Cheat Sheet or List?

[Twoboysnmygirl]

I'm reading as much as I can, taking an online class, and basically taking tons of pics, but I'm still lost when it comes to f-stop, ISO, etc.

Is there a list that I could at least look at (I'm a visual learner!) to get an idea of what type of scenario's you change settings?

Example...yesterday I was inside for a bday party. There was light coming in from the sliding glass door that I was across from but dark otherwise. I put it on auto/no-flash (I really hate flash and avoid it at all cost) and in order to compensate, my camera was taking pics at an ISO of 1600! Of course, these were little girls and they MOVE. ALL my pictures were blurry. I wanted to adjust something but didn't know what to adjust!

So that was longwinded. Just wanted to explain some of the trouble I'm having. I can't seem to wrap my mind around the relation between shutter speed, ISO, white balance...and how they work together without SEEING it in print. Does this make sense? Maybe I'm just an idiot!

 

[YesDear]

If I understand you correctly the light coming in from the door and you were shooting into it or it was from the side?

I think I can explain it this way. The camera's exposure meter looks at every image and tries to balance each image to look the same. If you are in direct sunlight then the meter reads everything nicely and you have a balanced image. In the scenario you described the meter sees really bright light coming from the window and the dark area around the light. It wants a balanced picture, so it jacks up the ISO to let the camera take a picture. If you meter in the light the rest of the scene will be in the dark. If you metered in the dark the window would blow out and the rest would be acceptable possibly.

Were you going to be using the flash in the camera or did you have a flash attached. If it is in or a part of your camera, the is probably have little chance to get anything other than a FLASH picture. If you have a flash you attach, you may be able to bounce the flash on the ceiling or wall and fill the room with light that is not so harsh.

Always remember the first rule of photography. Get the shot. If you can not adjust the light use the flash so you at least have the picture, particularly at a birthday, etc.

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

Thank you, that explains a lot about why they came out the way they did! Luckily it was not my child's birthday AND my friend has a DSLR and was sitting in a different area and got the shots! Disaster averted.

I'm learning, but it's slow. I swear I did well in school but as I get older, I get slower!

 

[GrillMouster]

Read The BetterPhoto Guide to Digital Photography by Jim Miotke and/or Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. Of these two books I favor the first for newbies. While the universal basics are covered in Understanding Exposure, that book doesn't go into digital photography or flash photography. The first book also has activities that help you learn the concepts.

When you say that you hate flash, it's probably because you haven't learned to use it properly. Straight-on flash from the camera can be harsh and unflattering. Get a flash unit and learn to bounce flash, then you'll love it. Heck, even with the built-in flash you can get okay results if you turn the flash compensation down one or two stops, so it acts more like fill flash rather than the key light.

Indoors are usually dim. We may not perceive them as dim, because our eyes and brains compensate, but cameras see the light as it is. To compensate for dim light you'll need to do one or more of the following: larger aperture (lower f-stop), slower shutter speed, higher ISO. We often focus so much on these three factors (aperture, shutter speed, and ISO), that we often forget about the fourth major factor: Light. You can add artificial light (flash), bounce it, modify it, and/or relocate your subject to a place where the available light is better. If you're relying on the light coming in through a windor or glass door, remember that light falls off quickly. Every time you double the distance from the window, the amount of light drops to a quarter of what it was. So, the light hitting a person that's 8 feet from a window is only 1/4 as bright as the light hitting a person standing 4 feet from the same window. That's dramatic. So if you want a large enough aperture for good depth of field, or you want a fast enough shutter speed so you don't get blur, or if you want an ISO low enough that you don't get too much image noise, then you might want to position the subject very near the window. If you're just trying to grab shots as things happen, wherever they happen, rather than setting everything up and posing people, then you're going to have to be prepared to provide light where it's lacking (flash).

In the end, a sharp picture with "ugly" straight-on flash is better than an dark, blurry image filled with noise.