advice needed for taking photos

[Happy Dude]

hi all,

 

i'm off to kenya again in january and could do with some advice on camera settings for my 400D when we are out on the boat chasing marlin/sailfish etc.

 

obviously i'll be using fill in flash for the portrait shots with fish to eliminate the shadows of hats and such, but what would be the best manual settings for this on a very sunny day??

 

1/60th F11 is what i've been advised to use over here in dull scottish weather, should i up the shutter speed or stop down the aperture??

 

because of all the blue sky and water which would be the best picture style to use "landscape" etc

 

should i leave the white balance on AWB or change it to the sunny setting??

 

sorry about all the questions, but my pics from last year on my compact weren't great in the colour department and i would like to get the most faithful colour representation i can as some of the fish have the most fantastic colour array imaginable

 

thanks in advance

 

Les

[Sharkbyte]

Hi Happy Dude

 

Like you say, fill in flash is often essential to avoid those dreaded shaded faces / fish and sometimes blown out skies. I don't know the 400D ins and outs but if it's anything like the 30D, the camera will severely limit your options in anything other than full manual / Av / Tv.

 

The best advice that I can give is to get it into full manual / Av and let the ETTL take the strain. Make sure you take plenty of test shots (be careful if your using the built in flash, you don't want to flatten the battery before that 'Grander' turns up )and keep an eye on the exposure meter. Keep a towel handy, there's nothing worse than having slime and crap all over your hands when you want to grab the camera in a hurry. Make sure the camera's all set up and safe in the cabin, again, ready to get shooting within seconds.

 

F11 would be ideal for most situations, so up the shutter speed and make sure your down to ISO 100.

 

Landscape or portrait, well it depends on the size of the fish really and of course your personal preference. Take something like a Dorado or Cuda, why not take a shot in portrait, fishes head towards the camera, a bit like this one. All those colours or teeth, it's bound to look impressive.

 

 

 

 

Use as wider angle as you can and get up close, but make sure the anglers head is in the middle of the frame if your shooting below about 15mm (not sure what lenses you use) or you'll end up with a distorted face.

 

Personally, I'd leave it on AWB, I have no reason to believe that the 400D is anything other than excellent in that department.

 

 

 

If your looking for inspiration, try this siteHenry Gilbey. Although I'm not really a fan of the programmes, his photography is first class.

[Westie]

Worthwhile investing in a circular polariser? That should help take care of water glare, I believe (I don't have any first hand experience), but I'm sure someone on here who does have experience will be able to confirm. I think that you may have to tinker with exposure bias, because it will reduce the amount of light getting through to the sensor. Again, try some test shots to see how it works etc. Look on e-bay for HK suppliers - you can get a good quality CP for much reduced prices (Hoya etc), but check out feeback to make sure the supplier is reliable and reputable.

 

As for AWB etc, why not take shots in RAW mode, rather than jpeg? It gives you the opportunity to tweak WB in post processing if you feel the camera has not quite hit the nail on the head. Similarly with exposure. It does mean bigger files, but might be worthwhile getting more memory to compensate. It might be a good insurance policy, if these are once in a lifetime shots...

 

If you go with just jpegs, I would personally stick with AWB. Exposure wise, you could set your camera to exposure bracketing mode, so that you take 3 shots for each picture, but in each 3 shot set, you have -0.3, 0 and +0.3 exposure bias.

 

Or if you've got so much memory that you can take thousands of pictures, why not RAW + jpeg for each shot!!

 

With a rugged Sandisk Extreme III 4GB compact flash card going for about £38 delivered, I'd want to have plenty washing around, in case.

 

This is the cheapest supplier I have found - very reliable.

 

MX2

[Guest Shots for fun]

Amazon are doing some great deals on memory cards at the moment use the link in Elton's signiture.

[Happy Dude]

Hi Happy Dude

 

Like you say, fill in flash is often essential to avoid those dreaded shaded faces / fish and sometimes blown out skies. I don't know the 400D ins and outs but if it's anything like the 30D, the camera will severely limit your options in anything other than full manual / Av / Tv.

 

The best advice that I can give is to get it into full manual / Av and let the ETTL take the strain. Make sure you take plenty of test shots (be careful if your using the built in flash, you don't want to flatten the battery before that 'Grander' turns up )and keep an eye on the exposure meter. Keep a towel handy, there's nothing worse than having slime and crap all over your hands when you want to grab the camera in a hurry. Make sure the camera's all set up and safe in the cabin, again, ready to get shooting within seconds.

 

F11 would be ideal for most situations, so up the shutter speed and make sure your down to ISO 100.

 

Landscape or portrait, well it depends on the size of the fish really and of course your personal preference. Take something like a Dorado or Cuda, why not take a shot in portrait, fishes head towards the camera, a bit like this one. All those colours or teeth, it's bound to look impressive.

 

Use as wider angle as you can and get up close, but make sure the anglers head is in the middle of the frame if your shooting below about 15mm (not sure what lenses you use) or you'll end up with a distorted face.

 

Personally, I'd leave it on AWB, I have no reason to believe that the 400D is anything other than excellent in that department.

If your looking for inspiration, try this siteHenry Gilbey. Although I'm not really a fan of the programmes, his photography is first class.

 

 

hey sharkbyte,

 

sorry about taking so long to thank you and westie for the advice on this one, i forgot all about it, been busy...

 

are you saying that i should leave the aperture at F11 and up the shutter speed to 125th or 250th??

 

what about the P setting and just using fill in flash with that??

 

my mate took a couple of me on a rare sunny day last week with the settings at F8 and 60th with the built in flash and they were totally washed out.

 

so i'll need to be very careful in the blistering sun out there...

 

i'm going to invest in a proper canon flash with my birthday/christmas money rather than use the pop up flash

 

regards

 

les

[Hellbelly]

I'd got a 400D and recently shot in very very sunny conditions at the beach. I used a combination of full manual and the AV setting. I shot mostly F8 to F11 and adjust shutter speed to suit (using the inbuilt metering bar at bottom of screen). One thing Westie mentioned and I couldnt agree more would be to get a Circular Polarizer. They're invaluable for shooting outside in plenty of light with lots of water and or sky. They give the photo's such a rich colour. I wouldnt dream of not having on one the lens. Another thing that was mentioned was keeping the anglers head in centre shot. Unless you're using a very wide angle lens you shouldnt be getting much if any distortion. I use a 17-40 and try to keep any point of interest away from the dead center. For the photo Sharkbyte posted above (a very good shot) I would have turned the guy just slightly the other way (so shoulders were his right nearer camera but only just) and held the sharks head out a little more, then I would have placed them (him and shark) in the left third of shot. Well, I would have tried that. I'm no expert. Another thing to remember is to keep the shutter speed above the focal langth of the lens (multiply by 1.6 for the 400D). This should go a long way to getting sharp images.

 

Biggest and strongest advise though would be GET A CIRCULAR POLARIZER.......

 

Cheers......HB.

 

PS looking forward to seeing the shots. Good luck with the fishing.