Arrrrrrrrrragh! Rant

[peternap]

I feel like Stinkerbell. Rant gripe and damn it all!

I can't get these pictures to come out right. een working on this one for 45 minutes and it's still off

[StinkerBell]

 

[Ernest T. Bass]

Um, what's wrong w/ it?

[peternap]

I started wrong Earnest. With a rifle, I just take the safety off, get a good sight picture and squeeze the trigger...New hat!

I'm still getting used to this new camera that's smarter than I am. I wanted a sharp picture of the fox and a blurred background and had it in aperture priority and wanted as little noise as possible so I had the ISO turned down. All this happened pretty fast so I forgot to kick the shutter speed up and I got some blurring on the body parts that are moving.

The whole series is like that:

[MountainDon]

I wanted a sharp picture of the fox and a blurred background and had it in aperture priority and wanted as little noise as possible so I had the ISO turned down. All this happened pretty fast so I forgot to kick the shutter speed up and I got some blurring on the body parts that are moving.

Sharp foreground and out of focus (blurry) background. That needs a long focal length lens and/or large aperture. You didn't say what the lens focal length was set at (assuming it's a zoom).

ISO turned down to say 64-100?

Camera set in aperture priority mode means you set the aperture and the camera chooses the shutter speed. So you have no direct control over the shutter. So I'm confused by that part "I forgot to kick the shutter speed up."



Maybe you just need a new hat.   

[Alasdair]

Great shot anyway!

[peternap]

Actually, you can control the shutter speed in AV mode Don. The lens is a 300 mm and I had the ISO at 100 if I remember correctly.

[MountainDon]

How's that work, Peter; can you set a minimum or maximum?  I've not gotten into SLR digitals, with so much control.

[peternap]

How's that work, Peter; can you set a minimum or maximum?  I've not gotten into SLR digitals, with so much control.

The down and dirty way is to increase the ISO, but I was trying to e creative
You can also press the Shutter control and adjust to where you want it, the AV will use that as a reference for automatic changes.

I looked at the data and had the ISO set at 200

The shutter was at 1/80 but I need at least the focal length to stop action...Lots to learn yet and keep straight in the field.

Here's the data from the picture:

[Image]
Make = Canon
Model = Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XS
Orientation = top/left
X Resolution = 72
Y Resolution = 72
Resolution Unit = inch
Date Time = 2009-03-11 14:25:59
YCbCr Positioning = co-sited
Exif IFD Pointer = Offset: 196

[Camera]
Exposure Time = 1/80"
F Number = F5.6
Exposure Program = Normal program
ISO Speed Ratings = 200
Exif Version = Version 2.21
Date Time Original = 2009-03-11 14:25:59
Date Time Digitized = 2009-03-11 14:25:59
Components Configuration = YCbcr
Shutter Speed Value = 6.38 TV
Aperture Value = 5 AV
Exposure Bias Value = ±0EV
Metering Mode = Pattern
Flash = Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode
Focal Length = 300mm
Maker Note = 8552 Byte
User Comment =
Subsec Time = 0.25"
Subsec Time Original = 0.25"
Subsec Time Digitized = 0.25"
Flashpix Version = Version 1.0
Color Space = sRGB
Exif Image Width = 3888
Exif Image Height = 2592
Interoperability IFD Pointer = Offset: 9478
Focal Plane X Resolution = 4438.356
Focal Plane Y Resolution = 4445.969
Focal Plane Resolution Unit = inch
Custom Rendered = Normal process
Exposure Mode = Auto exposure
White Balance = Auto white balance
Scene Capture Type = Normal

[Interoperability]
Interoperability Index = ExifR98
Interoperability Version = Version 1.0

[Thumbnail Info]
Compression = JPEG Compressed (Thumbnail)
X Resolution = 72
Y Resolution = 72
Resolution Unit = inch
JPEG Interchange Format = Offset: 9620
JPEG Interchange Format Length = Length: 11048

[Thumbnail]
Thumbnail = 160 x 120

[MakerNote (Canon)]
Camera Settings 1 = 94, 2, 0, 3, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 7, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 32767, 32767, 3, 2, 0, 1, 65535, 39, 300, 75, 1, 160, 348, 0, 0, 0, 0, 65535, 65535, 65535, 0, 0, 0, 0, 65535, 65535, 0, 0, 32767, 65535, 65535, 0
0002 = 0, 300, 45153, 7184
0003 = 0, 0, 0, 0
Camera Settings 2 = 68, 0, 192, 168, 160, 204, 0, 0, 3, 0, 8, 8, 161, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 160, 200, 133, 0, 0, 248, 65535, 65535, 65535, 65535, 0, 0, 0
Image Type = Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XS
Firmware Version = Firmware Version 1.0.3
Owner Name =
Camera Serial Number = 420118424

[MountainDon]

It was all so much simpler pre-automation, or pre fancy "intelligent" automation. 

[MountainDon]

A week or two back when I was cleaning out the utility room. I came across my old Sekonic L28-C. Peter, you probably know what that is; many won't have a clue unless they Google it.    

[Ernest T. Bass]

My brothers are always having "technical difficulties" too, but not as advanced as yours, peter.. True you can get some great shots when you know what you're doing, but you kind of lose that "point and shoot" spontaneity. It can get frustrating when you want 'em to snap a picture of your work at a certain point so you can move on, and they have to play w/ shutter speeds for 20 minutes..

[Dog]

That rifle part was funny.

At first I thought you were serious.

I fell asleep one night with the TV on. I woke up to the gentile whispers of the narrator commenting on the beautiful wild turkey. "Oh ya. He's a beauty". Looks so peaceful. "Ya Burt, that looks like a beautiful shot". (I'm thinking camera!)  Boom. Rifle goes off and I'm trying to change the channel.

Sorry hunters.

[John_C]

I can't make any camera specific recommendations because I shoot with Nikon and have never handled a Rebel, but in general I think the cameras have gotten too clever.

I have disabled many of the advanced features through the set up menus.  The camera does not auto focus every time the shutter is pressed. I have to press a different button on the back of the camera with my right thumb. That also means it isn't hunting for focus if the focus point isn't on my intended subject when I depress the shutter button.  I most often have the camera set to manual metering and use center weighted or spot metering far more often than the more sophisticated modes.  If the light is not changing rapidly I still use my incident meter instead of the in camera meter. 

If the light is variable and I have to let the camera choose the exposure I will engage the bracketing feature and shoot 3 frames @  0, +1, -1    ev.   

The one thing I am careful to do is to set the white balance appropriate to the conditions. If possible I do a custom white balance. In my experience auto white balance is a complete failure. 
There are ways to do a custom white balance and batch process the color and exposure correction of all the images and to do it in a way that take the monitor calibration and your eyes color discernment out of the equation. If anyone is interested I will explain why, or for that matter why I chose to set the camera up the way I have.

I've probably shot 150,000 image with digital cameras and I've probably looked at the exif data a couple dozen times.

Usually in wildlife photography the goal is to get the eyes sharp.  If the eyes are sharp then some softness of focus closer or farther away, or some motion blur is not usually a big deal.

[peternap]

Thanks John. I was hoping you'd chime in.