First of all, a bit of a summary of the last few days of 31 Days to a Better Photo:
Day 8 covered the Exposure Triangle. Darcy shared another great analogy (skin type, sunscreen and sun exposure) to help explain the relationships between the 3 elements discussed in the previous week - Shutter Speed, ISO and Aperture.
Day 9 covered the Scales of the 3 elements discussed and Darcy explained that there is more than one way to get the same amount of light into your camera. The key lesson I took away was:
The fast you shoot - the brighter the image
The higher the ISO - the brighter and noisier the image
The wider the aperture (small number) - the brighter the image and more shallow the depth of field.
Day 10 was about In-Camera Metering and this was a real eye-opener for me.
"Your camera will tell you when you've got the exposure triangle right. You don't have to guess."
I have noticed the meter in my viewfinder, but never really understood how to manipulate it correctly. Yet it is so easy! If you understand the exposure triangle, but are struggling to take correctly exposed photos without tons of trial and error (which for me was taking a lot of time whenever I grabbed my camera) I highly recommend reading Day 10! What a difference it was taking photos in manual mode once I had a visual cue to guide me towards the best and correct equation for my shot.
Now to Day 11. The assignment for today:
Shoot manual
And a few of the tips and reminders to get started:
- Turn off your flash
- Set the ISO as low as possible, initially.
- Shooting slowly requires a tripod.
- Kids and pets generally cannot freeze motion below 1/125sec (1/250+ is better).
- If you have subjects on many planes that you want in focus, you need a smaller aperture (larger number). Start by keeping your aperture smaller than the number of subjects in the photo that are in different planes. I prefer to start with # of subjects x 1.5 and go larger if I can pose them well. So if I have 4 people, 4 x 1.5 = 6. I like to shoot at f/6.3 or greater as a starting point.
- Learn the "Sunny 16 Rule": On a sunny day, shoot at f/16 with a shutter speed of 1/ISO#. So ISO 100 at 1/100s or ISO 200 at 1/200s. For overcast days, the rule is "Cloudy 8". Start at f/8 with a shutter speed of 1/ISO# as a guesstimate.
- Focus on your subject when you are metering. If you focus on the sky or shadows, your camera will meter the light for those areas rather than the subject(s).
- Keep the in-camera meter on zero for the proper exposure.
So here are my shots.
The relevant specs for this first series - My sick boy:
Camera: Nikon D80
Lens: AF Zoom-Nikkor 28-80 f/3.3-5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/60sec (I know this is much lower than Darcy recommends for shooting children - but a couple of qualifying statements: these were taken at 4pm on a cloudy rainy day and I didn't want to have a huge ISO with lots of noise; my baby boy was very sick with gastro and so I knew freezing his movements was not going to be too much of a problem - I was thinking he would actually be asleep).
Photo 1: ISO 500, f/3.3 (Top Left)
Photo 2: ISO 400, f/3.3 (Top Right)
Photo 3: ISO 400, f/3.3 (Middle Left)
Photo 4: ISO 500, f/4 (Middle Right)
Photo 5: ISO 400, f/3.8 (Bottom Left)
Photo 6: ISO 400, f/3.3 (Bottom Left)
The specs for this second series - Searching for clover:
Camera: Nikon D80
Lens: AF Zoom-Nikkor 28-80 f/3.3-5.6
ISO: 100
Photo 1: f/9, 1/200s (Top Left)
Photo 2: f/5.6, 1/500s (Centre)
Photo 3: f/5.6, 1/400s (Top Right)
Photo 4: f/5.6, 1/500s (Bottom Left)
Photo 5: f/10, 1/250s (Bottom Right)
The specs for this final series - Lego fun
Camera: Nikon D80
Lens: AF Zoom-Nikkor 28-80 f/3.3-5.6
Photo 1: ISO 400, f/3.3, 1/125s (Top Left)
Photo 2: ISO 500, f/4.2, 1/80s (Top Right)
Photo 3: ISO 400, f/3.3, 1/200s (Bottom Left)
Photo 4: ISO 500, f/5.6, 1/80s (Bottom Centre)
Photo 5: ISO 400, f/3.3, 1/125s (Bottom Right)
I had so much fun with taking all these shots. When I wanted to have Beau of Noah in focus and a blurred foreground or background, I knew how to change my aperture. When I wanted to freeze Noah's movements out in the garden, I knew how to do that. I felt so much more in control of getting the shot I was envisaging in my mind. More art, less point-and-shoot. FINALLY!
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