A little better?

[mostly sunny]

Never mind if the subject is not interesting. I used my camera in M, after some really awesome dude tried to tell me how to use my camera (I know it's just a lemon tree. But my Mom ask edme to take some pictures of it. She took this tree from my Grandfathers home when he passed 10 years ago. This is the first year it produced lemons. She wants to have a picture on her computer wallpaper at work.. as silly as that sounds. I know she misses him from time to time.)

 

[blackb!rdphotography]

Im new to all this so dont take it TOO seriously! I only like the third one... The lemons are pretty, but out of focus alot.

 

[mostly sunny]

Crips-- They are blurry? Strange, see I don't lie #3- I like the color of 2 better.
Should I mention I have a polarizer on my lens?

I know, I know, Danielle STOP buying cr@p for the camera and LEARN how to use it!

 

[Ron Evers]

Sorry, but the lemon shots are all out of focus.

 

[mostly sunny]

Sorry, but the lemon shots are all out of focus.

Ok-- I need to.... Let me go figure out what I need to do.. this is going to require thought.. send the troops for me if I don't come back.

 

[Dominantly]

Awesome, you are getting much much better. You get the idea now of selecting the right aperture for the depth of field, or depth of in focus stuff.

COuld you have used a smaller fstop (bigger number) for the lemons to get more of then in focus, sure, but it still conveys the point.

Now that you are getting this lighting stuff, and learning how to use your light meter/manual mode.... it will be time to move onto composition where we all run around in circles.

For your last shot, next time stop all the way down to f-22 and then adjust your shutter speed to get the rigt meter, you should get a better shot of the sun that way..

 

[Dominantly]

Sorry, but the lemon shots are all out of focus.

Ok-- I need to.... Let me go figure out what I need to do.. this is going to require thought.. send the troops for me if I don't come back.

Do you have a tripod? IF so set it up so you have a lemon maybe off center, with other visible lemons behind it.. then set the focus on that single lemon (using the thumb pad to select the point on that lemon), and shoot.

Your 50mm lens would be cool for that.

 

[fokker]

Unless your mum has a very unusual monitor, it might be hard to use a picture in portait orietation as a desktop background.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

These images show much improvement M. Sunny. Keep working at it. I think this might be either camera shake, or just a soft lens. I can't see the EXIF info here at work. Keep up the learning. I for one am impressed you did this im M mode!

 

[Dominantly]

Image 1
Camera Make: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS 7D
Image Date: 2010:01:10 10:55:20
Flash Used: No
Focal Length: 28.0mm
CCD Width: 15.36mm
Exposure Time: 0.0050 s (1/200)
Aperture: f/3.5
ISO equiv: 100
White Balance: Manual
Metering Mode: Matrix
Exposure: Manual
Exposure Mode: Manual


Image 3
Camera Make: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS 7D
Image Date: 2010:01:10 10:43:29
Flash Used: No
Focal Length: 28.0mm
CCD Width: 15.36mm
Exposure Time: 0.0050 s (1/200)
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO equiv: 100
White Balance: Auto
Metering Mode: Matrix
Exposure: Manual
Exposure Mode: Manual

Image 4
Camera Make: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS 7D
Image Date: 2010:01:10 10:44:38
Flash Used: No
Focal Length: 28.0mm
CCD Width: 15.36mm
Exposure Time: 0.0050 s (1/200)
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO equiv: 100
White Balance: Auto
Metering Mode: Matrix
Exposure: Manual
Exposure Mode: Manual

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Ah, 1/200th...might not be camera shake then.

 

[Mulewings~]

Good for you to keep going at it! I don't have anything really to add that is helpful, but encouragement.

 

[mostly sunny]

Ok, on a tripod with the 50mm lens-This one I forgot to pay attention to the meter-I think it was off-

This one- I don't like the coloring. But the meter was where is was supposed to be.???

 

[Dominantly]

WELL... I see you shot those both at f/22, the problem with this is you allowed quite a bit of the background to be shown, which takes away from the lemons. It also helped you get that underexposure you're sportin.

Shoot it again, pick an angle with the sun behind you hitting the lemons (it's getting to be a good time of day for photos 4:03pm, magic light), compose your shot if you can so you have mostly sky showing behind the lemons, so maybe angle up at them at a 45 degree angle, then open the lens up to f/4, meter off the lemon and adjust your shutter speed (get fairly close to the group of lemons)... shoot... look at LCD to see if you need to make it brighter or darker, then adjust and shoot again....

Then post back

 

[bahandi]

Definitely showing improvement. This may throw a wrench in your "following the meter" mentality, but doing so may not always get the picture you want, or need. For example, you could shoot at f2.8 and have the background blurred out, or shoot at f11 and have everything in the frame in focus.

Keep on truckin' and do more learning in terms of aperture and shutter settings. Find those books that people have mentioned too.