Lesson learned - check your settings!

[mcbowersox]

Well I learned a lesson the hard way this weekend. Actually I was fortunate because I didn't miss anything too important.

We went to our local living history museum this weekend. They were having a civil war reenactment and other festivites. My girls, of course, weren't too interested in the battle, but they made some friends and started trading Silly Bandz bracelets! I wanted to grab a picture of it and here's what I got:

http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/data/6876/blown-out.jpg

I was so frustrated cause I couldn't figure out what was wrong! Fortunately I flipped it to auto and got the picture. A while later it dawned on me what was wrong! I had the ISO set at 1600! A couple of night before I was trying to take pics of Katie outside when it was almost dark and I was playing with the ISO.

Now I just need to get in the habit of resetting things before I get started. Ken Rockwell likens it to a pilot going through their checklist.

Just thought I'd share in case this helps someone else remember :)

[DixieMama]

Good tip! My camera seems to automatically reset itself for some reason. Not that I'm complaining ;)

Glad you managed to get off another shot, though :)

[stitchmich]

Been there, done that! Good reminder, Christy!

[Lauren]

Yes been there too recently in fact!! Only the other way around! Once in a lifetime sighting of 8 orca really close and it was late and dark and my iso was set to 400. If I had it set to auto like I normally do I might have got a decent shot!!!

[StacieMac]

I do it often, though most often I forget to change my white balance settings. I have trained myself to look at my LCD after the first couple of shots to make sure I have everything in the right place. It is a good thing too, because I often look down and everything is dark and yellow. But I know how frustrating it is when you are trying to capture something candid, especially your kids. My girls instinctively know to stop doing whatever cute thing they were doing after the first picture. I have missed a lot of cute shots that way.

[ReneT]

I did the exact same thing about 6 months ago.

[kat_75]

Same here! I make a point to look at EVERYTHING before I get started. Before I even turn the camera on, I check which lens I've got on (I try to keep an all-purpose lens on just in case something happens suddenly and I dont have time to change lenses.) As soon as I turn on the camera, I check ISO, WB, EV, and picture mode. And if something's happening fast and I dont have time to check, I immediately switch it to Auto. :)

[Betsyfru]

That's happened to me too. I ended up with blue tinted photos of a white (albino) peacock one time because the WB was set to something other than Auto...I was soooo ticked off! Fortunately, DH took some of the same photos and I was able to use them.

[Kathleen]

Funny, when I bought my new camera I asked where the flashing flight was that said "dummy, your ISO is wrong!" I'm glad you were able to flip to auto and get the shot, and thanks for the reminder!

[Betsyfru]

Funny, when I bought my new camera I asked where the flashing flight was that said "dummy, your ISO is wrong!" I'm glad you were able to flip to auto and get the shot, and thanks for the reminder!

Yeah, Kathleen, these new cameras seem to do everything else, they oughta tell you that the ISO is set wrong!:lol:

[shazzt]

Yep - been there too! At least with digital you can see it before too much damage is done (usually!)

[spark]

It probably wouldn't make a lot of difference with an iso mistake but the White balance one can be avoided by shooting in RAW - most SLRs do and the free software with the camera will allow you to change the whitebalance afterwards! Other software including photoshop I'm told include a raw editor. You can get some - interesting - effects by deliberately changing the white balance.

[Lauren]

You can indeed and I do in fact always shoot in raw - and even with the huge iso error that i made i was able to get some detail out of a few shots because i did shoot in raw. - It took me a year or so to be talked into shooting in raw but Ive saved more photos than I care to admit since swapping over.