New Camera!

[moguy1973]

Whew, needs some focus...

[Cocry]

Yea, I'm pretty sure that most of my pictures were taken just with auto. How do I get the darn thing to focus the whole fly?

[Flysmallie]

A small aperture, like a f2.8 is going to give you a small depth of field or a smaller area of focus. A larger aperture like f16 will put more things in focus. You don't have a ton of light available so the auto settings will set the aperture to the maximum width it can to capture as much light as possible. You can adjust it to what ever size you want when using the manual settings and then set a slower shutter speed or increase the available light. More light is your best option.

[ness]

Yea, I'm pretty sure that most of my pictures were taken just with auto. How do I get the darn thing to focus the whole fly?

A smaller aperture (bigger number, like f/22) will increase the amount of your subject that's in focus or 'depth of field'. That said, on an extreme close up like that your DOF will be limited.

Set the camera on Aperture Priorty mode (You've got MASP, choose A). Roll your aperture setting to the biggest number you can and retake the shot. Since you reduced the aperture so much, your shutter speed will slow down to compensate and let in the same amount of light to expose it right. If the camera-selected shutter speed is any slower than about 1/30 (like 1/15, 1/10, 1/2 second) and you're hand holding the camera, you won't be still enough and you'll blur the picture. So, crank up the ISO.

Confused?

[Cocry]

VERY MUCH SO! I've read this many times before and haven't got the jist of it. If anyone knows of explanations with pictures(I'm being serious), I would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks in advance,

Cory

[ness]

I'm sitting around at work waiting on a bunch of people, and don't want to start something new. So, here goes ness' photography primer.

1) Think of light like flowing water. Photography is about putting a measured amount of light on a sensor (or film).

2) You can control the amount of light entering the camera in two ways -- the size of the 'pipe' it goes through (lens aperture, or the opening at the back of the lens) and the length of time you let it run through the pipe(shutter speed).

3) Aperture and shutter speed are both adjustable, and different combinations can allow in the same amount of light through: big pipe and short time (big aperture + fast shutter speed) = little pipe and long time (small aperture + long shutter speed).

4) Apertures and shutter speeds are measured in fractions.

5) Apertures are measured by the diameter of the hole in fraction form(in a formula I can't remember), without the numerator or top number. Just like 1/22 is smaller than 1/2, an aperture of 22 is smaller than 2 . These are expressed in 'f-stops' and written f/22 and f/2.

6) Shutter speeds are expressed as a fraction of a second, without the numerator. 1/2000 second is quicker than 1/2, and you'll see it on your camera as 2000 or 2.

7) Like I said in #3, different combinations can allow the same amount of light through. These are just examples, but give you the idea: f/8 at 1/125 equals f/11 at 1/60.

8) Adjustments to aperture and shutter speed have different effects on the photo.

9) Shutter speed freezes or blurs motion. Slower shutter speeds can allow minute hand movements to blur the picture. That's why we have tripods.

10) Aperture allows for narrow or wide depth of field (or, amount of image that's in focus).

11) The final element in exposure is the sensitivity of the sensor. Continuing with the water analogy, think of the how much water can be absorbed by sand, soil or clay. You pour water though a big pipe for a long time onto sand and you'll collect a lot of water. Pour water through a skinny pipe for a short time onto clay and you won't collect much at all.

12) Sensor (or film) sensitivity to light is measured in 'ISO'. ISO is adjustable on digital cameras, but back in the days of film, you bought a roll of film with a given ISO and had to live with it to the end. A smaller number is less sensitive to light, a larger number is more sensitive to light. So, with a given a shutter speed/aperture combination (or a volume of light) a more sensitive sensor (higher ISO) will collect more light, and the photo will be brighter. A lower ISO will collect less light and the photo will be darker.

13) Set that camera on Auto (Green, wimpy) and the camera will select a combination of aperture, shutter and ISO so that the picture is exposed to 'average brightness'.

14) Set the camera on Program ("P") and it will select aperture and shutter speed using your selected ISO.

15) Set the camera on Aperature Priority ("A") and you select the Aperture and control the depth of field. The camera selects the shutter speed that exposes to 'average brightness'. It will use whatever ISO the camera is set on

16) Set the camera on Shutter Priority ("S") and you control the shutter speed or how action is captured. The camera selects an appropriate aperture that exposes to average using the ISO.

17) Set the camera on Manual ("M", also for 'manly') and you control both aperature and shutter speed (and it uses your ISO selection). This is the BEST way to get your head around all this. That's why I suggest you do it. The little +/- bar in your viewfinder goes up and down as you adjust the two things. When it's at the center, you've got average exposure.

Some examples:

a -- large aperture, shallow depth of field. See how background is blurred? Large aperture is good for portraits

b -- small aperture, large depth of field. See how foreground and background are both in focus? Good for landscape

c -- fast shutter speed. See how the action is frozen?

d -- slow shutter speed. Several second exposure allows water to blur; this was done on a tripod.

If you're interested, I'll get into this further and explain this whole 'average exposure' more, and how you can go beyond what your camera's light meter suggests for exposure to get the shot you really want.

[Cocry]

Of course I'm interested!! This was way more than I was expecting and I want to thank you.

[techo]

I would like to throw a thanks in there too! Awesome photos!

[techo]

Might be fun to pick one idea every two weeks or so and have a photo posting for that. Such as the freezing the action picture....everyone has two weeks to post a picture like that (settings they used) and compare notes. Course I am on my third cup of coffee and could be a little caffeine crazy! Could be boring for you guys that already are great at this stuff.

[ness]

You're welcome. Glad you guys found it useful. It was kind of a brain dump, and could probably be done better. Maybe I'll edit some. I've got some ideas for the understanding metering thing, but need to find some good photos to illustrate it. Oh, and the people I was sitting around waiting for on Friday have dumped their load on me. It's feast or famine here sometimes. Maybe later in the week.

Tim-- I like your idea and would be willing to participate or even set it up.