Back to the Basics, Again~

[myvinyl333]

I started to post my shots on TPF in the last few weeks after a long absence, only to find out I need to start over. I began using a DSLR camera in 2010 and I remain confused on what I am doing. I have managed to surround my self with all the needed gear, but all the best gear does not make you a photographer or even close. My main problem ...the basics, I have not grasped them. For example I cannot look at scene or shot and select the right settings. I seem to do better with concert shooting as I have been doing that since 2010 and use some ingrained/familiar settings, but put me in a landscape or portrait setting and I panic. I get blown out shots or the lack focus, etc. I have tried classes, on-line courses and I still struggle. I have decided that I am not going to give up. I am going to carry my camera with me as mush as possible and shoot anything. I am going read all the material I have collected again until it clicks. Books like Understanding Exposure are helping slowly. My advice to new DSLR photographers would be to get an inexpensive setup and learn it inside and out, applying the core fundamentals of photography, if not frustration is likely to follow. Oh, and you need thick skin.

 

[TCampbell]

What metering mode is your camera using as you take these shots?

For example, the challenge in a landscape can be the amount of dynamic range you have in just one scene. White puffy clouds or snow capped mountains will meter at one setting (which will be very bright) and deep forest details will meter at something completely different (which will be very dark.) If the camera is metering on what it just happens to be pointing at then you can lose one or the other (highlights or shadows might end up clipped.)

You can slow down -- look (with your eyes... ignore the camera for a moment) to find the brightest thing you can find and then also the darkest thing you can find and try to meter those two things on their own. Some hand-held meters are better at this than cameras -- spot metering with a camera is usually 3º or maybe 5º, but a spot meter with a light meter (usually only high end light meters can do spot metering) are more precise and meter within a 1º angle. Regardless of the equipment, it's the CONCEPT that you want to learn. By ignoring the cameras generalized recommendation for scene-wide metering and you looking for the specific highlight and shadow points and then find the middle exposure. Your camera can almost certain handle several stops of dynamic range up and down from the selected exposure. As a result, you probably won't get blown out or clipped shots.

If the sun is in the scene, don't panic... but also don't try to compensate for the sun. It'll be blown out... no matter what you do. Unless it's very close to setting and has managed to get toned down to an orange ball, it's going to be blown out.

For portraits where you struggle with lighting, it may be that you're not using a flash. Outdoor sun on a subject creates a HUGE difference from the illuminated half of a face and the shadow half of a face. Using a flash (even if it's just your pop-up flash... it's one of the very few things that a pop-up flash is good for) can help fill in those shadows.

Stops of light are exponential. Each stop brighter requires a "doubling" of the amount of light present. Yet your flash is putting out a fixed amount of light. That means that, as a percentage of flash contribution, your flash will contribute GREATLY to brightening the shadows but it will NOT contribute greatly to making the highlights even brighter. That works in your favor. It allows to even out the light in a scene. The goal isn't to make the shadows as bright as the highlights (that would just result in a really flat looking photo). The goal is just to decrease the number of stops of difference between highlight and shadow. By filling in the shadows so that they're just a little dimmer -- but still retaining shadows to show some 3D dimension in your photos -- you get a better result.

When I look at a scene I think "What can I control here?" I know I can't control the brightness of the sun -- unless I learn the secret to conjuring clouds out of nowhere. But I might actually be able to control the amount of light in the shadows. Sometimes the solution is to just shoot the subject somewhere else. If it's a portrait, then presumably you can control where you ask your subject to stand. For landscapes, sometimes it's a matter of shooting when the light is favorable to you. This might involve you getting up extra early or making it a point to be there at the right time. I know the world is full of great photographers who make all these shots look like common photos they can just take anytime they want... but quite a number of those shots weren't really taken "anytime the photographer wants" -- the photographer had to make some accommodations to their schedule to get those shots.

Understanding Exposure is a great book (and watch his videos too). You might want a book on lighting. Sekonic (manufacturer of handheld light meters) has a video series that's VERY educational.

You might want to watch these:

Control the Light and Improve Your Photography: Part I — Portraiture Using Available Light
Control the Light and Improve Your Photography: Part 2 — Better Environmental Portraiture
Control the Light and Improve Your Photography: Part 3 — Studio Portrait Lighting
Control the Light and Improve Your Photography: Part 4 — Creating Great Landscape Photographs

They probably run about an hour each, but Joe Brady does a great job breaking it all down in a way that makes sense of something that would otherwise seem like a black art.

 

[myvinyl333]

What metering mode is your camera using as you take these shots?

I could not tell you, as I am not sure where it is or how to set the metering on my cameras. However, I am going to find out.

 

[Derrel]

You've got a very solid, simple, no-overlap three-zoom lens system and two excellent cameras. Have you tried shooting in Programmed auto in outdoor scenarios?

I don't know who this TCampbell posting above is, but I can tell by reading between the lines that he (she?) knows HOW TO SHOOT. Photography is largely about light, then about subject, then about technique, then about equipment available, and then about final image preparation. In a concert setting the lighting is what it is, and it's actually reasonably consistent in "how" various shows are lit. Spots, floods, colored gels, occasional strobe effects, depending. You know what to expect when a guitarist comes on stage and sits a chair down. Same with a trio. That's what I have seen you shoot, and you DO SEEM BETTER at the stage shots than you were back in 2010...I saw your most recent shots...you are doing better, and the D800 kicks butt in that marginal light.

One thing I read this week in Michael Reichmann's review of the D800 is that the ISO performance is so superb, that his new plan is to use the BRAND-NEW AUTO ISO feature that Nikon has stolen from Pentax, which is what Pentax calls TaV or Time and Aperture Value mode. Basically, Reichmann said he is going to select a desired shutter speed and desired f/stop in Manual exposure mode, and then set the ISO to AUTO ISO, with 100 programmed as the low ISO, and 6,400 as the top end. This will ensure that he gets the desired motion-stopping ability that a specific shutter speed gives, AND he will get the desired lens f/stop for depth of field, or creative focusing effects, as desired, across any and all rapidly changing lighting conditions. This is, for Nikon users, a new type of Auto ISO exposure control, and the D800 you are so blessed to have offers this amazing way of working. Auto ISO with the ability to use one's very own preferred shutter speed AND f/stop??? Wow...that's a good feature to have available.

For indoor, low-light concerts/stage work, I would NOT set ISO 100, ever, but allow AUTO ISO to run between 800 at the low end and ISO 6,400 at the top end.

For landscapes, I would set ISO 100 to 640.

Anyway...keep at it. Don't give up hope! Rome wasn't built in a day. Baby steps. It's a process! Buck up! Nose to the grindstone. (Other famous cliches may also apply!)

 

[Ysarex87 81]

Show us photos.

Joe

 

[myvinyl333]

Show us photos.

Joe

Here are my non concert shots

 

[gsgary]

What metering mode is your camera using as you take these shots?

I could not tell you, as I am not sure where it is or how to set the metering on my cameras. However, I am going to find out.

You have a D300 and D800 and you don't know how to set your metering :er: thats crazy

 

[gsgary]

Show us photos.

Joe

Here are my non concert shots

Why did you only shoot at iso800 ? i would have shot at iso3200 and used a smaller aperture and faster shutter speed, it looks soft due to shutter speed and dof

 

[myvinyl333]

What metering mode is your camera using as you take these shots?

I could not tell you, as I am not sure where it is or how to set the metering on my cameras. However, I am going to find out.

You have a D300 and D800 and you don't know how to set your metering :er: thats crazy

I know where they are located and use them, just another reason for studying basic,etc. It was the term, not the use.

 

[Vtec44]

To me, the basics of metering using available light are about the same regardless of where. You find the neutral point and everything else will fall into place... at least that's the idea...

 

[myvinyl333]

Why did you only shoot at iso800 ? i would have shot at iso3200 and used a smaller aperture and faster shutter speed, it looks soft due to shutter speed and dof

I thought shooting at a lower ISO was better to avoid noise. The lights were very bright at times and red, making it hard to determine the proper aperture setting.

 

[myvinyl333]

What metering mode is your camera using as you take these shots?

I used spot metering.

 

[Riccardo_Arietino]

Dear OP,
Probably the technique is not the correct one, but you did catch a very nice moment in the concert's life.
In your picture I can feel tension, power, appeal.
I'd say that having an idea of what you want to shoot is the most important thing... the rest comes slowly, but if you don't have ideas you're never going to be an interesting photographer.

 

[myvinyl333]

Dear OP,
Probably the technique is not the correct one, but you did catch a very nice moment in the concert's life.
In your picture I can feel tension, power, appeal.
I'd say that having an idea of what you want to shoot is the most important thing... the rest comes slowly, but if you don't have ideas you're never going to be an interesting photographer.

I am reading all I can on metering, aperture, shutter speed and ISO... your support is greatly appreciated, as are Derrel's who helped me on my 1st few concert shoots in 2010.

​

 

[pgriz]

Here's a thought... How well do you know what the dynamic range of any scene is? Looking at a scene, it will have (usually) both bright areas and dark ones. If the range between them exceeds the ability of your camera to record, something will be either blown or blocked. So by deciding which areas MUST be properly exposed, you develop an idea of where your exposure should be. For instance, if a scene has a dynamic range of 12 stops, and your camera can only record 9, then you won't be able to retain detail in the whole image (unless you use HDR).

In general, my own photographic workflow is as follows: I take an incident light reading in the primary light, and in the shadow area. This I do once, unless the light changes. That tells me the range of light I have to work with. I'd do a spot meter on the scene highlights and also in the shadow areas where detail is important. I already tested my camera and know that I have five stops of latitude on the high side, and four on the low side. Say the highlights are at 1/2000 sec at f/8 and ISO 100. If my exposure for the image would be at 1/125 sec at f/8 at ISO 100, then my highlight is 4 stops above that, and is within my 5-stop range. If the image exposure is at, say 1/30 sec, then that is 6 stops difference, and I will definitely lose detail in the highlights.

Once I know the general exposure I need for an image, the choice of aperture and shutter speed depends on my goal: do I need a deep or shallow depth of field? Do I want to stop action or allow motion blur? This will determine whether I shoot at f/2 or f/16 and whether it should be 1/10 sec or 1/2000 sec. As a final step, I usually take a sample shot and check the histogram to ensure that the highlights are not being clipped, and that the spread of light is appropriate. From there on, it's becomes a matter of composition,

As for ISO, I usually leave it at the lowest (native) value and adjust it only if the scene does not have enough light to get me the correct exposure as I showed above.