Beginner Explain please how to get great shots using AV mode on my Canon 40D camera

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Name
Mick
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Hi,

I desperately want to stop using the 'auto' mode on my camera & I'm now trying to use AV mode as much as possible.

But I'm completely lost on which f stop settings to use or which ISO to set my camera to!!

Help & advice here please.

Cheers,

wg
 
Hi Mick. I use aperture priority mode pretty much all the time. Which lens are you using? I love shallow depth of field shots so always try and use wide apertures where i can if that is the kind of shot i am after.

So to blur the background on a shot you need to use a wider aperture but to increase the depth of field you need to close the aperture down. An ISO of 100 will always render the best quality in an image as the higher ISO values can introduce noise into your photo's. BUT that comes at an expense of shutter speed so if this starts to drop a little lower than you can hold steady you need to increase the ISO to bump the shutter speed up. If you lens has IS then you can run your shutter speed a little lower. A general rule of thumb for shutter speed is to get it to match your focal length which should just about compensate for any camera shake.

Hope at least some of this helps you out. :)
David.
 
Hi Mick. I use aperture priority mode pretty much all the time. Which lens are you using? I love shallow depth of field shots so always try and use wide apertures where i can if that is the kind of shot i am after.

So to blur the background on a shot you need to use a wider aperture but to increase the depth of field you need to close the aperture down. An ISO of 100 will always render the best quality in an image as the higher ISO values can introduce noise into your photo's. BUT that comes at an expense of shutter speed so if this starts to drop a little lower than you can hold steady you need to increase the ISO to bump the shutter speed up. If you lens has IS then you can run your shutter speed a little lower. A general rule of thumb for shutter speed is to get it to match your focal length which should just about compensate for any camera shake.

Hope at least some of this helps you out. :)
David.

Hi David,

Thanks for you reply.

This is a list of lenses that I use, as & when.

CANON PRIME LENS EF 50mm 1:1.8 Mk 2 (52mm dia)
CANON ZOOM LENS EF 28-80mm 1:3.5-5.6 Mk 3 Ultrasonic (58mm dia)
CANON ZOOM LENS EF 35-80mm 1:4-5.6 Mk 2
CANON ZOOM LENS EF 75-300mm 1:4-5.6 Mk 3
CANON ZOOM LENS EF 80-200mm 1:4.5-5.6 Mk 2
CARL ZEISS JENA DDR MC S 1:3.5 f = 135 (18928)
CARL ZEISS JENA DDR TESSAR 2.8/50 (105495)
CARL ZEISS JENA P MC 1:2.8 f = 28mm
HELIOS 44M-4 2/58
HELIOS AUTO ZOOM MC 85-210mm F:3.8 MACRO (58mm dia) (054613-10)

I know that these aren't up there with the 'best' lenses but I bought the Carl Zeiss ones to help me learn about the different settings on a lens.

Hope this helps
 
This young lady does a fine job of explaining all you need to know about DOF
CLICKY
 
I see you have a fair amount although some cross over and cover focal lengths of others.

The 50mm f1.8 is a nice lens to practice using Av mode as you have a great selection of apertures to chose from. Have a play with them and see what effect they have on your photo's. That's the best way to learn. Stick an empty card in your camera, set it on a tripod or steady surface and photograph something with all sorts of different apertures then look at them on the computer screen.

You also have to remember that bringing your subject closer to you and further away from the background will help to separate your subject further.
 
I just wanted to tell you how I learned dof (f-stops). I set my camera up in a fixed location in front of a table and put items on it at different depths. Then I hooked my camera to my laptop. I made sure to have plenty of light so it would not be an issue for my experiment. I had my camera on a tripod but if you don't have one just set it on the table and don't move it between shots. Then I simply took shots and compared them on the large screen of my laptop. each time I would change dof but keep the focus locked on one focal spot. As I changed the f-stop I could see how it effected the dof. It was then that I got a full grasp of depth of field and how it applied to my photography. I hope I explained this clearly but if not let me know. I would highly recommend you try this because understanding exposure and depth of field will move you forward in your photography.

I hope that helps.
 
I'm not a great proponent of swapping kit for better results. But you could certainly buy 3 decent lenses if you sold that lot.

There are good links above regarding your question too.
 
Hi David,

Thanks for you reply.

This is a list of lenses that I use, as & when.

CANON PRIME LENS EF 50mm 1:1.8 Mk 2 (52mm dia)
CANON ZOOM LENS EF 28-80mm 1:3.5-5.6 Mk 3 Ultrasonic (58mm dia)
CANON ZOOM LENS EF 35-80mm 1:4-5.6 Mk 2
CANON ZOOM LENS EF 75-300mm 1:4-5.6 Mk 3
CANON ZOOM LENS EF 80-200mm 1:4.5-5.6 Mk 2
CARL ZEISS JENA DDR MC S 1:3.5 f = 135 (18928)
CARL ZEISS JENA DDR TESSAR 2.8/50 (105495)
CARL ZEISS JENA P MC 1:2.8 f = 28mm
HELIOS 44M-4 2/58
HELIOS AUTO ZOOM MC 85-210mm F:3.8 MACRO (58mm dia) (054613-10)

I know that these aren't up there with the 'best' lenses but I bought the Carl Zeiss ones to help me learn about the different settings on a lens.

Hope this helps

As phil said my inclination would be to sell all of those (except may be the prime) and get a couple of modern lenses - with a DSLR you don't need the settings 'on the lens' because with a modern lens aperture etc is controlled via the body.

As to which settings to use - that will vary depending on how much light is available/needed - in short in AV you are controlling the aperture and the camera is picking an accompanying speed. The links posted above will explain the relationship between aperture, shutter speed, and iso far more cogently that I can here
 
And forgetting the gear, great shots are usually about great light.

If you want to study anything, this is the easy one, because you can do it without even having a camera handy.

But it's a tricky one because you have to stop your brain filtering the image your eyes produce. You need to retrain yourself to 'see' things, watch how the light in a morning is different from the afternoon, cloudy or clear, windowlight and artificial light.
There'll be a lightbulb ('scuse the pun) moment when you're studying an object and the sun appears from behind a cloud.
 
And forgetting the gear, great shots are usually about great light.

If you want to study anything, this is the easy one, because you can do it without even having a camera handy.

But it's a tricky one because you have to stop your brain filtering the image your eyes produce. You need to retrain yourself to 'see' things, watch how the light in a morning is different from the afternoon, cloudy or clear, windowlight and artificial light.
There'll be a lightbulb ('scuse the pun) moment when you're studying an object and the sun appears from behind a cloud.

Thats great advice. Never thought of it like that
 
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