Hi,
new here and new to photography.. When you speak about light readings, how with a modern DSLR would I get them unlike old camera's when you actually carried a light meter ? sorry if I have not grasped this but I am learning still.
I just remember an old camera of my dad's having a light meter on top.
Is it just a case of trial and error now and experience?
Well all modern DSLRs have a meter in them Ian - in fact they're far more advanced than the meter on that old camera of your dads, in fact using the camera in any of the auto modes, as well as taking an exposure reading they make all the settings for you. The exposure metering is visible in the viewfinder.
There are occasions when you might want to override the camera metering using your own judgement and there's always provision to do this, but it does involve a bit of knowledge about metering techniques.
It's a big subject to tackle in depth, but have a look in the Tutorials section here for some advice on basic metering.
Nice one CT, like the others very appreciated.
Can i suggest for lesson 2 you do a separate thread, that way it will be easier for those of us to see when it is posted and it won't get lost in the current thread.:
now my question is about dark images I was sitting in the garden just before and focused on a cup and took shots at each aperture to see the difference in DOF now do I have to adjust the shutter speed for each time I make the aperture smaller. as when I looked at my shots I could not see any difference in DOF but each pic got darker and darker ??
even on the large aperture the background was not blurred?? yet I look at other peoples pics of say peoples faces the background is very blurred?
I was using a Nikon D3100 with the 18-55mm lens.
Thank you
Awesome guide thanks for putting this up CT and thank you everyone else who posted helpful comments and advice, its a big help to us newbies.
I have a question in relation to the minimum shutter speed for hand shooting. CT explained that the shutter speed should always be faster than the focal length of the lens. I can see how this would work with a prime lens, but with a zoom you wont always know what your current focal length is, how do you handle this.
Also in my case the camera I have SX40 HS comes with two types of image stabilisation built in (not sure what) how does that effect it. I would say in the past most of shots have been out of focus, so now with this camera how do i know what to keep my min shutterspeed to for hand held shots, with all this image stabilisation and big zoom to take into consideration.
it will all sink in one day, but until then you can beat it into me with a big stick
Glad it's helped. Lesson One Part 2 is here......Something that even I can understand. Brilliant CT. When is the next instalment???
tel