please help......need settings advice on canon A85

[lisa1969]

OK, I thought I had this all figured out. I have been trying to shoot full manual with my A85 but am having a lot of troubles finding a good setting for early evening. I even tried AV mode this evening and all I got was blur or a lot of noise. What should my ISO be? I was at 100. Also this afternoon it was partly sunny and no matter what setting I tried I was getting face shadows. Please help!!!!!

[Sam]

I'll give this a shot for you but someone else is bound to come along and give you better advice ;)

ISO will not directly affect the blur you are getting. It is shutter speed that you are going for. Without being able to see the amount of light you are dealing with I wouldn't be able to say what ISO you want. 100 ISO is for bright light and the higher you go the lower the light conditions you can shoot with higher shutter speed.

To eliminate the blur you need to either put your camera on a tripod or up the shutter speed. If the light is low you will have to up the ISO in order to raise the shutter speed. I hope this is helping so far...

To get rid of the shadows you will need another light source. You can use a fill flash or a reflector (if there is enough light for that) Here is an example of using a fill flash to highlight someone's face while still getting a decent exposure of the background and eliminating the shadows.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y77/solinger/033005LexiGGbackground.jpg

The higher you raise the ISO the more noise you are going to get in your pictures. So ISO 100 will be great for low noise pictures it is going to be tough in low light conditions.

Take some test shots to determine how low you can set the shutter speed and not have any blur, also known as camera shake. Also keep in mind that the more you zoom in the higher the shutter speed is going to have to be to keep camera shake under control. Ideally you want the shutter speed higher than the zoom for the best results. The try to set up a reflector to bounce light back on your subject. A cheap way to do this is use a windshield shade with a silver coating.

Other then that I would say try experimenting with your flash. I hope this help you out. If you post some images and your exif (shot information) I'm sure someone with more talen and knowledge than myself will be able to help you out. Good luck.

[Jon]

Solinger's pretty well said it all. High ISO will be noisy, especially in low light. Low ISO will mean slow shutter speeds, and blurry pictures. Photos in open sunlight will have shadows and the camera isn't as tolerant of these as your eyes, so learn about using fill-flash. If you post specific examples (100% crops showing the specific problems are best) with EXIF information, we can go on from there.

[lisa1969]

Thank you thank you!!!

[gewb]

Hello lisa -

Solinger covered the fill lighting very well. Key point is you NEED to use a flash on a bright day.

As to evening shots, I do a lot of sun rise and sun set pix with my A85 and Pro1. Best results have been at 100 ISO and setting shutter speed (Tv moded) as slow as you can based on how steady you can hold the camera. I shoot at 1/25 (sometimes slower) and throw out 50% of the pix (greatest feature of digital!). Don't worry too much about the under exposure warning as the sky should be fairly dark. If you try to get the "correct" exposure (as the camera would choose) the sky would be too bright...not at all what you are seeing with your eyes. If the pics are too dark, change the speed down (longer exposure) and try again. Note that below 1/60 most people have trouble holding the camera steady. Best to place on a solid brace or better yet get a tripod.

Gary

[lisa1969]

Thannk you for all the great advice, seems it is 6 of one and half dozen of another. My main subject is a very fiesty 2 year old. I always try shooting at 100 iso as I hate noise. In the early evenings if I slow down the shutter, cuz he moves so fast and I have to, I am getting shake. A tripod is impossible with him. Perhaps I will stick to shooting still objects in the evenings. LOL. I won't zoom with the camera under low light cuz I find I also get noise. I have been shooting a little underexposed in the daylight as I am finding it can be tweaked easily in PS. I think I may be expecting a bit too much from my camera for evening shots as far as shooting a 2 yr old is concerned. Thank you again for your replies.