Helpless with a new camera!

[jann1033]

I love Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. I use it often for reference. He has a great way with explaining (with examples) photography.

Photography can be as complicated as you want or as easy as you want.

Here is something I came across to illustrate apertures and f/stops. (my little tutorial for the day). In math when you see numbers with the "/" sign between them that means a fraction. Same thing with f/stops. Stops are numbers assigned to the size of the circle the aperture of the lens makes. F is for focal lenght. Focal length divided by the stop number equals the size (circumference) of the circle. Focal length is stated in milimeters (MM). Or how far the lens magnifies (18mm, 55mm, 70mm, 300mm etc...). Here are what f/stops look like when compared to each other. Notice (just like fractions), the bigger the number the smaller the circle:

The bigger circles let in more light and will give a very shallow Depth of field (DOF) (blury background to isolate the subject). The smaller circles let in less light and will give a very deep DOF (in focus background). If your nearsighted or know someone who is nearsighted, you'll find that squinting your eyes makes things more in focus. Your eyes are allowing in less light to help you see clearer. When I was a kid and got glasses I remember my doctor telling me that if I ever lost my glasses or broke them, but needed to see things in focus a quick fix is to stick a piece of paper with a pin then look though the pin hole. I've tried it many times and it works. Thus we have deeper depth of field with a big f/stop (aka big number, small hole).

very nice visual aid handicap...out of curiosity..do you know of any lenses that go past f/22( at least i think that's where mine stop)? thinking i usually worry about a large enough aperture but never the other way.

 

[handicap18]

very nice visual aid handicap...out of curiosity..do you know of any lenses that go past f/22( at least i think that's where mine stop)? thinking i usually worry about a large enough aperture but never the other way.

Thanks jann.

There are quite a few. I want to say (I don't have it in front of me right now) my 50mm f/1.8 goes up to f/29. I just ordered the Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Macro and that goes to f/32 according to the specs. You'll probably find that small of an aperture on prime lenses only, but I could be wrong. I haven't actually looked into it.

 

[Steve's Girl]

you might try metering off the sky and then adjust from there.

First, I am going to apologize for my stupidity - I am so out of my league here! However, I will not learn anything by shamefully hiding in the corner, so could someone please explain how metering is done? Bryan Peterson talks about this a lot in his book "Understanding Exposure". I understand it in theory, but am not sure I understand it in practice.

 

[handicap18]

Thanks jann.

There are quite a few. I want to say (I don't have it in front of me right now) my 50mm f/1.8 goes up to f/29. I just ordered the Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Macro and that goes to f/32 according to the specs. You'll probably find that small of an aperture on prime lenses only, but I could be wrong. I haven't actually looked into it.

Ok, I check 2 of my lenses. 18-70mm zoom goes to f/29 at the 70mm end. The 70-300mm I have goes to f/40 at the 300mm end. So I guess just about any lens could go very tiny. Haven't seen an f/64 yet though.

 

[0bli0]

First, I am going to apologize for my stupidity - I am so out of my league here! However, I will not learn anything by shamefully hiding in the corner, so could someone please explain how metering is done? Bryan Peterson talks about this a lot in his book "Understanding Exposure". I understand it in theory, but am not sure I understand it in practice.

don't worry about it - there are so many terms in photography that make it seem much more difficult than it really is. i apologise for not explaining in more detail. you don't need to use a meter - just use the meter that is built into your camera.

by 'metering off the sky', i mean setting the exposure for how bright the sky is at the time you're taking the photo. there are two ways you can do this. in the Canon world, there is something called 'Exposure Lock'. on my camera, it's on the '*' button, but i don't remember off the top of my head if i put it on that button through a custom setting.

anyway the exposure lock 'locks in' an exposure setting. so you merely point at the sky and press the exposure lock button - then point at your subject , focus, and shoot. then look at the image (or better yet the histogram) and see how your image is exposed.

the second way to do this is by pointing at the sky and press the button to focus. note in your head what the exposure (shutter speed and aperture) is in the viewfinder and then manually set the same exposure (shutter speed and aperture) in 'manual' mode while shooting your scene.

does that make sense?

 

[DueyDooDah]

Just don't ask which brand of DSLR they think is better

Kevin

Good thought. We don't want to go there again. Besides, we all know it's ...

 

[gruZ]

Here is another very good basic tutorial. Some of it at the bottom is particular to Canon, but most of it is applicable to any camera!

Have fun!

 

[handicap18]

First, I am going to apologize for my stupidity - I am so out of my league here! However, I will not learn anything by shamefully hiding in the corner, so could someone please explain how metering is done? Bryan Peterson talks about this a lot in his book "Understanding Exposure". I understand it in theory, but am not sure I understand it in practice.

No need to apologize.

On the Nikon's there are 3 different meter area's. Metrix which takes just about all the area in the view finder and get an average based on info stored in the camera's computer chip. Center Point which is the bigger circle you see in the view finder and Spot which is the small circle you see in the view finder. I generally use center point or spot metering. You can change from one to the other in the menu (there may be a short cut on the D80, but I don't know for sure, check the users manual).

Using the meter in center point or spot you can fix the particular circle on the area you want to check for exposure, make not of it in the view finder or use the Exposure Lock button and re-compose. Or you can use the circle to get the meter reading then step back rather than zoom. When I take pictures of the moon with the 300mm end of my zoom I'll use spot metering as the circle is about the same size the moon is in the view finder.

 

[Steve's Girl]

by 'metering off the sky', i mean setting the exposure for how bright the sky is at the time you're taking the photo. there are two ways you can do this. in the Canon world, there is something called 'Exposure Lock'. on my camera, it's on the '*' button, but i don't remember off the top of my head if i put it on that button through a custom setting.

anyway the exposure lock 'locks in' an exposure setting. so you merely point at the sky and press the exposure lock button - then point at your subject , focus, and shoot. then look at the image (or better yet the histogram) and see how your image is exposed.

the second way to do this is by pointing at the sky and press the button to focus. note in your head what the exposure (shutter speed and aperture) is in the viewfinder and then manually set the same exposure (shutter speed and aperture) in 'manual' mode while shooting your scene.

does that make sense?

Yes! My camera does have an exposure lock button (called autoexposure lock). It works in P, S or A mode. The default setting for this button locks the exposure and focus. So, I have not used it much, but I just discovered that I can change this to lock exposure only. I actually read the whole manual, just can't remember 90% of it!

Using the second method, I need to meter in P mode (maybe S or A also?) and then switch to manual mode and use the settings the camera gave me? The light bulb just went on - ohhhh, you have to switch modes! No wonder I wasn't getting this.

No need to apologize.

On the Nikon's there are 3 different meter area's. Metrix which takes just about all the area in the view finder and get an average based on info stored in the camera's computer chip. Center Point which is the bigger circle you see in the view finder and Spot which is the small circle you see in the view finder. I generally use center point or spot metering. You can change from one to the other in the menu (there may be a short cut on the D80, but I don't know for sure, check the users manual).

There is a shortcut on the D80 - it is very easy to change by pushing a button and using the command dial. I just often forget because I am trying to adjust everything else correctly.

Thank you, thank you both of you! It is all coming together - just a little slowly at times!

 

[boBQuincy]

Here is a really good essay on exposure, how it works, and why everything in the image is not likely to be "properly" exposed.

http://luminous-landscape.com/columns/determining-exposure.shtml

RAW requires some work but if you set your camera to RAW+JPG you will get the JPG to look at right away and the RAW in case you get an image that you want to work on later (it could even be much later, RAW converters are improving all the time. I recently went back to some images I captured 5 years ago and made better conversions and prints from them).

The glaring part of the ice is almost always going to be outside of the range our cameras can capture unless the rest of the image is too dark. There are ways around this but they are advanced techniques (like HDR in Photoshop).

 

[MarkBarbieri]

very nice visual aid handicap...out of curiosity..do you know of any lenses that go past f/22( at least i think that's where mine stop)? thinking i usually worry about a large enough aperture but never the other way.

Don't be too quick to use a high f-stop. You get more depth-of-field, but you also start to suffer from diffraction problems. A shot taken at f/22 is going to be noticably less sharp than one taken at f/8. This is a basic physical limitation, so you can't spend your way around hthe problem. You've got trade off more diffraction for more depth-of-field. It's all about compromises.

 

[jann1033]

Here is a really good essay on exposure, how it works, and why everything in the image is not likely to be "properly" exposed.

http://luminous-landscape.com/columns/determining-exposure.shtml

RAW requires some work but if you set your camera to RAW+JPG you will get the JPG to look at right away and the RAW in case you get an image that you want to work on later (it could even be much later, RAW converters are improving all the time. I recently went back to some images I captured 5 years ago and made better conversions and prints from them).

The glaring part of the ice is almost always going to be outside of the range our cameras can capture unless the rest of the image is too dark. There are ways around this but they are advanced techniques (like HDR in Photoshop).

another great one, you get an A+ for the night!