Digital SLR Camera advice

ArkieDukie · Post by **ArkieDukie** » August 14th, 2010, 1:03 pm

Okay, time to fess up. Shot 39 is an example of spot metering gone bad. Just for jollies, I spot-metered on the water. The unaltered shot was way too dark. Since I shot in raw rather than jpg, I was able to rescue the shot in the Nikon software by altering the exposure and also the Active D Lighting setting (Nikon's fix for improving contrast). This shot, and the others taken in the woodland garden, had the same problem. The trail shot didn't look so hot either. I was amazed at what happened with all of these shots after I fixed exposure. I'm not sure I'll ever shoot in jpg again. Also had to tweak the fountain shot - it was overexposed and hazy looking.

The bridge shots that you mentioned (taken in the Japanese Garden) also had a bit of exposure repair work. The one that you mentioned as being washed out was one of my unprocessed shots. Compare it to the others and you can see what the tweaking did. I did take one from the front; somehow I didn't add it to the set. I'll have to do that.

No adjustments on the butterfly shot. I didn't take it with the macro lens because I tend to take only one lens with me when I shoot. Stinking butterflies never seem to be around when I have my macro lens with me. As I was shooting I was wishing I had it. WIth that being said, I was able to get closer with the 18/105 than I would've gotten with the 60mm macro - at least, with my current setup.

ArkieDukie · Post by **ArkieDukie** » August 14th, 2010, 1:21 pm

Lavabe wrote:I really won't disagree at all with Arkie. Her observations are dead on. I use my 70-200 f2.8 for photos of my daughter's play, and I can get away with A LOT!!

Having said that, I DO have several suggestions about COMPOSING your shots:
1) Did you get any good portraits? Sometimes we get SO caught up in the action that we lose track of getting a variety of photos for each subject. You have CUTE kids, but a lot of these photos are full body action AT THE COST of seeing their expressions. Nothing wrong about full body shots, but I also now make a point of getting portraits, stomach to head shots, and a variety of other ones. So, if you have a kid swinging at a pinata, it's good to get the shot of the full swing (if you can see the face), but I'd have gotten the photo from the front, and look at the facial expression as the swing takes place.
2) Don't be afraid to use flash. The grandparent (?) photo of the hug with grandchild would have worked with flash. It's very grainy, and the orange tint is from the incandescent bulb.
3) The train shot: your caption led me to believe that it was going to be a fun shot. The kids looked dead, and frankly, the train wasn't all that clear (I wouldn't have known it was a train had you not told me). And the facial expressions aren't doing much for me. There's no interaction; it looks posed, and the kids don't appear to interact.
4) whoa... boy silhouette in a playground tube is LOVELY.
5) on portraits (and on many shots), get at the same level as the kids.
6) take advantage of your knowledge of your kids. As a parent, you become familiar with little characteristics that are predictable and very revealing. I find I have to do the same thing when photographing lemurs. I have to learn each individual, THEN I photograph.

I'll see if I can dig up a photo or two from Madagascar that can illustrate some of these points.
Cheers,
Lavabe

Thanks Lavabe! I totally agree with your comment about the orange tint. That's one of the biggest problems I have with indoor shots. In fact, I'm thinking about investing in an expo disc for when I'm shooting indoors when I can't use a flash. (Expo disk allows you to create a custom white balance setting for your shooting environment - great for indoor lighting.) Most of the indoor shots I take without a flash have an orange cast to them, and I have yet to figure out how to fix it after the fact. All of the pics I took at my niece's graduation are awful because they are so orange. White balance can be adjusted manually while you're shooting, but it takes lots of trial and error. I'm not great at it.

Your tips on composition are great. I'm not so great at people shots yet. Definitely something I need to work on, and I think I tend to do the same thing as bjornolf (action rather than facial expressions). I've had a hard time putting a finger on why my brother-in-law's shots are so great, and I think that's it. He does a stellar job of taking people shots for various family events.

Lavabe · Post by **Lavabe** » August 14th, 2010, 1:36 pm

ArkieDukie wrote:No adjustments on the butterfly shot. I didn't take it with the macro lens because I tend to take only one lens with me when I shoot.

It's called a camera bag. GET ONE!

ArkieDukie · Post by **ArkieDukie** » August 14th, 2010, 1:40 pm

Lavabe wrote:
ArkieDukie wrote:No adjustments on the butterfly shot. I didn't take it with the macro lens because I tend to take only one lens with me when I shoot.
It's called a camera bag. GET ONE!

I have a bag AND a backpack. I just like to minimize the stuff I'm carrying. Call me lazy. I also like to challenge myself to get good shots with the lenses I have available. Macro would've been nice, though.

Lavabe · Post by **Lavabe** » August 14th, 2010, 1:41 pm

Since Facebook isn't uploading photos for me, I'll post one photo I just took this year in Madagascar:

Zahir (the grandfather) is a shopowner I've known for 20 years or so. He invited me to his home for lunch, just before I left. His grandson is the son of Zenabi, who was the barely 1 year old daughter of his when I first met him. This scene came about when, just before lunch, someone came over to give him a haircut. Well, the kid did the rest...

... and well, the flash helped a bit, too!

Lavabe · Post by **Lavabe** » August 14th, 2010, 1:56 pm

Ahh... Facebook is uploading my photos after all!!

ArkieDukie · Post by **ArkieDukie** » August 14th, 2010, 2:00 pm

Nice shot! Love the facial expressions. Color in the shot is great, too.

bjornolf · Post by **bjornolf** » August 14th, 2010, 6:37 pm

ArkieDukie wrote: One thing I noticed on a few of your shots is that a flash would've helped a bit. the shot was outdoors and bright, but the kids were dark. Assuming you were close enough, a flash would've brought them out of the shadows. It's completely counterintuitive to use a flash outdoors, but sometimes it helps when you're shooting people. It also might have helped in the picture of Michael in the slide, but I'm not sure what the flash would do inside the tunnel.

Thanks so much. The only thing I'll respond with is that in the tunnel slide, that was the effect I was going for. I think those pix are cool. It's more about the shadowed outline of the kid and the sky through the tunnel. I have a few of those with the flash where you can see the child in full detail, but I didn't put those in the website cause that wasn't the effect I was going for.

ArkieDukie · Post by **ArkieDukie** » August 14th, 2010, 6:50 pm

bjornolf wrote:
ArkieDukie wrote: One thing I noticed on a few of your shots is that a flash would've helped a bit. the shot was outdoors and bright, but the kids were dark. Assuming you were close enough, a flash would've brought them out of the shadows. It's completely counterintuitive to use a flash outdoors, but sometimes it helps when you're shooting people. It also might have helped in the picture of Michael in the slide, but I'm not sure what the flash would do inside the tunnel.

Thanks so much. The only thing I'll respond with is that in the tunnel slide, that was the effect I was going for. I think those pix are cool. It's more about the shadowed outline of the kid and the sky through the tunnel. I have a few of those with the flash where you can see the child in full detail, but I didn't put those in the website cause that wasn't the effect I was going for.

It is a cool shot and a neat effect. Sometimes it's hard to tell what people are aiming for. I like the detail inside the tunnel in addition to Michael being shadowed. Was that lost with the flash? What about the sky color? I'm asking because I'm honestly curious. Backlighting is so tricky.

bjornolf · Post by **bjornolf** » August 14th, 2010, 6:54 pm

Lavabe wrote: I really won't disagree at all with Arkie. Her observations are dead on. I use my 70-200 f2.8 for photos of my daughter's play, and I can get away with A LOT!!

Having said that, I DO have several suggestions about COMPOSING your shots:
1) Did you get any good portraits? Sometimes we get SO caught up in the action that we lose track of getting a variety of photos for each subject. You have CUTE kids, but a lot of these photos are full body action AT THE COST of seeing their expressions. Nothing wrong about full body shots, but I also now make a point of getting portraits, stomach to head shots, and a variety of other ones. So, if you have a kid swinging at a pinata, it's good to get the shot of the full swing (if you can see the face), but I'd have gotten the photo from the front, and look at the facial expression as the swing takes place.
2) Don't be afraid to use flash. The grandparent (?) photo of the hug with grandchild would have worked with flash. It's very grainy, and the orange tint is from the incandescent bulb.
3) The train shot: your caption led me to believe that it was going to be a fun shot. The kids looked dead, and frankly, the train wasn't all that clear (I wouldn't have known it was a train had you not told me). And the facial expressions aren't doing much for me. There's no interaction; it looks posed, and the kids don't appear to interact.
4) whoa... boy silhouette in a playground tube is LOVELY.
5) on portraits (and on many shots), get at the same level as the kids.
6) take advantage of your knowledge of your kids. As a parent, you become familiar with little characteristics that are predictable and very revealing. I find I have to do the same thing when photographing lemurs. I have to learn each individual, THEN I photograph.

I'll see if I can dig up a photo or two from Madagascar that can illustrate some of these points.
Cheers,
Lavabe

1. You'll notice that my wife took all of the pinata shots. I'm in the background holding the pole that attaches to the pinata.
2. She also took the one of the grandparent photo. I love my flash. Actually, the flash DID go off in that one, but she was far enough away that it didn't take. We weren't in that "extended flash" mode that fills in the background with the flash.
3. Yea, I had it set to automatic, and the darn flash didn't go off. I noticed it immediately, but they'd moved on by the time I could get it reset. With so many kids, most of which weren't mine, I didn't have much control. I was actually embarrassed to put that one up, but my brother was giving me crap about not having enough images from their visit up.
4. Yea, I love that one. The one of Katie there is pretty good too, I think. Here:

5. I try to do that, but it doesn't always work out. And flashes sometime wash out Katie. Here's a couple portraits I recently took of Katie and one of Michael:

6. I try to do that. Erica's afraid of the camera and just clicks away and hopes for the best and uses it as an excuse.

bjornolf · Post by **bjornolf** » August 14th, 2010, 7:09 pm

ArkieDukie wrote:
bjornolf wrote:
ArkieDukie wrote: One thing I noticed on a few of your shots is that a flash would've helped a bit. the shot was outdoors and bright, but the kids were dark. Assuming you were close enough, a flash would've brought them out of the shadows. It's completely counterintuitive to use a flash outdoors, but sometimes it helps when you're shooting people. It also might have helped in the picture of Michael in the slide, but I'm not sure what the flash would do inside the tunnel.

Thanks so much. The only thing I'll respond with is that in the tunnel slide, that was the effect I was going for. I think those pix are cool. It's more about the shadowed outline of the kid and the sky through the tunnel. I have a few of those with the flash where you can see the child in full detail, but I didn't put those in the website cause that wasn't the effect I was going for.

It is a cool shot and a neat effect. Sometimes it's hard to tell what people are aiming for. I like the detail inside the tunnel in addition to Michael being shadowed. Was that lost with the flash? What about the sky color? I'm asking because I'm honestly curious. Backlighting is so tricky.

It just looks like a kid in a tunnel with the flash. And you totally lose the sky.

ArkieDukie · Post by **ArkieDukie** » August 14th, 2010, 7:19 pm

bjornolf wrote:It just looks like a kid in a tunnel with the flash. And you totally lose the sky.

Thanks! I wondered if that would be the case.

ArkieDukie · Post by **ArkieDukie** » August 14th, 2010, 7:21 pm

bjornolf wrote: 1. You'll notice that my wife took all of the pinata shots. I'm in the background holding the pole that attaches to the pinata.
2. She also took the one of the grandparent photo. I love my flash. Actually, the flash DID go off in that one, but she was far enough away that it didn't take. We weren't in that "extended flash" mode that fills in the background with the flash.
3. Yea, I had it set to automatic, and the darn flash didn't go off. I noticed it immediately, but they'd moved on by the time I could get it reset. With so many kids, most of which weren't mine, I didn't have much control. I was actually embarrassed to put that one up, but my brother was giving me crap about not having enough images from their visit up.
4. Yea, I love that one. The one of Katie there is pretty good too, I think. Here:

5. I try to do that, but it doesn't always work out. And flashes sometime wash out Katie. Here's a couple portraits I recently took of Katie and one of Michael:

6. I try to do that. Erica's afraid of the camera and just clicks away and hopes for the best and uses it as an excuse.

Nice portraits, bjornolf! I especially like the one of Katie with the necklace.

CameronBornAndBred · Post by **CameronBornAndBred** » August 15th, 2010, 4:12 pm

These weren't taken with an SLR...but they still came out cool. I'm at my mom's in Va. and the weather has not cooperated...until a little bit ago and the sun finally came out after a drenching downpour. Here are two pics that I took while seeking painting material.

ArkieDukie · Post by **ArkieDukie** » August 15th, 2010, 7:03 pm

I like the pics, CB&B! Love the water droplets on the flowers. Also like the faint reflection in the second.

ArkieDukie · Post by **ArkieDukie** » August 15th, 2010, 9:31 pm

I went to the MoBot again today - it was such a nice day! Lots of bugs and butterflies to chase around. Lavabe, this time I took my camera bag - and my macro lens. The 18-105mm lens never came out of the bag. I'm pretty psyched about a few of these (**cough** bee shot **cough**)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/17449158@N ... 609072209/
As always, comments and criticism are appreciated.

Lavabe · Post by **Lavabe** » August 15th, 2010, 9:45 pm

ArkieDukie wrote:I went to the MoBot again today - it was such a nice day! Lots of bugs and butterflies to chase around. Lavabe, this time I took my camera bag - and my macro lens. The 18-105mm lens never came out of the bag. I'm pretty psyched about a few of these (**cough** bee shot **cough**)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/17449158@N ... 609072209/
As always, comments and criticism are appreciated.

I'm not into the bee shot (focusing issues).

I AM all over #89. You perfectly caught the shadows on the petals so that the photo is full of texture.

Glad you used your macro... and your bag!

ArkieDukie · Post by **ArkieDukie** » August 15th, 2010, 10:02 pm

Lavabe wrote:I'm not into the bee shot (focusing issues).

I AM all over #89. You perfectly caught the shadows on the petals so that the photo is full of texture.

Glad you used your macro... and your bag!

Thanks! I like 89, too.

On the bee, I think it's more of an aperture issue. I shot it at f/3.2, which is admittedly a bit low for getting the entire bee in focus. In the original picture it appears as though the middle part of the bee is in focus but the front and back are not. Admittedly it would've been a better shot at, say, f/8, but I like the foreground and background. I had another shot that was a better angle on the bee; unfortunately it was out of focus.

Post by **YmoBeThere** » August 15th, 2010, 10:54 pm

I'm just happy when my thumb isn't in front of the lens when I take a picture.

bjornolf · Post by **bjornolf** » August 16th, 2010, 1:16 pm

Lavabe wrote:
ArkieDukie wrote:I went to the MoBot again today - it was such a nice day! Lots of bugs and butterflies to chase around. Lavabe, this time I took my camera bag - and my macro lens. The 18-105mm lens never came out of the bag. I'm pretty psyched about a few of these (**cough** bee shot **cough**)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/17449158@N ... 609072209/
As always, comments and criticism are appreciated.
I'm not into the bee shot (focusing issues).

I AM all over #89. You perfectly caught the shadows on the petals so that the photo is full of texture.

Glad you used your macro... and your bag!

How are my portraits? And how do I solve the problem of the flash when the subject is too far away for the flash to help much (grandparent hug shot)?

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