Photography Help!

[StewartyBoy]

Ok got my D-SLR. Wasout taking some pics after cleaning the car. Decided to take them as the sun has disappeared behind the clouds, was hoping for some depth from the black paint. Never happened!

Sun still gleamed off the car, causing a lot of reflection. What settings should I be using the camra at for this sort of picture taking.

Thanks!

[supremeweb]

show us a couple pics.

stationary with detail. low ISO - slow shutter and with fading light a medium Apature. This all depends on the exact light level though.

What camera you got? A-DEP (auto depth) is a great feature with CANON, review your pics after and see what it has set everything too.

[StewartyBoy]

Edited July 11, 2010 by StewartyBoy

[StewartyBoy]

WAHEY! Mucked around with the settings a bit and got this...

Edited July 11, 2010 by StewartyBoy

[4Hero]

The first 3 look over exposed, the last two are much better (although the location could be better).

Black isn't the easiest colour to photograph, it really is better just changing settings to suit light/location/weather. A tripod is a must, this means you can play around with slow shutter speed (long exposure).

Here's a couple of my old Impreza, not the best shots in the world, it's just to give you an idea of settings.

The exif:

Camera Canon EOS 40D

Exposure 0.003 sec (1/320)

Aperture f/2.8

Focal Length 70 mm

ISO Speed 100

Flash Off, Did not fire

Camera Canon EOS 40D

Exposure 10 sec (10)

Aperture f/22

Focal Length 27 mm

ISO Speed 100

Flash Flash did not fire

Quite a bit of processing done on this one

Camera Canon EOS 40D

Exposure 0.01 sec (1/100)

Aperture f/4

Focal Length 25 mm

ISO Speed 100

Didn't have my tripod when I took this shot, bummer

Camera Canon EOS 40D

Exposure 0.013 sec (1/80)

Aperture f/2.8

Focal Length 70 mm

ISO Speed 200

Flash Flash did not fire

And of course, you can always go a bit wild! Definitely use a tripod if tackling this stuff!

Camera Canon EOS 40D

Exposure 30 sec (30)

Aperture f/4

Focal Length 17 mm

ISO Speed 200

Flash Flash did not fire

A couple of shots I did for someone, really lucky with the light conditions on this day. Again, "some" processing done on these two

Camera Canon EOS 40D

Exposure 0.006 sec (1/160)

Aperture f/5.0

Focal Length 22 mm

ISO Speed 100

Flash Off, Did not fire

Camera Canon EOS 40D

Exposure 0.006 sec (1/160)

Aperture f/5.0

Focal Length 10 mm

ISO Speed 100

Flash Off, Did not fire

You could get into off camera lighting, but that could turn out to be very expensive!

[StewartyBoy]

Cheers.

Having the details below the pictures are helping me understand a lot better, although its difficult to understand things like:

Aperture Priority

Shutter Priority

Still getting to grips with the camera itself. Physically, I can operate the adjustment of Aperture displayed on my Nikon as F/ but to its left I am able to change the numbered settings of something else. Will this be shutter speed!?

E.G

1.3

1.6

2.0

2.5

etc etc

[4Hero]

Forget Aperture Priority & Shutter Priority, learn the M button mate. It's so rewarding when using manual, does take a bit of getting used to, but I really wasn't impressed with the AV/TV options on my first dslr.

These numbers don't look like the shutter speed, not so sure about Nikon either. Got a manual for the camera?

[bmwhere?]

As 4hero says, using the manual mode is well worth it, but takes some time to learn how to use it and sometimes, like when you have friends or family complaining you take too long taking photos, the semi-auto modes can be pretty useful too!

In your photos above where the sky is all washed out, the problem is the camera has taken the light reading from the black car and set the camera from that, so the brighter sky is over exposed. There are two reasonably simple ways you can quickly compensate for this while using the semi-auto modes on your camera.

1. Exposure locking

Frame your picture as you want it, then move the camera to centre on the brighter area e.g. point at the sky. Half press the shutter and the camera will auto focus and take a light reading, at this point press the Exposure lock button (not sure if its the same on a Nikon, but on Canons its a "*" button just under your thumb), you should see the exposure lock indicator appear in the viewfinder. Now re-frame the picture you actually want and half press again, this time the camera will only auto focus and keep the locked light readings - now take the photo and the sky should appear correctly. Obviously the exposure balance will depend on where you take the light reading, if its too light, your car will be under exposed, so you need to find the right balance, although you can also use fill in flash to compensate for the darker subject!

2. Exposure Compensation

On a Nikon I'm completely lost how to do this, but there is a setting that allows you to adjust you exposure level. You may have to go into the menu to select the function to adjust the setting, its normally shown as like a scaled ruler display with a dot that shows the current setting and can usually also be seen in the viewfinder. You can change the exposure compensation either to the left (darker) or to the right (lighter) in 1/3EV (or maybe 1/2EV) steps. Using this feature, you take the photo as normal just framing the car and the compensation value you set will adjust the exposure. So in this case you would set a couple of stops to the left and the sky should be correctly exposed.

Once you learn how to use them, they are two handy features to quickly get the right exposure while keeping the camera semi-auto and avoiding annoying your friends or family

[icedog13]

As BMWhere says.......or.....

Take a snap in RAW format, open in Adobe RAW converter, save a few images with different exposure settings and then layer all the good bits in Photoshop.

[thewelsho]

I use a ND grad filter (http://www.great-landscape-photography.com/graduated-filters.html) to properly expose the sky. Simply fit the bracket, slide in the filter, expose the foreground correctly, and shoot. You can slide the filter up and down until you get the desired result. You can also set your camera on a tripod and take two shots; one with the correct exposure for the sky and one with the correct exposure for the car. Take each shot into Photoshop and blend them together.

EDIT: Love the car, stunning man.

Edited July 15, 2010 by TheWelsho