For help please

Stefan, you make some excellent points, and I'm sure T-T will get them in due course! I did briefly mention that the light-meter can 'lie' (or rather, be mistaken) by backlit scenes or reflective/bright-white subjects. Underexposure is common in these situations. Conversely, photos taken indoors, and metered from, say, the darker area of the room, can leave the window in the background looking like the surface of the sun - because the meter has over-exposed the shot, believing the darker areas were the 'norm', for that whole scene, when they weren't.

Correcting this kind of problem by bracketing is, I totally agree, a bit of a cheat. Heck - it's a lot of a cheat (but I have a 16GB SDcard, and more hard drive space than Bill Gates, probably! ). But the thing is, at this stage, I think T-T needs to 'get results', and understand (over time) why she's getting them, and the problem of dealing with the iffy ones will come later.

For now, bracketing at least means the shoot wasn't a waste; the good photo wasn't lost forever and the fun and pleasure of getting 'that shot' can still be had! Who cares (at this stage) if it came via the +1 shot, or the -1?

I'm a firm believer in positive feedback... if the learning process is rewarding (even if the rules and laws are not totally understood - yet), then one is more likely to continue. Bracketing simply increases the chances of rewards, boosts confidence, and enables us to think more about "why did the meter get tricked by that scene?" and actually have the two (or three) images on hand to compare, and make sense of them. Then we can learn to spot those situations where it's misled - and in time, skip bracketing, and be 'on the money' with a single shot more times than not.

So yeah... I recommend a bit of cheating - wholeheartedly! At least at the beginning. Quit bracketing when your confidence says "I don't need to do that for this shot", and don't be afraid to fall back on it if the shot is too good to miss and there's any doubt you'll bag it!

Regarding the Green Button thing - yeah, on the K-x it boils down to a choice, alas, because we don't have any other button to do Optical Preview with - so it is an 'either or' thing. Personally, the preview is my preference - but I totally agree that being able to just 'zap' to a balanced shot with P-LINE (even if you then immediately change the stops up or down from there; one up on the shutter counteracted by one down on the aperture, and so on), is still a very useful tool. It does indeed get you to the metered 'balanced shot' quickly, and that is not to be sneezed at! You'll still have plenty of thinking and learning to do, as soon as you move those dials and change that balance again!

And of course while learning, the P-LINE green button is a great rescue tool, enabling you to quickly get back that balance, if you DO mess it up so badly that you're lost!

So, T-T there are plenty of choices. Many ways to skin the same cat, if you'll pardon the metaphor. Play with them; find the ones you like, or which work, or which give you the feedback buzz you need to keep enjoying and carrying on!

BTW - of your last three shots. My fave is the third one. Depth of field is perfect almost all the way across the bloom (front-to-back); background nicely defocused but still with a hint of greenery in there to both act as a contrast to the bloom and give it a context. And I particularly like the way you've captured the darker blue of the tiny flowers against the mass of pink/mauve ones. Your other shots didn't get those.

My only real crits with that shot would be:

- the area on the far right, which seems defocused just a tad. Possibly it projects forward just that bit too far to stay within the DOF?

- the composition maybe chops off one end of the buddleia, which, as I recall, usually go to a nice rounded point - and I think you could make something of that. It'd certainly make the shot look more obviously 'a buddleia', and less like a hydrangea, or some other 'bunch' of nice flowers.

So here's a challenge - why not try and shoot more ALONG the bloom, at a 'three-quarter' angle? Get the tip in, and deal with the increased depth of field that you'll need in order to get all of its length in focus (rather than its girth, which you've mastered already!). But still use the DOF to defocus the main body of the bush and the greenery behind the bloom. That'll keep you occupied for a while, I'm sure! (but feel free to ignore me if you think this is a fools errand, of course!)

Lots there for me to think about - thanks

Today I'm back to Av deliberately - I'm taking stuff inside in dodgy light so will have the flash on [ eeeeek ]

Tried last Sunday without flash - but got , correctly , a telling off from Photomonk and was told to use it today . Not really used it in any degree as yet so here's hoping for a few decent shots.

Wow Neil you love to write
It's very useful and appreciated so keep on writing.
I've little to add and all I can do is agree with you
Still have some minor points/tips to think about.

About the bracketing, I don't know how large the JPGs are but a single RAW file has the range to compensate for -1 and +1 exposure (if properly expose) and you get the added bonuses of better noise reduction and changeable white balance but you need to know your way around the computer to use RAW files.
Don't get me wrong it's isn't a wonder thing you still need to get close but at least you don't need to nail the exposure like with JPG.

There is a little trick for that to do it all at once.
If you got the right exposure but for example your DOF is too shallow, simply press the lock exposure button. It's the button named AE-L AF on the top right on the back.
You can then change the aperture and the camera automatically change the shutter-speed to keep the balance between them right and vice versa.

Flash is bringing a whole new ball in the game

Some tips to help you along today though.
Use a fixed ISO, it makes the behaver of the camera and the flash more predictable.
For the K-X ISO 400 would be a good ISO value to start from if the flash needs to work too hard you might want to increase that.

You said it was indoors and you've the Metz 48, you can simply bounce the flash from the ceiling, it gives you in a simple way a natural looking light.

Whoops. Maybe I overdid it a little there! I do like writing, as you can probably tell! I type very fast, so it comes easily to me...
That's a good point. I tend to use 6MP JPEGs at 'best' quality, so a bracket of three doesn't use all that much space. But yeah, I really ought to investigate shooting RAW, and doing the exposure compensation from Photoshop later if needs be. Thanks for giving me an idea of something I need to learn myself!

Once again, the K-x is not quite as simple, straight off the bat. The AF/AE-L button only does FOCUS lock by default, not EXPOSURE. To get it to lock exposure, you have to set it up in the Custom menus, and there are various combinations:

If you just want the AF/AE-L button to lock BOTH focus and exposure when pressed, you can use Custom Menu 5 (AE-L with AF Locked), and then the two will lock/unlock together when the button is pressed.

However, if you don't just want them working in unison, there are further choices on Custom Menu 10 (AF/AE-L Button):
1- Enable AF1 - autofocus happens if you half-press the shutter AND/OR if you press AF/AE-L button
2 - Enable AF2 - autofocus only happens with the AF/AE-L button (i.e. the half-pressed shutter doesn't trigger Autofocus anymore)
3- Cancel AF - If AF/AE-L button is pressed, half-pressing shutter doesn't trigger AF, but it will when you let go of AF/AE-L and half-press the shutter next time.
4- AE Lock - Locks the exposure (but doesn't do any AF locking on the AF/AE-L button at all, I think).

So, there are some quite complicated arrangements there - and choices to make because the button is shared once again, between several possible functions! I guess it is possible to emulate the way the K10D does it, though (probably just by using option 4 of menu 10)... but it'll take a bit of fiddling to set it up.

Having said that, it might well be worth it! I will have a play later and let you know.

Correction to #3 above...

3- Cancel AF means the AF/AE-L button does not autofocus the scene. Autofocus is only available via half-pressing the shutter. Instead, AF/AE-L will put the camera into MANUAL focus mode (MF is displayed), and will lock the focus whereever you have it at that moment (for as long as the button is held down). Half-pressing the shutter when the AF/AE-L button is being held down will not trigger autofocus, until you let go of the AF/AE-L button.

Not entirely sure when you'd use that, to be honest. Seems easier to me to just flick the AF/MF button on the barrel/mount, if you want manual focus control, because you'd need to be an octopus to hold all the neccessary buttons down otherwise!

I did try the Custom Menu 5 option though (AF & AE locked together). That's quite nice, actually. You can do this:

1 - Point at subject (in M mode), looking thru the finder.
2 - Press Green button (to set up a balanced exposure)
3 - Half-press the shutter, and hold it there (to trigger autofocus and lock the already-balanced exposure)
4 - While still holding the half-shutter, spin the e-dial, to change the shutter speed, and the Aperture will automatically re-balance!

Alternatively to step 4, if you want to change the DOF (i.e. change the aperture) you'd insert:

3a - Press the AV button (to switch the e-dial to aperture selection).

Then carry on to step 4, except that it will now change the aperture and rebalance the shutter speed.

Nice. No AF/AE-L button involved at all (but plenty of others! :lol

You may even be able to put step 3a as step 2a (so you don't have to hold down the half-shutter and try to press AV, which is awkward). You'd just need to make sure you didn't leave too long before spinning the e-dial, or else it will switch back into shutter-speed change mode.

Lots of twists and turns to this K-x, ain't there? I'm more impressed with it, each day!

That's all waaaaaaaay beyond me as yet

I took a stack of pics today - mixture of Av and manual but let the Metz Flash do its own thing .

I'm fairly content with the results and they have boosted my confidence that I'll be able to get what I want in Belgium

I got a comment back from Photomonk, who has seen them , of The lighting has improved. They are OK so I am happier

If anyone is interested in a stack of liturgical pics they are at
link

Sorry, T-T... yeah, Stef and I have wandered into pastures new... think of it as a 'future quest' - but yeah, for now, please ignore!

I had a look at your photos - some of them are really good. Well-exposed, photojournal style. No problems with the lighting or the flash, for the most part.

Interestingly, only the very last two show signs of the metering having been 'fooled' by the back-lighting coming in from that big window. The position of the window (and its height) will have meant it was sitting right across the metering zone ("pattern", in the EXIF, which means the full monty metering mode) - and this brightness will have made the K-x think the scene was brighter than it really was. And so, it exposed for less, and consequently the room to the right is a bit dark. A flash here would definitely have helped (though it was maybe a bit far from the subjects, and may not have lit equally), or a +1 on the exposure compensation would've done the trick.

If you don't want to auto-bracket, remember, you can always do a SINGLE one-off follow-up shot, with a +1 setting, as and when you feel like it. Let's say you'd taken the shot, and saw the window (big backlight - warning flag!) and thought "I'd better check that one!" You look at it on the camera, and see it's a little dark. Ok, so you need a +1 exposure to act as a banker... what to do?

Frame up your shot again, just as before, and half-press the shutter to focus, etc - all the same steps again apart from firing. Now press the AV button on top of the camera, and inside the viewfinder, you'll see that AV +/- logo repeated, over to the right at the bottom. To the right of that, is a number, with an underline on it. This time, instead of that number being an exposure under/over WARNING, it's a setting you can choose! Just use the e-dial to wind it up to +1.0, and then take your shot! Result? One over-exposed shot, to the value of one f-stop above what the meter THOUGHT was right (but which we know was wrong, because of the window). Check the shot in the camera, and if all is well, move on, job done!

Do be aware of the AV button's setting, though! I think it may (by default) remember the last setting you left it on, so wind it back to zero again when you're finished with the shot, or else it'll +1 your next 'live' shot, without you realising, unless you notice the +/- symbol in your viewfinder!

The benefit is, it's a lot 'cheaper' in terms of space-usage, than auto-bracketing all the time, and it's a tad easier to set it up for a 'one-off' than auto-bracketing is.

Yes - I spotted the problem with the last two as well - and a mental note was made that I'd have to be more careful with that type in the future - there's actually 2 windows there - at right angles to each other - a nightmare for light They were done deliberately without flash - well I wasn't going to change my batteries at that point

I've actually gained a fair amount of confidence today - I know I can do it in Av and if I'm not rushed can equally set things up in Manual too . I think that Av was the right choice today since I am more comfortable with it as yet .

Thank you Neil for exploring the options.
The k10D has more buttons and that's the camera I use, my uncle has the K-X so I half know the camera but haven't delved so deep in the menu yet.
Will have a go tomorrow to see how it works first hand.

With the K10D there is the setting Memory in the Rec.mode menu.
In there you can set the options the camera must remember or forget when you shut it down, one of those options is the E/V compensation and that's what you want to turn off in your example.

@Techno, those photos look very good and the flash light looks pretty good as well. Couldn't have it done better.

On the K-x it is also on the Menu button, Rec. Mode page 4, Memory, sub-page 1, EV Compensation.

As I mentioned, by default, it remembers the last setting, even after a power-off. I have thought about changing it round so that it forgets, but I've kinda got used to it now! I will only trip myself up again if I change it now! Murphy's Law, eh?