PDX Japanese Gardens 7-20-2010

[JaniceL]

"You mean all these people came just to see these little lanterns" Said Nina. (Or something similar) Clearly, one who is accustomed to seeing dogs moving just short of the speed of sound just missed the whole zen thing in the Japanese Gardens Inhale, breath deep, exhale, listen to the quiet . . . Nothing moves here except the photographers.

It was photographer's night at the Garden and the lanterns were lit just for us. And we were not alone.

Okay, maybe not the colors of spring or fall but they did have all the lanterns lit with little oil lamps. That was special for the evening

I'll admit it, not quite the show I was hoping for either. Later when the days are shorter I think it will be a more interesting shoot.

But there was still plenty to see without the usual congestion of a summer day.

The usual waterfalls.

Beautiful iris

And who can forget the Cranes, fixtures in the garden.

I had a great time. Nina finally caught the mood and soon was shooting away, manual exposures all the time no less. Sigh, I'm such a rookie.

 

[BobH]

Nice shots Janice. That garden is so pretty, if I lived closer I'd be a member.

For those of you not familiar with it, the only time you can take tripods into the garden is during one of these special photo sessions, and you have to be a member to attend. They have some very strict rules on photography.

Nina finally caught the mood and soon was shooting away, manual exposures all the time no less. Sigh, I'm such a rookie.

She let me use one of her cameras at the last agility trial. I'm not sure, but I think the knob on top had been welded into place on "manual". Fortunately she did let me use auto-focus.

 

[NinaS]

Bob, my little knob is not welded LOL
I actually put my 30D on auto for my cousin last week when we were chummy with the eagles
and ... I tried AV mode over the 4th ... didn't like it or the results ... but I did try it for over an hour at a trial in Redmond, because some suggested I try it LOL
so, I'm really not stuck on manual, I will try new things

manual allows me 100% control of how my image will appear
by adjusting my ISO and aperature, I can gain an acceptable shutter speed for what I want to shoot ... my camera is stupid when it tries to read my mind & think for me, it just doesn't understand how I want the final product to look, and until they install a mini-usb port into my brain, so I can communicate with my cameras, the big M is all I've got LOL

 

[JaniceL]

I do use manual focus. That counts some

 

[BobH]

manual allows me 100% control of how my image will appear...

Yes, and you have enough experience to know how to get there, so it works fine for you. A lot of us don't have that kind of practice using manual mode, so it's intimidating.

by adjusting my ISO and aperature, I can gain an acceptable shutter speed for what I want to shoot ... my camera is stupid when it tries to read my mind & think for me, it just doesn't understand how I want the final product to look, and until they install a mini-usb port into my brain, so I can communicate with my cameras, the big M is all I've got LOL

I don't shoot Canon, so I can only tell you how it works on my Nikon. I have a setting that allows the camera to adjust the ISO and Shutter speed on the fly, within limits that I set. So, on any given day, I can say "You can only go to ISO 800 today, and the shutter speed has to be at least 1/100th..." It then uses those parameters to get the best possible setting it can, based on the lighting conditions. If it can't get there within my limits, the display indicates that. That's probably one of the best features of that model, allowing me to use the lowest possible ISO without having to constantly mess with it.

There are a lot of different settings for exposure, spot meter, area meter, or meter the entire frame. They all give different results, sometimes dramatically different, for example a backlit subject.

I change settings to get the exposure I want, for example changing metering systems, and adjusting exposure compensation as needed. A musician in a spotlight usually needs spot metering, since he's surrounded by darkness. A black train isn't the same as a grey card, so sometimes you need to adjust the compensation for the subject you're shooting. When you're shooting a backlit subject, do you want the subject exposed and the background blown out? Or do you want the background exposed and a sillhouette? You have to decide and adjust accordingly, same as you do on manual.

If you simply put it on "auto" and don't do any adjustments, you won't get good results. If you know the metering system, and check your histograms, you can usually do pretty good. It's not so much "letting the camera decide" as it is giving the camera a starting point, then saying "Adjust the exposure from here as needed..."

Once I have that dialed in, and the camera is shooting how I like it, then I let the metering system take over, and adjust the setting as need be. A cloud comes by and the scene darkens? The camera will adjust. The light gets brighter again? The camera adjusts accordingly. Sometimes those changes happen too fast for me to keep up manually, so it's nice to let the camera take care of it.

There are times I go to manual. Night shots are an obvious one, but one that you might not think about is trains. The bright headlights consistently fool the meters, and the result is a dark scene. The answer is to meter the scene without the headlights, then go full manaul mode. Obviously the headlights will blow out, but that can't be avoided.

I'm not suggesting you change your system, just explaining what I do...

 

[JaniceL]

Actually I should probably clarify how I work too. I'm not full auto. I decide what is most important to me aperture or shutter and let the other function go on auto. Also, when shooting aperture priority, I often use my DOF preview button. So I guess I'm half auto.

Some days I'm just half fast

 

[NinaS]

Bob, on all my Canons, we have AV or TV modes
AV allows me to set my ISO & aperature, and it selects the shutter speed
TV (I think) allows me to select ISO and shutter, and it chooses the aperature ... haven't messed with this one, but have tried AV a few times over the years on all 4 models of bodies I've owned
the results (according to my preview & the histogram) is the images are slightly underexposed for my tastes. That was what I was trying to state above, it doesn't work for me, I do try it occasionally, because on a partly sunny/cloudy day, it would make sense ... but I've gotten to the point I instinctively know to adjust without looking when I feel the sun or shade come overhead LOL

Like I said, I did try it on the weekend of July 4th, so very recently I gave it another shot ... just never happy with the results LOL but, that's me

years ago, when the first DSLR's were coming out, and I'd been cheating with my film on auto for a decade or so (really can't remember when I got lazy and went from manual to auto), my mentor told me that M was the only setting my camera was allowed to be on, by being there, I would learn to understand all the settings by trial & error at a much faster scale ... I agree, I was forced to learn, understand & feel what I should do, because the crutch was kicked out from under me LOL

I do realize people need to begin with the basics, and understand what the settings are, what they can do, and what the heck those of us on these message boards are talking about ...
such as metadata and how to find it,
how do you set the shutter speed? why are different speeds important
what is aperature? how to set it? what can it do for me?
why is ISO always mentioned? what's that about?
what about WB (white balance)? how, what, where?

and, until a beginner knows some of the above, M doesn't do them a bit of good, but, once they understand those basics, the world is a palette ready for the artist in you to create your masterpiece

 

[JaniceL]

Something else I thought of adding to this thread is that on most of these I overrode the meter so I could capture more accurate lighting for the time of day. The camera wanted to brighten it too much so I actually reduced the amount of light reaching the sensor by either increasing the shutter speed or reducing the aperture size depending on what my goal was.

A good way to test your exposures is by bracketing your shots. I do that often because I'm still not as instinctive as I want to be and I gain the added advantage of being able to do some HDR if I want to.

 

[BobH]

> Bob, on all my Canons, we have AV or TV modes

I'm pretty sure that's standard on current Canons. On Nikons it's A (aperature) and S (shutter)

> AV allows me to set my ISO & aperature,
> and it selects the shutter speed

Yes, you choose the aperature, thus the "Av" name. AV means "Aperature Value", as you choose the aperature. You've given it two of the three values, it measures the light and solves for the third.

> TV (I think) allows me to select ISO and
> shutter, and it chooses the aperature ...

That's correct. TV doesn't stand for Television, even though you can probably shoot high def movies on your new ones. The TV comes from "Time Value", i.e. you select the "Time" (Exposure)

> on all 4 models of bodies I've owned the results (according
> to my preview & the histogram) is the images are slightly
> underexposed for my tastes.

I think they do that intentionally. As you well know (but for others reading along), once you blow highlights, they're blown. There's no bringing back detail in an area with blown out highlights. There's nothing there but white.

Got an area that's slightly dark? That's easy to fix, you just bump it up in post, you may get a bit of noise, but there's still detail there. So they tend to favor under-exposing.

OK, that said, it's easy to fix. All DSLR's have a setting called "exposure compensation", which allows you to adjust the camera's exposure. All images are slightly underexposed? That's real easy to fix. Just bump the exposure compensation up a bit. That's why it's there. I almost always run mine at +1/3 stop to get my images a little brighter.

For some reason, many folks are afraid to mess with the exposure compensation. They seem to feel like it's "cheating" or something. It's not, it's simply fine tuning the camera to adjust for your equipment (some lenses are "brighther" than others, conditions and minor variations in the sensor and meter etc.)

> I've gotten to the point I instinctively know to adjust without
> looking when I feel the sun or shade come overhead LOL

Well, you've got a lot of practice... Most of us can't do that.

> My mentor told me that M was the only setting my camera
> was allowed to be on, by being there, I would learn to
> understand all the settings by trial & error at a much faster
> scale ... I agree, I was forced to learn, understand & feel
> what I should do, because the crutch was kicked out from
> under me LOL

No argument there! I think that's a great idea once folks get to the point they're ready for that. It would be a good way to learn. Having digital means even faster feedback, so it's a great thing to try.