first outing with the 35mm lens

OK , here are some of this morning's set . I'm puzzled with some of them. All are straight from the camera [RAW] and converted to jpeg on export from Aperture 3. with the exception of 2 all are un-tweaked. I need help with the 2 sunrise shots - they should have shown some colour banding [ in pale blue and a sort of pinky gold] but even when just taken they didn't - any ideas as to why ?

1)
[IMG]http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a41/Anhelyna/IMGP1830.jpg[/IMG]

ISO 200 f2.4 1/30

2)
[IMG]http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a41/Anhelyna/IMGP1829.jpg[/IMG]

ISO 400 f2.4 1/80

3)
[IMG]http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a41/Anhelyna/IMGP1843.jpg[/IMG]

ISO 200 f8 1/125

4)
[IMG]http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a41/Anhelyna/IMGP1855.jpg[/IMG]

ISO 200 f8 1/13

5)
[IMG]http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a41/Anhelyna/IMGP1833.jpg[/IMG]

ISO 200 [ hmm forgot to note the fstop probably f8] and 1/80

OK #s 3 and 5 slightly tweaked to boost them a little - nothing else done

I get the feeling of deja vu

John

The duplicated thread has been deleted. No 4 is considerably over-exposed, and the exposure data suggests this is what we should expect. Nos 1 and 2 are exposing for the foreground, so the sky will be over-exposed and no detail shown.

Nos 3 and 5 are "average" subjects for exposure pruposes, so are reproduced properly.

What exposure measureement did you use - matrix, centre-weighted or spot?

They are centre- weighted .

Agreed #4 is over-exposed - but why ? It was taken about 5 mins later than #3 from a very very slightly different angle with the same fstop .

numbers one two and four are over exposed.
if you want sunrise colors in the sky, you need to spot meter off the sky, prefereably near the brightes area of the sky then bracket.

That tells you why. The ISO and aperture are unchanged, but the shutter speed in the 2nd photo is letting in approximately 8 times more light. You must be shooting in M mode for this to happen?

No Tim , not confident in Manual so avoid it when I'm out for a wander like this . I moved my body very slightly - it was at a slightly different angle and the sun was to my left in both pics . If you compare the position of the flowers you can see that the 2 pics vary slightly.

Don
OK back to #s 1 & 2
not easy to get I know - but I've managed better ones in the past though they've not had the pale colours in the sky . I have to position myself for those ones so that a security light [ movement triggered but it stays on for a long time ] is hidden by the wall at the gatepost .

Not tried to do any bracketing with the K-x as yet - hasn't been needed till now.

OK - I think it's going to be time to get the manual out again and try and understand , spot metering , matrix and centre weighting . I've not managed it before which is why the K-x is left in centre weighting

The second flower should have had the same exposure as the first, but for some reason the shutter speed was dropped by the camera. This implies something was knocked accidentally. Exposure compensation set in error? Mode dial nudged off Av? Camera briefly pointed elsewhere and the exposure accidentally locked?

Hmm John you may have got something there .

Between the 2 pics I had taken some shots of the weir - some good, some bad and then took one more of the 2 flowers - why they were there I can't imagine . I'd moved about 2 feet to my left for the weir
then back again and just decided to take one more of the flowers.

OK - will go back on another day and have another go with some more in the area - but the flowers won't be there

yep that large dark area of walls and trees caused your camera meter to over expose the sky.... so metering off the sky would've corrected it.

Hmm that's a bit odd. John's completely correct of course, you must have accidentally set something else. If you were in any of the semi-auto modes then this change in shutter speed alone shouldn't be possible unless you did one of the things he suggests.

Do you use half-press of the shutter button to autofocus? Also there is a custom menu option to 'link AE with AF half press' (can't remember the precise wording, but something to that effect). Do you have that turned on? If you use both of these options then you might have overexposed the second flower by half pressing of the shutter while pointing the camera at something dark, and then turning the camera to the flower before fully pressing the shutter. Or perhaps you pressed the AE-L button by accident between the two photos?

OK - will see what I can do another day - thanks

At least the few decent ones I've got today have proved to me I can take some almost respectable shots .

According to the EXIF data #4 has an exposure bias of +2.70 EV whereas in #3 it hasn't. It seems this has been accidentally changed between shots.

John

Jak

That's true and I didn't spot it

In fact all the shots after that were affected the same way - and I was not aware of having changed that. I'll have to look into that . The same thing happened to me last Summer in Belgium and it took me a while to spot it then . Hmmmmmmm

Gerri had similar problems in the past.
There is only one solution.
make a habit of looking at the readout in the viewfinder. Simply slow down and read the info before pressing the shutter. Make it a habit, and it only takes a fraction of a second.