Hi from Detroit!

[phoenix_rising]

Hi everyone,

I just joined up the other day. I was a little surprised that the VB server let me post before I did my intro post. Anyhow, My name is Ben. I live in a suburb of Detroit called Plymouth. Its a cute little town, although a little too snobbish for my tastes. I am a grew up in a little town called Adrian, MI. It is much nicer there imo.

Anyhow, I have been a photo buff before I even owned a camera. I used to borrow my mom's minolta point and shoot and go wild until I eventually adopted it and now I am working in digital Yayyy! I used an Olympus Stylus 300 P&S for many years with nice results but I always desired an SLR style of camera. After working in electronics at Sears for a few years I learned much more about DSLRs and got my first opportunity to play with one. I fell in love with the Nikon D40 and the Olympus E-300 right away but never had the funds. Finally I got a nice tax refund and bam I am now the proud owner of a lightly used Nikon D50 and Wow! I LOVE THIS CAMERA! I am working with a 18-55MM and a 55-200 MM right now but am in the market for a nice wide angle lens and a set of filters.

Since this is a social and technical forum I do have a question for you DSLR guys. I love to take nature shots and shots surrounding bright lighting. I just came back a few minutes ago from shooting around a local lake. But I noticed my camera seems to hate the sun and any photos that feature the sun or part of it. How can I take a nice photo of say a sunset over a lake without the sun over exposing everything? Is that a setting on the camera, a filter, or a technique I need to learn?

My D50 LCD blinks at me black and white and I believe that it was something to do with exposures or ISO settings but I am not sure.

Thanks in advance!

-Ben

 

[Mitica100]

Ben, welcome aboard.

 

[Alex_B]

welcome to TPF

As for the sun in your pictures, the dynamic range of most digital sensors is rather narrow, that refers to the range of brightness your camera can capture. If the sun, or even just a bright sky is in the picture, and some dark foreground, then either the very bright areas will be overexposed, or the dark areas will be severyly underexposed. you have to decide then, what you want properly exposed (hence, what you meter on).

If it comes to a sunset, then, due our planet's atmosphere, the sun will appear much much less bright, and you migt have slightly less problems.

However, there is always the possibility of using graduated filters, which filter more light in the upper part (sky / sun) and are more or less clear glass in the lower part (dark foreground). This can help to overcome the problems. There are even special sunset filters (I think from Lee?) which work like two graduated filters, with the darkest part where your horizon will be.

but very often you can get nice sunset picture without any filter, just meter on the bright horizon and forget about the dark foreground (exposure wise). foreground objects will then just appear as black silhouettes.

 

[phoenix_rising]

welcome to TPF

As for the sun in your pictures, the dynamic range of most digital sensors is rather narrow, that refers to the range of brightness your camera can capture. If the sun, or even just a bright sky is in the picture, and some dark foreground, then either the very bright areas will be overexposed, or the dark areas will be severyly underexposed. you have to decide then, what you want properly exposed (hence, what you meter on).

If it comes to a sunset, then, due our planet's atmosphere, the sun will appear much much less bright, and you migt have slightly less problems.

However, there is always the possibility of using graduated filters, which filter more light in the upper part (sky / sun) and are more or less clear glass in the lower part (dark foreground). This can help to overcome the problems. There are even special sunset filters (I think from Lee?) which work like two graduated filters, with the darkest part where your horizon will be.

but very often you can get nice sunset picture without any filter, just meter on the bright horizon and forget about the dark foreground (exposure wise). foreground objects will then just appear as black silhouettes.

Cool thank you!

 

[Doug]

Hello And Welcome to the forum.

 

[Antarctican]

Greetings, Ben, and welcome to TPF

 

[Bthornton]

Ben,
Hello, it's good to have another Detroit person here!

 

[Alex_B]

so, if there are so many people from Detroit, then i should again draw your attention to this :
http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=115427

 

[jstuedle]

Hi Ben, welcome to the forum from S.E. Indiana.