Constructive Criticism Wanted, To Help Me On This

[shelaghfishface]

With the child running/jumping down the steps you could have used the flash to brighten up the front of him. It's known as fill in flash and is used to highlight something when the object is in a well lit area but the particular point of interest is darker than you would like it to be. Try it sometime. Have the flash set to ON and use it outdoors. It works best when the subject has light shining from behind it, or is in a shaded area.

my next mission

the flower has a low ISO (due to being outside)

can you explain briefly what iso means and what it does please

the instructions are, although lots of pages full of info..im really not getting any information from them, its not like a nice brochure,its just a "do this for this,and that for that "book,and turn to page .... lol, i find your explainations a heck of a lot easier to understand

thanks ever so much so far,

shelagh xxx

 

[Colin_T]

ISO or ASA is the way film speed was classified. The lower ISO number meant a finer quality film and a better picture with less a grainy appearance. Professional photographers would use film with an ISO of 64 or 100, usually 64 (which was slide film) and it gave very clean results.
If you wanted to take pictures at night you would use a film with ISO 800 and it was more light sensitive. Unfortunately it was usually black & white film too. That did change and you can buy ISO 800 colour film.

Digital cameras use the ISO rating as a way of allowing you to take pictures in different light levels, ie: full sunlight or after dark. The lower numbers require more light but give a cleaner picture with less noise or distortion, (known as a grainy appearance). Higher ISO numbers allow more light into the camera but don't give as sharp/clear appearance even tho the image will be in focus.

You can change the ISO setting instead of changing the aperture or shutter speed. If you slow the shutter speed then more light will get into the camera making the image brighter.
If you lower the aperture number the same thing happens. If you increase the ISO number it does the same thing.

 

[SLC Flyfishing]

You've gotten some good information and advice so far. I'll explain ISO for you now, it's basically a setting digital cameras use to allow for a faster shutter speed when the light is not as good as it should be. In the days of film you would use a film with a higher ASA rating, now it's ISO on digital cameras. Basically ISO 50 or 100 is generally the lowest and gives the smoothest results (the least amount of noise) and higher numbers will be more noisy while allowing you to shoot in darker locations.

The reason you get noise is that there is still only a set amount of light hitting your digi-cameras sensor. But you camera's computer internals can amplify the signal that the light creates as it strikes the sensor in an effort to make it look properly exposed. It's a lot like using photoshop to brighten up an underexposed photograph. Yeah you can make it look acceptable, but not as good as if you'd shot it at a lower ISO. Problem is that with non-DSLR cameras the high ISO performance is lacking because the sensors (and along with it the pixels inside) are under sized. Even an APS-C DSLR has a sensor roughly 2X the size of a compact camera. That's why when people on this board have asked me to recommend a compact camera I always tell them to get a 6 megapixel. That way the resolution is good enough to make a decent sized print, while having larger pixels than a 10 or 12 would.

You may not be able to get some of your shots with a lower ISO setting, the quickest shutterspeed you can get might not be fast enough. But I'd try lowering it and seeing what you can do, the results will be much cleaner and sharper.

SLC

 

[shelaghfishface]

fantastic,thankyou Colin,thats cleared that up nicely

 

[shelaghfishface]

thanks,SLC great info too. on my camera i can change the MP from i think its 3-10 ( now that what i think u can do with it) it was saying that diffrent printing sizes needed diffrent MP,( i flew through these pages so may not be spot on)

i did try a few times inceasing and decreasing shutter speed, but was getting annoyed as when i + it (not sure if it was slower or faster) i was getting black pic`s, but then as above advice,it would have been the incorrect combination of settings (F and iso)- hope that makes sense, i know what i mean,just having trouble getting it to make sense lol

shelagh xxx

 

[Colin_T]

the faster shutter speed is obtained by increasing the number from 1/100 to 1/250. This means there is less time for the light to get into the camera making the picture darker.
The 1/100 is actually the speed (in seconds) that it takes for the shutter inside the camera to open and close. So 1/100 is actually one onehundredth of a second. (not sure if that is a real word).
1/50 is half a second, slow.
1/1000 is 1 one thousanth of a second, very fast.
Any speed that is less than 1/60 can become blurry dur to camera shake, from the person holding the camera. At slow shutter speeds like this you should have the camera on a tripod or table so it doesn't move.

When taking fish pics just set the shutter speed to around 1/160. this will be fast enough to capture the moment and then you can adjust the aperture and ISO to suit. It will also be slow enough to allow the flash to work.

Try the camera set with the shutter speed at 1/160 and the ISO on 200. then take a picture and see how dark or light it is. Adjust the aperture to make the picture darker or lighter.

 

[gaz gun man]

shelaghfishface, I fear you may be getting into this alittle too fast (not saying that you are incapable!)

I think it would be best if you stick to aperture or shutter priority, and learn using one, then the other. Sticking a camera straight into manual means you have to set everything for the right exposure, and alot can go way over your head.

Use aperture priority and learn how to control DOF (depth of field) basically a low number denotes a shallow death of field, and a higher number a deeper one

once you have that under your wing try playing with the shutter priority, a good subject is running water, try slowing the shutter speed to get a nice blurred effect from the water without blurring the rest of the image, then go the other way and freeze the water movement.

incase you dont know, when in shutter priority, the camera will control the aperture, and vise-versa in aperture priority.

In manual the camera leaves you to do everything, would is a pretty steep learning curve.

(I hardly ever shoot in manual unless it is difficult conditions or I am looking for the right effect, or I dont agree with the camera's auto settings)

Thats the way I learnt and I didnt feel lost at anytime.

 

[shelaghfishface]

, I fear you may be getting into this alittle too fast

i agree!
trying to get everything right at the same time,and its getting quite stressfull to be honest.i will take your advice and concentrate on one thing at a time,its a bit like cramming for an exam,(reading lots and doing lots,but not much sinking in!)
thanks Gaz,i really appreciate you slowing me down.i have lots of great advice and tips to be going on with,so ill have a go.ill enjoy it more if im not rushing too,

thanks for the tip on running water, i wouldnt have thought of that,
anyway ill stick to mastering (well maybe not quite) one thing at a time, thanks for the honesty. and u too Colin,( your a fish with many hidden talents!) very much appreciate all your help,ill let you know how i go,and ill be back with questions... believe me ( think i will get to grips with aperture first)-as i really dont get that at all.

thanks a million again
shelagh xxxx

 

[gaz gun man]

glad to help

 

[gaz gun man]

shelaghfishface, what is it that is confusing you about aperture?

aperture allows you to control depth of field. the lower the number, the more shallow the DOF.
small apertures such as f22 etc need a longer shutter time to allow the correct exposure.

There is a wiki diagram here

I have taken a few sample snaps for you;

This image was taken at f2.8 ISO 100 + flash

This image was taken at f8 ISO 200 + flash


Because image 2 has a smaller aperture, I have had to increase the ISO to 200 so the camera does not choose a slow shutter speed (which would then cause blurry pics)

By increasing the ISO for image 2 the shutter speed for both pictures was 1/60 of a second.

 

[SLC Flyfishing]

One thing shelaghfishface, I did mention that generally lower megapixel ratings will give better results at higher ISO's, but reading your followup comment makes me fear that you will try to set your camera to lower resolution to get a better high ISO result. That won't work since you can't physically change the size of the pixels, you might as well run it at full resolution all the time. Just wanted to clear that up. Lower resolution settings are for those times when you know you will be posting a photo on the net and want a smaller file size. But a lower max resolution rating on the camera means bigger pixels.

SLC

 

[shelaghfishface]

One thing shelaghfishface, I did mention that generally lower megapixel ratings will give better results at higher ISO's, but reading your followup comment makes me fear that you will try to set your camera to lower resolution to get a better high ISO result. That won't work since you can't physically change the size of the pixels, you might as well run it at full resolution all the time. Just wanted to clear that up. Lower resolution settings are for those times when you know you will be posting a photo on the net and want a smaller file size. But a lower max resolution rating on the camera means bigger pixels.

SLC

ahh right,got you. i havent had a chance to try anything else since my last post, but im soaking up all this info, thankyou very much for your time and advice