Need outdoor DSLR tips for a pumpkin patch, please...

[Dr.Girlfriend]

We have a Sony A200 and it's pretty much been sitting on a shelf for almost a year. I finally decided that it was time to start using it, and it SEEMS easy enough to get professional looking shots.

We live in Florida and I have been trying to take pics all week with some settings that a coworker showed me, but there are a few things I haven't been able to figure out. A good example would be the very first pic at this blog: http://courtneyfries.com/blog/ I LOVE the coloring of the woods and the little girl's dress, but I have no idea if that's a camera setting or not.

I was told to put the camera on either the P or A setting and put the depth of field mode to 200 to get that depth of field look that I like...so, I played around and got a few shots that I liked. But the coloring is going kind of funky in these pictures since I haven't mastered Photoshop yet:

Anyways...can anyone give me any tips/pointers? I have a long ways to go in mastering this camera and I'm not even sure if I'm supposed to change the settings from 200 or not.

Hope I made some sense to someone out there...

 

[MICKEY88]

We have a Sony A200 and it's pretty much been sitting on a shelf for almost a year. I finally decided that it was time to start using it, and it SEEMS easy enough to get professional looking shots.

We live in Florida and I have been trying to take pics all week with some settings that a coworker showed me, but there are a few things I haven't been able to figure out. A good example would be the very first pic at this blog: http://courtneyfries.com/blog/ I LOVE the coloring of the woods and the little girl's dress, but I have no idea if that's a camera setting or not.

I was told to put the camera on either the P or A setting and put the depth of field mode to 200 to get that depth of field look that I like...so, I played around and got a few shots that I liked. But the coloring is going kind of funky in these pictures since I haven't mastered Photoshop yet:

Anyways...can anyone give me any tips/pointers? I have a long ways to go in mastering this camera and I'm not even sure if I'm supposed to change the settings from 200 or not.

Hope I made some sense to someone out there...

if it were that easy to get professional looking shots, pros wouldn't spend years on education and perfecting their craft..

first off if you want control of your photos, you don't really want to be using P mode... aperture prioity is good for controlling depth of field..

you will want your lens as wide open as possible..

as far as depth of field mode at 200 I have no clue what you are talking about, 200 sounds more like shutter speed or iso...

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

First you might want to test out the different creative style settings that will change the colors of the photos. On the A200 I believe these will be Standard, Vivid, Portrait, Landscape, Night, Sunset, Black and White and Adobe RGB. The amount of saturation, contrast and sharpening are adjustable on each of those settings if you want to punch up the colors more or tone them down. Since colors are such a personal preference it's going to be best for you to try several of these settings and what you like best. And that may change depending on what you are shooting. These setting can be accessed a couple of ways but one is to go under Menu. If you are shooting in raw you'll also be able to change these color settings easily in post processing. Quite a bit can be done with jpgs as well in post processing but it will be easier to use color settings you like right from the start if shooting jpg.

On your exposure mode dial you'll have access to a couple of settings - Portrait (which is a setting to give greater depth of field) and Landscape (that will keep more in focus). These are auto settings but might give you some of what you are looking for while you learn the ins and outs of the camera.

Setting to A mode will give you the ability to control the depth of field and the greatest flexibility where as the Portrait and Landscape modes use a preset. I also am confused by your reference to 200. It does sound like the ISO setting or shutter speed. Depending on what lens your are using (I'm going to assume the kit 18-70) the aperture could be a setting anywhere from f/3.5 (which will provide the greatest blur to the background - especially if the background is located a distance behind the subject) and will increase in increments up to f22 which will get background and subjects in focus in your shots.

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

No offense, but it sounds like you could use some basics on photography. A lot of people here and on other photo websites recommend Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. I've read it. It's helpful. I also recommend The Digital Photography Book by Scott Kelby if you're looking for a 'recipe' book that says, if you want this kind of shot, this is what you have to do to get it. But yeah, UE by Peterson is highly recommeneded.

 

[Dr.Girlfriend]

if it were that easy to get professional looking shots, pros wouldn't spend years on education and perfecting their craft..

I meant better looking shots than ones you would get in a Wal-Mart photo studio. I know that it would take years to get really professional looking pics.

I meant the shutter speed as far as the 200 setting. Sorry I didn't clarify that.

 

[Dr.Girlfriend]

No offense, but it sounds like you could use some basics on photography. A lot of people here and on other photo websites recommend Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. I've read it. It's helpful. I also recommend The Digital Photography Book by Scott Kelby if you're looking for a 'recipe' book that says, if you want this kind of shot, this is what you have to do to get it. But yeah, UE by Peterson is highly recommeneded.

No offense taken, I DO have a long ways to go. Thanks for the recs.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Maybe you need to do a little reading on White Balance (WB) The picture of the girl you like in the link looks a little on the green side to me, and some of your own pictures, though nice, also are off to me as well. But everyone's eyes are different, as are their likes and dislikes.

So you have a couple of issues going on. First, what lenses do you have? You have gotten some decent bokeh (blurred background) in some of your shots. I agree that reading Understanding Exposure would help you a lot if you like these types of photos. Lenses with wide apertures (small f numbers) will allow you the most fun with bokeh.

The WB issue isn't as simple. I had some difficulty with it myself (still do, probably). You can either pick the WB setting on your camera at the time of shot, or you can use Auto WB. To further complicate the issue, you have more creative control later (ie can change your WB) if you shoot RAW than if you shoot JPEG. However, the files are bigger and you need to convert them in order to do things like print them, etc. But once you figure that out, you can not worry about the issue so much at the time you are shooting and play with it later to your liking, if you want. It's kind of a personal preference.

So here's what I would suggest, to start. Go out today and play around with it a bit. Try using the A setting with Auto WB or set it to the conditions your shooting in, alternatively (there's usually a sun, or clouds, etc). They will probably be pretty similar, really. Stick with JPEG, to simplify, or you could try both JPEG and RAW setting, which will yield pics with both to play around with. If it's cloudy out, you could go with as wide an aperture as your lens will allow (lowest f setting) and focus on the pumpkin(s) while trying to get something visually interesting in the background that will be somewhat blurry if you focus on the pumpkins close to you. Alternatively, focus on the background and let the pumkins blur. Have fun. And be sure to post some of your shots on this month's assignment thread, Fall Colors and Depth of Field.

One more thing - if it's very sunny out and you're shooting mid day, a wide aperture might let in too much light, so if possible, shoot early morning or late afternoon, or in cloudy conditions. Good luck.