Advice please

In between the heavy showers today , and a skip being delivered [ which will be filled from my attic again ] I have carried on my practice attempts at shooting totally manually .

I certainly felt happier this time but am left now wondering just how you decide which f stop to use - and from there which shutter speed . Yes I know - the wider open the aperture [ smaller number ] more light gets in so I can use a faster speed . Today the light is not good so I experimented a bit - hopefully the data has been preserved.

Artistically these aren't much good - that bush, as you will realise is virtually all my garden - but it will do for now for practice .

So after looking at these attempts please can you give me a clue ?

All shot with my DA L 18-55

1)

[IMG]http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a41/Anhelyna/IMGP0989.jpg[/IMG]

2)

[IMG]http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a41/Anhelyna/IMGP0991.jpg[/IMG]

3)
[IMG]http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a41/Anhelyna/IMGP0994.jpg[/IMG]

Back in the olden days people used to use the "Sunny Sixteen" rule, that might be what you're after. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunny_16_rule

Without some kind of meter, be it in-camera or handheld, I find it almost impossible to guess exposure settings because there are actually three variables affecting exposure. Shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. My little brain can't cope with all that.

Shutter speed will normally be determined by your subject, fast moving or static, and all points in between.

Aperture choice is influenced by how much depth of field you want to show.

ISO setting compensates for the available light and being able to get a correct exposure from the other two.

So my advice is, get a good hand held light meter, preferably one that measures flash as well. Use that to work out what settings may be required for your scene/subject, then transfer the settings it gives you to the camera.

Job done.

There is a very good book called "Understanding Exposure" by Brian Peterson. I recommend you acquire a copy.

The first one looks OK to me, the second is perhaps 1/2 to one stop underexposed, while there is some burnt-out sky in the third. But overall I think you have done quite well.

But surely you can use the built-in exposure meter even in manual mode?

Terry - I'm still working through the manual

I was quite happy using Av and indeed Tv - hence my move to Manual and have been absorbing pages 100 and 101 . I had a quick look at Metering [ page 104 ] and went

That is going to have to come later when I can actually understand it

However there won't be much time to practise anything now till my Daughter and the tribe head South [ they arrive tomorrow ] since we will be filling that skip The last one [ October ] was well filled - the tractor unit was bouncing as it lifted it on - I have a very interesting pic of that

The histogram should give you a good idea of how accurate your exposures in manual are. I am wondering why you are bothering to shoot in manual at all given that you have a modern dslr? Are you shooting film as well?

The only time I shoot in manual is bulb when it's largely guesswork without a light meter. I don't think you will ever be able to get the same accuracy of exposure that your camera can unless you are using a light meter. That being said, your camera is equipped with one, so why not use it to set exposure?

Aliengrove


Hmmmm - this is rather interesting And I think that it goes back a good while .

Maybe I should start a new thread elsewhere for this . My reasons for wishing to go manual are complicated , I think , and actually go back to my days of point and shoot .

As I rarely take pictures of things which move I use aperture in three ways often not worying too much about shutter speed unless the light is poor.

1. Default aperture is f8; lens tests show that most lensrs perform best well away from extreme apertures.
2. Large aperture to throw back grounds out of focus or for special narrow depth of field effects.
3. Small apertures (but probably not f32) for maximum depth of field in some landscape shots or when shooting macro.

I use manual when required but I use the meter settings from the camera as a starting point and then adjust from there. I don't understand your problem. Not someone else donning the hair shirt?

In my film days I could guess exposures pretty well but that was because I used the same film all the time and I was able to apply darkroom techniques to compensate. When I look at these negatives now compared to the what my K20 delivers with its meter I am appalled! That said I had a meter to give me a good starting point.

Otherwise as Andrew says let the intent drive the aperture within practical bounds. We're so lucky to have the technology to assist with this it frees you to apply your imagination.

Mike

OK - I said I thought I should start a new thread

link

Looking at this thread and the other one, a question has popped in to my mind, do you realise that on subject matter like these the results are going be pretty much identical no matter what exposure mode you use?

Well yes - I did realise because hopefully, if I shot manually, I would have got the settings more or less spot on and equally hopefully, they would be what the camera chose for me if I used Av or Tv or even Auto

Actually I seem to have erred with my experiment - I should have added Auto into it to see what it would have given me

I'll do that another day - just for my own education you understand.

Really I am relatively happy choosing my Aperture - note the use of relatively - I stay somewhere about 6-8 if I'm outside. If I'm shooting inside then I use as big an aperture as I can - depending on my estimation of the ambient light , and then I expect the K-x to sort out my shutter speed since I'm still struggling to relate those automatically .

Hmm having said all that - maybe this thread should now be closed so discussion moves to the other one

Pressing the green button makes the camera suggest an aperture/shutter combination based on the internal light meter. Use this as a starting point and adjust as you see fit.

Ultimately either using the internal meter or an external meter achieve the same thing. A computed metered exposure. You still have to adjust for your desired outcome. Its not cheating to use the internal meter.

Hard core EV
Have a look at http://www.fredparker.com/ultexp1.htm
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposure_value