When shooting in natural light how often do you use a flash

[RumDaddy]

I was shooting on AV, my aperture was set for at 5.0 but the image doesnt look that bright? There was a little bit of a overcast but it was still bright outside.

What aperture setting would be good fro AV, outdoors with no flash?

 

[bigtwinky]

AV controls your depth of field (DOF) as well as the amount of light that enters, which in turn directs how fast a shutter you want to use.

There is no "best" setting to shoot at, it all depends on desired results. If you want to blur out the background, you shoot at a wide aperture. If you dont want blur (such as this one, as she is right on the wall), you would want a smaller aperture, but still kepping an eye to ensure that your shutter speed is adequate for the image you are taking and your skill at keeping the camera steady.

Your image does not appear in focus or maybe there was some camera shake. What shutter did you use for this image?
You may not want to go slower than 1/60 (or less, or more, depends on you) so that may mean that the smallest aperture you could get would be f/8 (these numbers are all made up, just throwing them out as examples).

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

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[RumDaddy]

I did a bunch of shots like this one on AV meaning the camera determines whats best for all the settings but the aperture. I checked the info and it says shutter speed 1/200 and Im guessing at this, so correct me if Im wrong. I already know when shooting with a lower aperture setting 2.8-5.0 helps blur the background but Im asking about this one. In lower light situations should you have a higher aperture setting?

 

[myfotoguy]

The subject is in shade, I would use fill flash to get catch lights in the eye and provide some "pop" to the image.

I use my flash often in natural light to fill shadows and add catch lights.

For this scene, in AV, check the histogram when shooting, if it pushed toward the left with hardly and data on the right, use exposure comp (poitive) to brighten it up.

 

[Big Mike]

If the photo doesn't look bright, it's because of your exposure settings, not necessarily how bright it is outside.

Remember that your camera's meter is always trying to give you exposure for a mid-tone (18% grey) scene. If it's overcast with bright skies and you have that in your composition, then the meter only sees that as brightness...so it gives you an exposure to make it mid toned.
What you have to do, is dial in more exposure (positive exposure compensation).

The same is true on the dark side. If your meter is reading something that is darker than mid tone, then you want to subtract exposure from the meter reading.

They key is to know what your meter is reading...and this means knowing what metering mode you are in, and how that mode works. For example, if you were using your spot metering mode, you might not have had this problem, depending on what was metered when you set the exposure.

 

[Big Mike]

I did a bunch of shots like this one on AV meaning the camera determines whats best for all the settings but the aperture.

As I alluded to in my previous post, the camera doesn't really determine what's 'best'...because it's just a dumb machine. It just determine what will work to give you the exposure that's it's calibrated to give.
You are the photographer, so you can override the meter and get the exposure you want.

 

[KmH]

"When shooting in natural light how often do you use a flash"

95% of the time and the other 5% is just a reflector or 2.

Change the Light. Too many photographers just accept what they find. Instead use: Time of day, subject position, flash, reflectors, diffusers, scrim, flashlights, and anything else you can think of. But take control of the light. - Thom Hogan

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...y/204127-8-things-you-should-do-but-dont.html