Got my asbetos suit on... flame away!

[archosman]

Ok... constructive criticism please!

Complete newbie here. Shot this around 2:00pm, no clouds, perfect sunny day. Camera was in P mode, Lens Canon 70-200 F/4.0L. Here's what it looked like coming straight out of the camera...

http://home.comcast.net/%7Emp5k/head_fi/in1.jpg

What did I do wrong? Virtually all of my pictures came out overexposed. Remember... newbie here trying to find his way! :)

Here's what I came up with CR and PS...

http://home.comcast.net/%7Emp5k/head_fi/in2.jpg

One more question. Saw this guy there as well...

http://home.comcast.net/%7Emp5k/head_fi/can1.jpg

We both have the same lens. When I zoomed in to the pic I saw his settings...

http://home.comcast.net/%7Emp5k/head_fi/can2.jpg

Granted I couldn't see what else he had on the lens but are his settings more in line as to what I should have shot at? He had his back to the sun. I was shooting from the North looking South.

Here's one more I took tonight. Perched the camera on top of the mailbox outside since I didn't have my tripod with me.

http://home.comcast.net/%7Emp5k/head_fi/mn1.jpghttp://home.comcast.net/%7Emp5k/head_fi/mn.jpg

M-O-O-N... that spells moon! At least it turned out better than my day shoot!

[cosworth]

I tried my velvia action on it and did a little USM. Your picture was a good candidate for my testing of this action. Excuse me if you get a red X, the server reboots often due to a soon to be replaced motherboard...

http://www.jasonhollister.com/images/in1.jpg

[miklav]

Velvia film is supposed to be not good for skin tones :) but this one looks nice I think. Could you elaborate a little more on your "velvia action"?

[kenyc]

I like the shots, I think what cosworth did is good to bring the colors out. I was going to suggest boosting the saturation a bit.

As far as the other photographer and his settings, who cares :) do your own thing, learn what works and what doesn't for you. Always good to have a starting point though.

KAC

[cosworth]

Ross Alford is the wizard here:

http://ross.pibweb.com/ross/V-film/V-film.htm

I did this velvia action, an UnSharp Mask at %200, 0.03, 0.0 then I skimmed it with a "half remove noise" Neat Image filter. After that I played a bit with adjustments/exposure and pulled it down a notch, maybe .75 total.

Look past the subject and see the difference in the bokeh as well.

[miklav]

Thanks Jason, will give that action a try myself :)
I can't notice any difference in the bokeh though...

[archosman]

I like the shots, I think what cosworth did is good to bring the colors out. I was going to suggest boosting the saturation a bit.

As far as the other photographer and his settings, who cares :) do your own thing, learn what works and what doesn't for you. Always good to have a starting point though.

KAC

I guess my question is wouldn't it be counterproductive to be shooting at 1600 in broad daylight? Shouldn't he be shooting at a much lower ISO due to the direct sunlight?

I'm trying to learn how to shoot everything in manual mode. What's the point of having a SLR if you're going to us it as a point-and-shoot?

[miklav]

I guess my question is wouldn't it be counterproductive to be shooting at 1600 in broad daylight? Shouldn't he be shooting at a much lower ISO due to the direct sunlight?

I think it's not ISO 1600, I think it's 1/1600 shutter speed with F5.6 !

[blue_max]

The first image is not bad. As it was shot at near mid-day, the scene is very contrasty and the camera has saved the highlights from being blown out too much. If this was raw, then it is perfectly acceptable. It can be slightly enhanced by giving a little saturation. Job done.

I think you have gone too far in the second version. I don't know whether your screen is telling you porkies, but on mine, it's far too over the top.

The velvie action makes the woman look very unreal Cosworth, in my opinion.

Best not to try and shoot in the full glare of the mid-day sun if you can help it or try and find some shade.

From a creative point of view, there are two things you can control which have a large impact on the image. They are depth of field and speed. There are others, such as focus, but the other two are the main ones.

I like to work with my camera on depth of field (aperture priority). I pick how much I want in focus and check whether the speed suggested will freeze the action or if other things are required (up the iso, use flash, open the aperture). The 'p' mode has given you a good background blur in this instance.

It's a good shot of an interesting subject, it just needs dragging over the line to make it a winner.

Graham

[cosworth]

She does look unreal on certian monitors. I printed one off on my pixma to see the range and it looked great.

Now that I'm at work and see it on my older Dell Laptop, she appears darker and the colours are "ok".

This action is strictly to adjust a digital picture to mimic Fuji Velvia film. Download the action and play with the intensity and you'll see it can really add to this picture. I just let 'er rip at the default %50 range. You could try a %25 range and see if you like the result as well.

[peacock]

Hi Archosman

I have to say I really like the processed version:)

Your Exif gives 1/400 -f5.6- iso 200

I found the tables at the end off this linked site a good start when i wanted to start using manual settings I stil have a print in my bag:D , sorry if you already know !! I also found it good to start using the av /tv creative modes to start.

http://johnlind.tripod.com/science/scienceexposure.html

[Hellashot]

If that guy is shooting iso1600 during the day, he's probably got a 20D. Plus he is underexposing by 1/2 setup. You need to shoot RAW and avoid dark subjects with bright backgrounds. I have no idea what camera you have since it's not in your signature.

[Robert_Lay]

If that guy is shooting iso1600 during the day, he's probably got a 20D. Plus he is underexposing by 1/2 setup. You need to shoot RAW and avoid dark subjects with bright backgrounds. I have no idea what camera you have since it's not in your signature.

He was using a RebelXT with f/5.6 and 1/400 with ISO 200 on both of those first two pictures.

That other guy was shooting 2 stops under that (assuming he also was set for ISO 200, and why wouldn't he be on a nice sunny day like that?).

[RichardtheSane]

Couple of things I noticed on this one.

It looks like you were shooting into the light here.
Did you have the lens hood on? The image looks a little washed out and this may be due to flare. Even if you had the hood on then you could of had light reflected onto the lens. element.

We are looking at the other guy's settings, but what if he had it wrong?
1600/s is rather high, especially when the camera is indicating he is only 1/3 stop underexposed (be that by exp comp or he is in manual mode)

This suggests quite a high ISO anyway... or a very bright subject!

[archosman]

Couple of things I noticed on this one.

It looks like you were shooting into the light here.
Did you have the lens hood on? The image looks a little washed out and this may be due to flare. Even if you had the hood on then you could of had light reflected onto the lens. element.

You're right. I was more or less shooting into the sun... and I did have the hood on the 70-200.

We are looking at the other guy's settings, but what if he had it wrong?
1600/s is rather high, especially when the camera is indicating he is only 1/3 stop underexposed (be that by exp comp or he is in manual mode)

This suggests quite a high ISO anyway... or a very bright subject!

I think the general consensus is the shutter was at 1600. I'm not sure what kind of camera it was. He was smart... his back was to the sun and yes... all of the individuals he was shooting were facing west. Which means they were getting nailed by the sun. Here's a bigger shot of his rig...

http://home.comcast.net/~mp5k/oguy.jpg

[CyberDyneSystems]

1/1600,. underexposed,. @ f/5.6 on a sunny day only sounds like ISO 400 to me,.
I often leave my cameras at ISO 400 even on mostly sunny days to cope with abrupt cloud cover and to allow me to stop down dramatically on the fly and still maintain a decent shutter.

On these Canons's ISO 400 is barely worse than 100 IMHO.

[Robert_Lay]

Couple of things I noticed on this one.

It looks like you were shooting into the light here.
Did you have the lens hood on? The image looks a little washed out and this may be due to flare. Even if you had the hood on then you could of had light reflected onto the lens. element.

We are looking at the other guy's settings, but what if he had it wrong?
1600/s is rather high, especially when the camera is indicating he is only 1/3 stop underexposed (be that by exp comp or he is in manual mode)

This suggests quite a high ISO anyway... or a very bright subject!

Dear Richard,

I'm not lucky enough to have such a fine rig as shown in the blowup, so could you give me a quick explanation of how we know that he is only 1/3 stop underexposed? I missed something there.

[S230]

Thanks cosworth for sharing the info on Velvia action. :)

[pxl8]

Here's my effort in Paint Shop Pro X

I adjusted the curves to increase contrast in the shadow areas and pull back the whites a bit. Increased sat. by about 10%
Pass of Digital Cam. Noise Removal
Gentle High Pass sharpen followed by an even smaller amount of USM.

[kenyc]

Dear Richard,

I'm not lucky enough to have such a fine rig as shown in the blowup, so could you give me a quick explanation of how we know that he is only 1/3 stop underexposed? I missed something there.

It's the exposure bar on the lcd image.

KAC

[cosworth]

pxl8 - you have to save jpgs with lower compression.I think it would be better to not show pixelation and artifacts so markedy.

[Robert_Lay]

It's the exposure bar on the lcd image.

KAC

Well, I thought that was the place to look, but that exposure bar does not look like what the manual shows for a Rebel XT. each stop is divided in two and it looks more like 1/2 stop under-exposure to me.

According to the manual the exposure bar in the window on the back of the camera would be divided into into 1/3 stop marks, but there is nothing in the manual to describe that LCD screen on the top of the camera.

[pxl8]

pxl8 - you have to save jpgs with lower compression.I think it would be better to not show pixelation and artifacts so markedy.

Unfortunately that was the best compression possible to get inside the 100kb limit for attachments but it does, at least, show the changes to exposure, etc.