First shots from Disney trip

[fuse04]

Thanks to all for help over the last year or so and in chossing my first DSLR (March). Am certaily under no illusions as to how much I have to learn but though I would share some of my furst shots (some of the shots have been inspired by some I have seen here, so thanks again)

Seaworld

First attempt at panning

last one (for today!)

 

[DizGeek]

Nice shots!

 

[DVC Jen]

Thanks for sharing.

 

[BigGreen73]

They look pretty good. Nice job.

 

[boBQuincy]

Very nice! Panning is not easy, it looks like you have an eye for it.

 

[Suburbanmom]

Thanks for the pics. They are great. Would like to see more.

 

[Groucho]

Not bad at all! Good work on the shark picture, not perfect but I've found that shooting into those underwater tanks can be very difficult. I had a terrible time at Living Seas (err, "Seas With Nemo and Friends") last trip, I didn't get any underwater shots that I was really happy with.

The SpectoMagic shot could probably use a little white balance adjustment... they're looking a bit yellow. For the panning shot, try upping the shutter speed a bit. The cars are moving plenty fast enough for you to still get a blurred background without having to go as slow as 1/40th. And finally, the burning stuntman was a 300mm shot at 1/125th of a second, which is really not fast enough to get a sharp photo without a tripod. You were using shutter priority mode, in "armchair photographer" mode I'd say that bumping that to something closer to 1/500th or so would probably work well. There was plenty of light to do that, since that shot was ISO 100 and F11.

Looks like you did a fair amount of shooting in 100% manual mode, as opposed to Av or Tv... any particular reason? Just taste, or finding that to work better for you for certain situations?

 

[fuse04]

Thanks for the Tips Groucho much appreciated. All I know about photographgy is what I have seen on this board having followed it for a few months before buying the SLR....loads to learn!..have just started to read Understanding Exposure

The shark picture is cropped but after posting i thought the untouched shot was probably better as it is further way and gives a better sense of the impending threat!

After last years PnS attempt at Spectro I was really pleased with the outcome on my first night shoot...think I used the Canon 50mm 1.8 handheld...what do you think I should have done with the WB?...I just used auto

Re the stunt man, I assume that F11 at 1/125 was giving me the correct exposure on the camera's meter, would not shotting at 1/500 give a under exposure?

I thought I did most of my shooting in AV or TV with a bit of manual...why do you think I shot mostly in manual? I have made a point not to use the green square so as to try to learn about photogrpahy.

Groucho any further advice very much appreciated

Not bad at all! Good work on the shark picture, not perfect but I've found that shooting into those underwater tanks can be very difficult. I had a terrible time at Living Seas (err, "Seas With Nemo and Friends") last trip, I didn't get any underwater shots that I was really happy with.

The SpectoMagic shot could probably use a little white balance adjustment... they're looking a bit yellow. For the panning shot, try upping the shutter speed a bit. The cars are moving plenty fast enough for you to still get a blurred background without having to go as slow as 1/40th. And finally, the burning stuntman was a 300mm shot at 1/125th of a second, which is really not fast enough to get a sharp photo without a tripod. You were using shutter priority mode, in "armchair photographer" mode I'd say that bumping that to something closer to 1/500th or so would probably work well. There was plenty of light to do that, since that shot was ISO 100 and F11.

Looks like you did a fair amount of shooting in 100% manual mode, as opposed to Av or Tv... any particular reason? Just taste, or finding that to work better for you for certain situations?

 

[Groucho]

The shark picture is cropped but after posting i thought the untouched shot was probably better as it is further way and gives a better sense of the impending threat!

Cropping is not a crime.

After last years PnS attempt at Spectro I was really pleased with the outcome on my first night shoot...think I used the Canon 50mm 1.8 handheld...what do you think I should have done with the WB?...I just used auto

Adjusting white balance later is one of the prime reasons that I always shoot RAW. I never found one single WB setting I really liked for Spectro; with RAW, I can adjust on a picture-by-picture basis later at my leisure. You can do it to a point with JPG, but it's easier/better with RAW. The posted shot would probably benefit a little from going with tungsten or something close, which would show the costumes closer to white rather than yellow.

Re the stunt man, I assume that F11 at 1/125 was giving me the correct exposure on the camera's meter, would not shotting at 1/500 give a under exposure?

You shot that in shutter priority mode, which means that you worry about the shutter speed, and the camera worries about everything else. If you selected 1/500th, it could have used F5.6 instead of F11, or F8 and ISO 200 instead of 100. Either way would make up the two stops you'd lose by shooting at 1/500th instead of 1/125th. It was bright enough that you could have easily gone to 1/1000th or 1/2000th, even - at those speeds, you should have a pretty sharp photo as long as the focus is accurate. Similarly, the shot of the car jumping could have been shot much faster than 1/40th of a second, you'd not get quite as much motion blur but you've have a much sharper car.

I thought I did most of my shooting in AV or TV with a bit of manual...why do you think I shot mostly in manual? I have made a point not to use the green square so as to try to learn about photogrpahy.

Well, there's no shame in using the green button, it will at least tell you what it thinks the settings should be in that situation and you can tweak as desired. Doing it 100% by hand is going to be tricky, you'll be stuck seeing if the camera shows you an exposure meter (I'm not sure that the XTi does, I thought someone was complaining that it didn't recently)... trying to do it without any assistance is not worth it, the camera has a very accurate lightmeter for a reason!

I was kind of surprised that 2 of the 5 posted photos were shot in manual. Usually, nowadays you only need manual if the situation calls for it, like if you want to maintain a specific exposure for a long period, or some other thing that you simply can't accomplish in Av or Tv mode. Don't feel like you need to use manual mode to get any respect.

 

[Master Mason]

the XT has an exposure meter, so pretty sure the XTi does as well

 

[fuse04]

the XT has an exposure meter, so pretty sure the XTi does as well

I have the 400d which I think is the Xti and it does have an exposure meter.

 

[fuse04]

Cropping is not a crime.





You shot that in shutter priority mode, which means that you worry about the shutter speed, and the camera worries about everything else. If you selected 1/500th, it could have used F5.6 instead of F11, or F8 and ISO 200 instead of 100. Either way would make up the two stops you'd lose by shooting at 1/500th instead of 1/125th. It was bright enough that you could have easily gone to 1/1000th or 1/2000th, even - at those speeds, you should have a pretty sharp photo as long as the focus is accurate. Similarly, the shot of the car jumping could have been shot much faster than 1/40th of a second, you'd not get quite as much motion blur but you've have a much sharper car.

I did some panning after the trip (race cars) and think I shot at 1/90.

Re the stunt man, I had assumed to get sharpe image of man and fire I would need something around the F11 mark. However I have been thinking about what you said and back to basics.....I am now correct in thinking that F11 would give much greater depth of field (which isnlt needef or the shot) compared to that of F5.6, and that as long as I am focusing on the stunt man I should get a sharp image because of a faster shutter and therefore sharper fire?

How would you have taken the shot?

thanks
Fuse

 

[Groucho]

Re the stunt man, I had assumed to get sharpe image of man and fire I would need something around the F11 mark. However I have been thinking about what you said and back to basics.....I am now correct in thinking that F11 would give much greater depth of field (which isnlt needef or the shot) compared to that of F5.6, and that as long as I am focusing on the stunt man I should get a sharp image because of a faster shutter and therefore sharper fire?

How would you have taken the shot?

You're correct that F11 gives you a larger depth of field, however in this case it means that you've got a shutter speed that is just too slow for a handheld shot at 300mm. So you've got good focus but still some blur because of hand shake.

Now, if you wanted F11 and a 1/500th second shutter, you could still get it by setting the ISO to 400. I would lean towards F8, 1/2000th shutter, and ISO 400.

Now, you understand, this is with 100% hindsight. If I was right there next to you shooting, I probably wouldn't have my wits enough to grab those particular settings. But for a 300mm lens, you're going to want to keep the shutter speed pretty high unless it's very securely mounted onto a tripod and you're using a remote shutter.