Camera control for me

[chipy]

i apologize in advance if this has been discussed already. did a quick search and didn't find what i was looking for - or at least to the depth that i wanted. i'm an amateur when it comes to DSLR and was hoping to get some insight to help improve my photography.

first, i have a Canon 40D coupled with an 24-70 f/2.8 lens. The lens can stay at 2.8 through the entire range. I've been shooting in Aperture Priority all this time. My questions are these:

1) when would you choose to shoot using Shutter Priority? Or manual? Can you give me some examples? i.e. in what conditions would you choose shutter or aperture? what about manual?

2) how often do you use Autofocus vs. Manual focus? i've noticed after i get home to look at my pictures, what i thought was well focused (on the camera's lcd), isn't as well focused as i would have liked. do you find yourself using autofocus more or manual focus more? or does it depend on what type of photo you're trying to take (scenery, sports, portrait)? fyi, i'm doing scenery right now.

3) it was a nice day recently and went to the river to take some scenery photos. i took one that was "still", then i wanted to take one that showed the river moving. i thought i would increase the exposure time to get this effect. well, when i tried it, the picture came out white. i'm guessing because i set the exposure time to 4 secs and left it at aperture priority, there was too much light? what should i have done in this case?

thanks guys, i really appreciate any help you could provide me. i love(ed) to draw and enjoy visuals so getting into photography is one of my main goals right now. just from browsing the forum, it looks like there're a lot of experienced photographers so it would be great if i could learn from you guys in a familiar AnandTech setting. thanks!

 

[ElFenix]

shoot in manual in any situation where the metering is likely to be fooled, but lighting is consistent. for example, opposing teams on a field will have light and dark jerseys. when metering a dark jersey the camera thinks the subject is less well lit than when metering the light jersey. so the metering will be different, despite the fact that the lighting is exactly the same.

shoot shutter priority when subject motion or camera shake are important factors. for example, when shooting fast action you'll want to keep your shutter speed high to freeze the action. when shooting a moving river, you may want to freeze the waterfall, or you may want to mist it. you'd also want to keep camera shake in mind if you're in such conditions that the camera may choose too low a shutter speed.

i almost never manual focus. you may want to see if your lens and camera are properly calibrated together. use live view magnification to focus perfectly on a marking on a ruler under the center focal point, then see if the autofocus agrees. if not, i'd send the pair back to canon for adjustment. i assume your 24-70 is the canon version (though i'm honestly confused by someone with $2000 in camera + lens asking these questions)

the only way you could set the camera to aperture priority and then control the shutter speed is by overriding it with the lock switch and the rear dial. strange way of doing things. but yes, you overexposed it a lot that way. you should have either switched to shutter priority or manual and paid attention to the meter. or even program and used program shift to get your desired shutter speed.

 

[Billb2]

Originally posted by: chipy
i apologize in advance if this has been discussed already. did a quick search and didn't find what i was looking for - or at least to the depth that i wanted. i'm an amateur when it comes to DSLR and was hoping to get some insight to help improve my photography.

first, i have a Canon 40D coupled with an 24-70 f/2.8 lens. The lens can stay at 2.8 through the entire range. I've been shooting in Aperture Priority all this time. My questions are these:

1) when would you choose to shoot using Shutter Priority? Or manual? Can you give me some examples? i.e. in what conditions would you choose shutter or aperture? what about manual?

2) how often do you use Autofocus vs. Manual focus? i've noticed after i get home to look at my pictures, what i thought was well focused (on the camera's lcd), isn't as well focused as i would have liked. do you find yourself using autofocus more or manual focus more? or does it depend on what type of photo you're trying to take (scenery, sports, portrait)? fyi, i'm doing scenery right now.

3) it was a nice day recently and went to the river to take some scenery photos. i took one that was "still", then i wanted to take one that showed the river moving. i thought i would increase the exposure time to get this effect. well, when i tried it, the picture came out white. i'm guessing because i set the exposure time to 4 secs and left it at aperture priority, there was too much light? what should i have done in this case?

thanks guys, i really appreciate any help you could provide me. i love(ed) to draw and enjoy visuals so getting into photography is one of my main goals right now. just from browsing the forum, it looks like there're a lot of experienced photographers so it would be great if i could learn from you guys in a familiar AnandTech setting. thanks!

1.) Shutter controls lighting, apature controls depth of field.
2.) Almost always manual, only exception is then you don't (or won't) have enough time to focus manually.
3.) Yes, you set the shutter/apature to overexpose the picture. If you decrease shutter by one stop, increase apeture by one stop, then you get the same exposure.

 

[OulOat]

Originally posted by: chipy
i apologize in advance if this has been discussed already. did a quick search and didn't find what i was looking for - or at least to the depth that i wanted. i'm an amateur when it comes to DSLR and was hoping to get some insight to help improve my photography.

first, i have a Canon 40D coupled with an 24-70 f/2.8 lens. The lens can stay at 2.8 through the entire range. I've been shooting in Aperture Priority all this time. My questions are these:

1) when would you choose to shoot using Shutter Priority? Or manual? Can you give me some examples? i.e. in what conditions would you choose shutter or aperture? what about manual?

Controlling the depth of field is a very important part of photography, which is why Aperture Priority is a good general choice. However, sometimes the priority is to either freeze action or to blur the action. To do any of these consistently, you will have to use shutter priority. For example, in sports, you usually don't want to go below 1/250 shutter speed. Trade-off is you don't get to control the aperture.

Also, Aperture Priority doesn't work well when you are using a flash. In my experience, it sets the shutter to a slow speed, like 1/30th. Which doesn't work for moving subjects. You will have to try it out to see it.

2) how often do you use Autofocus vs. Manual focus? i've noticed after i get home to look at my pictures, what i thought was well focused (on the camera's lcd), isn't as well focused as i would have liked. do you find yourself using autofocus more or manual focus more? or does it depend on what type of photo you're trying to take (scenery, sports, portrait)? fyi, i'm doing scenery right now.

This is rather a personal question. Either is a good option; you should use whatever you feel comfortable with. I have been with experienced photographers who can manually focus in a breath. Now-a-days, they are rare; instead, auto-focus is very simple to use and dead-on most of the time. I think it's more useful for you to know when to use auto-focus and when not to.

Use:
Action, fast movements
General shooting

Not use:
Low contrast, like a white wall
Low light, like a night
Macro

If you think that your pictures are not correctly focused, you might need to have your camera and lens professionally calibrated.

3) it was a nice day recently and went to the river to take some scenery photos. i took one that was "still", then i wanted to take one that showed the river moving. i thought i would increase the exposure time to get this effect. well, when i tried it, the picture came out white. i'm guessing because i set the exposure time to 4 secs and left it at aperture priority, there was too much light? what should i have done in this case?

4 seconds is complete overkill for daytime photography, even at a tiny aperture. I use 5 seconds shutter with f16 aperture and 200 iso to capture night time cityscape. Preview your pictures in the field, and adjust accordingly. In daylight scenery, I normally use the lowest iso for clarity. Aperture is f12 - 22 for depth of field. Shutter is my last concern. Depending on how much you want your water to be blurred, 1/30th could be enough for a waterfall. I would go down to 1 sec for ultrasmooth water, but in those cases you will need use filters to block the sunlight. A polarizer and a neutral density filter works well together. ND to reduce the light, polarizer to reduce light and reflections. Just practice.

 

[xchangx]

Originally posted by: chipy
i apologize in advance if this has been discussed already. did a quick search and didn't find what i was looking for - or at least to the depth that i wanted. i'm an amateur when it comes to DSLR and was hoping to get some insight to help improve my photography.

first, i have a Canon 40D coupled with an 24-70 f/2.8 lens. The lens can stay at 2.8 through the entire range. I've been shooting in Aperture Priority all this time. My questions are these:

1) when would you choose to shoot using Shutter Priority? Or manual? Can you give me some examples? i.e. in what conditions would you choose shutter or aperture? what about manual?

2) how often do you use Autofocus vs. Manual focus? i've noticed after i get home to look at my pictures, what i thought was well focused (on the camera's lcd), isn't as well focused as i would have liked. do you find yourself using autofocus more or manual focus more? or does it depend on what type of photo you're trying to take (scenery, sports, portrait)? fyi, i'm doing scenery right now.

3) it was a nice day recently and went to the river to take some scenery photos. i took one that was "still", then i wanted to take one that showed the river moving. i thought i would increase the exposure time to get this effect. well, when i tried it, the picture came out white. i'm guessing because i set the exposure time to 4 secs and left it at aperture priority, there was too much light? what should i have done in this case?

thanks guys, i really appreciate any help you could provide me. i love(ed) to draw and enjoy visuals so getting into photography is one of my main goals right now. just from browsing the forum, it looks like there're a lot of experienced photographers so it would be great if i could learn from you guys in a familiar AnandTech setting. thanks!

Just like everyone else said:

1)I use aperture priority when I want a good bokeh (large aperture) and let the camera choose the shutter speed. I usually watch the shutter speed to make sure it's fast enough.

Shutter priority for sports/air shows where I know I need a fast shutter speed to capture whatever I need to. For example, in football you'll need at least a 1/500-1/800 to avoid any motion blur. I'd say closer to 1/800.

Manual if the lighting will be the same for a long period of time. Say a night football game where the lights are the same everywhere.

2)I don't think the 40d has the focus control, may want to look at the 50d as it lets you fine tune the auto-focus. I've tried manual, but without the right screens or experience doing it, I found it was too hard.

3)You need to learn how shutter, aperture and ISO speed work to make an exposure. For something like this you'll need a pretty thick ND filter to do it during the day. You could go there towards dusk/dawn when there's a little bit of light and take the long exposure. I'd go into bulb mode (or mirror lock) and use a remote and play around to see how long of a shutter speed you'll need.

 

[angry hampster]

Read your manual.

 

[chipy]

thanks for the response guys!

so aperture priority for DOF, shutter priority if i want need speed in capturing fast action or if i want to blur, and manual if the lighting is consisitent but metering is likely to be fooled.

OulOat, i already have a polarizing filter but how do i know which ND filter to get? there seems to be different thickness? also, do you pack a regular ND filter as well as a graduated ND filter? also, you can combine the filters w/o any negative side effects?

i went to B&N and Borders and saw some books on lighting and exposure so i might pick those up sometime in the near future. thanks again for ansewring my qeustions.

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: chipy
thanks for the response guys!

so aperture priority for DOF, shutter priority if i want need speed in capturing fast action or if i want to blur, and manual if the lighting is consisitent but metering is likely to be fooled.

OulOat, i already have a polarizing filter but how do i know which ND filter to get? there seems to be different thickness? also, do you pack a regular ND filter as well as a graduated ND filter? also, you can combine the filters w/o any negative side effects?

i went to B&N and Borders and saw some books on lighting and exposure so i might pick those up sometime in the near future. thanks again for ansewring my qeustions.

this is a commonly recommended book

another common situation for manual is if you are shooting a panorama that you intend to stitch. you'd want to use manual exposure there because you really want the exposure to be consistent, even if there are passing clouds/whatnot.

to get a good reading to base your manual exposure on you can meter off of green grass. so if you're at a football game, meter off the field, lock those settings in for manual, and you'll have exposure nailed.

as for filters, keep in mind that the more pieces of glass there are, the more the image degrades. so the more filters you stack on, the fuzzier the image will get. that goes even for the best multicoated filters from hoya and b+w.

 

[chipy]

ElFenix, thanks for the tips and the book recommendation. i'll be sure to try out the manual metering tip next time i go out.

 

[ivan2]

Originally posted by: chipy
2) how often do you use Autofocus vs. Manual focus? i've noticed after i get home to look at my pictures, what i thought was well focused (on the camera's lcd), isn't as well focused as i would have liked. do you find yourself using autofocus more or manual focus more? or does it depend on what type of photo you're trying to take (scenery, sports, portrait)? fyi, i'm doing scenery right now.

having had the same camera i hope i can help with some tips on focusing. I only use the center focus point on the 40D to focus, I find that I can focus a lot more confidently with it because i know exactly where I want to focus on. There are times that you need to use more than the center focus point such as when you are shooting unpredictable and fast moving objects and you can't track it well enough so it will stay in the middle of the frame, but most of the time i won't use it.

the best way to take advantage of manual focus on the 40D is to use liveview. You simply use liveview and zoom in 10 times on the area you want to focus on, and then adjust the focus manually. well obviously you can't do it in a hurry and difficult without a tripod, but if you have the time, your subject is relatively still, it is the only way to get the best focusing picture.

the other way is to simply guess the distance, many people do that when "shooting from the hip" while doing candid photography. You will need to test your lens to see if the distance that is showing is correct before you do this. Many are off, simply compensate when focusing.

you can also get the split image screen for the 40D, but imo because it throws off the metering it's more trouble than what's worth.

 

[chipy]

hey ivan2, i'll try using center focus and see if that helps. also, i've used liveview but haven't zoomed it so i'll try that too. thanks for those tips!

i'm glad i asked my questions here - great reponses guys!