Few noobie questions...

[dmcaloney]

Taking all sorts of shots in various lighting settings trying to gets to grips with shooting in manual, and got a couple of questions if someone could help me.

I would also like some advice if my 'general rule of thumb' rule I seem to have established from reading articles / books etc is true i.e. I use aperture priority for most shots unless its moving or sports type, setting the aperture appropriately for DOF. I am still not confident enough to say with any certainty what the f stop setting should be in any given situation though and I usually need a few trial and error shots but I assume this will sort itself out with experience? (I find ISO200 is fine in most case but I dont have a problem going to 1600 for low light indoor shots)

The problems I have are:

1. I now struggle when I try to use the flash, as all the settings I am reading about and trying to get my head round are very 'light dependant' and so when I throw a flash in I have no idea how this affects the settings I am using and generally revert to auto for flash shots due to lack of confidence.

2. I frequently find that my shots are out of focus. Even though I am using the half shutter to focus and keep it on auto focus (not confident enough for manual focus yet). Is this normal and is there anything I can do to correct it? or is it just down to years of alcohol abuse and shaky hands?

3. I still struggle on choosing what lens to use in any given situation (I have a nifty 50, a 28-135 and a 70-300). Is there a general rule of thumb?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

cheers
Dave

 

[goldenstar]

Dave, Can you upload some of the oof shots? Shaky hands like mines ( too much ) tend to make blury shots not oof ones. I find the IS on my lens can negate a lot of the blur.

What mode do you have you Canon on for focusing? Are you manually selecting the AF point?

 

[dmcaloney]

Will do (I am away for the weekend so will do when I get home), but thats a good point you raise there goldenstar, maybe it is shake rather than oof.

I dont hold the camera like all the textbooks say, as it feels a bit un-natural, so maybe I need to look at changing my ways. Cheers.

I always have on auto focus and move the camera slightly untill I get the correct little red dot lighting up! ... I told you I was a noob! Is there a better (but still reasonably quick) way of doing it?

 

[petersmart]

Hi Dave.

It's probably better to set the flash to 1/200 sec and then before activating the flash pop up set the aperture to give you an exposure of 1/200 sec.

Then pop up the flash.

In this way there will be some correlation between flash and the exposure.

Then you can adjust from there.

A bit rough and ready but the flash will fix the speed at 1/200sec and you can then then set the aperture depending on what you want the flash to do - fill in etc.

You can the "fine tune" the flash by altering the flash exposure compensation in the menu.

Hope this helps.

 

[dmcaloney]

Thanks for the advice Peter. Will give that a try.

 

[Ali]

Hi Dave,

Sorry I can't help you with the flash question as I haven't got to that point in the manual yet Although, I would say that you can do a lot without flash if you get a tripod and experiment with not putting it on auto.

I was thinking more about your OOF question. One thing that I am finding as I take more pictures is that, often, my oof pics are because the camera hasn't really focused on what I think I pointed the "red dot" at. Even when I select the focus point and use it I was still getting images that were just slightly oof.

Then I noticed that there was generally something in the shot that was in focus and realised that most of my shots were too 'busy' and something in the foreground was often claiming the focus over the main subject. I figured that the camera (quite correctly) had decided that I didn't know what I was doing and was refocusing on what 'it' saw as the main subject :shrug:

A few things have been helping me with that.
Taking more time to focus;
checking my compositions more to keep clutter out - getting closer to something often helps me;
practice;
using liveview - but I'm not sure you have it on the 400;
using a tripod or a handy wall etc. cos I move a lot more than I think I do.

I still manage to miss-focus quite often but I'm getting more shots that make me think - WOW that's OK.

Also, are you finding them oof before or AFTER you PP them?

 

[Wookie]

you sound just like me!

what I've learnt:

forget having to use manual mode, use whatever mode feels good to you, dont worry about the experts with years of training, experience and skill that flick through manual settings perfectly.
I use Aperture Priority to control depth of field.
I use Shutter Priority with moving stuff (cars, sports, kids) when I just need to guarantee freezing the subject and care less about depth of field.
Use the other modes if the fancy takes you but all the preset auto functions dont allow raw, just jpeg. RAW is cool, it allows you to correct exposure in DPP afterwards and is often a miracle cure for disasters.
A-Dep is useful if you need to get a shot covering a specific depth of field and don't have the expertise to guarantee correct aperture selection. Use it occasionally to compare with what you think it should be!
The button on side of base of lens gives you a preview of depth of field by operating the aperture, but it darkens the viewfinder image.

1. Flash - if you are using TTL / E-TTL flash (ie. the popup or an auto flashgun) then its simple, the camera controls the amount of flash for you, but the modes work differently:

- In Aperture Priority mode the 400D gives you fill flash. It will set the shutter speed to suit the background ambient light, and then add fill flash by controlling the flash for the subject (active focus point). Ideal for backlit portraits on a sunny day but total disaster if you are indoors or at night as the shutter speed can be measured with a diary.
- In manual mode you set the aperture and shutter (it limits max shutter speed to 1/200) and it controls the flash power for the active focus point. You have much better control. Use ISO to increase flash range. Shutter speed for the flash illuminated part of the shot is governed by the short flash duration, very fast, but if you slow the shutter enough it will start to pick up ambient light. If you are using a wide aperture (low f/ number) then the background will start to be exposed at faster shutter speeds.​

2. Focus / blur -
- forget Liveview, 400D does not have it
- forget manual focus. The 400D and the lenses you use may have the facility for manual focus but its not accurate like an old manual focus SLR (no split ring, small and dark viewfinder, grotty viewfinder screen, comparitively short undamped & notchy control movement on the lens). Manual focus on these is only of use where accuracy is less critical, eg landscape to set to roughly hyperfocal , or macro where you fix the focus & move the camera on a tripod to obtain focus and constantly check results.
- learn the correct stance for holding a camera, support the lens with left hand, feet apart to brace you.
- be careful what you are actually focussing on, it will pick up and focus on stray hairs infront of a face. Be mindful of the orientation of the focus points, they are rectangular to show the direction of the sensors which are a line inside (long direction) slightly longer than the box, centre point is a cross sensor (vert & horiz). They work by picking up contrast changes crossing the sensor line.
- select which focus point you are using, don't rely on "focus and recompose" with close shots (shallow depth of field is a flat plane, turn and it misses the subject as the sides of the plane move away/towards . . . or you/subject can sway out of focus)
- keep the shutter speed high enough. Rough rule of thumb is 1/(length of lens). So if using a lens zoomed to 35mm you would want a minimum shutter speed of 1/35 s. But if you have shakey hands get one of the newer IS kit lenses or use 1/(2 x length of lens)
- Walls are your friend. Use a tripod if you are committed to photography and do not travel with family (they are bulky, heavy, expensive, time consuming and irritate the hell out of non-photographic travel companions). Monopods are more socially acceptable, quicker, easier, lighter & cheaper, but get a head that allows you to switch to portrait orientation or adjust horizon level quickly on the fly.
- AF modes: if your subject is stationary use ONE SHOT (left option). If your subject is moving use AI SERVO (right option). Use them by selecting your focus point. Forget AI FOCUS (middle option) its too smart for its own good and does wierd thing for moving subjects in certain circumstances.
- keep trying, check the settings used on the bad shots as well as the good shots. If you dont understand why a shot is how it is then post your results up on the forum for help.

3. which lens, rough rules:
- basically use the one which the subject fits into best!
- 28-135 is good general purpose walkabout, scenery & portraits.
- 50mm if you are feeling educationally masochistic (its a good tool for learning composition but you dont half have to think and move around a lot, . . . the foot zoom), or for low light without a flash (inside), or if you need really crisp high resolution, or want really tight depth of field (portraits), or minimal distortion (architecture)
- 70-300 is good for distant sports and wildlife, landscape (yes!, the shortenned pespective is good and also the ability to reach into a detail instead of a panorama), architectural detail, portraits (if you can get far enough away from the subject). BUT if you've got shakey hands use a tripod or monopod with the 70-300 and keep the shutter speed high

 

[Wookie]

more -

out of focus - do you sharpen your shots on the PC?

 

[dmcaloney]

excellent advice thanks Wookie, and I dont sharpen things upon the PC yet as I am not yet sure about if I am making things better or worse!

 

[Tom Harper]

If your using the built in flash I would suggest you dial it down to -1 or -2 when using it as a fill light as the standard/auto setting on my canon tends to give too much flash. You will need to experiment a bit to find the right balance of flash and it will depend on what your are shooting and the distance from the subject.
In simple terms your built in flash will take the settings from your camera and use them to adjust the flash to match, which is what it does on auto and often gives too much light resulting in the caught in the headlights look. By dialing it down you can find a better balance between the ambient light and the flash.

In really bright conditions you might have to increase the flash output to better balance the light such as when the sun is behind a subject.