[silvergray545]

Originally Posted by dcstep

You MUST be aware of shutter speed and aperture and you can do that by shooting either Tv or Av modes, or, of course, shooting manual. I shoot Av, but always look at the SS in the viewfinder. If it's not where I want it, I raise or lower ISO or change f-stop. I like Av because I control DOF by managing the aperture.

When you go to RAW you'll gain a stop or two of dynamic range if you "expose right" (to the right of the historgram). If you expose as far to the right as possible without blowing out highlights, then you'll maximize the dynamic range and detail of your image, preserving as much shadow detail as possible. There are highlight warning lights that should be turned on because they'll blink in the preview LCD if you've blown out a highlight. When shooting Tv or Av or Automatic, you expose right, generally, by setting the EV at +. Generally +1/3 to +1EV is enough, but I use as much as +2EV in certain circumstances. If your blinkie warning lights go off, the lower EV and even go to -EV if there are whites in sunlight, etc.

"Expose Right" is a RAW technique. Your in-camera jpegs will look washed out, but when you do RAW conversion you'll pull your brightness levels down.

I've never used Aperture, but lots of pros use it, so I think it's good and will do all the things we're talking about here. I use DxO Optics Pro because it's optimized for each of my lens/body combinations and corrects for the errors in my lenses, particularly zooms at wide angles. LightRoom does some of that, but not at every aperture and every focal-length like DxO.

Dave

That was extremely helpful! Thank you! I'm going to try it next chance I get to shoot.

Originally Posted by infinitekid2002

You mad?

Originally Posted by infinitekid2002

i aint crap neither...my comment was just to say he's got a long way to go to replace the professional photographers with his mom's jewelry photos

i guess i was too harsh

I'm not offended and I know I can't replace any professionals. I'm just trying to get the hang of it at the moment.

Originally Posted by The1

both comments were completely different. one was an attack, the other an observation...



Any more pictures for us to review for you Silver?

Have you worked out your lighting yet?

Unfortunatly shooting in automatic mode doesn't let you choose where your camera is focusing, it thinks it knows better, so experiment lots with different focus points on your camera.

Center focus is always most acurate, however it can cause distortion if you focus on the point you want, then rotate the camera a lot to get it into the position you want, so make sure you shoot the focus point that is most appropriate. It will make a difference to your photos.

Also, try using the "rule of thirds" sometimes it feels a bit weird framing a photo that way, sometimes you'll get your best results and expression that way. (really works best with backgrounds) but when shooting your macro, you're going to be pretty centered. It all comes down to experimentation.

And like dave recommends, the best thing you can do overall, is use RAW images, you'll see how much of a difference in control over the image you will have.

I do have more pictures from the car show that I can upload if you'd like to review those too. Actually, now that I think of it, there are a couple pictures I'd like an opinion on. I'll work on getting those uploaded tonight.

I haven't figured out my lighting yet. The only thing that is preventing me from doing so is time. When I get a chance to sit down and research it, I will because I don't really know much about it.

I also noticed that it's hard to focus it where you want in automatic mode. For example, when I was trying to take a picture of the car behind us using the rear view mirror, it would focus on the mirror itself. The one I posted is the only shot that I got in focus. And I think it probably could have been better.

I didn't know what the "rule of thirds" is until I googled it. It makes sense but does feel awkward shooting like that. I will definitely try that very soon.

I'm not sure how to shoot RAW images. Is that a setting on the camera? Sorry, I'm still noobish at this. Lol

Originally Posted by Chewy734

I recommend shooting in Av mode as well, assuming I'm not shooting in Manual. The only time I would switch to Tv mode is at night sometimes or when shooting sports. Tv mode may be ok to use for rolling shots, but not necessary. I wouldn't use Tv mode for stationary cars though.

So from what I understand, Av and Tv mode give you more control over the settings. Av you can use to shoot pretty much anything and Tv can be used to shoot objects in motion.