First Photo's set to M

[RicJoe]

I decided to take the trainings wheels off and try the manual setting. I was happy that I actually could see the pictures that I took. I had to find what I could around my office as I get home when it is dark. I would like some c & c on what could help improve.

1/ I wanted to have all the focus on the pine cone, not sure what happened but part of it looks washed out along the top. It was pretty sunny so I assume it was the sun that is making it look that way.

2/ I was going for the idea of all the letters/numbers staying in focus and the rest out of focus, had a hard time getting closer as the grounding wire was digging into me.

 

[Vinny]

The top one is overexposed. In manual you control the amount of light the sensor gets by using the ISO, Aperture and shutter speed; instead of the camera automatically doing it you are doing it. Personally I would leave the ISO to the lowest setting and worry about a higher ISO only when there is too little light. No matter how sunny it was you can control the exposure.

The background is a little out of focus what focal length and f stop were you using?

 

[RicJoe]

The top one is overexposed. In manual you control the amount of light the sensor gets by using the ISO, Aperture and shutter speed; instead of the camera automatically doing it you are doing it. Personally I would leave the ISO to the lowest setting and worry about a higher ISO only when there is too little light. No matter how sunny it was you can control the exposure.

The background is a little out of focus what focal length and f stop were you using?

I was using F stop f/8

 

[Vinny]

f8 is a smaller aperture and will give more depth of field than f4 or f2 or whatever the largest aperture is on your camera (Small number = large aperture; large number = small aperture). I'm not sure if the look you received was what you were looking for or you were looking for more blurred background.

The top one is overexposed. In manual you control the amount of light the sensor gets by using the ISO, Aperture and shutter speed; instead of the camera automatically doing it you are doing it. Personally I would leave the ISO to the lowest setting and worry about a higher ISO only when there is too little light. No matter how sunny it was you can control the exposure.

The background is a little out of focus what focal length and f stop were you using?

I was using F stop f/8

 

[Light Artisan]

... or whatever the largest aperture is on your camera

Not to nitpick, but it's the lens that dictates this - not the camera. :blushing:

Not too shabby for a start... mess around with 'creative exposure'. If you are just using your cameras exposure meter to get 'proper' exposure, switch it up - otherwise you may as well just shoot in P/S/A modes and save the trouble.

 

[Vinny]

You are so right ... good catch!

... or whatever the largest aperture is on your camera

Not to nitpick, but it's the lens that dictates this - not the camera. :blushing:

 

[RicJoe]

Not too shabby for a start... mess around with 'creative exposure'. If you are just using your cameras exposure meter to get 'proper' exposure, switch it up - otherwise you may as well just shoot in P/S/A modes and save the trouble.

Thank you both for the input, for the pine cone I was trying to keep the cone and needles in focus and have the background blurred. I was doing an exercise earlier from "Understanding Exposure" and forgot to turn the iso back down to 100. Will try again tomorrow. Creative exposure is right after White balance so looking forward to it.

 

[Light Artisan]

Good book to get you started, have fun - looking forward to round 2!

 

[MohaimenK]

Get a video called "Perfect Exposure for Digital Photographers" very good stuff. Watching it now. It talks about metering and zoning. I thought I knew a lot about it till I started watching it. You will really understand to take great exposure so you don't over/under expose your images. Although sometimes you may have to sacrifice one depending on what your main subject is.

Lets talk about the 2nd image, so blue is a common color so you would meter off the blue and then everything else would fall into place. The yellow in the other hand is the brightest spot which puts it at a zone 5 so you'd want to raise the exposure +1 and everything else would fall into place.