What mode when?

[DisFam95]

I admit I've had my DSLR for probably 6 yrs and have only just recently taken it out of auto for any extended time Basically bought it for the fast shutter w/ kids. Back then my kids were out of the shot before the old p&s camera would fire!

I've been working on learning each mode and have primarily focus on the AV mode. I feel really comfortable doing close portraits now and have some great shots of my kids and still life w/ great blurred backgrounds / bokeh effects etc.

Recently I was at a museum (lots of natural light though) and was focusing on creative angles and close ups. I needed the wide aperture to let in the most light w/o using my flash.

I think I put it on P mode (not really sure why) when I was shooting the kids and wider shots. They are all so blurry but i know that's because I had to open the ap which narrowed the dof.

This was in "P" mode f2.2 1/50 ISO 800 (all auto set in P mode). How should I have shot this..what settings? When you are shooting wider scenes of backgrounds and people what should I be using - besides auto

Thanks for any advice I leave for DL in a few days and I was hoping to get out of auto but now I feel overwhelmed.

 

[disneyboy2003]

This was in "P" mode f2.2 1/50 ISO 800 (all auto set in P mode). How should I have shot this..what settings? When you are shooting wider scenes of backgrounds and people what should I be using - besides auto .

I've been studying your photo, and I'm not sure I have any easy answers for improvement. Your camera already chose almost-the-maximum aperture and a pretty high ISO. Your shutter speed is already slow enough. You're right in that using a large aperture (small f-number) will give you a super-thin depth of field, making it even harder to keep things in-focus.

Looking back, there may have been a couple things you could have tried. I think you could have used a slightly faster shutter speed, maybe somewhere between 1/60 - 1/100 sec. If there was any chance that the blurriness was due to handholding the camera, then the faster shutter speed would have helped.

I have a feeling your son's face is blurry because he's out-of-focus (not because of motion blur). As you compose your photo, see if you can select the focus point that's closest to his face / eyes. That way, the lens will make sure that his eyes / face are in-focus...that's the most important part of the photo, so you want that part in-focus.

Because you're using a large aperture of f/2.2, I probably would not do the focus-and-recompose technique using the center focus point. That may inadvertently cause your son's face to be out-of-focus.

Things must have been pretty dark in that area for your camera to have chosen those settings. However, if you get a chance to re-do this photo, I'd switch to Manual, set the ISO to 800, aperture between f/1.8 - f/2.2, shutter speed between 1/60 - 1/125, and use the focus point that's closest to your son's face / eyes.

Hope that helps.

 

[Frantasmic]

In this instance, you are taking a grainy photo (ISO 800) of a grainy photo. It focused on the astronaut.

Like previous poster says, focus on your child. I'd reduce the ISO to 400. Your aperture and shutter speed will, IMO, help you get a clearer shot and it won't be as grainy.

 

[DisFam95]

I can't say for 100% but I do believe I am very good about focus on the face and then recompose but with such a shallow dof and since he's not centered I had to move and that would have messed it up.

I always had such trouble with the random picking of the mutli point focusing since I rarely center my subjects face the objects in the fore or background would be in focus until I figured out to fix my center focal point. So now I focus and recompose.

Manual really freaks me out right now I guess with kids I'm used to being able to say "oh look" and then click in an instant. I don't have time to assess lighting and what not when kids are involved.

Hopefully I'll have time to experiment and learn at Disney (kids are not coming..just a girls trip )

 

[boBQuincy]

The mode really has little to do with this, the same exposure could have been set with any other mode including Manual, and it would still look exactly the same. Bumping up the ISO to 1600 would allow a little more depth of field or a faster shutter speed, noise reduction software could mostly tame the added noise. Going to Manual and underexposing the scene would also allow a little more depth of field or a faster shutter speed but would greatly increase the noise level, more than going to ISO 1600.

I use P for most of my photography, it gives me as good exposures as Manual would for almost everything except fireworks.

 

[jann1033]

I can't say for 100% but I do believe I am very good about focus on the face and then recompose but with such a shallow dof and since he's not centered I had to move and that would have messed it up.

I always had such trouble with the random picking of the mutli point focusing since I rarely center my subjects face the objects in the fore or background would be in focus until I figured out to fix my center focal point. So now I focus and recompose.

Manual really freaks me out right now I guess with kids I'm used to being able to say "oh look" and then click in an instant. I don't have time to assess lighting and what not when kids are involved.

Hopefully I'll have time to experiment and learn at Disney (kids are not coming..just a girls trip )

i had an xt and it sometimes would randomly pick it's own focal point for no apparent reason( 85% of the time I use AV)...so make sure you remember to check with each photo which point is lit. i always have the center one selected then recompose but sometimes it would just pick another one ...annoying but true

also while it looks like you were probably far enough away, make sure you aren't to close to focus. the focus distance on one of my lenses is 4 ft !!!! that is really far way when you are taking closeups or details
that of course varies with each lens but just a thought to keep in mind

just wondering why you wanted a shallow dof with a shot like this...it's more set up to see both the child and the astronaut clearly imo...you might want to try the dof mode ( last one on the creative side, i might have the wrong name) if you are trying to get a line all in focus. i usually used that more for something that is not all on the same plane( ie a group sitting at a dining table) but it does help

and with an xt i wouldn't go over 800( i never went over 400 to be honest). at least with mine that was really pushing it for noise levels and then if you use a noise program it'll just look softer yet

 

[wenrob]

It looks to me like the focus fell on his pants and shoes. If you scroll down the pic you can see it getting sharper starting about midway down his jeans. (look to the right of him and the point between the mural and floor seems the sharpest out of the whole pic.) As mentioned with such a large ap recomposing would seem to be the issue here more then anything else. I understand chasing kids (twin 4yr olds here) but if you learn to move your focus point it eventually becomes second nature. In situations like your example he's standing still so moving your focus point would have been just as quick. What I did when I first started learning was to focus w/the center point first then move my point to where I wanted (right over the eye is best) and then refocused. Once I got the hang of it my focus improved 100%. Just don't forget you've moved it for the next photo!

 

[disneyboy2003]

Manual really freaks me out right now I guess with kids I'm used to being able to say "oh look" and then click in an instant. I don't have time to assess lighting and what not when kids are involved.

The only reason I suggested Manual and those camera settings was because I had the luxury of time: taking several minutes to (1) analyze the photo from top to bottom, (2) study the settings that your camera chose in "P" mode, and (3) think about what adjustments I would have done based on those camera settings. In real life, you only had seconds to make the shot.

Ultimately, I still think selecting the nearest focus point to your subject's face / eyes is the way to go. I think you still could have achieved a great photo with good exposure in "P" mode, but the biggest problem was that your son's face was out of focus. Again, because your aperture of f/2.2 was so large (making your depth of focus so small), using the center focus point to focus-and-recompose might have inadvertently made your son's face out-of-focus.

 

[pjacobi]

Slow down and think before you shoot!

Green mode and P will select some combination of ISO, f/stop, shutter speed and focus point. Before you shoot, you need to make a decision to either agree with the automatic setting, or override with manual. Sometime you only have seconds to make this decision.

Just a few years ago, all SLR camera were completely manual. Good photographers still managed to get the shot with a completely manual camera.

If you are lazy and don't want to think about composition, exposure and focus, use a simple P/S camera with a flash. This is an example where a P/S camera has an advantage.

Do you want a snapshot or art? The choice depends on how many brain cells you invest into the picture before you click the shutter.


-Paul

 

[DisFam95]

Jann103: my goal was not shallow dof but rather wider open to to handle the low light and no flash ( I avoid flash as much as possible) which of course yields shallow dof Should have just used the flash in this case.

Disneyboy: thanks for the advice You're right I don;t have that luxury right now. I did get some good shots that I'm happy with but I had time to take 2-5 shots before I liked what i saw making adjustments along the way. I get 1 chance if I'm lucky when the kids are out a place like this. It's pulling teeth to get them to stop in the first pace then they hear the camera click and that's there cue to run to the next exhibit

Paul: LAZY is the last word to describe myself but thanks for your input I have a family and a ton of responsibilities that you could not image. I have to squeeze in my hobby/"art" when I can. I have no interest in airplanes but that's what I was shooting because I was there for my kids!!!! I'm trying to learn. Would shooting in manual honestly be your 1st choice when shooting kids running around in wildly varying light conditions. He ran off to catch up w/ his brother..this was not a portait sitting.


Thanks everyone for the comments! I'll have to go back and retry it. I'll try to post a a couple others - that I used my brain cells on

 

[mom2rtk]

I get 1 chance if I'm lucky when the kids are out a place like this. It's pulling teeth to get them to stop in the first pace then they hear the camera click and that's there cue to run to the next exhibit

Sounds like my family! And another good reason to avoid the flash..... better chance of sneaking in several shots before they're off and running.... Once the flash goes, I never get them to stay put! It really is like their clue to run off!

 

[DisFam95]

GI Joe display

Here's a couple that I liked. Maybe not up to everyone's standards of 'art' but for someone just coming out of auto I'm happy with them. Almost hurt myself using those brain cells to get the exposure and composition on that fan!

 

[wenrob]

Paul: LAZY is the last word to describe myself but thanks for your input I have a family and a ton of responsibilities that you could not image. I have to squeeze in my hobby/"art" when I can. I have no interest in airplanes but that's what I was shooting because I was there for my kids!!!! I'm trying to learn. Would shooting in manual honestly be your 1st choice when shooting kids running around in wildly varying light conditions. He ran off to catch up w/ his brother..this was not a portait sitting.

Just ignore him.

 

[DisFam95]

Just ignore him.

Done - Thanks!

 

[Evad]

Wow!! I really like this shot

Well done.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Here is an old thread with a lot of pertinent information on this topic.