What camera are you shooting with?

Feeling the urge to upgrade from the Sony A6000 for some reason. It’s already too much camera for me though
Haven’t really used much since May/June

 

Just got my canon eos rebel t7i with the 18-55mm lense and the 55-250mm lense. Trying to figure out some good settings to shoot portrait photos or newborn photos outdoor in good light and indoor in medium light

 

If it's anything like my 60D and 80D set your aperture to whatever you like (3.5 I'm guessing is as large as it goes) and start at ISO 160. Let the shutter speed set your exposure to your liking. If you're getting motion blur move your ISO up to 320, 640, or 1250 as needed. If you're really into portraits I suggest the Sigma 50mm f/1.4 HSM DG Art Lens. I bought one for our wedding. Saved $$$ on hiring someone.

 

Hey man thx for the dope info! I’m going to try it out tomorrow. Ya my friend who’s a pro photographer told me to get a 50mm and a 10-18mm? For wide angle baby photos. Found a deal for $350 for both lenses at BHphotovideo.com

 

Canon 5D mark iii
24-105 f4

70-200 f2.8

 

Keep an eye out on Offerup and CL since it looks like you're in the 818 - tons of good lenses, tripods, and other stuff in LA since tons of people like it as a hobby or do it for work. If you want to make the photos blur the background, your aperture will want to be somewhere between 3.5-4 (smaller F Stop number makes more light enter the camera) - it's a littles strange at the beginning since people say "Larger" but the number in the display gets smaller. If you get a fixed lens (doesn't zoom in) look for f/1.4 or f 1.8 to get that professional wedding photo appearance.

 

Yea man been trying to blur the background of baby pics and portraits of wife and friends but still not doing it. I’m only shooting in manual mode cause I want to figure this stuff out. It does have modes for portraits and such but most controls I can’t change on those modes.

 

The mechanics of photography are pretty simple, once you understand what the three exposure settings (shutter, aperture, and iso or sensitivity) do.

Shutter speed controls motion in the image. A fast shutter freezing motion, a slow shutter can allow some motion blur. I like 1/250 as a minimum for portraits unless I’m using a flash.

Aperture controls depth of field. A small aperture (bigger f number) gives a greater depth of field, meaning more is in focus. A large aperture (smaller f number) gives a shallower depth of field. How close you are to the subject affects this too, closer giving a shallower DoF. Too shallow and you’ll end up with one eye or just the tip of the nose in focus, and the rest blurry. Mind your backgrounds and back drops too. Anything too close will be in focus, anything too busy can be distracting even if it’s not in focus.

iSO is how sensitive the sensor or film is to light, with the lower numbers being less sensitive.

I don’t use full manual very often; I shoot Pentax so I mostly shoot in P using the MTF program line. Moving the aperture dial puts me in aperture priority, moving the shutter dial changes it to shutter priority, pressing the green button puts the camera back to the program line. I set ISO to an auto range, usually 100-3200. If I am
shooting on M, I use the green button to get me a starting exposure and adjust from there.

http://www.ricoh-imaging.co.jp/english/explore/technic/002/

 

Canon 5dsr

 

so my 50mm f1.8 lens came in yesterday and this things awesome! we have a shitty weather with all the fires going on in southern cali.......trying to get great pics of the orange sun early mornings.......using the 55-250mm lens...any tips? settings? i got a pretty good one, but just trying to improve. iso 100 in manual mode, F16 i believe, but just trying to improve.

 

With ISO at 100 and the lens stopped down to f/16 what is your shutter speed? Without bright sunshine, those numbers are asking for dark shots unless you’re shooting real slow speeds or bringing highlights and shadows back in post.

 

Great question, I have to go back and check when I get home from work. It came out nice, I’ll post it, but just trying to make it more sharp and clear

 

My point is if you’re shooting hand held with a slow shutter speed it’s likely going to look soft or blurry. Try higher ISO and faster shutter speed

 

Someone will correct me I’m sure, but diffraction kicks in around f11 I think on aps-c sensors. Maximum sharpness will usually occur on aps-c/35mm format lenses at f5.6 to f8.

Most modern cameras are relatively even in image quality from iso 100 to iso 800.

The sunny-16 rule of exposure says that on a bright sunny day, the correct exposure of a well lit subject at iso 100 is f16 and 1/100 or 1/125s. A Smokey sunrise isn’t a bright sunny day, and is probably several stops less bright, so your shutter speed was probably lower, around 1/25s or slower, depending on how and where you metered the scene. 1/25 would be 2 stops less, 1/15 would be 3 stops, 1/8 is 4 stops. Any of those speeds are going to let camera shake and possibly mirror slap ruin a sharp image.

So to gain sharpness without sacrificing depth of field, try shooting at f8 and iso 400. That’s putting your shutter speed back up to 1/125 or 1/250 at least; plenty fast enough for a handheld image from a 50mm lens. 1/250 would be pushing it for a 200mm lens but doable if it’s a stabilized lens.

 

awesome info man, thank you, appreciate it. new to all this and taking in all the info i can. ill try out some other settings and see how they come out.

 

I can barely grasp at what you're saying but this kind of insight is fantastic, especially impressive bc your working from a hypothetical standpoint. Think ill go brush up on the basics...

 

Any videos you guys recommend to better understand iso, aperture, shutter speed? And when to change these around to what I’m shooting? I’ve watched what is iso? What is aperture? What is shutter speed? Types of vids on YouTube, but maybe I haven’t found the right vids that explain which to use when shooting inside in good light or medium light and which to use outdoors in natural light?

 

I don’t, I’m sure they are out there but I hate watching YouTube and don’t learn well from videos. Give me a book or a well written article any day!

Here’s an article on exposure values (EV) that has a chart of typical EV’s for various lighting situations:

https://photographylife.com/exposure-value

This is what I use as a starting point if I’m going to guess an exposure.

I know what bright sunlight meters for: 1/125, f16 at iso 100. EV value of 15.

A well lit room is EV 6, or roughly 9 stops of light darker. I need to change my camera settings to bring in 9 stops more light to make an equally exposed image. If I only change one parameter:
4 seconds shutter, f16, iso 100
1/125, f0.95 or something silly like that, if not more, iso 100
1/125, f16, iso 51200

None of those are really practical settings, except the first if you have a tripod and still subjects.

But if I go to iso 800 (3 stops), f2.8 (5 stops) and 1/60 (1 stop) I’ve got something I can work with for most things. Might get some motion blur on fast subjects, and it’s not enough to stop motion for indoor sports for sure, but it’s doable. I could go to iso 3200 (+ 2 stops) and move my shutter to 1/250 (-2 stops) for sports work.

Or you start down the devil’s path of adding light aka flashes and strobes. Check out the Strobist website for TONS of great info.

Really though it comes back to what you’re shooting, where, with what, and what else is happening. It’s not something picked up in a 30 minute video. It’s a full semester class minimum. Hell I’ve been shooting for 20 years and I still learn every time I go out.

I might need a fast shutter speed more than a small aperture when shooting a landscape because it’s windy and I want the grass and trees frozen more than I want extremely deep depth of field.

I might need a fast shutter indoors because I’m shooting a basketball game and I’ll have to deal with the extremely narrow DoF and worse image quality from high ISO’s because it’s the frozen moment that matters most.

As long as the settings can balance out to a correct exposure, it doesn’t matter where they go. Just remember that each one gives and takes from the others. If you add a stop to shutter speed, you have to take it from ISO or aperture, etc. If it gets cloudy and you’re set for bright sun, you’ll have to pull a couple stops from somewhere; pick the one that works with what you are trying to capture.

 

Great info I will def keep reading and shooting different stuff in various settings and light

 

Best teacher is going to be practice. One day it will click in your head. When you switch to flash photography it’s a little bit of a different ballgame. Then the shutter speed will effect your ambient light and the f/stop will effect the light of the flash. But you’ll also be dealing with iso and flash power. That’s when it gets really fun.


You can read and read about it and confuse yourself. But then there will be one day when you’re shooting something and you’ll remember something you read and try it. Then when it all comes together and you do it a second time you realize oh wow. That’s how it works.