Beginner Frustration

[samleo]

HI,well you have had some very good advice but I think that, as an absolute beginner, it must all seem very confusing;believe me, it is'nt. As you gain experience you will realise just how simple it all is. Basically ,all you need to understand initially is that in ambient light, natural or contrived, the aperture controls depth of field, shutter speed controls the exposure. With flash the aperture controls the exposure. Starting from scratch, thats all you need to keep in mind. As you gain experience you will learn that, subject distance and lens focal length also affects depth of field but this is still a primary fact. You will also come to appreciate the effect that ISO numbers have on your exposures by enabeling you to select higher shutter speeds. However, my advice to you is, at the moment, just remember, ambient light-aperure=depth of field,shutter speed =exposure. Fash-aperture =exposure. Do not worry about shutter speeds when using flash, the flash takes care of that. After all that,which is the easy bit, its all down to you and your creative /artistic abilities, in other words, composition!

 

[reg]

I never read it.

Me neither, but I never found exposure to be a terribly difficult concept.

 

[ksmattfish]

what i should do first..

Read the camera manual. It actually covers pretty much everything being discussed in this post.

Battou is right; it's not all that complicated. There are 3 basic exposure controls; you perform much more complicated operations everyday. If you simplify ISO into how we used to think of it with film, then you've only got to worry about aperture and shutter: bright sun=ISO 100, action/overcast/indoors flash=ISO 400, indoors no flash=ISO 1600.

The tricky part about exposure is understanding that the camera/meter wants to make everything middle gray. It'll underexpose a bright white scene trying to make it middle gray, and it'll overexpose a dark scene trying to make it middle gray.

It's okay to run the camera in auto, but pay attention to what it's doing: the aperture and shutter are still displayed in the viewfinder even on auto. Watch how the camera changes them depending on what you point it at. If you move to a darker scene it slows the shutter or opens the aperture. If you move to a lighter scene it speeds up the shutter or closes the aperture.

 

[manaheim]

+1 to Program for a while.

I usually tell people, "use Program mode until it fails you, then try to figure out why it failed you, and adjust... then use Program mode for everything except the type of shot that it failed on... and repeat."

Over time you wind up using Program mode less and less, and you force yourself to SLOWLY learn more about the camera.

That being said, I also agree with kmatt (he knows his **** ).

Regardless... as I just said to someone else... KEEP IT SIMPLE. If you go wild on all the special settings you'll irritate the hell out of yourself really quickly.

 

[ANDS!]

Theres a huge difference between memorization and understanding. I memorized how to ride a motorcycle, but because I didn't understand how counter-steering, balance, and various other techniques came together - I was a generally **** rider and went down more than a few times.

The book is called UNDERSTANDING Exposure for a reason.

 

[ShutterSpeed]

since this is a newbie thread about frustrations, i thought i'd chime in.

it's good to get frustrated - it means you're learning and realizing what you need to do to get better or that you need to get better. I also find myself frustrated, because the lens I'm using is very slow. Low light situations are very hard because I really try not to use a flash.

We had a christmas party tonight...and the place where the party was at - had a black ceiling. So, i couldn't bounce flash very well..and I hate direct flashes, but that's what i resorted to. I put the ISO at 800...and thought I got some great shots - came home and downloaded...and found so many grainy pics.

So, my conclusion tonight was this -

Better FLASH - the speedflash I have is crap - and i need a newer modern version.
Need faster lenses with much lower f/stop numbers.

i found, however, that children at Christmas parties are very fun/easy subjects to photograph...and since they weren't in the room with a black ceiling, i enjoyed using my flash and getting very nice (sometimes) lighting. Then you become a hit with the kids who want to see the picture you just took.

 

[reg]

Better FLASH - the speedflash I have is crap - and i need a newer modern version.

Lots of people use flashes from the 70s and get great results. What do you have now.

 

[ShutterSpeed]

Lots of people use flashes from the 70s and get great results. What do you have now.

Its a TRON S400 TCZ. Some Brazilian brand (i think)..and its not very good. I'm using a Nikon - and will be getting a SB400 soon. Much better for what I want to do. This isn't from the 70s, i don't think, but there isn't full functional compatibility the nikon (i don't think)..so, yeah, i need a new one.

 

[WhisperedLitany]

Ahhhh you're not alone, trust me.
I've had my XTi for about a year now, and i still get fustrated with some of the settings sometimes. It just takes awhile to get the hang of things. I just bookmarked all the pages in my manual that i know i would need to know eventually so i could read it a few times to get the idea.

I havent read through other peoples posts but i'm about to.

Just dont give up ! ^__^

 

[OregonAmy]

The SimCam: Film and Digital Camera Simulator - Photonhead.com

That is one of the most useful sites I've found in a while - thank you for posting that!