stupid mistakes - learn from mine

[tim]

I was out with a few friends at a nice but dimly lit piano bar this evening, so of course I took along my camera to practice - after checking it was ok with everyone. I have the new 550EX I wanted to try out, and used the Tamron 28-75. There was a nice, reasonably low white ceiling, great for bounce flash if you know how to use it...

Anyway, the first, biggest, and stupid thing I did was start shooting without throughly checking my settings. I had ISO right, white ballance, aperture, etc, but I *forgot to turn the lens onto autofocus*. In my defense I had consumed a couple of bourbons before I got the camera out, but that's no excuse. I should have noticed the lack of noise too. The lesson learned: always reset your camera to reasonable settings before turning it off.

Stupid mistake #2 wasn't so bad - I pushed the omnibounce on a bit hard. No damage, it just took a bit of pulling to get off.

Once I realised to turn on autofocus I got a few good shots. No great ones, but a few good ones. I've decided shooting with flash is hard. I got a few washed out shots, and a few blurry shots. When people are different distances from the camera the exposure came out pretty bad. I tried direct, omnibounce, and roof bounce, no method stood out as a lot better than others, but I forget exactly how I took each shot. At least I shot RAW so I have a bit more headroom to correct them.

Suggetsions regarding flash use in these kinds of situations are most welcome. Pointing and laughing, while reasonable, is not quite so welcome ;)

[lmelendez]

Ok, let me see if my mistakes are even worse...

1. Shooting sunsets with my daughters, colors are awesome, they agreed to stay still for 2 minutes, took like 10 pictures, went home... realized that all of them are underexposed and the format was set to JPG (nothing I could do to fix them)!!!!

2. Shooting pictures outdoor in the snow, checked aperture, speed, file format (yeap, RAW this time)... again, another kiler sunset.... went home... realized that the ISO was set at 800 .... (lots of noise...)

I would use the excuse that I'm just a beginner... but those two were really stupid mistakes!!!

[robertwgross]

Most of us leave our camera stored with some kind of general purpose settings set. For me, it is P mode, ISO 400, and my general purpose lens is nearly always set to AF. The amount of time that the lens is set to MF could be measured in mere seconds per month, because I go there only when I have to. Sometimes the camera will decide on MF, but I don't have to flick the lens switch off AF to get there.

I try to do a lot of nature/wildlife photography, and I am often out hiking ten miles along trails, but I never know when some rare bird is going to perch on a branch right in front of me. So, I keep my camera set on general purpose settings most applicable to getting a fast shot off. If it is a rare plant in front of me, then I don't have to hurry so much, so I can set the camera onto some variation of the general purpose settings, and there is time to do so.

Practice as much as you can, and that will burn the instinct into your brain so that you can operate in a more foolproof fashion.

---Bob Gross---

[CyberDyneSystems]

I had printed up a large white label on a Dymo label maker.. it was affixed to the top of the pop up flash housing on my 10D

It read simply... in large letters, ISO

:)

[billsh]

Great idea CDS. I had to put a sticker on my Pentax 645 as it does't automatically read the film ISO. The sticker was a list of items to check including ISO, manual aperature, flash compensation, etc. I found when shooting weddings and portraits, it was easy to get caught up in getting the right composition and forget to make sure everything was set corrrectly.

[jgbeam]

I recently shot about 15 actors headshots at ISO 1250 instead of the ISO 100 I usually use. The night before, I carefully made all my settings but right before the shoot I wanted to get a few quick candids on a poorly lit stage so I boosted the ISO. Fortunately, the 1D MkII is pretty good at high ISO and I was shooting RAW. Noise removal saved the shoot, but I learned my lesson.

I'm sure there will be many more lessons to be learned, though.

Jim

[tim]

Ok, let me see if my mistakes are even worse...

1. Shooting sunsets with my daughters, colors are awesome, they agreed to stay still for 2 minutes, took like 10 pictures, went home... realized that all of them are underexposed and the format was set to JPG (nothing I could do to fix them)!!!!

2. Shooting pictures outdoor in the snow, checked aperture, speed, file format (yeap, RAW this time)... again, another kiler sunset.... went home... realized that the ISO was set at 800 .... (lots of noise...)

I would use the excuse that I'm just a beginner... but those two were really stupid mistakes!!!

That's just experience, like mine. You'd use a fill in flash for shots like that wouldn't you? I do.

Most of us leave our camera stored with some kind of general purpose settings set. For me, it is P mode, ISO 400, and my general purpose lens is nearly always set to AF. The amount of time that the lens is set to MF could be measured in mere seconds per month, because I go there only when I have to. Sometimes the camera will decide on MF, but I don't have to flick the lens switch off AF to get there.

Practice as much as you can, and that will burn the instinct into your brain so that you can operate in a more foolproof fashion.


I missed a shot of a guy sitting on the engine intake of a 767 because it took too long to get the camera out of my camera backpack and turn it on... sometimes you want a P&S in your back pocket...

Setting to a common setting when you turn it off is a good idea. I've no idea why I had it set to MF, I almost always use AF.

I think i'm gona have to get another 1GB memory card if I keep shooting in RAW. It takes so much more time to process things, especially until I get used to it, but it's worth it for important stuff. The thing is you never know when a random shot's gona come out amazing.

[timmyquest]

I had printed up a large white label on a Dymo label maker.. it was affixed to the top of the pop up flash housing on my 10D

It read simply... in large letters, ISO

:)

I'll never understand why they cant just put that information in the viewfinder.

When i had my rebel i dont know how many times i did this, how many shots i missed.

[tim]

Does your camera have the iso in the viewfinder timmyquest?

[timmyquest]

Does your camera have the iso in the viewfinder timmyquest?

Yes, it's a blessing really.

It's also something i was unaware of until i was going through the custom functions. I've heard much talk of it not being a feature on canon DSLR's so when i got my 1D and finally found the feature i was plesently suprised.

I'm not sure, but i can only imagine that the mark II's have this feature as well.


And tim, if the ISO in the viewfinder is the justification you need to get a 1 series camera, then thats all the justification you need ;-)

[tim]

Nah, I have I a digital rebel, and it's not limiting me and I don't think it will for a while. My plan is to get a 30D when they're available.

[RichardtheSane]

[QUOTE=CyberDyneSystems]I had printed up a large white label on a Dymo label maker.. it was affixed to the top of the pop up flash housing on my 10D

It read simply... in large letters, ISO

You did that too?
I did something similar to get me into a habit, I put a post it note over the power switch saying ISO...

I don't think I need to expain the stoopid mistakes I made now.

[Jon, The Elder]

Thats the reason I went to DSLR -
Can't shoot with lens cap on !

[AprilShowers]

ISO thing was friggin hilarious. I love you guys.

[Ogrt48]

Argh, that iso thing happens WAY too much to me still. :\
The really needed to add the ISO display to the view finder infomation.

[tim]

It took me a couple of weeks to discover the ISO button when I first went from P&S to SLR. It's a very handy button.