getting off auto

[katrinak]

Originally Posted by geekgirl415

It just seems so hard and technical right now.

It does get easier

...and truth be told I spend most parties/events in AV mode!

Thanks Amy! Wouldn't it be fun to all get together and do a photo walk-n-learn together. Anybody want to visit California?!

[KerryMac]

I'm up for a trip to Cali. anytime

Here are a few things I tell my students:
If you have a camera that gives you a choice between total automatic (the green box on Canons) and some control, choose some control. Always. (P on a Canon)
Learn to shoot in manual mode by experimentation, but once you learn it, learn that you can shoot in any mode that will get you the end result you want and that allows you some control.
Learn about exposure compensation. When shooting in AV or TV modes, using EC makes it just about like manual mode, except you have one less setting to think about. I actually use Aperture Priority a lot because I have a lot of little customers who move FAST and dang if they won't stay in the same light I put them in! And I can change that exposure compensation setting super fast.
Learn to use your histogram. It REALLY helps! It tells you if your losing all detail in whites or blacks (clipping) and makes it easy to know how to adjust your settings.
But don't get so hung up on using manual, AV, etc. that you aren't having fun! Experiment and learn but don't miss the shots you want because you were busy trying to figure out manual.

[katrinak]

Originally Posted by KerryMac

But don't get so hung up on using manual, AV, etc. that you aren't having fun! Experiment and learn but don't miss the shots you want because you were busy trying to figure out manual.

THAT is the bottom line for me

Kerry, we would have a blast together!!

[KerryMac]

Originally Posted by katrinak

THAT is the bottom line for me

Kerry, we would have a blast together!!

oh yeah we would!

[kari]

Originally Posted by katrinak

Thanks Amy! Wouldn't it be fun to all get together and do a photo walk-n-learn together. Anybody want to visit California?!

When can I come???

but remember you are welcome in Indiana anytime and I have Sangria!

[katrinak]

Originally Posted by kari

When can I come???

but remember you are welcome in Indiana anytime and I have Sangria!

June 12th through July 31st are open on my calendar

I have lots of beer...

[geekgirl415]

5/6/09 Progress Update
So, I've put my trusty little Canon Powershot away and have started taking my big camera around with me. I've been playing a little and today, got this image that I didn't mess with at all except to crop and put my watermark on it. Constructive criticism is welcome!!! And thank you for this thread- it was the little push I needed and it wasn't that hard, actually!!

[katrinak]

Denise that is a gorgeous shot! So sharp and such great color

[KerryMac]

That is a really, really nice shot. Congrats for jumping in and doing such a great job!

[dorah]

Love that photo.

[huddlestonh]

That's a gorgeous picture!

[geekgirl415]

Thanks everyone!! Sorry it's so big- i was so excited i forgot to resize it!

[Aino]

Beautiful shot and very well exposed!! Beautiful colors. I like your watermark also!

I think I might have cropped the photo a little on the left side, so that the flower would be approximately on an intersection of the rule of third's graph. I hope you don't mind me saying, you ask for CC.

[geekgirl415]

Thanks Aino! I did think about the rule of 3rds, but i wanted some of the terracotta in the pic. I'll see if I can crop more to adjust for that. I don't like the subj in center usually either.

[Aino]

Originally Posted by geekgirl415

Thanks Aino! I did think about the rule of 3rds, but i wanted some of the terracotta in the pic. I'll see if I can crop more to adjust for that. I don't like the subj in center usually either.

I gotcha.

[thyme4me]

Sometime I think "by Joe I think I've got it" in regards to AV. And then I start taking terrbile photos, phfftt! I keep telling myself I need to do as Mel does. Practice, practice, practice! Like they say, practice makes perfect.
I took a photo course 5 yrs ago. I think I need to retake it. Lately I'm just not getting it.

[dugarner]

I watched the instructor in my photography class demonstrate the Nikkor variable plane (?) lens last week, and thought . . . wow, I'd NEVER need a lens that does THAT! (Besides, it's $2000, marked down to $1000. If I had that money, I'd be upgrading my body . . . my camera body, that is!)

So I go to the zoo today and I'm standing at the prairie dog exhibit. A cardinal flies down and lands right behind a dog who was munching on his lunch. The cardinal fluffed out his crest and glared at the prairie dog, who had a look on his face like "He's right behind me, isn't he?"

I got the shot, but there was no way in any direction I was going to get both the dog and the bird in focus. Very overcast, dark day, they were too far away for my fill flash to make it. I tried every setting I could think of; high ISO (it was already on 800), longer shutter (can't handhold the 75-300 lower than 1/320), the only choice was to open up the aperture. At f/5.6, the bird was just behind the dog enough that one or the other would be OOF. I made the choice to let go of the bird. If only I had had that stinkin' $2000 lens, I could have brought the bird onto the same focal plane as the dog!

Wish list. Wish list. A friend in St. Louis told me once I bought a dSLR, I'd constantly want the more expensive toys.

I said no I won't! I'll be happy with what I've got . . .

Crow doesn't taste good without barbeque sauce.

[iUma]

Yes, but Sarah you have the smarts!! You KNOW how to use your equipment. The toys will come, I know your passion will make it so. And I was wondering....could you/one do focus at different planes like they do the HDR pictures with light? Take two and merge them on Photoshop?? I guess you'd have to have a tripod but maybe if you are taking them at high speed and don't move it could work. That lens sounds like something I should never know about. !LOL

[sweetpeony]

Something that helped me was joining a local photography club - the Cuyahoga Valley Photographic Society. They have photo walks once a month and a critique three days later. It's helped me a lot - the guy who leads the walks does a lesson first, and is available for questions during the shoot. The critique can be tough, but still beneficial. Plus it's nice to be out with people similarly obsessed. It was 50 bucks for membership in the club and the Park - which is pretty amazingly cheap for a year's worth of instruction critques, and a monthly presentation from professional photographers.