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!
We are going to walk you through various camera settings starting with the basics and build upon them as we move forward. They will no longer be a competition but rather a type of 365 classroom community. You can join in and follow which ever challenges interest you.
These are designed for those experienced photographers to share their knowledge with others who are anxious to learn and improve their skills.
CONGRATULATIONS, if you have been following along in these challenges you understand what happens when you adjust your shutter speed (challenges 1 & 2 and 3), aperture (challenge 4 & 5) and how to crank up the ISO when you need additional light (challenge 6)– especially if you are not using a tripod (links to these challenges below).
Now it is time to put it all together and adjust ALL 3 as needed. It is time to set your camera to M – Manual.
To change the aperture, shutter speed and ISO when in” M” (Manual Mode) you will need to refer to your manual. We do have some links below but there are so many camera’s it would be impossible to add all of them. Please keep in mind if you are having difficulty learning what to do for your camera ask on this thread and perhaps someone will be familiar with your camera and be able to help you.
Before we get started, think about the earlier challenges. Were there times when you were taking photos with the assigned settings and not getting the results you expected or wanted? Have you ever been shooting numerous photos at a certain location or event and been frustrated because the results are inconsistent? Are you finding that when you shoot aperture priority the camera wants to choose a shutter speed that is too slow for you to manage hand-held, yet a tripod is not an option in the circumstance? Do you want to get more creative with how you use light and dof? If so, read on – because we’re going to look at how you can take full control over your settings to get the image you want.
Let’s get started:
Let’s start with a simple exercise. Go in a fairly lit location, nothing too dark or too bright.
Set your Shutter speed to 160 or 1/160 of a second. Next set your aperture at F8 and your ISO set at 100. Take a shot. Now let’s make an adjustment but before you take the shot look at the meter grid in your viewer. You will see your camera settings and the camera meter (here is a link to show you what the camera meter looks like) https://www.google.com/search?q=camera+meter&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=Y3r0VOP2C8yqgwTdpIPACA&ved=0CCUQsAQ&biw=1777&bih=861&dpr=0.9 . Does your meter show you that you are at zero? Does your meter indicate that you are heavy to the left (under exposed) or to the right (over exposed)? If it is underexposed & too dark you can either increase the ISO, or set the shutter speed to a slower setting or widen the aperture (perhaps to F5.6) If it is too bright you can increase the shutter speed, since the ISO is at 100 you probably won’t be able to adjust that lower.
You will either need to let in more light or reduce the light (see below on your options). For this exercise you want to be as close to zero as possible to get it as close to being perfectly exposed as possible. Take the shot. How does this image compare to the original shot? Has it improved?
Now go to another location – somewhere where the lighting is slightly different (little lighter or shadier). This time look at your meter before you take the shot? How do you need to adjust?
Reminder:
You can bring in more light if the image is too dark by:
slowing the shutter speed (too slow will be too blurry to hold without a tripod)
Widening the aperture (smaller F numbers) – If you are using a kit lens you may be limited on how wide you can go
Increase the ISO – keep in mind higher ISO may increase the noise in your photo (varies between different cameras)
You can darken the image by:
Increase the to a faster shutter speed
Narrow the aperture (larger F numbers)
Lowering the ISO – many cameras won’t let you go lower than 100
For this challenge we are only concentrating on ISO, aperture and shutter speed. You can also make adjustments on the exposure compensation through another setting but to keep it basic and simpler we will stick with these 3 for now.
Try some of the previous challenges (challenges 1 – 5) but this time use your M – Manual mode and you adjust as needed. If you are trying to freeze action set your shutter speed accordingly and then adjust the lighting with your aperture and/or ISO
Keep practicing. At first it is a lot to think about but if you use your M mode more often these settings will become easier and more natural.
Another exercise is to shoot an image in your Auto setting. What are your settings? Now go to Manual mode and try to duplicate those settings. http://froknowsphoto.com/how-to-get-out-of-auto-and-into-manual/ Look at your meter and make the adjustments. The actual wonderful thing about manual mode is you have control. If you are looking for a specific effect you can shoot slightly to the left or right of what the meter is telling you. But for this challenge we are keeping it basic.
Some more links: http://www.slrphotographyguide.com/camera/settings/fully-manual.shtml https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYbTEB2mQX8
This challenge starts today, Monday, March 2nd and will last one or two weeks depending on if there is a need to expand the challenge time. Please use the tag: camerasavvy-manual
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. For these challenges we encourage you to post your photo(s) in this thread to receive feedback and/or tips on what could be done to possibly improve the image (based on this specific challenge). We will not have a voting but we will select a few honorable mentions at the end of the challenge.
ASK QUESTIONS, we are all here to help you learn!
Expect to receive constructive suggestions on how to improve your skills.
How to post your photo to this discussion:
1) Go to your page that has the photo you wish to post.
2) Click on the three dots, and copy the code from the pop up box
3) Return to this thread and paste the code under comments
Stretch your skills and have fun!
Now of course I didn't really write any of the above words, but they are pretty good aren't they? They are pretty much a team effort. The next bit is just me though. It won't tell you anything about shooting in manual or anything else but may tell you why some photos manage to have a bit more 'gut appeal' that others. I'll put some examples in later which may help to explain what I'm rattling about.
Here's my take on what a slightly eccentric old body is doing playing around in manual mode when we all know that the camera can probably do it better.
Why would anyone bother using manual modes when our electronic wonders can really do it all for us?
Here are some ideas
Have you ever taken a shot and found that when you look at it, it isn’t quite what you remember seeing? I do that all the time and it can be pretty disappointing, after the event.
Do you know how wonderful the green/blue is in a tarpaulin under the tropical sun as it protects fresh vegetable and vendors? But if you shoot it and let your camera sort the colours you lose a lot of the blue/green light. Cameras are wonderful electronic things but sometimes they try to make up our minds for us.
There are times when I just want to come away with what was in my head, not what a computer thinks should have been. What was in my head may not be wonderful, or even right, but it’s my memory and it’s the image I wanted; the extreme white of dust at midday; lights over market stalls; shadows and shades. These are part of the memories which I want to keep for myself.
Shooting in manual allows me to preserve movement and colour, when I want to. It’s not something I do all the time. It’s not something which I want to do all the time, but it’s something that I’m grateful that I can do when I want to.
@randystreat You may still be able to try this. If you had one on aperture and missed the one on ISO it may still work for you. But it is a good idea to review those when you can since there is a lot of good information in both of them. Try this and see if you can figure it out - remember we are here for you. Watch the video links I think that will be helpful as well.
@randystreat Not to worry, The lessons will still be here. It's more important to have fun with them when you have the opportunity. I hope your hand is on the improve...fast
I would love to try this! Just last night I tried some indoor shots of my dog and had some very "wonky" effects. Today, I tried some outdoor shots of my dog in the sun and snow and most of them were much more successful. As with most things, practice will help me improve my skills in the manual mode. Thanks, Sue, for organizing this!
@paulam Don't thank me Paula...we're a team. This challenge should be taken with a spoonful of suger and an eye to fun. You're quite right though...practice is the way to go. Have fun
thankyou for all the time and effort the team have put into these lessons . I have been short on time these last few weeks but have bookmarked all the pages so I can tackle them when I have the time
@cruiser Thanks Cruiser. Bookmarking is a great way to go. There should be no pressure to try to complete things instantly. Give yourelf the time to luxuriate a little.
@myhrhelper i will do my best - today is the ist day my computer is back up and running, thanks to my brilliant sister. abobe techs worked on it since 2/16 by taking remote control but no luck. my card reader still does not work, their stuff does not work, have no idea what happened after windows updated but at least i can now upload my photos and go back to the basic things i used to do. so, am way behind but thank you for including me. have kept up with the readings and have been taking photos but have not been able to get them onto my computer as of yet. today is town meeting day here in vt - huge day - so will be back after we all argue over budgets and stuff while crammed into our tiny town hall.
@swilde I wondered where you had got to, not seeing any photos for a while. I am enjoying these tutorials very much though. I have not been tagging my photos I have still been trying the skills.
@catsmeowb so glad you are taking part of these challenges and learning. Glad at least your computer is functioning again - I don't know what I would do if mine was down. If you need help we are all here for you and @swilde will especially help you during this full manual mode challenge.
@catsmeowb Hi Camille, It sounds like life gets in your way just as it does for most people. Sory to hear about your computer glitches (maybe it was better to drop a roll of film into the chemist and hope for the best) Just keep the notes and you'll be able to refer to them as needed. There's no particular reason to try to keep up with lessons on a week-by-week basis. I'll look forward to seeing what you come up with when you have a chance to play.
@callymazoo I'm so glad that your're on board Cally. Keep the resource collection and you should have some great "look up"material. Even if you don't get to practice everything in one go, you'll have the material to refer to.
Ok. So I didn't completely follow the directions for this challenge, but had an idea for a multiple exposure done in photoshop. I did take this photo shooting completely in manual mode, however. Settings: f/8.0, 1/20s, ISO 100. Meter in camera read correct exposure at 0.6s, but had to adjust that since all I really wanted was the rimlight with everything else falling into the shadows. I think I missed focus slightly, but not really able to focus on my eye from where I was sitting. Editing done in LR and PS.
@cdean1956 Fabulous Charles. This is where your control of the camera settings gives you an advantage. I love the rimlight and you couldn't have got it without taking that control.
Still cannot get out because it's snowing yet again. But I did write down all the challenges so I can keep working on them. I know I need alot of practice. I thank you all so much for all the info. and help. And I did learn more settings on my camera I didn't know how to get to. And I am sure with all this info. I can go back and read it again when I am having trouble. So thanks again to everyone involved in helping others.
Was too late in the day so tried unsuccessfully inside. Will make another attempt.
My auto exposure seemed to be at -2 but I couldn't change it so what am I doing wrong?
@miata2u try taking a shot inside for now and when you are able to go outside then do it. Perhaps inside start with F5.6 1/100 100 iso and then adjust. If you have a room that has nice lighting than start with what the directions say
1st attempt: thought this would be my bright shot- how wrong I was but I really like the negative space in this shot. paid attention to the meter. changed iso to 200 and shutter speed to 1/400, left the aperture at f/8. took this at 9 AM, inside with sun shining into room, no flash.
this was supposed to be my 'dark' shot but as you see, it is much more bright than the bright shot. i had left my iso at 200, stopped down to f/5.6, moved back and was at 55mm and was now at a shutter speed of 1/250. i am in love with this capture of ava, it is 'her', every dirty curly hair, right down to the ones on the chair.
@catsmeowb Hi Camille. You must have finally decided that you wanted it brighter then? With the wider aperture and the longer shutter that's what you got. Also you have that strong reflected red light that gives you extra light and color on Ava's left side for some more detail showing in the shadow. Yes, it is a lovely shot of your pet. I might have cropped it more on the right, but that's a minor detail.
@frankhymus i like them both- i wanted to see the results of both- really amazed at the difference. she is sitting in the same spot and these were taken less than two minutes apart. the lighting in the room had not changed. all ava did turn was her head so her back was to me, so i moved to the other side of the chair and of ava. her expression in the darker shot, above, is priceless, very 'ava' and it shows her very special big pink nose, too. hard to say which shot i like more. thank you so much for your feedback, keeps me motivated.
@weebindi2 Ah...No idea is my answer...I see you use a Canon and I am not Canon savvy enough to answer the question, but I suggest that it may be time for the manual (as in book, not camera settings). Your first fish photo looks pretty good to me. The exposure is spot on, unless you are looking for some special effect.
Your second series of shots gives you a great range to choose from. Remember that being competent in anual settings is not the be all and end all. It's fun but may be becoming redundant. It does help you to understand what your camera and the light is doing and allows you to have a finer level of control. Don't worry about the time it takes. You can be playing in this for months, just keeping it in the back of your mind for when you have a few moments. Have fun
@catsmeowb I love both your shots, especially the second one. They are great examples of how taking control of those settings really can give you some extra OOMPH when you need it. Introducing the extra light has really raised the bar on this shot.
I am getting more comfortable with using the manual settings, and am starting to understand how you can get similar effects by changing the other settings, not just by changing the shutter speed. I am still baffled by the meter thing though! I used a shutter speed of 1/60, f11 and ISO of 100 - the meter said -.3. Is it ideally supposed to be zero? And if so, what could have been changed to get that? I think I have the right amount of light here - Cooper is tricky to capture with his dark coat, the snow - and whatever background is behind him. In this case the dark wood seemed to make it easier.
@linah Was that 3 marks to the left? If so, and I think it must have been, that means 3 one third of an exposure value (EV), i.e. one full exposure value or one full stop under what the camera believes is the right amount of light. You can change any of the three parameters by 1 stop (one doubling) and that would center the meter. A shutter of 1/30, an aperture of f/8 or an ISO of 200, you pick one.
But for this shot, you would be wrong to do so. And you didn't so good job. If you want to understand why, read on...
What the camera believes is "correct" is one that would average out the scene to what is technically known as 14% grey, that is 14% of the light falling on the frame is reflected back into the camera. You have probably twice the dark brown (low reflecting) as white (high reflecting). The camera doesn't know this and that's why it thinks you should raise the exposure to bring up the average reflectivity.
What this means is that lots of white/snow is highly reflective and the camera thinks it should cut back the light, so it tends to underexpose such scenes, and if there is lots of black or dark brown just the opposite, the camera thinks you should let more light in. Of course in both cases you wouldn't want that, and so such situations like this are *classic* uses of M to override the camera meter.
This is *exactly* what the D3100 scene mode entitled "snow/beach" does, it *increases* the light because it is expecting highly reflective white that the camera meter, if left to itself, would dial back and *under* expose the shot.
I've gone on much too long, but to summarize - when the scene is very reflective (white) the camera left to itself will *under* expose and if the scene has low reflectivity (black, dark brown) the camera will *over* expose. So you have to compensate, with M in this week's challenge, or with the Exposure Compensation button, which is a lesson in a couple of weeks.
Lovely dog, and you ended up with a perfect shot, properly exposed for the "reflectivity" you have. Great job.
@frankhymus Thanks so much for the explanation Frank - makes sense. I guess I have photographed my dog enough that I am getting the hang of it. Usually shot in any of the pre-programmed modes I end up having to edit the exposure and colors to make him look right. His color in today's unedited shot is spot on! As for whether the 3 marks were to the left or right, I think it was to the left. I know when I am shooting it will show the numerical marks, either left, right or center. But when viewing afterwards it just shows the humps in a graph shape and they are to the left.
@weebindi2 When shooting in full manual "M" mode on the 550D/T2i the automatic exposure compensation should be disabled. If you are in Av mode you should be able to hold down the Av+/- button and turn the wheel next to the shutter release to bring the setting back to 0. Hope this helps.
@linah That graph is the histogram. It shows, for each brightness level running along the bottom from 0 to 255, the relative proportion of each. Yes, after you shoot, that's all you have to evaluate exposure.
As regards post editing versus in-camera accuracy, I must say I personally don't sweat the in-camera stuff too much provided I have not "blown the highlights or the blacks" and have got detail in both I can work with. "Clipping" is the jargon term for blowing the detail at the ends of the histogram. It's the classic difference between "the negative" (what the camera produces) and "the print" (what the darkroom produces), completely analogous to the processes described in Ansell Adams' famous books. I like the flexibility it gives me, especially if shooting raw. Indeed it is really necessary to shoot raw if you want to get the most out of that approach. "Shooting for the editor" is another term sometimes used for that approach, disparagingly and with disapproval by some. But I digress from this week's exercise. :)
@linah I find the histogram very useful to help discover whether I've clipped the light range. Work towards keeping both ends within the edge (boundary) unless you are really trying for a look which is different in one way or another. The most dangerous thing is to "blow out" the highlights. This usually appears as some sort of blinker, depending on your camera model, just sitting there blinking at you. Once you've blown out a highlight you really can never really recover it and there's the ruination of your masterpiece
@catsmeowb I'm not entirely sure what you mean when you say "supposed to be your darker shot" - whether you changed your mind and did it deliberately, or you're not sure how you got the result that you did. In case it's the latter ... when you say "stopped down" to f/5.6 ... keep in mind that the smaller numbers are actually opening up your aperture wider (stopping down is going the other way). So you've let a full stop of extra light in with this change (double the light than in the first image). Then with your shutter speed, going from 1/400s to 1/250s is again letting in 2/3 of a stop MORE light in - so definitely a brighter result. Personally I love the second shot, beautiful detail and light. Well done :)
Between the cold/snow days and my kiddos getting sick, I have not had a chance to do the last several challenges... I'm even behind on posting my daily photos. Should I go back and try the other challenges before I attempt this challenge or can I still try this one out?
@kalm If you are okay with adjusting the shutter and aperture and can remember the exposure stuff from back at the beginning just jump in. If you can't remember or maybe want to combine the challenge with some of the ones you missed they are all linked here:
I went out to take a photo today and guess what? I actually knew what some of these buttons do and how to meter. And I kept my ISO on 100 because I was holding the camera for one reason. I do have another question,,,,,,I now know how to read a histogram and can see it's importance, but can't get it to show up on my camera so I can see it. I have searched my book and can't find it. I have a canon t3i. I found the histogram setting, but you can just click on it or the colored one, but dont know how to get it to show up on screen so I can see it. Can anyone help me with this.
@miata2u It's an option on your "view" or "playback" menu. I am not sure exactly what Canon calls it. You have to set it as an option, and then you have to learn how to move from one view to another for the same image. I'll look at the manual and try to help you out. This is one that is a bit of a labyrinth on most cameras to set up, but once you have it... You can find out yourself if you look into the index of your manual I am sure, "histogram display" would probably get you to the right pages.
Other Canon users might immediately know, so I hope they can jump in before I look it up for you.
Congrats for beginning to break through the fog of taking control of the exposure settings yourself!
Tried to take a shot of a full white moon tonight.. Ten degrees, frozen to the bone but determined. So I used every setting to bring in the moon closer with no avail. So I looked at other photo's and finally a light went on. I was using an 18-55 lens. So I switched to a kit lens I have never used a 75-300. And used a tripod. And it did get closer and better, but still not good. Manual setting 1sec, f/11,,300mm. ISO 100. And then I got this extra light. So was it because it refelected off the mirror in the camera or my settings or what. And no matter how I changed the settings, I could not bring the moon in closer. Help please. I would love to be able to take a great moom shot like I see others do. Thanks.
The funny old thing here is that the moon is actually putting out reflected light to about the same as daylight. This means that you don't have to slow down the shutter speed to catch it at all. Around about 200-400 ISO at f9-f11 and about1/60th of a second should catch it for you. I don't even bother with a tripod for moon shots, but I do like a nice long lens. The closer I can get it to look the happier I am. This one was done with a 500mm lens.
I really admire the way you are getting going at these challenges with such tenacity. (And in the cold)
@miata2u I think how bright the moon actually is has been pretty well covered for you but there area couple of other things that might help.
As well as being quite bright the moon is constantly moving. If you look at the moon in your shot it's a bit stretched because it has moved during exposure. A shutter speed somewhere over 1/30th should be enough to keep things sharp if you are using a tripod.
There's not a lot you can do about your problem of not getting the moon close enough. Although it might look large and dramatic in reality it isn't. It's really quite small so needs a long lens or significant cropping to appear quite large in the frame.
a crop from one of the shots from yesterday's shoot; liked the tree with the bank of gold and well, just like trees.
55mm, 1/40; f/5.6; ISO 400; i like this shot very much - have t admit i was too cold to pay attention to the meter so have no idea if it was even close to the middle or not. i just shot. and once i fell down, i was out of there. sorry. feel like the 'bad student' in class today!
I was sorry not to post on the last challenge as been unwell. Tried a few shots indoors from tripod but really need to go back and retry shots re the noise. Have only managed these 2 shots indoors but hope to get out next week if manual challenge continues.
F8 1/400, Iso 200 31mm. I did slightly adjust the contrast afterwards to give the petals more colour. I prob should have changed the ISO to 100 to get less light?
F8 1/25. Iso 100/ FL31mm. Tried to get all the flowers in focus and fairly sharp.. Prob could have used slightly wider aperture with quicker speed and still managed that?
@catsmeowb I love how much colour you've managed to pick up in both these shots. When your weather improves here's a personal chalenge for you. Shoot to maintain the foreground rather than the background so that instead of ending up with silhouettes you actually have the foreground items as the subject and the background will be a beautiful coloured blur. This is NOT a shot to try in cold weather. I admire your tenacity. We are havinf a cool autumn and I'm glad I don't have to go out to get evening shots.
@miata2u@swilde@iqscotland Something we haven't talked about yet, and that is a "metering mode." The default mode is matrix/evaluative/average that averages out the whole frame, and that is definitely what you don't want with all that black. You can guess at some M settings and iterate from there. Better, well faster anyway, is to employ "spot metering" where you will just pick up an exposure from just a very small spot or AF area. With Nikons, this will be the focus point you are using, for Canons this will be the center point/area, irrespective of the one you have used for AF, if you have AF active. You can aim at the bright moon and see the settings the camera has chosen, and then you can either set those in "M" and go focus in your normal way, or you can set the spot exposure, lock it (yet another camera setting button, the general purpose AE-L/AF-L button on all but the highest end DSLRs), focus and shoot. Or much easier with the moon, just use the center AF area, spot meter and AF there normally and shoot.
More you can do, especially with exposure stacking and the editor; there is a recent thread here that talks about that, can't find it immediately, something entitled "high resolution." But use a tripod anyway. Any camera shake will detract from the shot. 1/125 shutter or there about will (should?) be fast enough to freeze the moon in its path.
It's actually good to dial in -1EV or so, and recover the detail in an editor. This will help with very bright (clipped) edges, especially as you crop down small where such "sharp" edges are unduly widened in proportion to the crop.
A comment about focus methods for the moon, manual at infinity or AF? Either works OK, but in manual focus, you have to be very careful not to focus *past* infinity, and you can run into a problem of "focus shifting" or "wandering" if you are hand holding, very similar to what happens with close up macros, believe it or not. :)
@catsmeowb I suspect that as far as the camera meter is concerned, you are significantly under-exposed. But that's just fine for silhouettes against a sky, you want to drive them totally black. If indeed that it what you wanted. Another classic use case for M.
Might be interesting to check the shot's histogram, now you know how to get to it? I am sure it will be bunched severely along the left vertical axis, with just a few bumps about mid tone range for the light in the sky.
I'm sorry I haven't been working on the challenges for the past couple of weeks. But the photo I posted for today actually works for this:
ISO 200, f/4.0, 1/400s
I saw this dramatic lighting sort of highlighting the robot and when I tried to capture it initially the camera exposed the entire scene correctly, but the robot was very overexposed and I lost the sharp angles and shadows from the light. So I dropped the ISO, upped the shutter speed, and narrowed the aperture, and forced my camera to take the photo I wanted. :)
This works much so much better on stationary objects than on my toddler. I'm still trying to figure out how to catch him on the go under changing lighting conditions while manually adjusting things and without losing the cute shot.
The Olive Tree is in even light. The first shot was 1/16, f8 @ ISO 100. The Exposure Meter read -1 2/3. The second shot was 1/60, f8 @ ISO 100. The Exposure Meter read 0. I actually prefer the underexposed shot so this is an example of where you might want to over-ride the camera in order to get a specific effect.
The Fern was in shadow. The firs shot was 1/160, f8 @ ISO 100. The Exposure Meter was off the bar. The second shot was 1/250, f8 @ ISO 800. I went up to ISO 800 so I could increase the shutter speed as it was windy & I wanted to freeze the fronds of the fern
I may not have posed many shots here but I have been following with interest in order to consolidate and improve on my knowledge of camera settings. Thank you all so much - just bookmarked this to read at my leisure!
@myhrhelper Rather than post a reminder on this thread why not post one as a new topic on Sunday/Monday. It'll get more visibility and for a bit longer too.
@miata2u Spot metering from the moon is a good option but you will have to bear in mind what @frankhymus said earlier about how the camera meter actually views brightness in a scene.
If you take a spot reading directly from the moon, which is quite bright, the shot may be a bit underexposed so adjust your shutter/aperture until the meter indicates that you are overexposed by a stop or so.
Exposure bracketing is also useful in situations like this. It just means taking a series of shots based around the meter reading.
So I really played around in manual today. I picked this one because I intentionally wanted this dark feeling. Learned a ton!! Shot this at 1/4000 F/13 ISO 500. I actually found myself shooting in manual a few days ago and I wasn't even working on this challenge...just found myself wanting to pick settings! Yay!! I'm getting there!
@dianen I absolutely love your final result here. Technically it's underexposed but the WOW factor certainly makes up for that. Now I wonder who could print that on silk...I'd love to wear it.
@adayinmallacoota Wonderful shot and I think your exposure is spot on for the "feel" of the photo. It seems we all like to move into a slightly underexposed model when we are looking for an emotional level to hit with our shots. Well done.
Boring picture but I really wanted to contrast how the different settings affected the same shot. The first shot was taken in daylight but with an overhead light on. The second was without the overhead light but with raised ISO and a wider aperture. The most noticeable change was the colour which didn't look any different to the naked eye.
I've never used manual before. I normally shoot on Aperture mode. The flexibility with Manual is really fun to use.
@thistle Turning off the light has removed some of the available light from the scene but by opening up the aperture and raising the ISO you've kept the exposure about the same.
The orange colour cast in the first shot is a separate issue of white balance/colour temperature. Different light sources give out light of different colours, you already know what colour certain things are so you don't always notice. In this case it looks like domestic tungsten lighting, a regular light bulb, which gives out warm, slightly orange light. You can correct this by changing your in camera White Balance to Incandescent or change it during post processing in a similar fashion. Probably a wee light bulb symbol in the White Balance menu :)
Top left - Automatic(which chose 1/200 f5.6)
Top Right -Manual 1/160 f8 which showed -1 on the exposure meter
Bottom Left - Manual 1/100 f8 which put it at -0-
Bottom Right - 1/400 f8 gave me a -2 but I liked it for this shot.
All were shot at ISO100 in pretty even light.
I did learn that there are definite benefits to looking at the meter when composing a shot - think this is the first time I ever paid any attention to it. Got similar results in a darker setting. Both times my preference tended towards the corrected meter
@thistle I'm so glad you are appreciating the fun with manual. While it may be something which we use very rarely...if ever for some...having that control when we want it is an awesome feeling. You can see how the two shots have totally different colour orientations. This too is controlable in manual but maybe it's easier to adjust them in post processing (depending on your software) Keep having fun
@kathyboyles As I've commented elsewhere I love the summery light in this one. Often shooting in manual is a case of getting a feeling and the feeling here is summer
@milaniet I really like the definition which you've got in the bottom left shot. I think you'll agree that it has a bit more "punch"than the other shots. Keep having fun
@swilde Thank you so much. I guess it is my age, but taking me much longer to learn new things than it use to. But I will get it. lol All set to try the moon again and guess what? Moon stayed behind the clouds.
@kathyboyles Beautiful rose Kathy I see the settings were 1/500 f6.7 iso100.
For this shot the rose looks a bit blown out and too bright. I would have either gone to f8 and see what that does on the meter or a faster shutter speed. Most cameras 100 iso is as low as it goes so you would not adjust that. Of course this all depends on the look you are going for. How much dof do you want etc.
Is it at zero? Is it weighted toward the left or toward the right? If left you will add light wider aperture (lower F number) slower shutter speed or increase the ISO number. If it is toward the right the picture is too bright so you will need to darken the shot a little by narrowing the aperture (higher F number) faster shutter speed and lowering the ISO 100 is lowest you can go. You are really doing well Kathy and I see so much growth in your photography!
@swilde would you agree or what suggestions would you give?
My try:
- first photo was in Auto mode
- second one: higher aperture, to have a nice blur, and lowered ISO, because the first photo seemed overexposed to me
Thank you for your help. I never even thought of white balance!! Now you've mentioned it i realise it was the obvious thing to check. I'll have another go with the same picture. Not an exciting shot but it's the settings that are important not the vase! There seems to be so much remember before taking each shot. I suppose it becomes instinctive after a while. Just keep practicing! I am learning so much from this class and it's great fun as well.
@kathyboyles Raising the ISO, as you suggest will put even more light into this bright shot. You can't lower it any more since it s already at ISO100 so the answer to get more depth is to change something else rather than ISO. I would suggest shutting down the apperture bit by bit until you have the amount of light you want, or, if you are feeling really creative lreave the ISO and the apperture and start by changing the speed. The faster you are shooting the less light will enter the camera so I'd be inclined to reduce the 1/500 considerably. Start by halving it and keep getting faster until you have the look you are trying to achieve.
@snz I think you have done absolutely the right thing here in order to capture something with a bit more OOMPH! You coud try going even further by increasing you speed just a little. This would give you more richness in the colour as less light would be entering the camera.
@kathyboyles Now you are getting the hang of it. Just watch those settings and see what you get as you change them. The cats have worked really well. The subject matter is clear and the background is dark enough to really make them pop.
@milaniet@swilde I've looked at these four shots over and over.
Exposure wise the two on the left are about the same. Top left is Auto and bottom left is manually adjusted to agree with the meter so slightly different settings but the same overall exposure which is what you'd expect.
Bottom right, according the the settings posted and the meter reading, is a full two stops underexposed so it should be appreciably darker but it isn't.
@iqscotland I still feel that the bottom left shot has a bit more kick. Maybe it's my failing eyesight of even (don't tell anyone) the layout on the page which can be enough to trick our eyesight sometimes. Glad to see you are trying to solve this one as I'm having trouble solving it for you
@iqscotland@swilde I am puzzled, as is Alistair. The top two look like equal exposures, the bottom two "underexposed" from the camera meter, the one on the left more underexposed than the one on the right. It would make sense to me that in shade the metered settings would be somewhat too bright. I know that is not what Milanie says, but.. Whatever, it's an issue I would finally settle in the editor, perhaps even selectively, the water begs for the lightness of the top line, the shadows the depth of the second line. For me at least...
Playing around with lighting tonight and liked the way this one came out. Underexposed by 1 1/3 stop, converted to B&W in PS and adjusted the yellow channel to bring out the dark shadow on the left side of the mill. Camera settings were, ISO 100, f/5.6, 0.4sec, zoom at 130mm on tripod with 2 sec delay to prevent camera shake. Lit by 2, 35W daylight bulbs at 45 degrees on right and left rear, with small flashlight adding some lighting from the front.
@frankhymus@swilde@milaniet Frank, it's not so much how the meter has read the scene, it's purely the two bottom shots relative to each other. The one on the right should be two stops darker than the one on the left but it clearly isn't. I just wonder if the shots are incorrectly labelled or the wrong one has found their way into the collage.
Two bottom ones are probably the nicer of the four but the exposure looks quite similar in them all, nothing that couldn't be evened out in post.
Just so we are clear, this is not a criticism of the shot itself or how the challenge has been carried out :)
Lense 45 - 200mm… set at 45mm
ISO 200 f/4 1/800
I've been practicing in the manual mode for the past week. I think I'm getting more of an understanding of how the 3 settings work together, but I'm still not quite there with making the right decision for the best outcome.
For this shot I was looking for the effect that I got, but I got it by accident.
I set a wide aperture by mistake f/4, and then just set the shutter speed and Iso to achieve the OEV. In hind site, I would have thought that to get the background blur I should have set the aperture lower at maybe f/7 f/8.
Am I making sense?
@deborah63 I think the thing that confuses people is that a wider aperture is actually a lower F number. So typically the more blurred background you want as @iqscotland mentioned you want the aperture wider. So to have a blurrier background and have less depth of field you want to have a smaller F number such as F4 rather than F7 or F8.
@deborah63 This has been answered for you very well I think. It's one of those great confusions that the numbers seem to run backwards. The small the apperture the mre bqackgrond blur but the smaller apperture actually relates to a small number. The smaller number your lens will give you the more background blur you will get, so f4 will give you more blur than f8. As you get into really low numbers the cost of lenses increases so a 1.4 lens costs about twice as much as a 1.8 lens but gives you a significant amount more blur in the background. It's a lovely shot btw.
@iqscotland The only solution I can come up with here is that you've maybe misread your settings. That's easy enough to do and would at least explain the anomoly
@swilde@myhrhelper@iqscotland
Thanks for your response. ... I went back to aperture challenges and reviewed that info as well so I think I've got it now
I have fallen so far behind in this interesting challenge and I wanted so much to participate. This was my first try at using the manual setting of my p & s. I took these two photos to compare. The top is the "snow" setting, 1/100, f4.0, ISO 125. The bottom is my manual setting, 1/10, f11, ISO 125.
@april16 Here's where things get tricky (for me). I really like your second shots. The bit more light gives a lovely wintry "feel"to the shot without washing it out. Often when we are playing around with manual settings it's really al about the feel a shot has rather than its technical perfection. The tricky bit is knowing whether or not that grid should disappear. Because I'm unfamiliar with your camera I can only guess that it's doing all the right things. Don't worry about getting behind. The notes will still be here and there are some big challenges. Just work through them as you can. Well done on this one
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Here's my take on what a slightly eccentric old body is doing playing around in manual mode when we all know that the camera can probably do it better.
Why would anyone bother using manual modes when our electronic wonders can really do it all for us?
Here are some ideas
Have you ever taken a shot and found that when you look at it, it isn’t quite what you remember seeing? I do that all the time and it can be pretty disappointing, after the event.
Do you know how wonderful the green/blue is in a tarpaulin under the tropical sun as it protects fresh vegetable and vendors? But if you shoot it and let your camera sort the colours you lose a lot of the blue/green light. Cameras are wonderful electronic things but sometimes they try to make up our minds for us.
There are times when I just want to come away with what was in my head, not what a computer thinks should have been. What was in my head may not be wonderful, or even right, but it’s my memory and it’s the image I wanted; the extreme white of dust at midday; lights over market stalls; shadows and shades. These are part of the memories which I want to keep for myself.
Shooting in manual allows me to preserve movement and colour, when I want to. It’s not something I do all the time. It’s not something which I want to do all the time, but it’s something that I’m grateful that I can do when I want to.
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Ok. So I didn't completely follow the directions for this challenge, but had an idea for a multiple exposure done in photoshop. I did take this photo shooting completely in manual mode, however. Settings: f/8.0, 1/20s, ISO 100. Meter in camera read correct exposure at 0.6s, but had to adjust that since all I really wanted was the rimlight with everything else falling into the shadows. I think I missed focus slightly, but not really able to focus on my eye from where I was sitting. Editing done in LR and PS.
My auto exposure seemed to be at -2 but I couldn't change it so what am I doing wrong?
Please comment. It will take me a lot more practice before these settings become automatic!
Top left photo: f9 1/50 ISO 400
1st attempt: thought this would be my bright shot- how wrong I was but I really like the negative space in this shot. paid attention to the meter. changed iso to 200 and shutter speed to 1/400, left the aperture at f/8. took this at 9 AM, inside with sun shining into room, no flash.
this was supposed to be my 'dark' shot but as you see, it is much more bright than the bright shot. i had left my iso at 200, stopped down to f/5.6, moved back and was at 55mm and was now at a shutter speed of 1/250. i am in love with this capture of ava, it is 'her', every dirty curly hair, right down to the ones on the chair.
Your second series of shots gives you a great range to choose from. Remember that being competent in anual settings is not the be all and end all. It's fun but may be becoming redundant. It does help you to understand what your camera and the light is doing and allows you to have a finer level of control. Don't worry about the time it takes. You can be playing in this for months, just keeping it in the back of your mind for when you have a few moments. Have fun
I am getting more comfortable with using the manual settings, and am starting to understand how you can get similar effects by changing the other settings, not just by changing the shutter speed. I am still baffled by the meter thing though! I used a shutter speed of 1/60, f11 and ISO of 100 - the meter said -.3. Is it ideally supposed to be zero? And if so, what could have been changed to get that? I think I have the right amount of light here - Cooper is tricky to capture with his dark coat, the snow - and whatever background is behind him. In this case the dark wood seemed to make it easier.
But for this shot, you would be wrong to do so. And you didn't so good job. If you want to understand why, read on...
What the camera believes is "correct" is one that would average out the scene to what is technically known as 14% grey, that is 14% of the light falling on the frame is reflected back into the camera. You have probably twice the dark brown (low reflecting) as white (high reflecting). The camera doesn't know this and that's why it thinks you should raise the exposure to bring up the average reflectivity.
What this means is that lots of white/snow is highly reflective and the camera thinks it should cut back the light, so it tends to underexpose such scenes, and if there is lots of black or dark brown just the opposite, the camera thinks you should let more light in. Of course in both cases you wouldn't want that, and so such situations like this are *classic* uses of M to override the camera meter.
This is *exactly* what the D3100 scene mode entitled "snow/beach" does, it *increases* the light because it is expecting highly reflective white that the camera meter, if left to itself, would dial back and *under* expose the shot.
I've gone on much too long, but to summarize - when the scene is very reflective (white) the camera left to itself will *under* expose and if the scene has low reflectivity (black, dark brown) the camera will *over* expose. So you have to compensate, with M in this week's challenge, or with the Exposure Compensation button, which is a lesson in a couple of weeks.
Lovely dog, and you ended up with a perfect shot, properly exposed for the "reflectivity" you have. Great job.
As regards post editing versus in-camera accuracy, I must say I personally don't sweat the in-camera stuff too much provided I have not "blown the highlights or the blacks" and have got detail in both I can work with. "Clipping" is the jargon term for blowing the detail at the ends of the histogram. It's the classic difference between "the negative" (what the camera produces) and "the print" (what the darkroom produces), completely analogous to the processes described in Ansell Adams' famous books. I like the flexibility it gives me, especially if shooting raw. Indeed it is really necessary to shoot raw if you want to get the most out of that approach. "Shooting for the editor" is another term sometimes used for that approach, disparagingly and with disapproval by some. But I digress from this week's exercise. :)
http://365project.org/camerasavvy/profile
Other Canon users might immediately know, so I hope they can jump in before I look it up for you.
Congrats for beginning to break through the fog of taking control of the exposure settings yourself!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fY3DlgjhQMM&t=3m25s
I really admire the way you are getting going at these challenges with such tenacity. (And in the cold)
As well as being quite bright the moon is constantly moving. If you look at the moon in your shot it's a bit stretched because it has moved during exposure. A shutter speed somewhere over 1/30th should be enough to keep things sharp if you are using a tripod.
There's not a lot you can do about your problem of not getting the moon close enough. Although it might look large and dramatic in reality it isn't. It's really quite small so needs a long lens or significant cropping to appear quite large in the frame.
was it worth getting knocked over by my dirty dog? i don't know. . .1/30 at f/5.6, ISO 400
a crop from one of the shots from yesterday's shoot; liked the tree with the bank of gold and well, just like trees.
55mm, 1/40; f/5.6; ISO 400; i like this shot very much - have t admit i was too cold to pay attention to the meter so have no idea if it was even close to the middle or not. i just shot. and once i fell down, i was out of there. sorry. feel like the 'bad student' in class today!
I was sorry not to post on the last challenge as been unwell. Tried a few shots indoors from tripod but really need to go back and retry shots re the noise. Have only managed these 2 shots indoors but hope to get out next week if manual challenge continues.
F8 1/400, Iso 200 31mm. I did slightly adjust the contrast afterwards to give the petals more colour. I prob should have changed the ISO to 100 to get less light?
F8 1/25. Iso 100/ FL31mm. Tried to get all the flowers in focus and fairly sharp.. Prob could have used slightly wider aperture with quicker speed and still managed that?
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More you can do, especially with exposure stacking and the editor; there is a recent thread here that talks about that, can't find it immediately, something entitled "high resolution." But use a tripod anyway. Any camera shake will detract from the shot. 1/125 shutter or there about will (should?) be fast enough to freeze the moon in its path.
It's actually good to dial in -1EV or so, and recover the detail in an editor. This will help with very bright (clipped) edges, especially as you crop down small where such "sharp" edges are unduly widened in proportion to the crop.
A comment about focus methods for the moon, manual at infinity or AF? Either works OK, but in manual focus, you have to be very careful not to focus *past* infinity, and you can run into a problem of "focus shifting" or "wandering" if you are hand holding, very similar to what happens with close up macros, believe it or not. :)
Might be interesting to check the shot's histogram, now you know how to get to it? I am sure it will be bunched severely along the left vertical axis, with just a few bumps about mid tone range for the light in the sky.
ISO 200, f/4.0, 1/400s
I saw this dramatic lighting sort of highlighting the robot and when I tried to capture it initially the camera exposed the entire scene correctly, but the robot was very overexposed and I lost the sharp angles and shadows from the light. So I dropped the ISO, upped the shutter speed, and narrowed the aperture, and forced my camera to take the photo I wanted. :)
This works much so much better on stationary objects than on my toddler. I'm still trying to figure out how to catch him on the go under changing lighting conditions while manually adjusting things and without losing the cute shot.
The Fern was in shadow. The firs shot was 1/160, f8 @ ISO 100. The Exposure Meter was off the bar. The second shot was 1/250, f8 @ ISO 800. I went up to ISO 800 so I could increase the shutter speed as it was windy & I wanted to freeze the fronds of the fern
f2.8; 1/125; ISO100 Exposure setting 0
I did try some different settings in manual mode but quite liked how this turned out
365project.org/discuss/themes-competitions/25014/camerasavvy-manual#comment-723760
If you take a spot reading directly from the moon, which is quite bright, the shot may be a bit underexposed so adjust your shutter/aperture until the meter indicates that you are overexposed by a stop or so.
Exposure bracketing is also useful in situations like this. It just means taking a series of shots based around the meter reading.
Exposure Bracketing
I've never used manual before. I normally shoot on Aperture mode. The flexibility with Manual is really fun to use.
The orange colour cast in the first shot is a separate issue of white balance/colour temperature. Different light sources give out light of different colours, you already know what colour certain things are so you don't always notice. In this case it looks like domestic tungsten lighting, a regular light bulb, which gives out warm, slightly orange light. You can correct this by changing your in camera White Balance to Incandescent or change it during post processing in a similar fashion. Probably a wee light bulb symbol in the White Balance menu :)
Top left - Automatic(which chose 1/200 f5.6)
Top Right -Manual 1/160 f8 which showed -1 on the exposure meter
Bottom Left - Manual 1/100 f8 which put it at -0-
Bottom Right - 1/400 f8 gave me a -2 but I liked it for this shot.
All were shot at ISO100 in pretty even light.
I did learn that there are definite benefits to looking at the meter when composing a shot - think this is the first time I ever paid any attention to it. Got similar results in a darker setting. Both times my preference tended towards the corrected meter
For this shot the rose looks a bit blown out and too bright. I would have either gone to f8 and see what that does on the meter or a faster shutter speed. Most cameras 100 iso is as low as it goes so you would not adjust that. Of course this all depends on the look you are going for. How much dof do you want etc.
Looks like this: https://www.google.com/search?q=camera+meter&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=Y3r0VOP2C8yqgwTdpIPACA&
Is it at zero? Is it weighted toward the left or toward the right? If left you will add light wider aperture (lower F number) slower shutter speed or increase the ISO number. If it is toward the right the picture is too bright so you will need to darken the shot a little by narrowing the aperture (higher F number) faster shutter speed and lowering the ISO 100 is lowest you can go. You are really doing well Kathy and I see so much growth in your photography!
@swilde would you agree or what suggestions would you give?
- first photo was in Auto mode
- second one: higher aperture, to have a nice blur, and lowered ISO, because the first photo seemed overexposed to me
Exposure wise the two on the left are about the same. Top left is Auto and bottom left is manually adjusted to agree with the meter so slightly different settings but the same overall exposure which is what you'd expect.
Bottom right, according the the settings posted and the meter reading, is a full two stops underexposed so it should be appreciably darker but it isn't.
Two bottom ones are probably the nicer of the four but the exposure looks quite similar in them all, nothing that couldn't be evened out in post.
Just so we are clear, this is not a criticism of the shot itself or how the challenge has been carried out :)
Lense 45 - 200mm… set at 45mm
ISO 200 f/4 1/800
I've been practicing in the manual mode for the past week. I think I'm getting more of an understanding of how the 3 settings work together, but I'm still not quite there with making the right decision for the best outcome.
For this shot I was looking for the effect that I got, but I got it by accident.
I set a wide aperture by mistake f/4, and then just set the shutter speed and Iso to achieve the OEV. In hind site, I would have thought that to get the background blur I should have set the aperture lower at maybe f/7 f/8.
Am I making sense?
Pretty image Debbie. So glad you are learning.
Thanks for your response. ... I went back to aperture challenges and reviewed that info as well so I think I've got it now
Same scene as above. 1/80, f2.2, ISO 125.