all of the hockey games are indoors..... different lighting at each rink so I use the warmup time to take my own practice shots and figure out what settings are best for that location. This weekend we have a tournament and I'm hoping/planning to rent a Canon 70-200 2.8L ll to see what sort of quality I can get with that.
Luckily for you, the 60D has a fantastic ISO range - you can pump it up quite high before you run into noise issues. The sports mode is very helpful as well, for those hockey action shots.
@timandelke I've already discovered that sports mode doesn't work for hockey, that's why I finally started learning to shoot manual. The players move too fast for the SS in sports mode so all the pictures were blurry. Now that I'm in manual and select my own SS I can get crisp and sharp or selectively blurred. But thank you very much for the suggestion. I do love the higher ISO range on the 60D compared to my old Xsi body.
@l2lumom I've had excellent results using the sports mode at figure skating competitions - same lighting as at a hockey game, and the competitors move pretty quickly. The difference must be in the lenses we use. I used my 100mm macro lens.
@timandelke That definitely could be the difference. This weekend we have a tournament that I'm hoping to rent a 70-200 2.8L lens for....... a heck of a lot better glass than what I own so I'll be interested in seeing what I can do with that... If I rent it I'll even give sports mode another go to see what happens.
Glad to hear your straying from auto. Never go back. 2 ultimate rules will take you far. Moving subjects, use shutter priority(if you want to freeze the action), still subjects, use aperture priority.
You can go further by limiting the max ISO value the camera will go upto when in "ISO Auto" if you crave sharp images, but I've began thinking it's better to just 'get the shot' whatever the iso value.
For the weekend, put it on Tv mode, and I'd suggest 1/200 sec or higher to reliably freeze the Action.
Well if you're indoors I don't know what I'd use. f.5.6 and 500th second and see what ISO I need to go up to which makes that possible. Is that what you've done?
@chewyteeth I just realized you had asked me a question and I never responded. While shooting at the rinks I leave my aperture wide open, I tend to go with SS of either 500th or 640th and then bump my ISO according to what my results are. Surprisingly enough I usually end up more in the 4000 range rather than having to take it to my max of 6400. Some of the rinks actually have good enough lighting I can keep it down around 3200.
@tomo87 I know this response is very overdue...... I have not switched my camera back to any auto mode/function since moving it over to manual. The speed that hockey moves at, even with 9-11 year olds, is too fast for a SS of 1/200. Over the last month or so I've had to go from 1/400-1/640 to have blur free frozen action because the kids have gotten faster, but drop it to about 1/80-1/100 if I want to pan on the big kids.
Thus far I tend to stick with straight manual as I want to have total control of my results, the one time I shot a game in TV I wasn't happy with my results...
I do appreciate the willingness to help a newbie out!
@l2lumom I'd say the most important thing here is that you're getting an appreciation for the modes, and working out what gives results you're happy with. Glad to see you've experimented enough to freeze the action. It's a shame you got some results you weren't happy with, but I often find those are the days I learn the most! I prefer Tv mode to manual because it gives me auto camera metering when I'm outside and the light can change etc. I guess when you're mostly under the controlled lighting of a rink you will generally require a smaller required exposure range, hence the use of full manual gives you the most consistent results. Best of luck with the future shots!
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You can go further by limiting the max ISO value the camera will go upto when in "ISO Auto" if you crave sharp images, but I've began thinking it's better to just 'get the shot' whatever the iso value.
For the weekend, put it on Tv mode, and I'd suggest 1/200 sec or higher to reliably freeze the Action.
Thus far I tend to stick with straight manual as I want to have total control of my results, the one time I shot a game in TV I wasn't happy with my results...
I do appreciate the willingness to help a newbie out!