F stop, ISO, Shutter speed check...Now what next?

Hey Guys,

Got into the photo thing about 3 months ago. Im working on using manual, or semi-manual modes exclusively to give me more control over the camera.

Im starting to get a feel for the f/stop, ISO and shudder speed interaction in a given situation, but now wondering about the following. I am working through the chapters in my T1i's book, but just wondering for a quick rundown.

What is "metering mode" (conceptually i think im failing to grasp it) and when/how/why to change? Also how do you pre-meter a shot?
When would you change from One shot focus to AI Servo focus?
Exposure compensation, pro's/con's?
AWB or no? or does this even matter since I shoot RAW ?


Ummm any other hints going forward I know many books can be written on each subject alone, im just looking for a down and dirty answer.

Mike

First of all, it's shuTTer, not shuDDer.
You'll get alot of opinions in the answers to this post. Some will be accurate, some (maybe the majority) will not be.
My advice is to study your manual independently and practice, practice, practice. Digital gives huge advantages in that there is no cost to an image. And the exif information give you the ability to look at failures and successes and analyze what went wrong. Get some good books, (too many good ones to list) even the "Dummies" books are good starting points. Don't rely solely on the advice of strangers

Metering mode is the method your camera uses to decide on the exposure. If you shoot manual - it only tells you if the camera thinks you are over/under exposed. Basically - the metering mode tells what part of the scene the camera wants to see as 18% (approx) grey.

Exposure compensation is how you tell the camera it is wrong (in auto/creative modes).

Shooting Raw - you can easily change the white balance in post. But its still nice to get close in camera. I think there are some white balance approaches that give you a more accurate histogram, but that can e tackled another day.

One Shot for static subject, AI Servo to track a moving subject.

And it is likely my post is not totally accurate So KCMO AI's advice to practice is very good advice...

arkphotos wrote in post #9585558
Metering mode is the method your camera uses to decide on the exposure. If you shoot manual - it only tells you if the camera thinks you are over/under exposed. Basically - the metering mode tells what part of the scene the camera wants to see as 18% (approx) grey.

Exposure compensation is how you tell the camera it is wrong (in auto/creative modes).

Shooting Raw - you can easily change the white balance in post. But its still nice to get close in camera. I think there are some white balance approaches that give you a more accurate histogram, but that can e tackled another day.

One Shot for static subject, AI Servo to track a moving subject.

And it is likely my post is not totally accurate So KCMO AI's advice to practice is very good advice...

Ya im working on Bracketing right now, thats is really awesome, since I am not 100% sure about exact exposure. I take pics in 3's and helps.

Ive been reading more of my book, and taking about 200 pics so far tonight just messing around with different options. I think im getting it now about the metering. I like spot metering (seems to work best when I have a person with low light, with a dark background). Evaluative seems to wash my pics out in low light.....

Man low light is a killer learning curve. Although tommorow my FAST lenses will be here 50mm 1.4 USM and 17-55 2.8 IS USM Canon;s.

My buddy wants me to take pics of his metal band this weekend, and it will be crappy light, no flash. Trying to cram!

Mike

fiveohmike wrote in post #9584978
Hey Guys,

Got into the photo thing about 3 months ago. Im working on using manual, or semi-manual modes exclusively to give me more control over the camera.

Im starting to get a feel for the f/stop, ISO and shudder speed interaction in a given situation, but now wondering about the following. I am working through the chapters in my T1i's book, but just wondering for a quick rundown.

What is "metering mode" (conceptually i think im failing to grasp it) and when/how/why to change? Also how do you pre-meter a shot? Metering is what the camera "sees" as a perfect exposure. Centre of the meter=perfect exposure (according to the camera). It is preset in camera to something approximating 18% grey averaged over the scene.

Different metering modes= different coverage/weighting of the metering. Spot=3%, Partial =9%, Evaluative=100%, Centre weighted=100% but with a bias towards centre. You pick the mode that suits the purpose best ie subject with a window behind. Eval would expose for the light from the window meaning the subject is not correctly exposed. Partial or spot mean that the subject is exposed properly at theexpense of the rest.

Premetering is using spot or partial to determine the "exposure value" of a certain area ie the sky. Example is a landscape where the sky and land have different exposure values (sky is bright eg EV 5, land is dark eg EV 0 ). Premetering allows you to pick an area and expose it correctly ie making sure that the sky is exposed at EV 5 and the ground is registering at EV 0

When would you change from One shot focus to AI Servo focus? One shot is for static objects - it only samples focus once prior to the shot. AI servo is near continious focusing. It resamples focus at very small intervals and allows for a better chance of correct focus on moving targets.
Exposure compensation, pro's/con's? Pro- it allows you to override the camera metering where you know the camera isnt exposing a scene as you want it (you want something other than the cameras idea of "perfect exposure")

AWB or no? or does this even matter since I shoot RAW ? AWB is good in most situations but it can be fooled by artificail lights or mixed light sources. Custom white balances allow for specific situations where you need near perfect rendition of colour

Ummm any other hints going forward I know many books can be written on each subject alone, im just looking for a down and dirty answer.

Mike

Hints - practise, read the manual, practise more, read the manual, practise even more (did i say read the manual? ).

Seriously the best way to understand it is to try various things when using the camera anyway. Try altering WB on a sunny day to see its effect or try adjusting EC to see what happens.

fiveohmike wrote in post #9586705
Ya im working on Bracketing right now, thats is really awesome, since I am not 100% sure about exact exposure. I take pics in 3's and helps.

Ive been reading more of my book, and taking about 200 pics so far tonight just messing around with different options. I think im getting it now about the metering. I like spot metering (seems to work best when I have a person with low light, with a dark background). Evaluative seems to wash my pics out in low light.....

Man low light is a killer learning curve. Although tommorow my FAST lenses will be here 50mm 1.4 USM and 17-55 2.8 IS USM Canon;s.

My buddy wants me to take pics of his metal band this weekend, and it will be crappy light, no flash. Trying to cram!

Mike

Fast glass will only get you so far. Knowing how to use it and the camera best will give better results ie ISO setting, metering, WB.

Low light is a very hard area to work in (you will have to trade of shutter speed/ aperture and ISO to get the shot).

Best option in low light is to get some more light (if at all possible) ie flash or strobes.

Need an exposure crutch?

What arkphotos said. And try to stay away from AI Focus.
AI Servo or AI Focus?

This is why M makes more sense to me:
Post #47

Some people swear that AWB is OK outdoors, but I ran a test indoors & have never used it since. Notice that the very last exposure in the 2nd image of tests was of a gray card, & it's way off.
https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=54281

Great info guys, I was playing around, shot about 300 photos in my living room in low light just messing with the various settings. My glass just arrives so will work with it tonight. I got a grasp on the metering, but found it doesn't help to much and have to compensate with either Iso, shudder speed, generally leaving the Fstop wide open.

I do like the idea of HDR/Bracketing though.

Thanks for all the posts! Ill post some pics up from this weekend for review in the other forum section to see how I have done.

Also gotta work on composition a bit....man this is a steep learning curve.

I use AWB outdoors, which generally is very close to what I am trying to achieve. The last wedding I shot the reception indoors and AWB really screwed up my exposure. Next time I will at least use one of the preset modes if not a custom WB.

DStanic wrote in post #9589567
I use AWB outdoors, which generally is very close to what I am trying to achieve. The last wedding I shot the reception indoors and AWB really screwed up my exposure. Next time I will at least use one of the preset modes if not a custom WB.

I shoot in RAW at the moment exclusively and just use AWB and fix later in PP. Although I found in low light with f/5.6 if I use Tungsten WB it helps out a ton. in low light with the 18-200 all my pics were coming out very orange with AWB.

Mike

fiveohmike wrote in post #9589943
I shoot in RAW at the moment exclusively and just use AWB and fix later in PP. Although I found in low light with f/5.6 if I use Tungsten WB it helps out a ton. in low light with the 18-200 all my pics were coming out very orange with AWB.

Mike

I shot in RAW too and thankfully was able to recover the photos in LR, otherwise if I had shot in JPG I would have been very unhappy with them. Just shows not to trust how the image looks on the LCD AT ALL, use the histogram- which means using a relatively close WB for accurate histogram.

fiveohmike wrote in post #9589142
Great info guys, I was playing around, shot about 300 photos in my living room in low light just messing with the various settings. My glass just arrives so will work with it tonight. I got a grasp on the metering, but found it doesn't help to much and have to compensate with either Iso, shudder shuTTer speed, generally leaving the Fstop wide open.

I do like the idea of HDR/Bracketing though.

Thanks for all the posts! Ill post some pics up from this weekend for review in the other forum section to see how I have done.

Also gotta work on composition a bit....man this is a steep learning curve.

See correction above!!!

Might help: http://www.canon.co.jp​/Imaging/enjoydslr/