Uh oh...Analysis Paralysis

[vinnyveez]

Ok so i am new to photography. I have been reading and reading and have learned alot in the past few months. So i head to the playground with my son with my new digital rebel. All the while i am thinking of aperture, speed, white balance, exposure, composition...etc. I go to take a picture ...and it occurs to me, i have no idea where to begin. My theory was to eliminate the flash and go from there. i didnt know where to start. a, t,m mode? what to do first?

i had 3 types of shots i wanted:
1. general outdoor stuff, maybe with short depth of field.
2. a shot where he was walking in a dark colorful tunnel that had a light behind him.
3. A shot of him swinging on a swing.

Do i need to adjust for each of these shots? do i need to switch modes and parameters each time? I wound up putting it in auto mode and let the camera decide. for the swing shots i just put it in sports mode so that the AI servo would let me focus on him. I guess for the dark tunnel with the bright light behind him i could have used the night mode. But it seems that it would be hard to keep up with him and all of these changing environments, trying to use the p or m mode. ugh, i feel so discouraged. Really feel like ive just wasted a bunch of time learning all of this stuff. Can someone offer some words of wisdom here? please.

[IndyJeff]

vinnyveez when you began driving did you get a job the next week as an over the road truck driver, driving an 18 wheeler? Probably not because you didn't have enough experience behind the wheel. Same with your new camera.

Use your P mode and learn about the camera and what it will do under different conditions. Take notice of the settings and file them away in your memory bank....unless your over 40 and then your memory bank should be backed up on paper LOL.

To a certain extent, the camera will still tell you if your shooting in M, Tv or Av if your settings will work. Most SLR's will have a warning of some sort if the exposure isn't going to work when you look into the view finder.

[tim]

Depending which Rebel you have you'd do it slightly differently. I always use Av mode, and I vary from F2.8 to F8 for normal situations, depending on the DOF and shutter speed I want.

1. Av, F4 perhaps, experiment.
2. Av, F whatever you like, flash fill, partial metering so the background light doesn't throw it off. On the 300D/old rebel you might even have to meter in Av then drop to M mode if it doesn't behave - check your histogram after the shots.
3. Av, whatever makes the shutter speed over 1/200th at least, or 1/500th even better. Change your ISO if you need to to get the desired shutter speed. If you want some motion blur you could use 1/125th or perhaps less - experiment with it :)

Basically just try stuff out and see what happens, that's the great thing about digital. No matter whether it works or not, look at the EXIF info to see what worked and what didn't. Most especially look at the EXIF when things go wrong.

Don't expect it to happen overnight, it takes time, practice, and experience. I've had my SLR for 6 months and i'm getting there, I can get good shots most of the time, but I figure i'll need a least a year to get more experience before i'm happy with my skills.

[Pekka]

I'll just write quickly some basic stuff to get you started.

Familiarize yourself with you camera. What the aperture does, what does changing shutter speed do, what ISO does. All those three are basic ingredients of an exposure. Controlling exposure is the basic skill needed to enjoy photography.

You'll need a certain amount of shutter speed to overcome camera shake - this is usually "1/ (focal lenght * FoV crop)" which means if you have 100mm lens and 1.6X camera body, then you can be relatively sure that camera shake does not show in small prints when you choose min. 1/160 shutter speed. Then there is the other factor which is other movement (your movement and subject movement). Here the thing to know is that when you get closer to moving subject you will need much faster speeds.

Lowering ISO means lowering sensor sensitivity (less light in) and increasing ISO increases sensor sensitivity (more light in). The thing you should learn is what are the relationships between ISO, shutter speed and aperture. See http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=57228&highlight=shutter+speed

Doubling aperture value halves the light coming in. So 1/100 f4 is same exposure than 1/50 f8.

Doubling ISO doubles the sensitivity. So 1/25 ISO 100 is same exposure than 1/50 ISO 200 or 1/200 ISO 800.

All the above can be combined to give your the full control on what you want to achieve.

if a situation gives a good exposure with ISO 400 1/200 f8, you can choose to aim for less ISO noise and use ISO 100 1/50 f8 or less DoF and less noise with ISO 100 1/400 f2.8 or very fast shutter speed with ISO 800 1/3200 f2.8. All those capture identical amount of light, but the end result will be different. That is the exposure choice you can do freely for every shot.

For me, the aperture is the starting point, because it isolates the subject(s).

By choosing M, Av or Tv mode you decide if you need to control it all manually (M), control aperture and let the camera decide the speed (Av), or control speed and let the camera decide the aperture (Tv). If you are in Tv mode and you can not get 1/200 without underexposure, then you'll need to raise ISO until you do, or use a faster lens. Likewise, if you are in Av mode and want to use f4 and camera overexposes you'll need to lower ISO to compensate.

Ev correction allows you to fine tune the whole exposure system up or down (it will force change of aperture or speed) because many times the light metering system of the camera needs your help: in bright scenes use positive Ev and in dark scenes use negative Ev.

Apart from exposure, you'll need to know how focusing is done so that the focus is in where you want it to be. Two choices: manual or AF. AF is different in every camera so you'll need to take time to study how it works. Learn how to lock focus and choose focusing points. Manual focusing is the old way and can work well, too.

Hope this helps a little.

[vinnyveez]

I'll just write quickly some basic stuff to get you started.


Hope this helps a little.

wow thanks for the great response. I think i knew alo tof that already. I guess the real question is this. Lets say that you were going to take a picture of my son at the playground and it is a partly sunny day. What are the steps you take? I mean where do you start and how do you progreess through your thinking. I think the answer i need(if we want to use the truck driving analogy) is "turn the key first". I guess i dont know how to step through the whole process.
Ok so from this post and others i can say:
step 1: set camera to aperuture mode.
step 2: select aperture setting(i would like a large aperture for short DOF) so lets say i choose 5.0 for my aperture setting.
Step 3: ???????
see what i am asking? i think i have the basics down, its just that i need some help stepping through a picture taking process. would step 3 be to look at the speed setting, or look at white balance? do you always set for white and exposure bracketing ( if you were me would you)? if i had some sort of step by step idea of how you do it, i think i know enough info to figure out each step. I know how to adjust the histogram, etc. its just confusing to walk through the whole process. I hope this all makes sense. thanks for all of the gret responses.

[tim]

FYI F5.0 isn't a large aperture, it's more midrange IMHO. Large is F1.8 or less, with F2.8 to 4 ish you'll get a slightly wider DOF, F8 or more tends to be large enough in most cases.

My steps would be.
1. Av
2. Partial metering mode, or centre weighted depending on the scene.
3. Aperture to F4 - F8 for middling DOF, F2.8 for small DOF.
4. Check shutter speed is about right. I don't have a good feel on them yet, so I might take a test shot then look at the screen, using the zoom in function.
5. Shoot away :)

If your son's moving I might go to AI servo, and I usually use the centre focus point.

[chris.bailey]

Once you have the basics its a matter of getting out there and doing it. Like most things in life you do for the first time you will make mistakes. If you took up painting you wouldnt expect a Rembrandt from day one. Ive been taking pictures for 30 years and I still get it wrong more than I do right. Thats the fun of photography and the beauty of digital, near instant feedback that with all that time you spent trying to get the lighting right, you forgot to check the composition and you have a lampost growing out of someones head.

In short, go out there and take pictures.

[vinnyveez]

pekka,

I just looked at your website and it is really informative. I have been looking for a book that does exactly what you do on your site. That is, post a picture then post the settings used and a description on why you used the settings you did. Although not all are explained fully, it is still well put together.

2 questions:


I see that you go from aperture/manual/time priority settings and wonder why. How do you determine what mode you are going to use?
How do you determine what metering system you are going to use?


Thanks. PS I printed up the other post and going to memorize it. lol

[Pekka]

I see that you go from aperture/manual/time priority settings and wonder why. How do you determine what mode you are going to use?

How do you determine what metering system you are going to use?


I know you would like to have a step by step or something detailed, but I will not even try to give it to you if there even was a one. It is much better to learn to think, improvise and produce than mimic someone else from the other side of the world.

You have to have a goal - you have to know what you are trying to achieve.

When you shoot, you have to form an opinion what is important in each scene, what you are trying to capture in it and why, what kind of look and quality you are after and what are your and you gears limits and strenghts. You should choose the settings that serve your goals.

I do not have charts or papers that say "Culture Hall, Helsinki, conductor, slow movements: 1D Mark II, 70-200L @ 200mm, WB K 4500, f3.2, 1/125, ISO1250". What I set in every new shot is based on experience from every old shot. In indoor locations lack of light restricts aperture often to fully open and camera settings may be "forced" to a minimum (e.g. f1.2, ISO 1600, 1/60) and that will force _you_ to adjust and just get results with that. That is daily life, too - lack of choice and handling it :)

The metering choice and choosing M, Av or Tv is result of process which starts from seeing something.

I mainly look at two main things, both equally third thing to note is a practical one:

1. what is the subject and how it is lit?
2. what would be the optimal background?
3. When can I be?

After those three are "registered", I select the lens and move around for that best light and best background - I usually think of background most because that is usually the biggest problem because most locations are so "messy" and often background is made of people, (especially in orchestra).

After that (or while finding the position) I start to think about camera settings: how far am I, do I need to stop movement, how steady are my hands at the moment, how well I can get focus point where I want it (e.g is using f/1.2 worthwhile or too risky), is there backlight, what needs to be in focus, is the light source steady and am I shooting more shots from same position (manual mode possible), are there shadow areas that are important to capture (i.e. have meaningful content), where do I want to measure the light from and how, can I afford to blow highlights, how much I can under- or overexpose without loosing quality, what kind of quality I need.

Questions and answers, mentally. What do I want? How can I get it? Why can't I get it? How could I get it?

Test shot. Check histogram. adjust. Try again.

Next time you know what settings may work based on experience of being in a similar situation in similar surroundings shooting similar subject.

[vinnyveez]

pekka i think you should change the picture in your profile to this :) as it is more fitting of your personality. your picture seems much more serious and sad. You are a very helpful person but that picture wouldnt suggest it. Thanks for the great posts.