PhotosGuy is right. "Manual" rules!

[Curtis N]

Frank C and his preaching about shooting in manual mode is finally starting to sink in with me.

Today I was at a dairy cattle show. Indoor arena, three huge doors with bright sunshine outside. White cows, black cows, white pants, dark shirts, some shots with brutal backlighting, some without. A metering nightmare.

So I did what (I hope) Frank would say. I switched to manual mode, aimed at a neutral color (in this case, the dirty limedust floor) and dialed it in. I paid attention to my histogram and the exposure indicator in the viewfinder when appropriate, and made minor adjustments throughout the day.

The results were good, all things considered. Most images were either right on or needed only minor exposure tweaking with the RAW converter. Hats off to PhotosGuy!

This image is one of dozens I shot that would have been hopelessly underexposed with any kind of auto metering.

[tim]

Not a bad pic, and pretty girl, but she's not in focus. Looks like you need a narrower aperture to me.

Were these were done with an external flash or natural light?

[CyberDyneSystems]

But the Cow is razor sharp! :)
And she certainly is not underexposed :)

[tim]

Parts of the cow are sharp... and that's not a nice thing to call a lady ;)

[Curtis N]

Ambient light only. You never know what might startle the cattle so the flash unit is best left in the bag in these situations.

In terms of sharpness and DOF, consider the following:
Canon 300D at ISO 800 (hello digital noise!)
"El cheapo" Canon 75-300 lens at f/5.6, handheld from about 30 feet away
Focal length 135mm, shutter 1/125 sec.
I could have gone to ISO 1600 but that would mean more noise.
If I stopped down, that would slow down the shutter (hello camera shake!)

Attached are 100% crops from the original, before and after processing with Noise Ninja. I think it is properly focused. I was getting all the sharpness I paid for, and considering the equipment and the circumstances, I think I did pretty good.

[tim]

It's not bad, maybe it's just the noise and the crop that makes it not look as sharp as i'd expect. Under the circumstances you did pretty good :)

[Curtis N]

Thanks, Tim.
There's a few more not-quite-sharp but properly exposed pictures in this thread:
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?p=660307#post660307

[PhotosGuy]

A CONVERT! 1 billion more & "M" shooters will rule world! :D:D

Good job, Curtis. Keep at it!

Since it was a "dairy cattle show" you made a decision & focused on the cow. Did you consider shooting from the doorway in to get better light on both of them for a higher f-stop? ;)

[Curtis N]

Since it was a "dairy cattle show" you made a decision & focused on the cow. Did you consider shooting from the doorway in to get better light on both of them for a higher f-stop?There were three large doorways in the arena, this shot was looking out the south doorway. The others were on the east and west sides, and almost as bright.

Actually I was trying to focus mostly on the people, while trying to get at least the animal's head in the frame. The exhibitors usually look toward the judge, so I sort of followed him around and stood behind him so I could get their faces. Often the cattle were taller than the kids, so I had to move around a lot to get the kids in view.

As you would expect (and I learned the hard way), when they got close to the south door, they were brighter even though they weren't in direct sun. Eventually I learned that the quickest way to adjust for those situations was to switch to Av mode for those shots - they were generally closer to me and without backlighting and it usually worked fine. Tv mode would have worked, also, but I was more concerned about camera shake than DOF.

The first three shots in this thread show people in the brighter area of the south door.
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=85995

[PhotosGuy]

Just wondered if you'd thought of it. I saw the other shots & you did a good job under pretty poor conditions! ;-)

[JakeC]

A CONVERT! 1 billion more & "M" shooters will rule world! :D:D

Put me down as a devout M follower;) With a histogram and aperture/shutter priority to give you a baseline I don't see why everyone doesnt try it out. Slowly commiting 1/3 stops to memory so I'll never have to revert:o

[jopfin]

I love the 'ol "M" mode, always use it, in fact I just started trying the aperature priority mode for shooting animals and such. But "M" always for my landscapes. Great advice FrankC.
Nice shots Curtis, keep it up..............Joe

[AjP]

Amen to "M"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! don't let computers think too much for you :)

[MTalley]

I dabbled in "M" mode last night, shooting an outdoor dance at night. I was trying for a slow-sync flash effect, so I put the camera into the auto slow sync flash mode to see what it would dial in (took one shot, then checked the info).

I used that as a basis for the remainder of the evening. I was using the on-board flash (forgot my external flash and frame) in Manual mode, generally between 0.5 and 1 second. After a while, I was getting pretty good at guessing a good aperature to expose the subjects correctly that I wanted to be well exposed.

Of course, the other side of the equation was shooting in RAW. Once I got home, those that were under- or over-exposed, despite my efforts, were easily salvaged.

So, not only does "M" rule, but so does RAW.

[DxHatchback]

the harsh backlighting blow out kills the pic :(

[Curtis N]

you did a good job under pretty poor conditions!Thanks, Frank.

I know these pictures won't win any contests and I still have a lot to learn. The bottom line here is that I got shots that you couldn't get with a P&S or any camera on auto mode. I'll mail some prints to the kids' parents and I know they will by very appreciative.

[PhotosGuy]

the harsh backlighting blow out kills the pic :D:D Another side heard from! Some people spend a lot of PS time to get that effect! ;)
It's all in what you want/need at the time. FIRST rule is to get A USEABLE pic. Then refine to get the best one you can.

I'm not adament about "M" guys. I'd use Av or Tv if I had a reason to. But "M" has never let me down, whereas that programming geek at Canon has many times! ;):D