DSLR noob
TPF Noob!
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I posted this up on a car forum, but I figured since I wrote out the lesson, I'd put it here too in case anybody needed to know the information. Last time I got into talking about photography on the site I first posted this, I was a total douche who didn't really give the poster any constructive criticism, so I wrote the detailed explanation to make up for it taking advice from people on this site (TPF) about how I should handle it to teach and inform rather than bash and insult. Anyway here it is
original page:
http://www.importatlanta.com/forums/showthread.php?p=38582296&posted=1#post38582296
Me said:the photography is awful......
but keep working at it, we all sucked at one point :goodjob:
My tip so that my criticism is productive and constructive!
On this pic:
you said this guy said:
You need to learn how to use partial, or spot metering. I see in the Exif Data you are using a Nikon D90. I unfortunately only know how the canon meters work, but I it is still a DSLR so I think the lesson should be easy to take as a Nikon adaptation.
If you look in the viewfinder you should have a bunch of AF points, and a somewhat large circle in the middle. Now usually when oyu push the shutter button in halfway, the camera meters and tells you how the picture will look on the meter(that thing in the bottom of the viewfinder).
(Crappy meter below)
..........V...........
<|iiiii|iiiii|iiiii|iiiii|>
-2..-1...0..1...2
you want the V on the top to be on the 0 EV for a proper exposure. You adjust the settings to put the V in the middle, or maybe a little on the negative side for black cars, a little on the positive for white cars
Your camera was probably defaulted on evaluative metering, which is a very bad system. It looks at all the bright and dark pixels in the shot, and averages them into a greyish blob (called 18% grey) then tells you how your current settings will expose the picture on the meter. Now your camera's viewfinder should have the Af points and circle like I said earlier. (it does, I googled a D90 viewfinder). Now if you set your camera to partial metering, next time, you can get the suggested shutter speed and aperture to expose what is IN the circle in the viewfinder and ignore the other pixels, in the background you don't care about and stuff. So you can hold the camera up, get the car in the circle, press the shutter halfway, look at the meter, THEN with the car still in the circle, adjust the settings until the meter is in the center and tells you the shot will expose properly, you can re frame with the car out of the circle, and leave the settings how they were then release the shutter and press it halfway again. If you want the camera to refocus. Spot metering is the same as partial, but it uses the pixels in the spot in the dead center of the frame. Play around with it and let me know how it goes. Oh by the way, metering symbols are usually as follows, or at least on Canon:
[ ] evaluative
[o] partial
SPOT spot
original page:
http://www.importatlanta.com/forums/showthread.php?p=38582296&posted=1#post38582296