The *Official Photography Thread*

Too much bush...

 

You're working on the right idea--using objects to frame your subject however, in this instance, the eye is drawn to the two pipes & water but they're lost in all the brush.

Here's a sample crop--by no means the best but you get the idea of how to frame the shot in-camera.

 

I took this of my puppy the other day at the creek. Just wondering what you all thought of the result and any tips on settings. Since she's so white, it looks like she gets over exposed a lot when the sun is out.

Thanks

 

She's gorgeous. Let's start with the metering first.

If you have a subject that's overly bright, like snow, it will "fool" the meter into thinking the scene is OE when you're using evaluative metering (metering based on the entire scene). With your pup, it's just the opposite. The scene is mostly dark, she'll be OE. The trick is to compensate by adding +EV correction--do this in 1/3 stops upto about a full stop for the snowy scenes and do it with -EV for scenes like those with your dog. I shoot mostly Canon and almost always have about 2/3's of a stop of -EV dialed in.

Now, let's talk about your shot. The dog is really only Over Exposed on the sunny side and even then, it's a small amount--so I would probably fix that by making an -EV correction of about a 1/3 stop. The danger is you're dealing with dark parts of the image as well and it's possible to Under Expose too. I'd probably also shoot a little tighter as well or move her head to the top third of the frame (similar composition but more toward the top).

The picture has nice Bokeh and the eyes look to be in focus. It's a pretty shot!

 

Hey thanks for the tips! I'm not into post editing yet, I want to just not there yet.

I'm just wondering if I have the right settings, ISO, F stops, shutter speed, ect. I figured once I get that down I'll get into photoshop.

 

Here you go.
http://www.amazon.com/YN-560-Speedl...LFHM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1307383176&sr=8-2
My buddy just picked one up. They are awesome. i might buy three lol

 

FWIW (lack of) DoF is key :d...

The More DoF you have, the more is in focus....

 

Just a word of warning on these cheap flash units. For the most part, there's nothing wrong with them except maybe the consistency of the product. In other words, you might need three to have one that works reliably all the time or you might need to compare all three so you know how they work--and if they work properly (output, HSS, etc).

That doesn't mean you're going to get 4x better performance from something that costs 4x as much just that at $60, the quality is just different.

 

another beach shoot yaaaay. i convinced my girl to run the other direction tomorrow cause im running out of shit to snap pics of. i also cant get a good pic of people walking. the background stays but the people blur out. whats a good setting for slow action shots. any help much appreciated

 

On a serious note, I cut the pic a bit at home and saved, can't post now since I am at work. It was a bit difficult to get to the area due to how the water was...Its been tough to shoot anything these last few days, the weather has been crappy. Gray skies and rain don't add much to a pic..lol

 

i love gray skies!

 

My pics under gray skies have no color. I want color without huge amounts of editing! Your beach pics are awesome! Colors everywhere!!

Mine are all....sad

 

Hey Aaron, can you tell me a bit about the lenses you're using?

 

Canon Zoom Lens EF-S 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6 IS 58mm

Thats the only lens I have for this camera, its my sisters and she really didn't send very much with it. The camera is a Canon XSi...not sure about the Megapix...

 

Thanks!

 

Lol were you gonna give me a tip

I shoot about 5-7 pics of the same thing all with different setting...I'm slowly figuring out how things work! Shoulda never sold my old one.

 

Less bush

 

To be honest, I don't know what are you trying to tell with those images

 

I was but then decided to think about it for a bit.

At 18-55, your range is pretty short meaning for stuff that's far away, you'll either have to sneaker-zoom or crop heavily. For many things, you want to fill the frame with the subject--which means at 55mm, you're still gonna be pretty close to what you're shooting. A heavy crop isn't the most ideal way to "zoom" because you lose so much Image Quality when you do it.

Shooting at different combination of shutter/f-stop is a great way to learn. Especially about Depth of Field and the effect of aperture on ambient light and motion within an image. Something else you may also want to try is to shoot your subject from 18-55mm without moving to get an idea for the Field of View.

I noticed also that you gave the "less bush" shot a bit more color too. That helps with the gray sky. When you compare the two images, do you notice how the crop emphasizes the subject in the second more than the first?