Blowing out whites

[jaxx419]

Thanks sparky. I'll look at the raw file tomorrow.

 

[jaxx419]

Edited the RAW image... revision in the OP.

She has this neon looking strand of hair on her ear that I haven't attempted to fix. It was in the raw image also. I guess just the way the sun was hitting her?

 

[CCericola]

I didn't read through the whole thread, so I apologize if this has already been said: Read up in your manual about your exposure options on your camera. Even in manual, if you are relying on the internal meter to make your exposure you need to understand how the camera is figuring out what to tell you is the best exposure.

Once you understand exactly what the camera is doing you can adjust accordingly. Believe me, you are smarter than your camera. For white balance, I just got an Expodisc (yeah, I know they are $99) but my colors improved drastically. I got a 77mm neutral so I could put it in front of all my lenses (some are smaller than 77 but it does not need to be attached to the lens to work, just hold it up to the lens.) Or get a gray card. My first gray card was in teh back of my photography text book. I cut it out abd Boom, free gray card.

I see great potential in your work. Just keep learning and you will become awesome.

 

[jaxx419]

CC: thank you! I will look into that also! Im constantly reading to learn more.. Helps when I have my camera taking photos and read ad the same time.

After checking the raw stats my aperture was too low also. Maybe a dog park isn't the best place to practice. Dong are too hyper, can't keep up with setting changes or think fast enough yet.

 

[MLeeK]

CC: thank you! I will look into that also! Im constantly reading to learn more.. Helps when I have my camera taking photos and read ad the same time.

After checking the raw stats my aperture was too low also. Maybe a dog park isn't the best place to practice. Dong are too hyper, can't keep up with setting changes or think fast enough yet.

There is a quick lesson in that statement: You don't have to change your exposure for EVERY image. You only change your settings WHEN THE LIGHT CHANGES. So, if you are in the dog park and the light doesn't change, you use the same setting the whole time.
This is a common thing that people do when they are starting with manual-they think that every time that the meter jumps or changes you have to change your settings. It's not true. If your meter hits something white it's going to say you're drastically overexposed. If it hits something black it is going to say you are drastically underexposed. When in both situations you are exposed just fine-it's a white and black dog... You need black and you need white.
It's all about THE LIGHT. Now if the dog runs from the shade into the sun-the light changes and you have to adjust.

 

[jaxx419]

The light was changing a lot. We were under a lot of trees and in and out of sunshine. It wasn't an open dog park with no trees.

 

[Jones0610]

I just wanted to pass along kudos and a big THANK YOU to Terrel for your excellent description about vivid mode. I have been having the same problem as the OP, but in reverse... really blah looking pictures when it's overcast and grey (which happens a LOT here in the Pacific Northwest). I'll give vivid mode a try next time to see if that helps. Much obliged.

@MLeek: I have a D7000 which takes excellent pictures in auto mode. But I'm finding that when using the camera lightmeter, even when I have metering in spot mode, pointed at a grey object, the camera will tend to be quite a bit off on the exposure. So I have to fool with the settings until the LCD and histogram look good and even still there's no guarantee that I got a good picture. I've had this camera for a few months and I'm getting to where I can get the exposure "close" in full manual.. but even still I could be off by 1/3 step or even 2/3 steps. So what would you advise to ensure that the exposure is "as good as it can get"? I'm really reluctant to NOT check/adjust the exposure on every new scene because even if the lighting didn't change, I don;t have a lot of confidence that the settings are as good as they could be.

I have some examples here: Travels with the Original Easyrider® Pictures from my PCC digital photography class

I did PP them a little in Gimp. They were significantly worse right out of the camera (jpeg) in some cases.

 

[MTVision]

I just wanted to pass along kudos and a big THANK YOU to Terrel for your excellent description about vivid mode. I have been having the same problem as the OP, but in reverse... really blah looking pictures when it's overcast and grey (which happens a LOT here in the Pacific Northwest). I'll give vivid mode a try next time to see if that helps. Much obliged.

@MLeek: I have a D7000 which takes excellent pictures in auto mode. But I'm finding that when using the camera lightmeter, even when I have metering in spot mode, pointed at a grey object, the camera will tend to be quite a bit off on the exposure. So I have to fool with the settings until the LCD and histogram look good and even still there's no guarantee that I got a good picture. I've had this camera for a few months and I'm getting to where I can get the exposure "close" in full manual.. but even still I could be off by 1/3 step or even 2/3 steps. So what would you advise to ensure that the exposure is "as good as it can get"? I'm really reluctant to NOT check/adjust the exposure on every new scene because even if the lighting didn't change, I don;t have a lot of confidence that the settings are as good as they could be.

I have some examples here: Travels with the Original Easyrider® Pictures from my PCC digital photography class

I did PP them a little in Gimp. They were significantly worse right out of the camera (jpeg) in some cases.

So I'm not MLeek and I don't know half what she knows but....
Grays come in different shades so pointing the camera at something gray and zeroing out the meter may not result in the best exposure. You may have to make adjustments.
Do you watch the individual color channel histograms?

I did look at your pictures. I saw that you took your ISO off auto. Just because you took your ISO off auto doesn't mean you can't change it. It seems like most, if not all, your pictures were taken with a pretty long shutter speed. Your camera can handle high ISO's so you can definitely raise that and you should if you can't get a shutter speed fast enough to handhold. 1/8 is way to long to take a handheld shot

Some people do recommend keeping your ISO on 400 for people starting out. It might help out a little bit to use a slightly higher ISO as a base.