Dummy mode - kind of smart

[ilya]

I have to say I was impressed with 10D's dummy sports mode. See the below two pics (Sports Mode, 70-200 2.8 IS, CPL). The exposure in the first one (my wife) was spot on. The exposure on the second one (myself) was just a little bit on the greyish side (lightened up in PS), but that generally matched the overcast lighting during that sequence.

http://images.fotopic.net/?id=2188880&outx=600&noresize=1&nostamp=1


http://images.fotopic.net/?id=2249972&outx=600&noresize=1&nostamp=1

My point is just that I learned when circumstances dictate a quick pull of the trigger, without having to mess around with exposure, focus, white balance, and so on ~~ you just want to get that shot quick, or if you have to have someone else take the picture, the dummy sports mode comes through with pretty good results in difficult conditions.

I had taken exposure compensated shots in Tv mode as well, and had decent results, but when you're sitting there on the snow messing around with the settings with bare hands, the dummy mode actually offers a very welcome alternative.

Needless to say that the other point to this post is the dire desire to share with you all the absolutely incredible time we had :D (apologies if its a bit self serving, just had to !)

Belated Happy New Year to all!

Ilya

[defordphoto]

Thanks for sharing Ilya. Great shots. Nice to see that someone else has use for those pre-programmed modes other than to bitch about them. They do come in handy when you have to quick at the shutter.

[tpinchback]

Nice photographs!!! Wish I was there. dosen't snow in Texas=)

[GenEOS]

Very nice shots, I hope you were in RAW mode and can crop them a bit. I sometimes use the dummy modes, however I live up to the name more times than I would care to admit.

[scottbergerphoto]

tpinchback wrote:
Nice photographs!!! Wish I was there. dosen't snow in Texas=)
It did once when I lived in San Antonio in 1978!
Scott

[ilya]

Did anyone notice the guy in the background in #2 - its the funniest thing watching the whole sequence of about 8 shots from the top; he leans over in the third shot, goes down with a small plume of snow in next, then the plume is large, then you see his pole, etc.

Geneos ~ No raw, can't afford the lag shooting stuff like this. But I am cropping these. I sent off the first one in portrait orientation to mpix for a 16x20 already.

Ilya

[defordphoto]

ilya wrote:
Geneos ~ No raw, can't afford the lag shooting stuff like this. But I am cropping these. I sent off the first one in portrait orientation to mpix for a 16x20 already.

Ilya

Canon JPEGs are fine to edit/crop/whatever once with no visible loss of quality if you re-save at max quality. You can also convert them to TIFF and you'll still have an 8-bit lossless copy forever. I'm sure we don't have to say to proctect originals from over-writing.

[mpkirby]

GenEOS wrote:
Very nice shots, I hope you were in RAW mode and can crop them a bit. I sometimes use the dummy modes, however I live up to the name more times than I would care to admit.

Can you do raw with the dummy modes on a 10D? I'm not able to (at least I couldn't figure it out in the 30 seconds that I tried. It would be really nice to be able to shoot them sometime, but I almost exclusively use raw, and don't like to give it up without a fight.

Thanks,
Mike

[ilya]

mpkirby wrote:
GenEOS wrote:
Very nice shots, I hope you were in RAW mode and can crop them a bit. I sometimes use the dummy modes, however I live up to the name more times than I would care to admit.

Can you do raw with the dummy modes on a 10D? I'm not able to (at least I couldn't figure it out in the 30 seconds that I tried. It would be really nice to be able to shoot them sometime, but I almost exclusively use raw, and don't like to give it up without a fight.

Thanks,
Mike


Cannot. Its one of the things on the "petition" :D

[Canuck]

ilya wrote:
mpkirby wrote:
GenEOS wrote:
Very nice shots, I hope you were in RAW mode and can crop them a bit. I sometimes use the dummy modes, however I live up to the name more times than I would care to admit.

Can you do raw with the dummy modes on a 10D? I'm not able to (at least I couldn't figure it out in the 30 seconds that I tried. It would be really nice to be able to shoot them sometime, but I almost exclusively use raw, and don't like to give it up without a fight.

Thanks,
Mike


Cannot. Its one of the things on the "petition" :D

see thread, "Would like to see on next 10D, don't get me wrong," or something like that!

[Jesper]

ilya wrote:
I have to say I was impressed with 10D's dummy sports mode. See the below two pics (Sports Mode, 70-200 2.8 IS, CPL). The exposure in the first one (my wife) was spot on. The exposure on the second one (myself) was just a little bit on the greyish side (lightened up in PS), but that generally matched the overcast lighting during that sequence.
...


Do you know why the second one was greyish? It's because most of the frame is filled with very white snow, and your camera adjusts the exposure to make the brightness of the frame average grey (18% grey, like a grey card). When you photograph something that's mostly white, like snow, you need a bit of exposure compensation (I'd use +1/2 or +1 stop). The histogram is a good way to check if the exposure is correct. Understanding Histograms (http://luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/understanding-histograms.shtml)

[ilya]

Jesper wrote:
ilya wrote:
I have to say I was impressed with 10D's dummy sports mode. See the below two pics (Sports Mode, 70-200 2.8 IS, CPL). The exposure in the first one (my wife) was spot on. The exposure on the second one (myself) was just a little bit on the greyish side (lightened up in PS), but that generally matched the overcast lighting during that sequence.
...


Do you know why the second one was greyish? It's because most of the frame is filled with very white snow, and your camera adjusts the exposure to make the brightness of the frame average grey (18% grey, like a grey card). When you photograph something that's mostly white, like snow, you need a bit of exposure compensation (I'd use +1/2 or +1 stop). The histogram is a good way to check if the exposure is correct. Understanding Histograms (http://luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/understanding-histograms.shtml)


Jesper, thanks ~ I do realize that. That's why I was impressed with the sports dummy mode, it metered a very difficult subject almost perfectly. I had a lot of advice before I went to overexpose to compensate for the predominant white, and so on. I tried it both ways, and for logistical reasons was more then happy and impressed with the sports mode. That's 67 years of knowledge stuffed into a chip working for us, and I would say that for all the grief we give to dummy modes (as Jim says), they are pretty smart, and I would say smarter then me in most situations.
Regards,
Ilya