Before taking the picture.. hmm

"Just Shoot Me" wrote in message
news:OcDAi.3561$Ah3.1439@trndny04...
I am a total newbie to manual settings but I try.

right now I am thinking that I should first think what the ISO setting
should be.
then f stop and then shutter speed.


Shutter and aperture affect composition, so the first thing you do is
compose your picture and then choose your shutter and aperture to support
that composition. There are some times (often times) other constraints,
such as low light and lack of a tripod, which will cause you to adjust
shutter/aperture, but ultimately you're there to make a picture, so it's
envisioning that picture that comes first.

And, if that's too ephemeral an answer, I've been shooting for over a
decade, and with my dslrs I tend to set ISO immediately upon entering a
scene I intend to shoot. If I don't, I sometimes forget to set it
altogether, particularly if I was shooting with high ISO previously. It
sucks when the department director says, get this portrait, and then it's
full of noise...

--
www.mattclara.com

"Matt Clara" wrote in message
. ..
"Just Shoot Me" wrote in message
news:OcDAi.3561$Ah3.1439@trndny04...
I am a total newbie to manual settings but I try.

right now I am thinking that I should first think what the ISO setting
should be.
then f stop and then shutter speed.


Shutter and aperture affect composition, so the first thing you do is
compose your picture and then choose your shutter and aperture to support
that composition. There are some times (often times) other constraints,
such as low light and lack of a tripod, which will cause you to adjust
shutter/aperture, but ultimately you're there to make a picture, so it's
envisioning that picture that comes first.

And, if that's too ephemeral an answer,
www.mattclara.com


Not at all. It made it seem very simple.
I compose the composition by adjusting the
Shutter and Apertue that supports the composition I composed.

"Just Shoot Me" wrote in message
news:ENWAi.396$9T5.118@trndny02...

"Matt Clara" wrote in message
. ..
"Just Shoot Me" wrote in message
news:OcDAi.3561$Ah3.1439@trndny04...
I am a total newbie to manual settings but I try.

right now I am thinking that I should first think what the ISO setting
should be.
then f stop and then shutter speed.


Shutter and aperture affect composition, so the first thing you do is
compose your picture and then choose your shutter and aperture to support
that composition. There are some times (often times) other constraints,
such as low light and lack of a tripod, which will cause you to adjust
shutter/aperture, but ultimately you're there to make a picture, so it's
envisioning that picture that comes first.

And, if that's too ephemeral an answer,
www.mattclara.com


Not at all. It made it seem very simple.
I compose the composition by adjusting the
Shutter and Apertue that supports the composition I composed.

I hope that didn't look rude. I was just poking a little fun at myself for
getting so confused.

Just Shoot Me wrote:

Not at all. It made it seem very simple.
I compose the composition by adjusting the
Shutter and Apertue that supports the composition I composed.

I hope that didn't look rude. I was just poking a little fun at myself for
getting so confused.


Hmm ... overly worried about offense that nobody took? More imiprimine
perhaps? :-)

--
Thomas T. Veldhouse

We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from the
machinations of the wicked.

"Paul Furman" wrote in message
...
Just Shoot Me wrote:

I am a total newbie to manual settings but I try.

right now I am thinking that I should first think what the ISO setting
should be.
then f stop and then shutter speed.

if you walked into an empty apartment or house how would you determine
the settings for your first pic?

Assuming no tripod, shutter speed is the first descision. Then increase
ISO if you need more DOF.

no more tripod for me in most cases. Shutter speed I guess for hand held
will most of the time
be at atleast 1/60. I think that is the fastest I will ever need for
stationary objects.
what do you keep your F stop at for setting up. I usually only adjust using
shutter speed to the point that its a little
to light then darken with apeture.
I need to do some reading on depth of field because I dont fully understand
what that means.




If you have a tripod, forget ISO, consider the DOF you want, set the
aperture & let the shutter land where it may.

for the first time yesterday I took a few pics at 400 ISO they didnt come
out as grainy as I thought they would.





today for the first time I will be experimenting with EV. I think this
will allow me to see out the window
and at the same time not make the apartment seem so dark.

EV is exposure compensation? You'll be able to brighten the room but the
window will blow out so make 2 exposures & merge later.

--
Paul Furman Photography
http://edgehill.net
Bay Natives Nursery
http://www.baynatives.com

I wonder if this is something I can do with out a tripod. I guess that
might depend on how steady
the camera is held between shots. mulit shot might also help but not sure
if the 40D has that.
i couldnt get it to work the few times I tried it on my nikon.

I just tried to merge the 2 pictures togething using adobes help files..
probably need to google it.

JSM

"Pat" wrote in message

If you need to start somewhere, put your camera in shutter priority
mode, often abbreviated Tv. Now spin your adjustment wheel or do
whatever it is you do on your camera and set the shutter on 1/60th for
indoor without a flash or 1/200 otherwise. Set your ISO to 400. Use
200 if you are outside on a bright day.
Now your camera will take care of the rest, within reason.

If you want to go "manual", and that's not nessarily a bad idea --
then use the same ISO and shutter setting. Start at your lowest
aperature indoors -- probably something like f2.8 or f4 or possible
f5.6.
Now look through your viewfinder and there should be some sort of
metering, possibly lights left and right of center. Otherwise, just
take a picture, see what it looks like, and adjust accordingly.


I think I may have first read this post late at night and half asleep.
I wish I could go higher on the ISO or open the Apeture more than 2.6 at
widest.
Doing it like you said above the colors seems to stand out much more for
some reason.
I could slow up shutter speed and see if it gets the shakes.
I guess that might be the only choice if aperture is at its widest and ISO
is at 400.
not really sure at this point what I can do with the different metering
settings.
that is what I will look into next.

Thank you

JSM

On Mon, 27 Aug 2007 16:45:34 GMT, Just Shoot Me wrote:

I am a total newbie to manual settings but I try.

right now I am thinking that I should first think what the ISO setting
should be.
then f stop and then shutter speed.

I think that most people try to keep the ISO setting as low as
possible, in order to keep image quality high, and then raise it as
a last resort. The setting to set first might depend on the type of
shot you're trying to take and whether you're using flash or not.
For pictures that have subjects or objects moving quickly, using a
fast shutter speed might be most important, so you'd try setting
that first. You might set the aperture first if the most important
thing was to minimize or expand the depth of field. Look at a wide
assortment of magazine pictures and try to imagine what aperture and
shutter settings the photographers might have used. Not the
specific settings, but the general direction the photographer was
going to.

So if you were taking a picture in a relatively empty room where
little or nothing in the image is close, you might be able to use a
wide aperture, which might be desirable if there isn't much light.
But if there are many objects in the room and many different
distances, you'd probably want a small aperture to keep everything
relatively sharp. Unless for a particular effect you wanted some
objects to appear out of focus. Then if you find that there's not
enough light to use the desired settings, you could increase the ISO
and you might be able to reach the desired settings. If not, or if
only a very high, too noisy ISO setting would work, you might want
to use an old fashioned ISO fixing device, known as a tripod.


if you walked into an empty apartment or house how would you determine the
settings for your first pic?

Set the camera on auto, half press the shutter, and see what
settings the camera chose. If you're familiar with the effect of
changing aperture and shutter speed by a single stop, it should be
very easy after a little practice to be able to mentally translate
the camera's exposure setting into any other equivalent combinations
of apertures and shutter speeds. If (as mentioned above) you have
an idea whether the shutter speed or aperture will be more
important, you can start off by putting the camera into aperture
priority mode or shutter speed priority mode, setting the associated
setting to a reasonable value, and see what the camera chooses for
the other exposure setting.


today for the first time I will be experimenting with EV. I think this will
allow me to see out the window
and at the same time not make the apartment seem so dark.

??? If you change the EV (exposure compensation?), the indoor and
outdoor light will change by the same amount, which wouldn't help.

I think that to do what you're attempting, you need to be able to
control one source of light so that it's approximately equal to the
other. For example, if it's bright outside, you might have to add
several indoor lights to get the indoor and outdoor levels equal.
If you can't control the indoor lights, you'd control the outdoor
light by shooting early enough (or late enough) in the day so that
the outdoor light level is reduced to the point that it's near to
the level of the indoor light.

"ASAAR" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 27 Aug 2007 16:45:34 GMT, Just Shoot Me wrote:

I am a total newbie to manual settings but I try.

right now I am thinking that I should first think what the ISO setting
should be.
then f stop and then shutter speed.

I think that most people try to keep the ISO setting as low as
possible, in order to keep image quality high, and then raise it as
a last resort. The setting to set first might depend on the type of
shot you're trying to take and whether you're using flash or not.
For pictures that have subjects or objects moving quickly, using a
fast shutter speed might be most important, so you'd try setting
that first. You might set the aperture first if the most important
thing was to minimize or expand the depth of field.


Look at a wide
assortment of magazine pictures and try to imagine what aperture and
shutter settings the photographers might have used. Not the
specific settings, but the general direction the photographer was
going to.

So if you were taking a picture in a relatively empty room where
little or nothing in the image is close, you might be able to use a
wide aperture, which might be desirable if there isn't much light.
But if there are many objects in the room and many different
distances, you'd probably want a small aperture to keep everything
relatively sharp.



Unless for a particular effect you wanted some
objects to appear out of focus. Then if you find that there's not
enough light to use the desired settings, you could increase the ISO
and you might be able to reach the desired settings. If not, or if
only a very high, too noisy ISO setting would work, you might want
to use an old fashioned ISO fixing device, known as a tripod.





if you walked into an empty apartment or house how would you determine
the
settings for your first pic?

Set the camera on auto, half press the shutter, and see what
settings the camera chose. If you're familiar with the effect of
changing aperture and shutter speed by a single stop, it should be
very easy after a little practice to be able to mentally translate
the camera's exposure setting into any other equivalent combinations
of apertures and shutter speeds. If (as mentioned above) you have
an idea whether the shutter speed or aperture will be more
important, you can start off by putting the camera into aperture
priority mode or shutter speed priority mode, setting the associated
setting to a reasonable value, and see what the camera chooses for
the other exposure setting.


today for the first time I will be experimenting with EV. I think this
will
allow me to see out the window
and at the same time not make the apartment seem so dark.

??? If you change the EV (exposure compensation?), the indoor and
outdoor light will change by the same amount, which wouldn't help.

I think that to do what you're attempting, you need to be able to
control one source of light so that it's approximately equal to the
other. For example, if it's bright outside, you might have to add
several indoor lights to get the indoor and outdoor levels equal.
If you can't control the indoor lights, you'd control the outdoor
light by shooting early enough (or late enough) in the day so that
the outdoor light level is reduced to the point that it's near to
the level of the indoor light.


Your post was great.
I want to go over it a few times and try what you said tomorrow and then I
will reply.
plus I woke up late and have a ton of work to do.
I just wanted to say thank you at this point.
JSM