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Janet

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Yes, I finally did it...I took my new camera off auto and went manual...

 

Many thanks to Sutton Warrior for all his invaluable advice over the past few months, both on the forum and behind the scenes, and to Steve for helping me to pull it all together....I had one of those "light bulb" moments last night when it suddenly all started to fall into place...well, almost! Aperture? Shutter speed? DOF? At last I think the light is dawning...anyway, today was the day...I was on a mission!

 

Well, sort of! I set the ISO and the aperture, then completely forgot about changing the shutter speed after the first few shots... :doh: ...cue one or two out of focus shots and some disappointment....however, I have to say that the results were better than I could have imagined! I'm normally an "auto" girl....after all, I've paid for all these bells and whistles, why should I do any work? Isn't the camera supposed to do all that? :rolleyes:

 

After a few initial mistakes, I ended up spending most of the day using the aperture priority settiing, and trusting the camera to set the correct shutter speed. Cheating slightly, but it worked for me! I knew the effect I wanted to get on a couple of shots, and I think I got it? Well I'm happy, and that's what it's all about!

 

The following images are why I'm glad I took the plunge to get out of my comfort zone and actually do a bit of thinking about what I wanted to capture. I took the same shots on the camera's auto program, then I heeded the advice I'd been given...I was pleasantly surprised that under difficult lighting conditions, my choices were far, far better than the settings the auto setting chose...(despite my mistakes!) Auto is good most of the time, but with rather changeable lighting conditions, in a wood with fabulous autumn light streaming through the trees, I had to choose a different setting for almost every shot...it was worth the effort! The auto shots, although lovely and sharp, were just too, too underexposed. This camera is brilliant in good lighting conditions, but it really falls down in low light. However, now I think I'm slowly learning how to overcome this, thanks to the advice I've had.

 

I had a great couple of hours, and met a fellow photographer on the path through the woods (I must stress, I don't normally strike up conversations with strange men in the local woods, but hey, he had a DSLR too!) We had a very pleasant chat, and he gave me lots of tips as well as telling me about a local Photography Club that I had no idea existed! They meet every Wednesday just up the road from me, so I'm going to pay them a visit this week.

 

Anyway, enough rambling...here are the photo's...any constructive critique will be more than welcome! Please feel free to be ruthless! I can take it....

 

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I think I managed to get to grips with DOF with the next two...I'm sure there are improvements to be made, but they are as I wanted them. Yes, the green colour on the carved woman is intentional...that's the way it was, covered with a thin layer of lichen...

 

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I'm not altogether happy with this one...I think I need to go back for a reshoot, but after being chased into a hedge by an out of control horse and ending up covered in mud in a ditch, I'm happy to settle for what I got!

 

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I also went WAY out of my comfort zone, and shot some of them in RAW....not because I fully knew what I was doing, but if I was going to do something different, I was going to do it in style! Apart from having to change them into jpegs in Olympus Master, they've had nothing done much to them other than the usual cropping and framing and a little sharpening. However, I was amazed at the amount of tweaking I could have done if I'd been so inclined...or even if I had a clue! Can you tell which is which?

 

Thanks for reading, and many thanks for all the help!

 

Janet

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They are all really good photos ! Nothing wrong with any of them. You'll be pleased with them, having achieved the effects you wanted.

 

I'd also agree you will do fine with your auto setting much of the time unless you want to get a particular effect. As you were concerned with depth of field you probably made the right choice using aperture priority.

 

I go to a few air shows and where the auto feature falls down is when I shoot something like a Spitfire or helicopter which has propellers. Auto often "stops" the props by using too fast a shutter speed making it look like the plane has stalled in mid air and should fall out of the sky. This is an instance where I'd use shutter priority to select a slower speed to blur the props while still getting a sharp photo of the plane it's self and let the camera sort the aperture out.

 

The priority modes are useful because you can choose your setting and you don't have to twiddle any knobs to zero your light meter..... I think? :g:

Edited by Rich_
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Very nice Janet and well done for having a go.

 

Can I ask how you save your files, because it appears the exif information has been lost, if the exif info was intact I could give you precise critique as opposed to a generic all inclusive advice.

 

In general using "Save" or "Save for web" or "Save for email" will destroy exif info.

 

To keep exif info, its always best to use "Save As".

 

Steve...:)

There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs. - Ansel Adams

 

Focal Planet

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Well done Janet,some great photography there :) You done the right thing coming out of that "Auto Closet" :D I am still learning about my 400D but now think about the settings on every shot I take now. It really is a learning curve Janet. I bought my first digital camera in October 2006 so am still only a rookie but I am slowly learning by my mistakes - and a few of them have proved costly :o

 

Keep up the good work

 

John

 

 

Fishing digs on the Mull of Galloway - recommend

HERE

 

babyforavatar.jpg

 

Me when I had hair

 

 

Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy

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Nice pictures and I particularly like the first one and the tree in the field. I would be interested to see what the images would look like from a much lower height - and since you'd already been in the hedge and were muddy - laying on the ground wouldn't have mattered ;)

 

Rob.

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Steve,

 

I'm not sure why you can't see the Exif info? I used "save as" and all the info is there.

 

Is it because it's uploaded from Flickr? All the file info is still there on my Flickr page.

 

I'll try and figure out what's happened.

 

Janet

 

I'm not sure about Flickr to be honest as I do not use it, I've heard too much about photo theft from there which to me far outweighs its advertised good points.

 

Steve...:)

There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs. - Ansel Adams

 

Focal Planet

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