OHHH MEEEEE help Please LOL

[princessa]

Ok so today I go on my first "real practice" shoots with a little girl, and well, of course the day is great, overcast, so im thinking oh well with my new canon 50mm lens it will be great so i get there, then what happens...... the sun comes out!!! EEKKK beaming down on us, and what the mom doesnt know is that Im literally in a panic fighting with my camera seems, trying to get the adjustments right, so what do I do?? I flip it over to auto mode YIKES!!! I do not want to have to do this everytime or even think about it LOL so I have been trying to learn about aps and iso and everything which i had set on 100 and then had my ap low then high then medium, anyhoo you get the point LOL!! so then I think well lets change lenses, so i so this about 3 times, to my 75-300 lens so i wouldnt be in the little girls face, then to my kit lens, then back to my 50mm lens, ok PLEASE someone tell me what I should have done to prevent this, how do you take good photos in the bright sun?? Thanks soo much!!

 

[WDodd]

Ok so today I go on my first "real practice" shoots with a little girl, and well, of course the day is great, overcast, so im thinking oh well with my new canon 50mm lens it will be great so i get there, then what happens...... the sun comes out!!! EEKKK beaming down on us, and what the mom doesnt know is that Im literally in a panic fighting with my camera seems, trying to get the adjustments right, so what do I do?? I flip it over to auto mode YIKES!!! I do not want to have to do this everytime or even think about it LOL so I have been trying to learn about aps and iso and everything which i had set on 100 and then had my ap low then high then medium, anyhoo you get the point LOL!! so then I think well lets change lenses, so i so this about 3 times, to my 75-300 lens so i wouldnt be in the little girls face, then to my kit lens, then back to my 50mm lens, ok PLEASE someone tell me what I should have done to prevent this, how do you take good photos in the bright sun?? Thanks soo much!!

If you absolutely have to shoot in the sun and can't find shade, I would use fill flash and probably a reflector to try and reduce the shadows.

What problems were you having? Is there a picture from this "practice" you should show as an example?

 

[princessa]

Well I guess I could have posted LOL!! Im not very good at editing so I really depend on my camera LOL! But some of them were very overexposed and then some were just ok. Do you mean I should have used my speedlite? I had it on but thought that would have been a huge no no LOL but didnt try it either But here are some straight out of camera pics i got........

These are the ones that I really wished would have came out not overexposed UGH!

 

[Jon, The Elder]

They are so overexposed, you've created an interesting "artsy" look to them.

You could probably bring them back quite a bit in PS or whatever you use for post processing.

On a day like that, think ISO 100. Stop your lens down from wherever you had it.

Notice not one "LOL"?

 

[PhotoSlip]

Firstly, I think these are great shots (if only not overexposed). I feel the girl is too centered in the first shot, but other than that, I like them alot. Very cute.

You mention you learned about aperatures and iso.
Did you learn to set your exposure time? If on auto, I don't understand why it would over expose like this also unless you set your aperature too large that the camera could not set an exposure time short enough to take the photo properly exposed.

Also, would have happened to have taken these photos in RAW? May be able to save one or two if you did? Not sure though, but I'm guessing the first and second might be.

I am quite new to photography, so I am quite interested in your problem as it will probably arise for me also.

 

[princessa]

No i didnt shoot them in RAW Im kinda confused on that still, some tell me to stay away from it lol, some tell me to always shoot in it so i am not sure lol, Thanks for the compliments LOL! I need to see if I can find a awesome guru that may be able to help me save these lol, Ok NOPE i had no clue about exposure time LOL I dont even know what that is, but then again, Im still reading LOL, i have had my rebel xt for about a year and still learning eekekk, but before now have always shot in auto mode, ohh and these shots where during my panic mode (M) hehe right before i clicked it over to auto, so thats why they were overexposed i did have my ISO set at 100 but im not sure why they were still overexposed like that, I guess maybe my AP was set too high or something?? I have been told i need to learn to read histograms too so maybe i could do that too LOL!! Thanks so much for your input sooo much needed HUGS

 

[princessa]

does anyone know how i can add catchlights into her eyes on pspxi ? since in some of the photos she didnt have any

 

[The_Traveler]

I suggest you learn how to use the histogram on your camera.
That will help you in reshooting these.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/understanding-histograms.shtml

 

[RedDevilUK]

I guess maybe my AP was set too high or something??

Just the opposite.... you had it too low (F/1.8)

Lower AP = Lighter
Higher AP = Darker

but remember that the Aperture works in tandem with the shutter speed.

for instance even at F10, if your shutter speed had been very slow, that would have been over exposed too

2 things to look out for... first the light meter through the viewfinder and secondly as mentioned above... read histograms

when you finally have an idea what all this means LOL you also need to lean more towards the darkside on the histogram too.

also learn to use photoshop, as the great pictures you took are recoverable

 

[oldnavy170]

Wow, I really love number 3. Please repost once your done with PS work on them!

 

[princessa]

Ok definately gonna have to learn the histogram thing, soooo confused by it LOL!! I am working on some editing now, I dont have photoshop i have PSP9 and XI i downloaded the trial for CS3 but sooo lost and that program is soooo expensive its no where near in budget for me right now eeekkkk Im loving this forum!!! Thanks for all the help!! whoohoo

 

[DSLR noob]

Faster shutter speeds will darken a photo.
Lower ISOs will darken a photo.
Smaller apertures (large numbers) will darken a photo.

All of those would have helped. Next time you are trying to take shots quickly, like say for an event or as a favor, and you don't have time to play around with shots go into P mode. It's like auto but you can control if you flash or not, you can change the ISO, and you can capture RAW if you so desire.

My first suggestion above ALL is to learn to read your light meter.

Go to "M". Point the camera at what you want to take a picture of and push the hsutter down halfway, then look at the little tiny screen on the XT you should see somehting that looks like this (more or less)

|..|..I..|..|
____^____

Then turn the wheel on top of the camera to adjust shutter speed so that the arrow lines up with the middle of the light meter. If the shutter speed is too slow and the pictures are blurry, speed it up then hold the Av+ and turn the wheel to open up the aperture (the lower the number the larger it is). Do the reverse if the shutter speed is too fast and you want some motion to be captured. Just keep pressing halfway and checking, lining up the arrow to the center of the light meter (to the left if you want it to be darker to the right for brighter, your overexposed photos today would've shown you a blinking arrow to the far right of the meter). To save soem tiem, go to t Tv and set the shutter speed you want, the camera will do the aperture for you. If the aperture value is blinking and the meter has an arrow to a far side, then a picture taken at the shutter speed you've selected is not possible in those conditions.

 

[RacePhoto]

Cute pictures. What he said, use the flash in bright Sun to fill in shadows. Easy.

Now tell me how you got the first photo at 5/f at 1/200th of a second? That couldn't have been auto and you must not have looked at the meter somewhere and had it set on manual.

If you had it set shutter priority, then at 1/200th the lens would have shut down more. With aperture, it would have gone much faster.

I'd guess you were shooting manual, and not watching the line in the bottom right, for exposure.

Keep working at it!

 

[princessa]

yeah hahaha i wasnt watching that eeekekk i will next time for sure!!! LOL!

 

[Snyder]

All over exposed and use the longer focal length lenses for portraits it compresses the subject making a much more eye pleasing photo. A wide lenses will distort the subject.