This week I'm working on... (now with a page 1 directory)

[TheGoofster]

OK, as I was posting you put up some of the shots!

I checked your EXIF info and saw that you were using some very slow shutter speeds (2 seconds on the fist shot, and 1/8 on the last).
With a hand held shot, 2 seconds is impossible to hold steady. You almost got the 1/8 to come out. If you had your VR set to on on your lens, then 1/8 is almost withing a doable range for a hand held shot, but you really need to have a good firm grasp of your camera.

When you take night shots like that you really have 3 main options:
1) Use a flash. A flash would have given you great light, and you can easily hold the camera in your hand.
2) Use a tripod. When you use a tripod, you have access to unlimited timed shots. So you can take any kind of night shot you want, without having to worry about camera shake. If you don't already have one, you might want to pick up a remote shutter release (either wired or wireless). That will ensure that the camera doesn't shake a little when you push the button.
3) Try shooting at the highest ISO possible, and sacrifice some clarity. If you had used the 6400 ISO setting (high 3 I think) than you probably could have also gotten that shot to come out because there is enough surrounding light in the shot. This option doesn't always work, but it depends on there being some other source of light that the camera can use to help give you enough illumination.

So, if you are trying to avoid using the flash, then your main bet is really to use a tripod for any kind of night time shooting.
If you get a chance, try shooting the shot again, but this time try it with a tripod, and see what happens.

I should probably also add that a "faster" lens can help you take a hand held low light shot. Lens that go as wide as 1.8 or even better 1.4 will allow so much more light into the camera than the kit lens. The top item on my wish list is a fast lens.

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Also, if you were using the 18-55mm lens, don't zoom in so much. When zoomed all the way in, your F# goes higher which doesn't let in as much light as if you are zoomed out at 18mm. As a test, set your camera to the "A" on the dial at the top when at 18mm and get it to the lowest F# you can. Now zoom in to 55mm, and the camera will adjust to the lowest it can go at that distance.

Best bet for that would be a faster lens like the 35mm 1.8 for $199. It would have let you take the picture with a much faster shutter which would reduce the motion blur. Honestly, I'm pretty sure it's more the lens than the camera working against you on that one.

Just remember, like the Goof said, the higher the ISO, the more noise you'll get in you picture. If you set the camera on something stable or used a tripod, you could have used an ISO between 200-600 and left the shutter open longer for a cleaner picture.

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

I am Frustrated..
So I went outside today to experiment with my new Nikon D5000 camera..I tried taking some shots while the sun was setting...

I set my camera to a low aperture- around F-5 I believe.. and I started snapping some pictures.. most of them came out kinda blurry as there was a few second delay on the camera taking the picture.

When I set the dial to sunset.. there was a very short delay and the picture came out much better..

Some of my shots did not come out at all.. even when I tried to use the flash..

Got me thinking...

So will I always have to just use the "camera settings" to get the most out of my camera? Part of the reason I bought the camera was in the hopes of me setting it on some type of manual setting (A, P, S, or M etc..) and having the skill, knowledge and technique to take some really nice pictures.

With my old Sony Point and Shoot.. I could have snapped all of those shots really quick.. and all or most would have come out.. granted they probably would have been pretty blurry, but at least I would have gotten the shot off.

So let me get to the point:

I like the challenge of learning how to take good pictures..

I would like to one day have all the knowledge and ability to really take some nice shots.. However..

If I want to take night pictures for example.. will I ALWAYS have to use a tripod to get decent shots?

I'm just wondering if perhaps this camera isn't for me???

Ultimately I would like to be able to take this camera on vacation.. and everywhere and be able to just snap shots.. perhaps every now and then go for a "great shot" all on my own..

Just kind of frustrated right now and wondering if I made the right decision..

I welcome your thoughts, comments, and suggestions...

Coach, you made the right decision to get the D5000 if you are willing to do your homework and figure out what will work. Don't feel bad. I went through the same thing in the beginning, and even worse, my DH asked me many times, "Why did you buy this camera? I thought it was supposed to help you take better pics but your old camera (Panasonic P&S) took way better pictures!" Nice. And even worse than that I had experience shooting w/ 35mm film cameras. But things like ISO wasn't really a consideration, all we had to do was think about film speed and whether or not the shot was in focus.

I saw that your 2nd photo was shot at ISO 2000 and it was still blurry. Probably because you are using a kit lens and in Aperture priority mode. Aperture priority mode is great when you want to control Depth of field, but not good when you have very limited lighting and no flash because it will slow down your shutter speed to make the lighting acceptable and that's how you end up with 2 second shutter times and blurry hand held shots. If you must shoot Aperture Priority mode at night, you must have a tripod and a shutter release cable. (Get one of each it's fun! Cable is about $20-30 and a 'good enough' tripod could be had from Amazon for about $150.) Also, like Nate & Logans Dad says, don't zoom out on those kit lenses at night if you don't know how to compensate for that zoom, because your lens will move the Aperture out to the lowest setting, 5.6 (in the case of your 18-55), and then you'll need more light.

There are a couple things you can do to increase your light besides using flash and adjusting ISO. One would be to use your Exposure Compensation button and dial it up a bit. Be careful, if you add too much you could blow out your highlights or have the photo come out completely white. Experiment and see what works and then try, try again.

The other thing I do when shooting low light shots when I know I don't want flash is, I put the camera into Shutter Priority mode. I adjust the shutter speed so it is fast enough to stop motion (especially if shooting moving targets like performers on stage). The camera will automatically default to the fastest available aperture, allowing in the most light. If that still doesn't work (i.e. photos are still too dark even after bumping up ISO and/or EC) then you have to go into manual mode and set the shutter to the lowest setting you can to stop the motion and the lowest available aperture #, (i.e. the fastest setting). This is where fast glass f/1.2. 1.4, 1.8, 2.0, 2.8 come in very handy!
In any kind of low light hand held situation, you should always leave your VR on if you have it in the lens, unless you have your camera mounted to a tripod.

As an example, I'm going to post some shots I took of Fantasmic at Disneyland w/ my 70-300VR lens. All straight out of the camera, no processing. Sorry they are large, but again, I didn't get to crop them and I wanted you to be able to see how decent they came out. All shot shutter priority.

Shutter 1/100 As you can see, not fast enough to prevent blurring of her hands and dress since she was twirling her body, but her face and the rest is in focus, so yay! Aperture f/5.3, 230mm, ISO 3200 Exposure Compensation +5, No flash

Here's another, where her hands are not right in focus because she was moving too fast, but everything else is okay.
Shutter 1/100, Aperture f/5.6, ISO 3200, EC +5, No flash

And another in near darkness. You can see a lot of noise in the dark areas of this shot, but you can use noise reduction software to fix it. Nothing will fix an out of focus picture. Her face is in focus and that's what matters.

She was moving around a lot, so I set my shutter to 1/125 (just a little higher than previous settings), Aperture defaulted to the maximum f/5.6, ISO 3200, 300mm, EC +5.

If I had faster glass on my camera, I wouldn't have needed such a high ISO or as much EC. If I were you, I wouldn't waste my time with an f/1.8 lens. Yes they are cheap, and you get what you pay for. I would get the f/1.4 lens either by Sigma or Nikon. I have the Sigma 30mm 1.4 lens, and I just got an old Manual focus 50mm 1.2 lens for about $350. The newer f/1.4 lenses are around $400-500 bucks, but you will thank me for the extra 1/2 stop later! LOL! IMO, 30mm on a 1.5x DX camera like ours is a perfect focal length for a lot of things! It is actually more like 45mm in an FX or 35mm camera. 50mm on a DX camera is sometimes too close in a small room, indoors to take a family shot for example. Trust me, been there, done that.

I do a LOT of low light shooting because my DS is a musician (Drummer, so you can imagine what shutter speed I need to stop his movements); and I have a lot of musician friends, so I am always at their gigs taking photos. Sometimes if the light is just too low and/or you don't have fast enough glass, you just have to use a flash. Other times, like what you see above, you can get decent handheld, low light shots. You just have to know how to set your camera for it and know that you'll have to post process out the noise later. Shooting low light in a night club you HAVE to have fast glass because the lighting is usually non-existent to sub-par. At least at a show like F! they have stage lighting. For the above scenarios, if you find yourself having blown out highlights, you would have to lower your EC or lower your ISO. Or you could set your ISO to auto ISO - one less thing to deal with in the heat of the battle. Constantly check your LCD and zoom in on the photo or check your highlights. HTH and let me know if you have any questions. By the way, I'm no expert, just doing what I can to get decent low light shots and like I said, I take a lot of them!

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

In addition to Understanding Exposure, which everyone recommends, I also like The Digital Photography Book by Scott Kelby. I have Vols 1+2. There are now 3, from what I understand. It's like a recipe book for newbies. He basically tells you, if this is the kind of shot you want, this is what you have to do and how to set your camera. And he shows you on Nikons and Canons for examples, albeit the high end Nikons and Canons, so sometimes you try to replicate something and you have to look in your manual to see if you have it. But for the most part it's super simple stuff. Like if you want to blur water, this is how to do it. It's a great book for total newbs. It helped me so that I could get the shots I wanted without having to be a walking photography encyclopedia.

 

[Coach81]

Coach, you made the right decision to get the D5000 if you are willing to do your homework and figure out what will work. Don't feel bad. I went through the same thing in the beginning, and even worse, my DH asked me many times, "Why did you buy this camera? I thought it was supposed to help you take better pics but your old camera (Panasonic P&S) took way better pictures!" Nice. And even worse than that I had experience shooting w/ 35mm film cameras. But things like ISO wasn't really a consideration, all we had to do was think about film speed and whether or not the shot was in focus.

I saw that your 2nd photo was shot at ISO 2000 and it was still blurry. Probably because you are using a kit lens and in Aperture priority mode. Aperture priority mode is great when you want to control Depth of field, but not good when you have very limited lighting and no flash because it will slow down your shutter speed to make the lighting acceptable and that's how you end up with 2 second shutter times and blurry hand held shots. If you must shoot Aperture Priority mode at night, you must have a tripod and a shutter release cable. (Get one of each it's fun! Cable is about $20-30 and a 'good enough' tripod could be had from Amazon for about $150.) Also, like Nate & Logans Dad says, don't zoom out on those kit lenses at night if you don't know how to compensate for that zoom, because your lens will move the Aperture out to the lowest setting, 5.6 (in the case of your 18-55), and then you'll need more light.

There are a couple things you can do to increase your light besides using flash and adjusting ISO. One would be to use your Exposure Compensation button and dial it up a bit. Be careful, if you add too much you could blow out your highlights or have the photo come out completely white. Experiment and see what works and then try, try again.

The other thing I do when shooting low light shots when I know I don't want flash is, I put the camera into Shutter Priority mode. I adjust the shutter speed so it is fast enough to stop motion (especially if shooting moving targets like performers on stage). The camera will automatically default to the fastest available aperture, allowing in the most light. If that still doesn't work (i.e. photos are still too dark even after bumping up ISO and/or EC) then you have to go into manual mode and set the shutter to the lowest setting you can to stop the motion and the lowest available aperture #, (i.e. the fastest setting). This is where fast glass f/1.2. 1.4, 1.8, 2.0, 2.8 come in very handy!
In any kind of low light hand held situation, you should always leave your VR on if you have it in the lens, unless you have your camera mounted to a tripod.

As an example, I'm going to post some shots I took of Fantasmic at Disneyland w/ my 70-300VR lens. All straight out of the camera, no processing. Sorry they are large, but again, I didn't get to crop them and I wanted you to be able to see how decent they came out. All shot shutter priority.

Shutter 1/100 As you can see, not fast enough to prevent blurring of her hands and dress since she was twirling her body, but her face and the rest is in focus, so yay! Aperture f/5.3, 230mm, ISO 3200 Exposure Compensation +5, No flash

Here's another, where her hands are not right in focus because she was moving too fast, but everything else is okay.
Shutter 1/100, Aperture f/5.6, ISO 3200, EC +5, No flash

And another in near darkness. You can see a lot of noise in the dark areas of this shot, but you can use noise reduction software to fix it. Nothing will fix an out of focus picture. Her face is in focus and that's what matters.

She was moving around a lot, so I set my shutter to 1/125 (just a little higher than previous settings), Aperture defaulted to the maximum f/5.6, ISO 3200, 300mm, EC +5.

If I had faster glass on my camera, I wouldn't have needed such a high ISO or as much EC. If I were you, I wouldn't waste my time with an f/1.8 lens. Yes they are cheap, and you get what you pay for. I would get the f/1.4 lens either by Sigma or Nikon. I have the Sigma 30mm 1.4 lens, and I just got an old Manual focus 50mm 1.2 lens for about $350. The newer f/1.4 lenses are around $400-500 bucks, but you will thank me for the extra 1/2 stop later! LOL! IMO, 30mm on a 1.5x DX camera like ours is a perfect focal length for a lot of things! It is actually more like 45mm in an FX or 35mm camera. 50mm on a DX camera is sometimes too close in a small room, indoors to take a family shot for example. Trust me, been there, done that.

I do a LOT of low light shooting because my DS is a musician (Drummer, so you can imagine what shutter speed I need to stop his movements); and I have a lot of musician friends, so I am always at their gigs taking photos. Sometimes if the light is just too low and/or you don't have fast enough glass, you just have to use a flash. Other times, like what you see above, you can get decent handheld, low light shots. You just have to know how to set your camera for it and know that you'll have to post process out the noise later. Shooting low light in a night club you HAVE to have fast glass because the lighting is usually non-existent to sub-par. At least at a show like F! they have stage lighting. For the above scenarios, if you find yourself having blown out highlights, you would have to lower your EC or lower your ISO. Or you could set your ISO to auto ISO - one less thing to deal with in the heat of the battle. Constantly check your LCD and zoom in on the photo or check your highlights. HTH and let me know if you have any questions. By the way, I'm no expert, just doing what I can to get decent low light shots and like I said, I take a lot of them!

In addition to Understanding Exposure, which everyone recommends, I also like The Digital Photography Book by Scott Kelby. I have Vols 1+2. There are now 3, from what I understand. It's like a recipe book for newbies. He basically tells you, if this is the kind of shot you want, this is what you have to do and how to set your camera. And he shows you on Nikons and Canons for examples, albeit the high end Nikons and Canons, so sometimes you try to replicate something and you have to look in your manual to see if you have it. But for the most part it's super simple stuff. Like if you want to blur water, this is how to do it. It's a great book for total newbs. It helped me so that I could get the shots I wanted without having to be a walking photography encyclopedia.

Wow.. thanks DSF! That is a lot of info for me to digest!! Again I am getting excited as I at least now understand most of what you are saying I can't wait for my book to come in...so I can learn much, much more. But thanks for sharing your expertise with me. I have a long way to go... but again, the fact that I realized about ISO speed as a factor made me pretty happy..

I have my wife's B-day party tonight at a local eatery, any suggestions on camera settings: which mode should I use, ISO, etc..etc...? We will be inside the place.. with descent but not great lighting... I plan on shooting a bunch of pics!!!

Should I use the stock 55mm lens or should I bring in the big 200mm zoom, I just plan on taking a few portrait shots..

Thanks in advance everyone!

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

I have my wife's B-day party tonight at a local eatery, any suggestions on camera settings: which mode should I use, ISO, etc..etc...? We will be inside the place.. with descent but not great lighting... I plan on shooting a bunch of pics!!!

Should I use the stock 55mm lens or should I bring in the big 200mm zoom, I just plan on taking a few portrait shots..

Thanks in advance everyone!

Your welcome; anything to help out as I also received a lot of friendly help here on the Dis.
Again, I'm not a pro, I'm still learning, so others may disagree with me. The following is what I would do if it were me in this situation.

I don't know what conditions you will be in as far as lighting goes, but in a restaurant, or normally indoors anywhere, you will either need to use your flash or you will need fast glass. Even if the light seems plenty bright for normal conditions indoor, it's usually not enough for slower lenses. Since you only have the kits lens, you may be able to set your camera similarly to what I outlined above for my low light shots and get away with that...but it all depends on the lighting. If it's a very high end place, they would probably frown upon too much flash going off, so if it were me I'd use the fastest glass I have and keep the camera in shutter priority mode.

Remember in Shutter Priority mode, the camera will automatically set the appropriate aperture setting for you to get the correct amount of light in. In Aperture priority mode the camera, the camera will automatically set the shutter speed for you to get the correct amount of light in -- even if that means making the shutter speed so slow that you have blurry photos. They are both semi-automatic modes. So because of that, if I'm handholding in low light, I set the camera to shutter priority and it will default to the correct aperture to let the correct amount of light in. Don't worry, if when you look through your viewfinder, you see the word LO where your Aperture setting is. It'll do that because the lighting is too low, but take the shot and see what it looks like, evaluate and adjust from there.

If lighting is really bad, you will have to bump your ISO up. I try to never go beyond 3200ISO because anything beyond that is too noisy/grainy and difficult to fix in post processing for me since I suck at PP.

Since you don't have fast glass, you should leave your lens at the widest focal length (18mm; use your 18-55VR lens) and zoom in with your feet if needed. That way the fastest Aperture you will have is f/3.5 if I recall correctly. That will let in the most light out of all your focal lengths.

Keep your lens at 18mm, then you should be able to handhold, and set your shutter speed to 1/20 or 1/30 if people are posing for photos and you should still have decent pics if you have steady hands. If you are taking candids and people are moving around, you will probably have to bump up your shutter speed depending on how fast they are moving. Experiment. It could be 1/50 or 1/100 or 1/125 or higher depending on how fast they move. Remember the faster you make your shutter speed, the less light your lens will let in, creating darker photos. But darker photos are still better than blurry photos, imo. You will have to compensate by adjusting ISO and/or Exposure Compensation or by using your flash.

If it's blurry, bump up your shutter speed until you get clear shots. Usually blurry shots mean your shutter speed was too slow. Technically, you should be able to set your shutter speed to the equivalent of your focal length and be okay, but it depends on your hands.

If you have areas in the restaurant that have tricky lighting, i.e. areas of lots of light next to really dark areas, you may be better off putting your ISO setting on Automatic; one less thing to worry about.

If the shots are still too dark, I would bump up the Exposure Compensation gradually until you are able to get acceptable photos.

Keep the VR on in active mode (if your lens gives you a choice of what mode to use for VR; if not just turn it on and leave it on unless it's on a tripod). Take a few test shots before the actual event to see what your lighting looks like and zoom in on the pics to make sure they're not blurry or blown out. You will have to learn to adjust your settings based on what you see on the LCD.

Also, I noticed you have your photos set to Center weighted metering, IIRC. I always leave mine set to Matrix metering, especially in low light situations. It makes a huge difference. I tried 'em all, and that to me works best in low light. Try it. Take a few shots in Center weighted metering and then switch it Matrix and see if you can see a difference. Joe McNally, who wrote The Hot Shoe Diaries and is a Nikon Professional photographer, only uses his cameras in Matrix mode. I figure he must know something that I don't since he writes books and does lighting instructional DVDs for Nikon. So set your metering to Matrix mode and keep it simple for now. Matrix metering is evaluative and it basically evaluates all the lighting available to you and then works its magic from there to capture the shot.

Another trick is to shoot RAW + JPeg fine. Even if you don't have the software to process the RAW file, your JPEGS will come out better, generally speaking. I always shoot RAW+Jpeg fine so if I don't want to post process and the JPEG is decent, I have a usable JPEG without having to process the RAW file. Someone posted a comparison of same shots done in JPEG by itself and RAW+JPEG fine, and the ones shot in RAW+JPEG fine, those shots were much better straight out of the camera. So that's what I use. (I was doing it before they posted that comparison, but it was good to know I wasn't completely nuts!)

If all else fails, and this is an important event (which it is) you should put your camera into Auto mode and take photos so you have happy memories and not disappointing photos later on. It's not any different than if you were to use a point and shoot right? And at the end of the day, it's better to get your photos for your party than to have horrible photos and be disappointed and bummed out. You just got your camera, you can't possibly master everything in a couple of days. I've had 2 DSLRs and I'm still learning.

Keep in mind that in Automatic mode, the flash will automatically fire. And if you decide after all the above to use flash, make sure you turn off the Exposure compensation or your photos may turn out all white or completely blown out. In Auto mode, the camera should adjust the ISO automatically for you so I don't believe you'll have to fuss with it.
HTH! Good luck!

 

[Coach81]

Again.. thanks so much!!! I'll see if I can post any of my shots!!!

 

[Coach81]

ok back from the celebration..

Thanks to everyone especially DSF.. here are my results..

Used No Flash.. was in S mode the entire time. Got creative with the last one..

Welcome all opinions, suggestions, and critiques..

thanks in advance!

 

[tlcmommyx4]

Hey Goof, I need to download a program to see everyone's EXIF info. I saw some good free ones on the boards and for the life of me I can't seem to find them now. Can you help me out and tell me what you use for your EXIF info program?

 

[Coach81]

Here are a few shots from a family get together.. I'd like to share a few.. I invite your comments.. suggestions..

Love this shot.. 'cept for the hand blur...

This was with kit lens, no flash, auto focus, camera set to "S" I do think I am improving...

 

[TheGoofster]

@Tlcmommy

Actually I'm still using the old save the picture first, then use my comp's ability to get the EXIF info. I've been meaning to look into the different EXIF readers, but haven't gotten around to doing it yet. Lazy? Yeah, I'm guilty.

@Coach

Wow, very nice shots! You are definitely getting much better. I think what you did with these shots is the best way to go. Start with more ideal lighting conditions, and work on improving your shooting (technique, composition, positioning, etc...). Then, start adding different challenging conditions little by little (low light, action, indoor with no flash, etc...). Even though it's completely understandable, it did seem like you tried to jump into some of the tougher challenges head first as soon as you got your camera. I think you'll find it much more rewarding to start with easier conditions, and slowly work your way into some of the more challenging shots, all the while building on the basics.
But again, those are some very nice shots!

 

[Coach81]

Thank you very much! I know I still have tons to learn, but it was very rewarding to take my "baby steps" from time to time, and make a few adjustments here and there, and have the pictures come out.

 

[tlcmommyx4]

Goof, thank you, somehow I thought it was you I found this info with, but I did get this info last night. Thanks again Groucho

Originally Posted by Groucho
If you are viewing photos online, I like the Fxif plug-in for Firefox. If you don't use Firefox (boo! ) then Opanda Exif Viewer will apparently work for both IE and Firebox, but I haven't used it.

If you're viewing photos on your PC, my favorite viewer by far is Irfanview. Press "E" to see exif data.

If you're still not seeing anything, then the exif data has been stripped out at some point. Many (most) web galleries strip the exif data in order to make the photo smaller and save bandwidth. Some desktop programs will, too. If your own photos are missing, check the software that you use to edit them and look for a setting about saving the exif data.

Maybe you can use this too?

Coach, you pictures look wonderful. I too like the little boy looking into the door, very sweet.

 

[TheGoofster]

Goof, thank you, somehow I thought it was you I found this info with, but I did get this info last night. Thanks again Groucho

Originally Posted by Groucho
If you are viewing photos online, I like the Fxif plug-in for Firefox. If you don't use Firefox (boo! ) then Opanda Exif Viewer will apparently work for both IE and Firebox, but I haven't used it.

If you're viewing photos on your PC, my favorite viewer by far is Irfanview. Press "E" to see exif data.

If you're still not seeing anything, then the exif data has been stripped out at some point. Many (most) web galleries strip the exif data in order to make the photo smaller and save bandwidth. Some desktop programs will, too. If your own photos are missing, check the software that you use to edit them and look for a setting about saving the exif data.

Maybe you can use this too?

Coach, you pictures look wonderful. I too like the little boy looking into the door, very sweet.

Thanks!!! That was so easy that even my almost limitless laziness couldn't find an excuse not to install it.
It's amazing I had been meaning to install an EXIF viewer for so long, yet I kept putting it off. Now, thanks to your post (and Groucho's), I am up and running just like that.
Again, thank you!

 

[Coach81]

Just loaded the Panda Exif viewer.. thanks for the info.. my learning continues!!!

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

ok back from the celebration..

Thanks to everyone especially DSF.. here are my results..

Used No Flash.. was in S mode the entire time. Got creative with the last one..

Hi Coach, I wondered how the party went and if the photos came out okay. Looks like you did very well, especially being so new to this! Good job!

 

[Coach81]

Thanks! My book just came in.. that along with you guys.. I'm sure to improve!!!

 

[TheGoofster]

Sorry I haven't made any new updates this week. It's been kind of a crazy week, and to be honest I've hardly even touched my camera this week.

Yesterday, though, I did get a chance to do a little work with shooting in RAW. Actually I didn't really mean to. I had been fooling around with RAW a few days earlier, and forgot to change it back to FINE. It worked out pretty good though. I was shooting some shots of my son's basketball scrimmage, and it was an extremely bright day. The sun was really trying to wash out my shots. I had the sun hood on, but still the shots were kind of hard to get right.
When I came home, I realized that I had shot everything in RAW. As I started editing my shots, I noticed how much more flexibility I had working with the pictures, and I was able to get them looking a lot better than I would have if I had shot them as Jpegs.

Here are a few examples of the shots, after I was able to edit them:

Originally these shots were pretty dark, with strong shadows. I look forward to shooting more in RAW.

 

[tlcmommyx4]

Sorry I haven't made any new updates this week. It's been kind of a crazy week, and to be honest I've hardly even touched my camera this week.

Yesterday, though, I did get a chance to do a little work with shooting in RAW. Actually I didn't really mean to. I had been fooling around with RAW a few days earlier, and forgot to change it back to FINE. It worked out pretty good though. I was shooting some shots of my son's basketball scrimmage, and it was an extremely bright day. The sun was really trying to wash out my shots. I had the sun hood on, but still the shots were kind of hard to get right.
When I came home, I realized that I had shot everything in RAW. As I started editing my shots, I noticed how much more flexibility I had working with the pictures, and I was able to get them looking a lot better than I would have if I had shot them as Jpegs.

Here are a few examples of the shots, after I was able to edit them:

Originally these shots were pretty dark, with strong shadows. I look forward to shooting more in RAW.

Very nice, you are brave do be trying the shooting in RAW. I keep telling myself that I am going to try that, but I think I want to try HDR first. It is going to be very nice tomorrow, but really windy. I think I should try maybe without so much wind, what do you think?
I really did like these pictures!

 

[TheGoofster]

Very nice, you are brave do be trying the shooting in RAW. I keep telling myself that I am going to try that, but I think I want to try HDR first. It is going to be very nice tomorrow, but really windy. I think I should try maybe without so much wind, what do you think?
I really did like these pictures!

Thanks!
If you want to try shooting HDR, just remember that the wind can be your enemy if there is any kind of moving subjects (like trees, bushes or clouds). If you do shoot tomorrow, and there is wind, try to avoid shooting anything that will show movement. When you go to align the shots, there is almost always some blur or movement because of it.
Shooting HDR can give you some really neat affects though, so have fun experimenting, and be sure to post some of your results!