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Old September 19th 04, 07:45 AM
Justin Thyme
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"Quercus" wrote in message
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Hi there, I was wondering how do people "usually" set those parameters in
their cameras to get the desired exposure.

I mean, with the camera in full manual mode, do you first choose the
f-stop (looking for depth of field) and then you adjust shutter time until
the exposure will be correct or you do it in reverse order, first shutter
and then aperture to meet correct lighting?

For me it depends on a variety of options - which camera body I'm using,
what I'm photographing etc.
My oldest body is manual only. On it I normally set shutter first because
the shutter control is on the top of the body and is a bit of a pain to set
while composing a shot, whereas with the aperture on the lens it is quick
and easy to adjust. So, I'll set the shutter to something in the range of
the aperture I'd like to use, so if for example i'm in bright light and want
a large aperture I'll dial up something fast on the shutter, then make the
slight adjustments with the aperture until I get the exposure (bearing in
mind there isn't a huge difference of DOF between for example F2 and F4).
Only in very specific circumstances do I set an aperture then adjust the
shutter till I get what I want.
A slightly newer body that I have, has aperture priority auto exposure,
which I normally use. So in this instance I set the aperture to what I want
and the camera does the shutter to whatever is right. Of course in the
viewfinder it shows me what it's doing, so if I want a specific shutter
speed, I just dial the aperture ring until the shutter is right. Even for
things like waterfall shots I do this - Just dial the aperture up until the
shutter needle is pointing to about 1sec.
My newest body is of the fully automatic variety, and 90% of the time that's
just where I leave it. I mainly use this body for family snapshot type
shooting - where I don't give a hoot if it is using F2 or F22, I don't care
if it is using 1/30 or 1/1000, all I care about is that when I point the
camera in the right direction and press the shutter button that it is going
to take a shot. for the occasions when I do have something specific in mind,
I normally will use Aperture priority mode, because DOF is my main concern
(portraits, close ups). On the odd occasion when I am doing waterfalls,
night streets etc, then I will use Shutter priority or full manual but it is
rare. Even for sports shooting I don't use shutter priority - In that
situation I use aperture priority and dial up something nice and wide,
because I know that no matter what the light the camera will still be able
to get exposure - if I dialled up a fast shutter, it might not be able to
open the aperture wide enough, in which case the camera stalls, I have to
change down a shutter speed, and I miss the shot.

I guess that depends of what is the subject, if it has fast motion you'll
probably set first a lower shutter time, and then check for f-stop... And
so on...

But my question is about "normal" pictures, those without fast motion or
low depth of field required (portraits)...

Which method works best? Shutter-Aperture or Aperture-Shutter? Any
other? Is that just a matter of personal preference?

I own a point and shoot digicam, with shutter and aperture priority
programs, so I don't have all the control over those variables that I
would like to, but I wanna get the best from it while I win the lotto and
get a DSLR ;-)

-Quercus-

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