Congratulations to @summerfield for winning Camera Settings Challenge 37: Ghostly Settings with her shot, Ghostly:
@summerfield has selected me to host the next Camera Settings Challenge, the first one for 2014!
Do some of the camera settings intimidate you? Do you want to learn how to develop your photography skills and learn how to use your camera effectively without always going back to the "auto" function? These challenges are for you!
This week’s challenge is Exposure and the AE Lock button.
Explanation: Your challenge is to explore the use of the AE Lock button on your camera. (AE-L on Nikon, AE Lock on Canon and Olympus, AEL on Sony, etc. You may need to look into the Custom Functions menu to find/assign an AE Lock button, if your camera does not have one so designated.) AE Lock allows you to "tell" the camera where to determine the exposure for the final image, if it is something other than the center of the composition. This is particularly useful if you are using Partial or Spot metering but works just as well with Evaluative, Center-Weighted, and Matrix metering systems.
Basic idea: When you are shooting in a mode other than manual, your camera is using a metering system to determine how to interpret the scene in front of it and choose a combination of ISO, shutter, and aperture to make the "correct" exposure. With AE Lock, you can point your camera at a different part of the scene, hit the AE Lock button, and lock in those exposure values for ISO, shutter, and aperture. Then you can recompose and take the photograph you wanted. AE Lock is particularly useful for high contrast scenes, like bright sunsets with dark silhouettes: you can point the camera at the sky and hit AE Lock to get a vibrant sky and dark silhouettes or point it at the ground and hit AE Lock to get a less intense sky but details in the foreground.
Additional Tips: Consider adding some details in your photograph's description about where you aimed when hitting AE Lock for the exposure, as this will really help others understand the impact.
Experienced photographers who are knowledgeable in this particular setting are encouraged to offer "kind and constructive" suggestions on the posted entries. Those entering this challenge want to learn and improve.
This challenge starts immediately, today, Friday, January 3rd, and lasts until Sunday, January 12th at 11:59pm Central Standard Time (16:59 Zulu time http://www.zulutime.net). All photos must be taken during these dates to be considered. Enter as many as you would like - the idea is to practice and learn. TAG your photo CSC14-01 AND post your picture in this thread to receive feedback from other experienced photographers specific to this challenge.
Voting will take place on Tuesday, January 14th (and remain open 24 hours), and the winner will be announced on Wednesday, January 15th. The winner of the challenge will select an experienced photographer to host a new challenge. It is the winner’s option on who they want to host the next challenge; it may be someone they follow whose work they admire, or someone who is active offering suggestions on previous CSC challenges. The winner may also select an experienced photographer from the list of photographers who have agreed to host future challenges as another option. Here is the link to that list: http://365project.org/archaeofrog/365/2013-12-18 .
Expect to receive constructive suggestions on how to improve your skills.
How to post your photo on this discussion thread:
1) Upload your photo to 365, and be sure to add CSC14-01 as one of the tags.
2) Go to your page that has the photo you wish to post.
3) Copy the “share” code in the bottom right section of that page.
4) Return to this thread and paste the code under comments.
oooh! good one... this is a bit of functionality that continues to elude me... maybe this will be the incentive that i need to knuckle down and learn it... tx for setting this challenge Katie!
@northy This is probably my favorite button on my camera (after the shutter, of course). I use it much more often than switching into manual and muddling through that way.
The feature is exceptionally useful if you use Point Metering, exposure for a very small piece of the frame like a strong light source you don't want to blow, rather than "evaluative" (Canon term) or "matrix" (Nikon term), that is taking the whole frame into account. You can fix the exposure on the point, lock it, and then focus and reframe where the strong light source is not over the focus point. Typically you have to be rather agile and hold the lock button for the total length of the endeavor.
Also useful if you shoot panoramas to ensure the same exposure parameters for all components without the hassle of having to "M" it.
Just like Katie described, decoupling the metering and fixing the exposure parameters by the camera (any mode but "M") from the Auto Focus of the camera, not to mention any reframing you might then want to do after you have locked the auto exposure and the auto focus, both separately, is extremely useful in many (most?) situations. You basically have all the flexibility of totally manual operations for both exposure and focus without all the hassle of actually having to calculate them yourself. A great choice of subject for the challenge, Katie.
@kali66 I believe your Canon SX50 doesn't have the feature Kali. You typically will find this only on a DSLR or similar.
@aponi@bjw Kathryn and Bob, fixing in Lightroom or similar is certainly fine, IF there is enough detail left in the blown pieces (usually in the highlights, but it could be in the shadows too) and IF a camera jpeg didn't posertize away any detail from the other extreme. Here's an example when I shot carefully not to blow the highlights, but the P&S produced a jpeg in which shadow detail was simply not there to do a complete job of recovery. I'd have had much better luck with a 12 or 14 bit raw image rather than the 8 bit jpeg.
Of course that is where HDR could come into it, especially if all you can get are jpegs, once shooting for the highlights and once for the shadows (probably better at least three, hi, lo and "normal") and merging them and then operating on that result.
I have a bridge camera and found an AF/AE button. In the main settings I could switch this to AE lock. I pointed at the sky but not sure I really knew what I was doing! I think I will have to go back to the manual!
Well I really am not sure this is getting any better! In the first image I tried to lock onto the sky and in the second, locked onto the water. Tried to read the manual to learn how to use the button properly but not having much success in understanding this. Time to go off and do a bit of research I think!
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Also useful if you shoot panoramas to ensure the same exposure parameters for all components without the hassle of having to "M" it.
Just like Katie described, decoupling the metering and fixing the exposure parameters by the camera (any mode but "M") from the Auto Focus of the camera, not to mention any reframing you might then want to do after you have locked the auto exposure and the auto focus, both separately, is extremely useful in many (most?) situations. You basically have all the flexibility of totally manual operations for both exposure and focus without all the hassle of actually having to calculate them yourself. A great choice of subject for the challenge, Katie.
@aponi @bjw Kathryn and Bob, fixing in Lightroom or similar is certainly fine, IF there is enough detail left in the blown pieces (usually in the highlights, but it could be in the shadows too) and IF a camera jpeg didn't posertize away any detail from the other extreme. Here's an example when I shot carefully not to blow the highlights, but the P&S produced a jpeg in which shadow detail was simply not there to do a complete job of recovery. I'd have had much better luck with a 12 or 14 bit raw image rather than the 8 bit jpeg.
Of course that is where HDR could come into it, especially if all you can get are jpegs, once shooting for the highlights and once for the shadows (probably better at least three, hi, lo and "normal") and merging them and then operating on that result.
I have a bridge camera and found an AF/AE button. In the main settings I could switch this to AE lock. I pointed at the sky but not sure I really knew what I was doing! I think I will have to go back to the manual!
Well I really am not sure this is getting any better! In the first image I tried to lock onto the sky and in the second, locked onto the water. Tried to read the manual to learn how to use the button properly but not having much success in understanding this. Time to go off and do a bit of research I think!
Without AE Lock
With AE Lock: