Manual, Baby
I have a confession to make. I am not a photographer. I am a Mom. And a Chartered Accountant. And I also like to write sometimes.
I totally know how to use my camera in the Manual mode on my camera. Except I don’t normally use the fully manual mode. Because it involves metering and my kids move TOO STINKIN’ FAST.
The Av (Aperture priority) mode is almost fully manual except that the camera does the metering for you. Which saves precious seconds when you are trying to catch the little monkeys precious children in an action shot.
For you guys, though? I will give a quick tutorial.
Metering adjusts your shutter speed, which is the amount of time your camera’s shutter stays open. The shutter open a longer time = more light hits the sensor. It also means a greater chance of blur due to the shutter just staying open while your kids do back flips. The shutter open a shorter time = less light hits the sensor. Less chance for blur as well.
Now for the application.
Switch the dial to M.
Pick your ISO and White Balance.
Look in the viewfinder. Press the shutter halfway down to focus on your subject. In the viewfinder? On the bottom? Is where you see the meter. I could get all technical, but here’s the low down.
Move the meter to the right, and your photo is brighter (over exposed). Move it to the left, and your photo is darker (under exposed). You usually want to aim to have the meter in the middle. It all has to do with the amount of light bouncing back to the camera from your subject. Blah, blah, blah.
To make the meter move to the right, you scroll the Main Dial to the left. And vice versa. I know. It’s about as logical as your average woman.
The problem is, once you move the camera (or your subject MOVES), you need to re-meter. I found I was having trouble getting the shots I wanted. They were often out of focus or way over or under exposed. I happen to like this one from the day I finally learned the manual functions on my camera.
The reason I like Aperture priority mode is that I can pick everything else (ISO, WB, etcetera) and the camera then meters for me. That way my photos are not either over or under-exposed. Then in Lightroom I can play with the exposure and crank it up if I want to.
This is the photo I submitted to NoBloShoeMo yesterday.
There you go. I am not fully manual. I cheat. So sue me.
Lines And Angles
A lot of you have been asking me about angles. I am assuming that we are not talking geometry and that is a good thing. I am an accountant; geometry has nothing to do with accounting. Really. But as if you care about accounting! You are here about photos!
Or maybe you are looking for a card game.
I think what you guys were looking for was about the angles used when taking a shot. I really am not an expert in this. I just know that when I see a photo with great angles it makes me happy inside. I aspire to be able to take the kind of photos that evoke the same emotions in others.
Go me.
What you want to do is look at the lines that make up your photo.
No, we are not doing lines. Look at the composition of your photo. If you are taking a photo of something with vertical lines, you usually want to position your photo to take a vertical shot. Usually.
Take the old lanterns that we have hanging off of the pergola on our deck. Every time I look out the window the lanterns invoke a sense of, I don’t know, happy. I took this vertical photo despite my brain shouting, “DON’T!” just to show you how it doesn’t work. No emotion evoked. Just…meh.
However.
Move to the right a little, and look at what I captured.
That one is going on the wall.
While going on our walk on Monday the boys and I walked alongside a farm. They had a neat handmade fence. I purposely took this photo with you guys in mind.
When Matthew saw the unedited version he thought it was great. Then I showed him this one.
Much better. At least in my humble opinion.
All I can say is that you need to take a bunch of photos to get one that you like. Move your camera between both horizontal and vertical when taking a shot. Kneel down. MOVE. Click, click, click away. It’s digital. The ones you don’t like? You can delete. More on that next week.
Did any of this help? Or am I just blowing smoke where the sun does not shine? Let me know.
I also want to throw a quick question out there. Thanks to Heather at Nabbalicious (Her photography site is here) I have been lusting after pondering the 50mm macro lens. I may or may not be doing something about it.
(Side note: Is it just me or do all women named Heather rock?)
What I would like to hear from you guys is this. What camera accessory can you not live without? If you do not have it yet, what is it that you want to get next? I am new to all of this and it is always great to hear from the peeps who are in the know as to what is “hot” in photo land. The word on the street, as it were.
Peace out.
If you want to play around more with being in fully manual mode you can try bracketing to have your camera take multiple pictures at the setting you selected and one stop below (under exposed) and one stop above.
On my wish list is also a 50mm lens. The accessories that I have that I cannot live without are some of my lens filters. Not very expensive in comparison to some other camera accessories.
I also love some of the reference books I’ve found. I had a hard time finding books that were above the starter/amateur level. But I found a series called Photo Workshop and they have different books by subject – I have the ones for Composition, and Lighting, but the next one on my list is called Photos That Inspire.
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I love your photos!
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Ooh, I really want a macro lens too, but it’s out of my budget right now. I’m thinking about getting an achromatic close-up add on lens, to at least have something to play around with. My next purchase, though, will undoubtedly be a tripod and remote, so I can take long exposures. Maybe, since you already bought yourself the flash, the macro lens could come from Santa! =)
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You may enjoy a fixed focal point portrait lens even more than a macro. That’s what i want more than anything. And…I don’t know how I EVER lived without my tri pod. seriously.
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We have the same pair of rubber boots around here.
Except ours, covered in paint.
Awesome.
Still lusting after something better than my powershot.
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Beautiful pictures today. And I agree that all women named Heather rock… I know quite a few of them, my sister being one!
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Your so smart….now I need a new camera….
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I had no idea what the ISO was for. You are better than any lame tutorial on the net. That meant your not lame. You rock
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All women named Heather DO indeed rock!
I should clarify, the 50mm is not a true macro lens on its own. I’ve heard it called a “normal” lens, because it sees the world as your own eyes see it. Or something like that. However, there’s a macro extension tube sold separately, that you can tack on behind the 50mm (or any other lens, I would think), and then it becomes a macro.
Either way, GET IT.
Oh! And I shoot in aperture priority, too, but have been experimenting with fully manual. A photog told me that manual is best when the lighting is all crazy and uneven — it gives more control over how your photos look that you would necessarily have if you were shooting AV.
Thanks for the tutorial!! You are awesome, and I declare you an honorary Heather.
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I have a Tamron 17-50 f2.8 lens that totally rocks. I use on 80% of my shots. It was about $500 and totally worth it. Other things I couldn’t live without? My external flash, my tripod and my telephoto rank pretty high, but honestly, right now I don’t have a single camera accessory that I don’t use constantly.
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I NEED an SLR. Period.
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Sorry didn’t read the post cause . . . well I’m not so into photography. I looked at the pictures, I love the one of Nathan.
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Pardon me sounding like a selfish law school wife, but the husband needs to find a summer internship because as soon as that contract is signed an SLR will be in my grubby little paws.
And you will be my BFF.
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My must-have photo accessory is my lenscap bungee. Without it I’d have lost my lenscap a hundred times over.
Also way up there on my list is my UV filter. I would be minus one $600 lens had I not invested in the $12 filter.
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Great pictures! I love Nathan’s eyes in the one you took of him. I have the feeling you’re going to run out of wall space pretty soon!
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EEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!
ya know? I know ya do!
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60mm Macro. Can’t live without it.
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i LUUURve your foto Fridays! and Im learning a lot! i soo gotta have a macro lense, really its a weird kind of lust i have going on. not to mention love for closeups. and i want a tripod, i think everyone needs one.
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I love that you forced yourself to take bad example photos, just for us.
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