Carnaval / which aperture with 10D ?

[ggagnon]

TOmorrow i will see the Schaerbeek carnaval i nBrussel.
I want to have some beautiful pictures of people's face and costume (with my new 10D)

1) Which aperture do you suggest for such work (i dont want ugly backgrounds:) ? f5.6 ? f8 ...

2) which lens ? Canon 28-135 ? Sigma 105 mm ?
Tamron 28-200 ? Canon 50mm f8 (hmm short..)


Thanks :)))

Guy

[jmublueduck]

i'd say use your 105mm (more blurred backgrounds.. @ f/2.8 i assume) or 28-135 (versatile). you'll likely have some distance between yourself & the subjects.

re: aperture, stop down 1 stop from the maximum... it'll be sharper than wide open... but you sacrifice to a greater DOF, requiring more light.

it amazes me that some people who spend well over $2-3k in gear have to ask the simplest questions of the basics of photography.

no offense, but go out & buy a book on exposure.

[raymond_anthony]

well then dont waste the time answering the question if you feel that way...i make a ton of money doing weding photography and have never once set the camera to manual mode. dont listen to him ggagnon. just do your best

[Clavain]

Hello

I feel the need to make a comment with respect to the following post:

"it amazes me that some people who spend well over $2-3k in gear have to ask the simplest questions of the basics of photography.

no offense, but go out & buy a book on exposure. "


A forum is a completely different type of medium to a book. It is dynamic, quick, lots of fun, and appeals to the human need to communicate.

Slagging off a fellow participant in a forum for asking a question, is a equivalent IMHO to the librarian laughing at somebody for borrowing a book to look up something.




Clavain

[Pekka]

ggagnon wrote:
TOmorrow i will see the Schaerbeek carnaval i nBrussel.
I want to have some beautiful pictures of people's face and costume (with my new 10D)

1) Which aperture do you suggest for such work (i dont want ugly backgrounds:) ? f5.6 ? f8 ...

2) which lens ? Canon 28-135 ? Sigma 105 mm ?
Tamron 28-200 ? Canon 50mm f8 (hmm short..)


Thanks :)))

Guy



It is hard to give exact advice without being there, but I recommend learning to command camera with Manual Mode. In the end results are better and more consistent. Here's something I wrote about that earlier about why I use M all the time:


Auto mode calculates aperture and speed based on simple exposure table which is adjusted to fit the focal lenght you use. Auto mode also does not allow RAW file format.

When you control camera manually, you do a quick setting evaluation for each photo you take:

Aperture, based on:
- the depth of a subject I need to capture and what needs to be out of focus
- mood of the photo
- angle of the camera relative to subject
- sometimes based on sharpness needed
- need to reduce level of flash output
- subject movement (e.g. in sports you can use small apertures (big f-numbers) to compensate slow autofocus and fast movement).

Speed, set to
- stop subject movement
- blur subject movement
- stop hand shake (relative to focal length), adjusted to current camera support method (e.g. monopod)
- do special effects (e.g. with flash)

ISO, changed
- so that it is possible to get aperture and speed combination you desire (as above).
- in order to affect mood of the photo (different ISO's have slightly different dynamic range).
- need to reduce level of flash output (let more ambient light in)

Focus mode is also not in full control when in auto mode - I feel much more comfortable setting focus to * button and locking center focus point and recompose than letting the camera decide focus points. With * button focus you can do one focus lock and then keep shooting the same subject without need to lock again.

[jmublueduck]

jmublueduck wrote:
it amazes me that some people who spend well over $2-3k in gear have to ask the simplest questions of the basics of photography.

alright, alright, point taken. i apologize... i truly didn't mean to discount his efforts.

but for the love, if you own gear that is so versatile, learn how to utilize its potential.