around & about shooting raw

[Shadowbox]

I used raw tonight, it's one of the few times I've tried it out and I can definitely say that I did notice a huge difference for post processing. I felt I had more control over how the final photo would look. Too bad that they are all noisy, lately all of my photos have had a lot of noise and I keep the ISO at 100. Don't know what that is about, the noise I mean.

Also I feel I can't make any decent, much less good, photos lately. I don't know I tried to learn manual and that just ended up confusing me more. So I tried to take photos today but they are all rather boring. I think I definitely do better taking photos of people, especially candid photos, than I do of nature or architecture.

It seems like all of my photos have been very noisy and dark lately, what to do?

1. Lions! This building had such great detail. It's not symmetrical though (the building) so I did the best I could to keep symmetry and to keep the photo straight. (it is straight but this building is very old and slants down to the river). I guess it's an okay photo but not too interesting. I would like to have found a more interesting angle. I did take one where I was closer to the building, kinda kneeling so the wall beneath and then a little overhang & details were in focus and the lions kinda oof, but I don't know, while more artistically interesting it technically didn't make a good photo.


Lions by lifebyme, on Flickr

2. Rail! This is a simple rail with the river behind it. Okay my photos in raw were all underexposed and I did play with the exposure on the camera but couldn't get it right. Most I was able to fix the exposure in PP but not this one so I have it desaturated as a way to mute the overwhelming & underexposed blue (if I try to change the color the whole photo would change with it). This isn't that interesting, again!


Rail1 (1 of 1) by lifebyme, on Flickr

3. Window! I thought this window was really neat, but didn't end up producing a photo worthy of it. The problem was I didn't include all of it's surroundings because it's not symmetrical, and that really bothers me! I like to either have very solid symmetry or very aggressive lack .. no wishy-washy in betweeners lol. The reflection does show up well in this, but maybe it would be better to show what it's reflecting along with the window. Also next time I might get right under it and see how that looks.


WindowReflection (1 of 1) by lifebyme, on Flickr

4. Stone! I love this wall because the stones are from the river and were used as the foundation of the city in the 1800's! I think that is SO neat. I took this one to practice DOF and think I did good as far as DOF is concerned, though again not such a terribly interesting subject.


Ivy1 (1 of 1) by lifebyme, on Flickr

5. The Web! This web was between the stone wall & a rail. The stone wall goes down to the river so there is a rail on the boardwalk to prevent you from falling in. Okay there is a tree growing out from that wall, but to get all of it, without a ladder on hand, would mean you need to include the rail. I was practicing with DOF again and think I did good as far as that goes.

SpiderWeb (1 of 1) by lifebyme, on Flickr

 

[honoryourlife]

Manual is actually incredibly easy to learn; shutter speed, aperture and ISO. Learn and master it, you'll never look back.

Read, read and read some more!

And apply what you read to your photos!

 

[Shadowbox]

I love to read, so that's not an issue! I just don't grasp manual so well. The problem for me is shutter speed. I understand what it's for, and what it does. And I have the book understanding exposure, but had to stop reading it so I could slowly take in each portion. Anyway, I know what shutter speed is and what it's meant to do, what I don't get is why it will only go up to 1/200 when I TRY to push it up higher and it refuses. So AP seems best for me as my main attraction is all about shallow DOF.. but I would like to learn how to control shutter speed better because I do a lot of candid photos of the children in my family playing and they are always blurred due to me not being able to force the shutter speed higher.

 

[MTVision]

I love to read, so that's not an issue! I just don't grasp manual so well. The problem for me is shutter speed. I understand what it's for, and what it does. And I have the book understanding exposure, but had to stop reading it so I could slowly take in each portion. Anyway, I know what shutter speed is and what it's meant to do, what I don't get is why it will only go up to 1/200 when I TRY to push it up higher and it refuses. So AP seems best for me as my main attraction is all about shallow DOF.. but I would like to learn how to control shutter speed better because I do a lot of candid photos of the children in my family playing and they are always blurred due to me not being able to force the shutter speed higher.

What kind of camera do you have? Im a noob but I would think it would go higher than that.

 

[cgipson1]

Shadowbox, what body do you use?

 

[Shadowbox]

A d40x. It does go higher if I put it on shutter priority, but when I use aperture priority & manual it does not.

(bought used from ebay in april)

 

[Infinite_Day]

Are you shooting with the pop-up flash? It will limit shutter speed if so, I think.

 

[Foxx]

Are you shooting with the pop-up flash? It will limit shutter speed if so, I think.

this.

Also, why the high shutter speed? This is probably why your pictures are coming out underexposed. Are you checking the exposure meter before shooting? Also, if your shots are too bright with a large aperture you might want to consider investing in a ND filter.

 

[willis_927]

Are you shooting with the pop-up flash? It will limit shutter speed if so, I think.

Also, why the high shutter speed?

Since when was 1/200th considered a high shutter speed that would probably under expose a picture? If your shooting mid day with limited shadow coverage, 1/200th will probably be too slow. Depending obviosuly on your F#.

 

[KmH]

The noise you are seeing in your photos is because they are generally under exposed. What metering mode are you using? Check to see if you have accidentally set a negative exposure compensation.

Learn how to read the histogram that can be displayed on the rear LCD of your camera: Understanding Digital Camera Histograms: Tones and Contrast
Understanding Digital Camera Histograms: Luminosity and Color

The way a digital photograph works, 1/2 of the image data is in the brightest stop of light in the photo. Each next darker stop of light then has 1/2 of what was left in the prececceding stop of light.

Have you read your camera user's manual? Any parts of it you do not understand indicate wher you would benefit by seeking more information from a variety of other sources .

 

[Noxire]

Expose Right <--- Good explanation on why exposing to the right.

If you find you can't expose to the right with the current iso raise it. You get less noise taking a picture @ iso 800 that is exposed correctly, rather than taking a way under-exposed shot @ iso 100 and trying to correct it in post.

 

[Shadowbox]

I use a flash called a sb-700. I never use my on camera flash.

I do have the manual and do read it.

The person who I bought the camera from, as well as various sites which have talked about the d40x, says to keep it at positive .3 and I have. It never underexposed before.. I think this is a new development. Its me trying to learn all different settings instead of sticking with what I know and now I can't get it back to normal.

How can something be underexposed and too bright at the same time? That confused me.

Those pictures weren't taken at a super high shutter speed, I was shooting in A so it set that for me anyway. But, I would like to be able to raise the shutter speed when I am taking photos of kids playing, not sure if you've ever been around a group of toddlers before but they pretty much do not sit still- ever. I want to be able to freeze their motion, not blur it.

I will read more in the manual about raising exposure and see if that helps to eliminate the noise.

 

[LarryD]

In Aperture priority, the shutter is set by the camera; so if you want a faster shutter speed you need to open the aperture more, say go from f8 down to f5.6 etc..

However, if a certain shutter speed is what you want, then you can switch to Shutter priority and pick one you want.. 1/250 will stop most action although fast movements may need as much as 1/1000.

About the only time that a camera will lock you at 1/200 or slower is if you have a flash hooked up. It's likely the camera flash sync speed default setting and the only way to override it is with a High-speed-sync setting and compatible flash (this is generally best for fill flash requirements)

 

[Shadowbox]

Thanks Larry. So I am to assume when its dusk, and I need flash or it's way too dark to get the kids playing that even in manual and shutter priority I am not capable of going over 200 and they are bound to end up blurry &/or if I don't use flash they will be much to dark.. got film them earlier in the day I guess!

As for these pics, shutter speed wasn't a problem but they were too noisy which according to these smart folks is because I underexposed which is either because it was too late in the day & I didn't adjust my settings or because I have no clue how to read the exposure.

 

[bennielou]

Many new photographers feel like they need to shoot everything at 100 ISO, so they don't get noise. I guess it's a misunderstanding, or something someone posted on the internet years ago, or just bad advice, but here is the deal:

The sensors in todays cameras can handle really high ISOs. Use the ISO you need and don't worry about it so much. If you end up with some noise, use any one of about a million free programs to reduce it. It's that simple.

My job, most times, requires me to shoot at 1600 or above. I've got people that work with me that shoot 6400.

So my advice would be to quit worrying about the noise. It's better to get it right in camera, than to try to bring it back in Photoshop. You don't know noise, until you try to revive a photo there. Keep shooting. You should have probably been at about between 640 and 800 for these shots. (Just a guess).