Breathe easy. You'll be surprised at what you already know! Yeah, yeah, we all learned the three in the triangle, aperture, shutter speed and ISO, but how do we make them all come together, you ask?
When I became absolutely determined to get the whole manual recipe to work together for me, I first went to YouTube. Note - just as you do, I already knew how to work each of the three separately, but was totally confused as how to make all three work together when I had the camera set to manual. I searched my camera make and model and the work manual mode. I.E. Nikon D5200 Manual Mode.
Then I chose several videos - with camera in hand. I watched the videos one at a time, while following along and pausing the video as I learned how to put it all together! I got the IDEA!
Also, you need to learn about how you look through your viewfinder and see the little line that looks like a ruler. You use your three different settings to bring all the little lines to the Zero Point. You should see that demonstrated in at least some of the videos.
OK, FINE! Now I could sit at my desk and make the camera do what the dudes on the YouTube videos told me, but would the photos turn out any good when I put the whole thing into play.
Please remember, I'm not here to teach anybody. I'm just recounting what I have done and am going to do on my trek of 10,000 hours to what I hope might be "World Class" Photos.
I set up a makeshift backdrop in my living room, utilizing some black felt. Then I chose a few items from around the house and decided to try out this Manual Mode thing. Further, I realized it was time to haul out the tripod. Further, I quickly found out that it was necessary to use a remote shutter release. In my case, the D5200 doesn't have WiFi, so I have a little WiFi chip that I plug into the camera and I use the Nikon App for my iPhone. Works great! With each of you, you'll have to find out what works with your camera.
Unfortunately, I made a mistake and deleted the photos that had the settings attached. But I do have the photos of this exercise. Here's just a couple of them.
Note: After taking the shots I did take them into Photoshop, pull them from the background, then drop them into a new image that was a completely black background.
After performing this exercise, I finally had all the mechanics necessary to operate each of the three - aperture, shutter speed, and ISO down pat and imbedded in my memory bank! To me this was a massive step in the right direction!
Then, just today, I took the camera to the zoo to practice manual shooting in real life. This time I do have the settings on the photos I'm about to share. AND this time all shots were hand-held, no tri-pod, no remote shutter release. Here's a few of my favorites:
The above shot was taken indoors, in the reptile house. Very subdued light and the frog was behind glass. Here's the settings: f-5.6, 1/80 sec, ISO 400, 55 mm, no flash.
The cute zebra's settings were f 4.8, 1/200 sec. ISO 140, 100 mm.
Shooting the flamingos was great. Found a quiet corner of their pond area that was tucked away from the main stream of human traffic. The place was also nicely in the shade with a good view of the flock through a small stand of trees. I spent a lot of time here, simply messing around with the manual mode, trying a variety of the same shots, while changing ISO from one setting to another, then practicing making the changes with aperture and shutter speed to match and get the correct lighting. This was probably the best practice I've had thus far! I won't burden you with the boatload of photos I took, but here are the settings on the one above. f 5.6, 1/400 sec., ISO 100, 270 mm.
And finally, above is a picture that didn't quite come out the way I had anticipated. This is just to let you know that not all pictures turn out well as I practice (NOTE: I shot well over 400 photos today and after I'm all done with post-production, I'll probably end up with MAYBE 40 or so ones that I like). Here's the settings: f5, 1/125 sec., ISO 500, 165mm.
Let's talk about the one photo above. I chose to shoot at ISO 500, to challenge me to get the other two settings correctly. Obviously I didn't, even when looking at the little diagram inside my viewfinder. First, when looking at the diagram through the viewfinder, sometimes my camera drifts a bit from the subject, maybe into shade or a different intensity of light. Therefore a strong possibility of incorrect settings. SO, here's my thoughts. I wanted ISO, so first, I let too much light into the camera. Therefore, I should have used a smaller aperture or f-stop. BUT I didn't want to because I wanted the depth of field that I acquired. Therefore, I should have used a faster shutter speed.
Now all that being said above - while sitting home and critiqueing my settings, below is what I did while I was at the shoot:
Obviously a much better photograph. What I did was change my ISO to 250, but left the other settings the same - f-5 and 1/125 sec.
The whole point here is that there are so many variables and as we inch closer to that far away 10,000 hour mark, our photos will get better. We will develop more of a personal style, and more and more of this will become somewhat automatic.
Tomorrow, I attend an art hop in a little town south of here. I'll be taking my camera along to shoot photos of the crowd that stops to visit my few photos that are hanging in a local coffee shop. Then on Sunday, I'll head back to the zoo, to once again practice some of what I'm learning as I add hours to my experience!
Remember, comments are welcomed and encouraged, join in the fun! See ya all next time!
Hours logged - 5.5 Study and Post-Processing - 3
Total - 19.25 Total - 14.5
©CynthiaG Photography
CynthiaGPix@gmail.com
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