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

[Desi]

Natalie: Always nice to see a glimpse from the Bay Area. I'm a transplant to LA. I soo miss the rich greens and the redwoods. Thanks for playing!

#1: good self critique. Not bad foreground exposure. Did you use the pop-up or a more powerful flash? Still, as you said, harsh....and no sky.

#2: Nice exposure on the sky. Stars seem a bit out of focus. Not sure if that is due to large aperture or from the clouds. You're using a 20 mm lens, so large DOF. Foerground dark. Nice sky exposure. Again I see that long shutter speed on program, not something my camera does. I guess they are not all programmed the same.

#3 seems to be about the same exposure as #2. Double the shutter speed (1 full stop increase) but a smaller aperture (1 and 2/3rd stops decreased). (goes 1.4, 2.0, 2.8, 4.0, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22). You could have pushed the exposure more by going into bulb mode and going back to a larger aperture, but the risk is in overexposing the sky. The foreground that you are working with is just very dark with little natural light, so it will probably not give you a pleasing exposure without overcooking the sky (but I could be wrong).

#4 You pulled a lot out of it in post by using your fill-light. Good to know that the data is there if you know how to get it. It's a nice scene.

 

[Desi]

Analyzing these photos is teaching me a tremendous amount. Thanks to all who are participating. I hope that I am able to make it worth your time. Please feel free to add to my comments or to school me on when I just ain't right!

 

[Natalie]

Thanks for the input, Desi, it's good to see others' points of views as well. The stars are a bit blurry from the thin layer of fog overhead and their movement, and also probably a bit because of the large aperture. This winter the greens aren't as rich as they should be - we didn't get any rain in December and the hills are still brown!

EDIT: Regarding the first photograph, I just used the camera's pop-up flash.

 

[DaveSG]

Thought I would try this since I have been trying to better understand the capabilities of my camera.

Note, I live in an Apartment in a city with a lot of light pollution. All photos taken with a D80 with focal length of 18mm.

#1 - Full Auto - F3.5, Shutter 1/60, ISO 400, WB Auto (I don't know how to get the temp), In camera flash. Overall thought, the flash washes out the Christmas lights and you can't see anything beyond 15 yards or so.


DSC_3510 by DaveSG1970, on Flickr

#2 - Program Mode - F3.5, Shutter 1/2.5, ISO 800, WB Auto, No flash. Overall thought much better then Auto but underexposed leaving the background very dark.


DSC_3511 by DaveSG1970, on Flickr

#3 - Manual Mode - F11, Shutter 20 seconds, ISO 400, WB Incandescent, no flash. Overall the best of the three but now with a lot of hot spots that I don't know how to compensate for, but now I can see the building in the background and the sky. Moving in the right direction.


DSC_3517 by DaveSG1970, on Flickr

The other thing that I learned from this is a cheap tripod is a pain and you really need a wireless remote or have to use the timer.

Great exercise, thanks for putting this out there. All comments welcome you are not going to hurt my feelings I know I have a lot to learn and this doesn't even touch composition.

 

[ConradM]

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!

I feel your pain. I'm on my kindle Fire all day long at work and it's silly that we can't reply from a mobile device. This is the only message board I have a problem with too. They should really do something about it.

 

[Desi]

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!

Bummer....I was really looking forward to seeing what you could do with your barn. Have you seen Invisible's work on old farmhouses at night? Really quite beautiful. I wish I could find scenes like that where I live. Good luck (hope it isn't too cold).

 

[Desi]

DaveSG: Thanks for posting. I'm glad you enjoyed the exercise. I visited Singapore about 15 years ago. What a beautiful place. And what a cool mix of cultures. It seems a very unique place to live. I hope I can visit again someday...with a camera.

#1: your camera chose 1/60 shutter speed. That is hardly slow enough for some indoor shooting, woefully inadeuqate for outdoor night-time shooting. I think the auto-mode assumes it can compensate for everything with the pop-up flash. But, the flash barely lit up the scene, though you sure can see all the reflective signs in the scene. It under-exposed the christmas lights.

#2: I agree with your comments. I think the camera was exposing for the christmas lights.

#3: Wow, huge improvement. A net 2 stops increase in light on your manual settings compared with the program settings (shutter speed from 1/2.5 to 20 seconds is about 6 stops, change from f53.5 to f11 is about 3 stops, change from ISO 800 to 400 is 1 stop). The sky looks overcast, so probably a very dark scene, which makes it difficult to compensate for the christmas lights. Not sure what you can do about that. (You can take several exposures and look for the right balance, or this could benefit from HDR.....but that is not the point of this exercise).

And yeah, cheap tripods are no fun.......I had a nice small one, worked great for my P&S but when I put a DSLR with a zoom, it just drooped and it would wobble for a while everytime I touched it.

 

[RebeccaAPhotography]

Bummer....I was really looking forward to seeing what you could do with your barn. Have you seen Invisible's work on old farmhouses at night? Really quite beautiful. I wish I could find scenes like that where I live. Good luck (hope it isn't too cold).

I decided to screw it! The barn is on!!! Even with the ugly golf cart in the front! No I haven't seen invisibles stuff I'll take a look! Does he have a gallery foe it? We ventured out for waterfall photography. And me camera did just fine. No need for tripod the waterfall was frozen lol

Won't be able to post it for a bit tho. Got the blue screen of death on me laptop! I subscribed to the thread so once I'm up and running again I'll post it. I never made a backup so I have nothing it go back to so it's gotta go back to the manufacturer. At least my photos are safe on the externals...... Still bummed tho

 

[Mo.]

I love your outcome, shows the difference perfectly. One question though, how do you manually adjust your white balance?

EDIT: found it, I'll give it a go soon.

 

[DaveSG]

DaveSG: Thanks for posting. I'm glad you enjoyed the exercise. I visited Singapore about 15 years ago. What a beautiful place. And what a cool mix of cultures. It seems a very unique place to live. I hope I can visit again someday...with a camera.

#1: your camera chose 1/60 shutter speed. That is hardly slow enough for some indoor shooting, woefully inadeuqate for outdoor night-time shooting. I think the auto-mode assumes it can compensate for everything with the pop-up flash. But, the flash barely lit up the scene, though you sure can see all the reflective signs in the scene. It under-exposed the christmas lights.

#2: I agree with your comments. I think the camera was exposing for the christmas lights.

#3: Wow, huge improvement. A net 2 stops increase in light on your manual settings compared with the program settings (shutter speed from 1/2.5 to 20 seconds is about 6 stops, change from f53.5 to f11 is about 3 stops, change from ISO 800 to 400 is 1 stop). The sky looks overcast, so probably a very dark scene, which makes it difficult to compensate for the christmas lights. Not sure what you can do about that. (You can take several exposures and look for the right balance, or this could benefit from HDR.....but that is not the point of this exercise).

And yeah, cheap tripods are no fun.......I had a nice small one, worked great for my P&S but when I put a DSLR with a zoom, it just drooped and it would wobble for a while everytime I touched it.

Thanks for the feedback Desi. I am not sure if the big changes when I went to manual reflect that I am starting to gain a basic understanding or that I am guessing! My thought was once I get the exposure close to where it should be I would be able to see more in frame and if I had to low an f stop nothing would be in focus. So bumped up to F11 and then opened the shutter. Had to play with that a couple of times to get it where it looked best (the advantage of digital and immediate feedback). I lowered the ISO to try to keep the noise down. It all seems logical in my head, but I am still doing a lot of trial and error. It's how I learn.

I will go back and try this again, this time playing more with the White Balance to see how that changes the look. I need to read up on metering and how to adjust for hotspots. Thanks again for moderating this and providing feedback.

Dave