Auto vs. Manual!! Critique your own camera. A Noob to Noob challenge.

[Desi]

This is a good post to show how one can take control in the creative process. Did you manually focus or auto? Also, not to nitpick but I caught this:

The first photo must be in fully AUTOMATIC mode. Just put it on A and let the camera do it's thing.

I know what you're getting at but since this is geared towards beginners, setting the dial to 'A' generally means aperture priority on a DSLR. I think you meant to say the green box with the camera icon.

P.S. Lovely house.

Thanks for catching that.

 

[Desi]

Hmmmmmp! I gotta say it might be too cold for me to participate in this. Camera in house at 70 outside -10 right now. Let alone at night. I dont mind thecold I got the correct layers BUT is my camera ok for that weather?

I would like to know the answer to that question, will be 35 here at sunset.

The camera should be fine in cold weather......lots of people take pictures in the snow. Extreme cold I'm not so sure about. RebeccaAPhotography mentioned condensation as a possible problem. Does anyone who regularly shoots in cold weather have any thoughts on this?

Oh, don't get stuck to your tripod.

 

[Robin Usagani]

What if someone shoots with a pro body? It doesnt have full auto usually

 

[unpopular]

^^ so does that make my old crusty manual focus lenses "Pro" lenses? :lmao:

 

[MTVision]

Hmmmmmp! I gotta say it might be too cold for me to participate in this. Camera in house at 70 outside -10 right now. Let alone at night. I dont mind thecold I got the correct layers BUT is my camera ok for that weather?

I've read that putting the camera/lens in a ziplock plastic bag before you bring it in will help with condensation. Not 100% positive but I did go out in below 0 weather and my camera is fine. It's was snowing pretty hard so I cut a hole in a big ziploc bag and put my camera in it and shot out of the hole! I am a dork but my camera isn't weather sealed.

 

[unpopular]

I am a dork but my camera isn't weather sealed.

Neither was my last apartment!

 

[Rephargotohp]

Canon's recommended temp range is 32 to 104. But I have shot at 10 and 120 without a problem, somethings just work a little slower at both extremes. Just acclimate your camera to the conditions WITHOUT the batteries in them. Keep the batteries warm, inside a jacket until you need them and even then the life will be much less than at 73.

I'm not a big fan of the ziplock thing because I feel sometimes it locks in the moisture. I just let mine come to temp slowly, ie bring it in the garage, then the house. If I was to use Ziplocks, they would have some desiccant in them

 

[ConradM]

Ok, so I did this experiment after work today. Probably could have waiting for the sun to go down more but I got impatient. All of these were shot with my 50mm on AF, no PP.

1. Full Auto, no flash. f2 1/80 ISO640

I would say the WB is way off in this one.

2. Program, no flash. f2 1/5 manually set ISO to 100 changed WB to cloudy -2

This one is pretty close...

3. Manual, f11 5 seconds ISO100 WB set to cloudy -2

To bad my house doesn't face N, could have got a great sunset in the picture.

 

[Desi]

Cool. I think the difference between manual and "auto" would have been more apparent had it been darker, but still, this is good.

On auto, looks like the camera chose to WB for the incandescent lighting in the garage. everything is blue and the garage is more white. Looks underexposed depite the fact that your camera still had some leeway in terms of being able to go to a slower shutter speed and a higher ISO. Had you allowed it to use flash, it probably would have given you a very different look. Since you used the nifty fifty, the camera chose f2 and was able to use a "hand held" shutter speed. However, the foreground paid the price and is out of focus (your truck, the sidewalk).

On Program, the camera did better. (but you changed the WB setting manually). Did you manually set ISO 100?. Exposure is better. Shutter speed of 1/5 is 4 stops slower than 1/80. ISO differrence is about 2 stops (I'm not so good on these calculations). My camera won't shoot slower than 1/30th on program setting (due to it's default settings) so that it always defaults to a handheld exposure if needed.

Manual: much better exposure. Better white balance. Using a smaller aperture really improved your focus.

Try it again when it's darker and watch your camera screw up. And then analyze why it did.

Thanks for trying this. I hope you got something out of it. I did.

 

[RebeccaAPhotography]

Ok well I'm out for the count! My laptop just s**t the bed. I'm using an iPhone and kindle fire (which by the way sucks for tpf! I can never reply) well once I'm up and running!!!! I did a back up but it was probably a month ago BUT all those images are on my camera still. O well. Stil can't wait!

 

[cepwin]

I need to try this..although we're in for a cold snap as well

 

[TamiAz]

Ok, here are my pics.

1) Full Auto
white balance/auto, F2.8, 1/40s, iso3200, flash

2) Program mode
white balance/auto, f1.8, 1s, iso100

3) Manual Mode - I don't think this looks much better than the other two.. I obviously did something wrong!! :meh:
White balance/auto, f5.6, 15s, iso100

 

[kundalini]

Hmmmm, I have an Auto setting on my Oly EP3. Might have a go at it myself this week.

One thing I would suggest to those uploading their examples is to actually give the WB value in Kelvin that your camera chose for the auto shooting modes.

 

[Natalie]

Here are my shots:

1. Full Auto (1/60 sec, f/2.8, ISO 400, AWB 5750K, flash) - This one just looks horrible. Yeah all the plants and stuff are properly exposed, but the flash is extremely harsh and the background is pitch black. Not a pleasing shot at all.


2. Program (13 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1600, AWB 3200K, no flash) - Much better, but quite a bit underexposed.


3. Manual unedited (30 sec, f/5.0, ISO 1600, Tungsten WB 3200K, no flash) - I should have used a larger aperture, because the main part of the photograph is still underexposed, though not as bad as in the previous shot in Program mode.


4. Manual edited (EXIF as above) - Much better!

 

[Desi]

TamiAz: so glad you posted. Here are my thoughts.

#1: auto: Overall very dark. the camera did it's best to give you a hand-held exposure. High ISO (3200) feels noisy, but I can't really tell from my monitor at work. The flash actually helps the exposure but leads to annoying highlights (car reflector, lawn ornaments, garage door). The flash actually helps to balance out the incandescent lighting but is too week. The camera could have given you more light (f1.8, 1/30 seconds) but was probably fooled by the incoming incandescent light. Can't see the sky.

#2. dark. A much longer exposure and bigger f-stop but also a much lower ISO. Overall, the natural light exposure is improved (see interior lighting/inside wall, see brighter outside lights) but not enough to compensate for loss of flash. I'm surprised the camera chose a lower ISO.

#3: better. Still dark but much better more even lighting. See garage tiles and palm tree fronds are better exposed are better exposed on this image that all others (they do not reflect the flash as much). Even better interior lighting. Outside lights are just too strong for this scene. I still can't see your sky. Maybe standing farther back will allow for fall-off of this light source. I think the camera's light meter was confused by the bright lights, telling you you had a good exposure when it was still too dark overall. Try increasing your ISO to 400 or 800 (should still give low noise) and increasing your exposure time.

What lens did you use? 50mm? Would be cool to try a wider lens and see some sky in the shot (not that I care about the composition, but it makes for a more challenging exposure)