Went to Alderley Edge again!

[adrift79]

Hi, I’m 14 years old and I’ve only recently started to get into photography, especially car photography. I posted another post a few weeks ago and I received a lot of feedback. I tried my best to use that as an influence on yesterday’s visit to Alderley Edge (a really posh and rich place). If you have any feedback, please let me know as it would help me a lot. Also, most of the pictures came out really blurry. If any one of you has any solutions, please let me know.
Thanks!
P.S my favourite is the Lamborghini aventador SV roadster picture

 

[jeffashman]

Nice set! What camera and lens are you using? It looks like motion blur, so it may be that the shutter speed is too slow for moving cars.

 

[adrift79]

Nice set! What camera and lens are you using? It looks like motion blur, so it may be that the shutter speed is too slow for moving cars.

Hi! Thanks for the feedback. I’m using a canon eos 350d with a 55 mm, though I purposefully set the aperture at the right number to give the background a nice blur and to focus on the car more. In my opinion, I think it looks good. Thanks once again

 

[weepete]

looks like you shot these at f18 and 1/40th of a second, which is a bit slow and the cause of your blur here.

Your aperture is a bit too small as well, there's no need to stop down to f18 unless you are shooting very close (as in macro shots) and need a deep depth of field. Diffraction kicks in at f16, so best keep it wider than that if you can. For these shots, I'd suggest using an aperture of f8, then bumping your shutter speed up.

You need to think about what is important to control here, so a rough guide is:

Aperture controls depth of field - so use Av mode when motion blur does not matter

Shutter speed controls motion blur - use Tv mode when depth of field does not matter

if both matter use maual mode.

You might need to experiment with different shutter speeds to get an idea of how much blur you like, but I'd suggest around 1/200th wouldn't be abad place to start. Then chimp a bit and go up or down from there.

 

[adrift79]

looks like you shot these at f18 and 1/40th of a second, which is a bit slow and the cause of your blur here.

Your aperture is a bit too small as well, there's no need to stop down to f18 unless you are shooting very close (as in macro shots) and need a deep depth of field. Diffraction kicks in at f16, so best keep it wider than that if you can. For these shots, I'd suggest using an aperture of f8, then bumping your shutter speed up.

You need to think about what is important to control here, so a rough guide is:

Aperture controls depth of field - so use Av mode when motion blur does not matter

Shutter speed controls motion blur - use Tv mode when depth of field does not matter

if both matter use maual mode.

You might need to experiment with different shutter speeds to get an idea of how much blur you like, but I'd suggest around 1/200th wouldn't be abad place to start. Then chimp a bit and go up or down from there.

Thank you so much, I think this really will help me. Just a quick question, what mode or settings would you use if you where shooting moving cars like me? I also want a nice blur on the background to focus more on the car, but I don’t really know how to do that without part of the car blurring. Do you have any solutions?
Thank you so much once again

 

[weepete]

no problem, I hope you find it useful.

I think you might be a little mixed up with the f numbers (many are at first). The bigger the f number, the smaller the aperture and the more you'll have in focus and the less blur you will get. The smaller f numbers open the aperture wider, and will increase background blur.

But background blur is not only caused by aperture, it's also affected by subject to background distance, so if there's a big difference between the camera to subject distance, and the subject to background distance, the more blur you'll get.

Focal length will have an effect too. You'll get more background blur from longer lenses.

It can be useful to set up a couple of experiments around the home to show this, and you can do it with static objects. It's a hard concept to understand at first, so that may take some time to sink in. The important takeaway is you may not always be able to get in a position where you can get good background blur.

If I was out shooting this, I'd more than likely shoot it in manual mode, with a fixed ISO if the lighting was consitant (and auto ISO if it was changing quickly). That way I can control the ISO a bit using the metering mode while retaining control of aperture and shutter speed. I've been shooting like this for a long time though and I'm very comfortable with it.

I'd recomend trying Tv mode first yourself, practise getting some nice sharp shots, then try manual then experiment with some creative blur

 

[adrift79]

no problem, I hope you find it useful.

I think you might be a little mixed up with the f numbers (many are at first). The bigger the f number, the smaller the aperture and the more you'll have in focus and the less blur you will get. The smaller f numbers open the aperture wider, and will increase background blur.

But background blur is not only caused by aperture, it's also affected by subject to background distance, so if there's a big difference between the camera to subject distance, and the subject to background distance, the more blur you'll get.

Focal length will have an effect too. You'll get more background blur from longer lenses.

It can be useful to set up a couple of experiments around the home to show this, and you can do it with static objects. It's a hard concept to understand at first, so that may take some time to sink in. The important takeaway is you may not always be able to get in a position where you can get good background blur.

If I was out shooting this, I'd more than likely shoot it in manual mode, with a fixed ISO if the lighting was consitant (and auto ISO if it was changing quickly). That way I can control the ISO a bit using the metering mode while retaining control of aperture and shutter speed. I've been shooting like this for a long time though and I'm very comfortable with it.

I'd recomend trying Tv mode first yourself, practise getting some nice sharp shots, then try manual then experiment with some creative blur

Thanks once again, I’m sure this will have an impact on my photos. As you said, I’ll experiment more with what I have around the house until i find the right mode/setting and I’ll keep on learning until I understand the concept more. Thank you so much, I really appreciate it.