I challenge everyone...

[Jill]

if you are not already doing this....to use your digital camera in MANUAL mode at all times. I have never used Manual before (I know I know..let me have it....) and now have resolved to use Manual only for the next week or 2 so I can really see what all those doodads and buttons are for. I have read all the books that came with my camera but it just wasnt sinking in....soooo....here I go......

I just took about 20 photos of my daughters fat little leg with all diferent settings and think I have already learned stuff.....

So for those of you (like me) who are afraid to get out of AUTO shoot...I dare ya'!!!!!!!

[Emma]

GREAT challenge, Jill! I tallied all the suggestions for what people want to learn about photography, and getting off auto was number 1 by FAR!

Now, here's my complaint: I hate the menus on my camera. Anyone wanting to buy a new camera, make sure that there are as many buttons and dials, NOT on screen menus as possible. Having to scroll through just to change one setting is such a pain!

Honestly, the first thing I need to learn to do to get off auto is learn how to actually turn off auto! LOL! :D

[Amber]

I agree Jill and Emma- I want to learn manual but am just too lazy! Im going to have to dig out the manual to figure all of this out!

[Fidelis]

You go for it ladies! I sometimes use my camera in auto mode too, depends what I'm photographing. But I much prefer my camera in manual mode just because of the control I gain by doing so. Plus on the S2 I think I get a much more punchy pic as opposed to when its in auto mode when sometimes my images look a little flat & lacking a real contrast.

Anyway I wish you luck my friends & post some of your pics that you take in the gallery.

Emma. :)

[valeri]

I would love to take your challange, but I have NO clue what I am doing. Even if I happened to take a great photo, it would be dumb beginners luck and I would have no idea how to duplicate it! lol what I really need is to take a class to find out what all those settings and such mean. I have tried reading the manual, but it only confuses me. lol

[Jill]

trust me I am in the same boat...I dont have a clue...so I figured I would start with aperature and the shutter speed....and just go for it....so I took a slew of pics today with these different settings...then at least when I download them to the computer i can compare all the settings to the shots then I can get a real feel for what works and what doesnt.....I thought I would try some indoor shots, outdoor shots and night shots to start.....

I guess I see it this way...If I can learn Photoshop by trial and error....I can learn anything!!!!!

I just read the manual for my camera on the aperature and shutter only....every couple of weeks I will learn one or two new things....

just a goal I tried to set for myself...hopin some others would tough it out with me so I wouldnt be the only one posting really bad pictures for critique!!! :-)

[valeri]

good point Jill. Ok you have convinced me, I will take your challange. Maybe I can convince my son to read the manual and then SHOW me how to do it! lol I am just to darn visual for my own good.

[Pam]

What's great about what you're learning is that you'll be ready for those special shots that auto just can't help you with. I took a photo of a bald eagle in her nest, feeding the babies. "Auto" assumed it should focus on the branches of the tree and blur the eagle. I'm glad I remembered to remove the auto setting and got a clear shot of the family.

[Chevellegirl]

Boy, oh boy...everybody here must have ESP (or something). I was just thinking about reading my manual on my camera so I could take part in the photography challenge for the month. So, here I go! I accept your challenge & pass it on too! Thanks Jill!

[mekstamper]

Boy, oh boy...everybody here must have ESP (or something). I was just thinking about reading my manual on my camera so I could take part in the photography challenge for the month. So, here I go! I accept your challenge & pass it on too! Thanks Jill!

I liked the comment that if I can learn Photoshop I can learn anything! I also like the idea that I can take 100's of pictures just to practice! Good idea!!! I really need to do this too!

[Lauren]

I started doing just this a week after i got my Canon a70 - I took a week of photos in auto 0 then I tried out the aperture mode and shutter speed mode - then moved to full manual - In fact I now only use full manual for macro - I can know that I am focusing exactly where I want and have my depth of field as narrow as I want it instead of where the camera wants it!!!

[u.k. lady]

I think moving from auto to aperture and shutter speed modes onto manual is excellent advice Lauren because it allows you to focus on one task at a time without feeling overwhelmed ,if you use the shutter priority mode then the aperture is set for you and it means you can focus on becoming comfortable with your shutter speeds, then you can focus on your apertures and eventually put it all together in manual.
For those of you who are trying shutter speeds, I thought I would pass on some pointers .
1/250 will virtually freeze all movement, anything below 1/60 and definitley at 1/30 you will get blur .When using below 1/60 for sharp pics pull out that tripod.

Dont forget when in manual to check your ISO sensitivity if your digital ,for those of you that just went "what is ISO " ,it's what would be your film speed if you were film,but it is called ISO if your digital.
You need to remember the higher the ISO the more noise you are likely to see.

Cant wait to see what results people get .


Jacqui

[Emma]

This week I am going to Aperture priority, which is how large my shutter opens. AKA F-stop. In Aperture Priority mode, I set how big the shutter opens, and the camera sets everything else for me.

F-stop is interpreted as fraction, so f1.0 would be 1/1 and f8.0 would be 1/8. So the larger the number, the smaller the hole. I remember it by thinking that zero looks like a huge open hole and is the biggest possible. While there is no zero, it helps me remember that 1 is smaller, 8 is really smaller, and 16 is tiny!

On my Nikon Coolpix 5700, I hold down the Mode button and turn the dial to "A" for aperture priority. Then letting go of Mode, I turn the dial to set the aperture size.

Another good exercise is to look at something without your camera, then look at the same thing through a rolled up tube of paper. You can see much "farther" through the tube. The smaller you roll it, the sharper and more concentrated the focus becomes. It's pretty cool! :cool: So remember with a tiny camera aperture, your depth of field for focus is very small and concentrated. A huge aperture makes the field in focus all over, like for mountain shots.

So two things to remember: the size of the hole is measure in F-stop, and the size of the hole is determined by how narrow/wide you want your depth of field.

There's more, but this is what I'm getting started with! Thanks so much to Jennifer for all her help explaining this to me! When I read Jacqui's post 2 days ago I had no idea what she was talking about! Now I kind of get it!

[grindavich]

I guess since I am a photographer (over 20 years ) I'll sit this one out, but i'm here to help if needed. I can't wait to see all your pictures!!

[Karen]

I've been reading the posts on apertures and shutter speeds and just wanted to add to the conversation.

An f-stop of say f2.8 or f5.6 is said to be a wide open aperture with a large 'hole' than say an f-stop of f16 or f22, which has a small 'hole'.

Smaller apertures (f16/f22) I know they are large numbers but in photography they are known as smaller f-stops, have a greater depth of field which means that things will be sharper from front to back in the image, you would use this for say a landscape image, where you wanted the whole scene in focus.

Larger apertures (f2.8/f5.6) have a shallower depth of field and would be used for taking portraits, where you want the focus only on the person and not the background.

I hope I haven't confused you even more :)

I'll post a couple of photos to try and show what I mean.

http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=4670
a large aperture f2.8 - a very shallow depth of field ie. not much in focus

http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=4671
a small aperture f32 - a large depth of field ie. everything in focus

Hope this helps :)

[Emma]

Jennifer posted a demo portrait for me to look at where she used large f-stop (tiny aperture). The depth of field is so narrow that one of the girl's eyes is in complete sharp focus, and the other eye is slightly blurry. By the time the field travels to her mouth and chin the photo is quite blurry. The background is just a wash of color, and even her blouse has little distinction.

Of course the portrait is no good, that kind of focus is only good for something like a bee on a flower, but the point is well made!

Also, when the aperture is that tiny, any movement will cause blurriness. I guess because the shutter speed is slower to let in enough light at that tiny size. Basically, I'm trying to find an f-stop to take indoor photos of my kids that leaves the background of laundry piles out of focus but still allow a little giggle room for the kids to be in focus!

[Karen]

Jennifer posted a demo portrait for me to look at where she used large f-stop (tiny aperture). The depth of field is so narrow that one of the girl's eyes is in complete sharp focus, and the other eye is slightly blurry. By the time the field travels to her mouth and chin the photo is quite blurry. The background is just a wash of color, and even her blouse has little distinction.

Of course the portrait is no good, that kind of focus is only good for something like a bee on a flower, but the point is well made!

Also, when the aperture is that tiny, any movement will cause blurriness. I guess because the shutter speed is slower to let in enough light at that tiny size. Basically, I'm trying to find an f-stop to take indoor photos of my kids that leaves the background of laundry piles out of focus but still allow a little giggle room for the kids to be in focus!

Emma try f5.6, that seems to be a good starting point for portraits, a stop either side would be o.k. too.
Also movement is controlled by the shutter speed rather than the aperture, a large aperture f2.8/f5.6 lets in alot more light than say f16/f22 and so the shutter time is shorter, not longer, sorry to sound like a teacher :)

[Emma]

a large aperture f2.8/f5.6 lets in alot more light...so the shutter time is shorter, not longer
didn't I say that? :confused: She used very small aperture, so the shutter needs to be open longer, hence movement causing bluriness

umm...let me see if I understand this correctly:

a LARGE aperture needs a FAST shutter
a SMALL aperture needs a SLOW shutter

otherwise it will be over or under exposed. If I need more or less light, I need to change my ISO sensitivity, right?

Then my digital camera has an added feature of "exposure". Not sure how that changes things, I thought speed, size, and ISO were enough, especially with a flash to help me out.

Thanks!

[Karen]

[QUOTE=Emma]didn't I say that? :confused: She used very small aperture, so the shutter needs to be open longer, hence movement causing bluriness

umm...let me see if I understand this correctly:

a LARGE aperture needs a FAST shutter
a SMALL aperture needs a SLOW shutter


Hi Emma
Sorry I don't mean to go on and on :) I think where we are at cross lines is in the small and large aperture thing, a small aperture is a big number f22 a large aperture is a small number f5.6.

If the photo you talked about was taken using a small aperture everything would have been in focus, as that means a large depth of field.

It sounds like it was taken using a large f-stop of f5.6 or even f2.8 to have only one eye in focus.

As regards the shutter speed thing it all depends on the avaliable light, so while a small shutter speed f22 (a smaller hole) lets in less light it usually (depending on the light situation) it usually needs a longer shutter speed to get the correct exposure, but if you were shooting in the middle of the day in bright sunshine you wouldn't need a long shutter speed as there is plenty of light.

Confusing huh :)

[Fidelis]

Sounds like your all having great fun ladies! Karenj as made a fantastic job in explaining all about aperture & shutter speed, gets confusing huh? Small aperture = bigger f stop, you'd have thought it would've been simpler hey! Nevermind sounds like you all getting to grips with it all & doing very well!

Keep it up girls & keep posting your pics, love seeing what you've all been up to.

Emma. :)

[grindavich]

If your doing inside "set-up" type shots, you could eliminate the fear of camera shake by using a tripod also :)

[valeri]

Its a bit confusing still, but these conversations are making some of the terms more clear to me. At least I have a basic understanding of the aperture and shutter speeds now, somewhere to work from. Before I was like "HUH??", lol. Thanks for the help!