Green Box Mode.

Sometimes the camera does better than the operator...

I wonder if we lack examples because many are being defeated by their camera's?

gjl711 wrote in post #13011642
Just took a pair on my desk. First manual, ISO100, f/4, .4sec shutter. Green box was ISO3200 f/4, 1/100 shutter.

And to reiterate my initial point, which is reinforced by all of these photos posted by everyone...
in doing such a comparison, one does not inherently SEE A DIFFERENCE between Green Box and the Canon Creative Modes, any different than one would not also see if you merely had many photographers photograping the same subject from the same position in the same lighting, ALL of them using the creative modes!

• Aperture differences have been modest ones in the comparisons, generally.
  
• Even the flash...someone might have manually popped up the flash to use as fill (it is not merely Green Box that uses flash...it merely FORCES its use even if you don't want it).
  
• The most significant difference so far has been the exposure difference of that folding chair next to a balcony rail, but even that could have been triggered simply by being in one of the creative modes, and changing metering modes for a comparison!

Of course it is possible for a photographer to set the camera to mimic the green box auto settings. If that was your point, I guess I don't understand why that would even be asked.

Green box, if it is doing its intended function, would most of the time result in a usable snapshot kind of picture. It can't possibly anticipate the creative image the photographer may have in mind. But it does result in a usable snap.

RTPVid wrote in post #13016133
Of course it is possible for a photographer to set the camera to mimic the green box auto settings. If that was your point, I guess I don't understand why that would even be asked.

Green box, if it is doing its intended function, would most of the time result in a usable snapshot kind of picture. It can't possibly anticipate the creative image the photographer may have in mind. But it does result in a usable snap.

Actually, if you go back and read his posts, he actually requests that we take a shot using our own creative methods to achieve our desire/vision for a photo, then set the camera to Auto, take the shot, and post the results. The idea was not to "set the camera to mimic the green box auto settings", as you suggested, but to use the Creative mode(s) to create your shot then "challenge" your camera by shooting in the Green Box mode. And post the results.

^^And then see which is better...

My 5d2 can actually take quite a decent picture within certain limits...

Will post another example later today hopefully.

I'm patiently waiting for someone to post a bokeh-licious picture of a ladybug on a bench that they call art and compare it to a GBM snap and rant and rave about how much more story-telling their image is and go into detail about good vs evil and man vs machine.

Apologies for no lady bug!

Av mode, f/2.8 deliberately chosen to isolate the purple bloom

^^good example...

I stopped using green box less than a week after buying the XTi - the Auto mode on it always underexposed.

Yesterday, at the kids' school event, I shot a few photos in GB just for the heck of it. They came out surprisingly good and very well exposed. (Having an external flash instead of a popper may have had much to do with it, though).

It seems that Canon had improved the auto metering in more modern cameras. If the GB let you select a focus point, it could be a very useful tool.