Participating in Project 365 this year, I hope to learn a lot about photography. I will write about my journey here as much as possible. I have a lot of really good photographer friends, so if I say something completely off-base, please correct me.
A couple of months ago the 18-55mm kit lens
I diligently researched lenses for close to a week before deciding on the Nikkor 50mm f/1.8
I mentioned the other day I started reading Understanding Exposure
Thanks to Sherry at Photoblog.net, I already understood the basics of aperture. As simply as I can state it: the lower the number, the more specific the field of focus and the higher the number, the more general the field of focus. So if you like bokeh or macro photography, a wide aperture (lowest f-stop number) is a good thing! If you can’t tell from the photos I’ve taken lately (background’s usually very fuzzy), I’m into shooting with a wide aperture.
For me, the easiest semi-manual camera setting is the aperture priority mode. I tell the camera what aperture and ISO I want to shoot at and it’ll figure out the shutter speed. If you’re like me and just starting to learn how to use your dSLR, you might want to try this setting as it does give you a tremendous amount of control over how your final product looks. Just refer to your manual for how to change the aperture setting.
After reading through the first chapter of Understanding Exposure, I really wanted to try shooting manually. First though, I had to figure out what the heck metering was, how I could use it with my camera. The author kept referring to the camera indicating that the exposure was “correct” through its light meter. This sounded magical to me! I broke out my manual and read it cover to cover. (Does this count as one of my 50 books for the year? I think it should; the manual is over 130 pages.) There are a lot of options!
After a couple of hours, I figured out that the light meter looks like this through my viewfinder. Little blips off to the left or right will indicate that the shutter speed selected will not create the ideal exposure for what is metered. My camera has three options for metering set through the camera menus:
- Matrix: The light meter will take the entire viewfinder area into consideration when calculating correct exposure.
- Center-Weighted: The light meter primarily measures the center of the viewfinder when calculating exposure. The outer edges of the viewfinder are taken into consideration at a lower weight.
- Spot Metering: The light meter will only measure the very center of the viewfinder when calculating correct exposure.
I set my camera to spot metering so I can pinpoint exactly what I want to measure in any given photograph. My manual says that center-weighted average metering is good for portraits though. This is definitely something I’m going to be playing with more.
While choosing the metering, I set a couple of other options for my camera too. There’s an AE-L/AF-L button on the back of my camera. It stands for Auto Exposure Lock / Auto Focus Lock. It’s now set to Auto Focus Lock ONLY, which means that when I have my shutter button depressed halfway, holding that button will lock the focus. This allows you to lock focus on your subject which is handy when you want to recompose your photo without the subject being dead center.
The AE-Lock doesn’t work in manual mode, of course since there’s no auto exposure going on there. For the other modes, I set the exposure (shutter speed) to lock when the shutter button is halfway depressed. This way, I can meter what I want to set the exposure to, lock it and then recompose my photo to focus on my subject. Have you ever taken someone’s photo and they look completely shadowed by the background? With AE-Lock, you can meter against their face, lock AE and then step back and compose the photograph. This will ensure their face is properly exposed.
Below, the photo on the left was shot with auto exposure. The entire hallway appears darker than real life because the exposure is compensating for the brightness of the opening ahead. The photo on the right was shot by metering the area of the wall above the opening, changing the shutter speed until the meter indicated a correct exposure, then recomposing the picture to straight ahead. Because I metered the light reflecting off the walls of the hallway instead of straight ahead toward the opening, the walls of the hallway are better exposed.
Both taken with ISO: 800; Aperture: f/1.8.
Shutter Speed
Photo Left: 1/2500 sec
Photo Right: 1/640 sec
Choosing the shutter speed manually is actually very easy once you understand how to use your camera’s light meter. I’m excited to continue the book, now knowing all the basics of manually operating my camera!
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I’ll have to check into that book. The only thing photography related I’ve ever read was my camera manual. Everything I’ve LEARNED has been through trial and error.
I think trial and error is very important, but it helps understanding the basics and that book is very easy to understand!
Books that are easy to understand appeal to me.
I’m looking to upgrade my camera. I’ve been looking at a Nikon d200 for a while now. Of course, every time I look at getting a newer one; they come out with one much better… and much farther out of my price range.
Curse my poor hide.
I have a Nikon D50 that’s several years old and I love it. The Nikon D70 came out at the same time and if I could do it all over again, I’d get that.
I would really recommend getting an older dSLR instead of a top-model one. Spend your money in accessories: tripod (a MUST), UV filter (a MUST – it protects your lens!), other filters, other lenses, flashes – you can really spend a lot of money. You’ll still get a great camera that does everything you’d want as an amateur photographer and have some money left over in the budget to get some cool lenses or accessories. That’s what *I* would do if I had any money, anyway!
Well, I have a tripod, filters, and one hell of a flash. I just think it’s time to upgrade cameras. I’ve been shooting with this one for about five years now, and I want something a little more “advanced” I guess.
I’ve been looking at new cameras for YEARS. I guess it’s like a car. You know when it’s time to trade it in and move on. o_o
Please report on how you like that lens after you’ve been using it for a while. I had no idea you could get them from Amazon, but now I’m considering ordering that one you got. I have the standard 55-200 and one other that came with my D60, but I want a few more – one like you got, a macro lens and a telephoto, for sure. I’m really starting to get into photography more in the past couple of weeks.
I definitely love the lens and I’m happy with my choice. It has its limitations in closed-in settings. Sometimes I find it hard to get far enough away. The zoom is your feet (move closer, move further away) but it’s produced some wonderfully sharp images.
hi lynda! i found you through flickr and it seems like we have a lot in common. i have a d40 and have almost finished reading understanding exposure. and like you i had to go back to my manual to figure out what the heck was going on with metering especially. except i don’t have it down as well as you do! and i just got the same lens, the 50mm 1.8. the only problem i have with the lens is that it doesn’t auto focus on a d40, and sometimes i have such trouble focusing it manually! i’ll think it’s in focus, and then when i upload the pics later i’ll see that it’s fuzzy! but other than that i’m loving it, and as i work with it i have less fuzzy pictures.
anyway, it sounds like things are just clicking for you, which is awesome! i still need to practice more with metering and the way you describe it and the photos you used as examples were really helpful, thanks, and sorry if i talked your ear off!
Hi Jo, No problem – I love the feedback! Sucks about the autofocus – I’ve heard about that with the d40.
Do I have you added as a contact on Flickr? I’m lynda@dwc
Lynda, I just learned a whole lot about my D50! Thank you!
Yay! You’re very welcome. I hoped this would help someone.
I have Understanding Exposure too! I still haven’t gotten through it, though.
When I’m shooting, I think I do the opposite of you: I set the ISO and then allow myself to change the shutter speed (which then shows me the best aperture to shoot with). I should try it the other way around sometime!
When I’m composing the photograph, aperture is the first thing I think about. Do I want the background to be in focus or blurry? The more in focus I want it to be, the smaller the aperture I choose (higher f-stop number). The more blurry I want it to be, the wider the aperture I choose (lower f-stop number).
Plus, if you’re in low light situations, the wider the aperture, the quicker the shutter speed which helps keep the subject in focus if you don’t have a tripod handy or it’s moving. (I try to not use flash at all anymore.)
For portraits (at least natural light ones) I recommend spot metering. I’ve found that the centerweighted ones make for very underxposed/blue pictures.
Casey´s last blog ..January 5, 2010 – Day 5/365 | Tallahassee photographer
Thanks Casey! So far, I’m liking spot metering a lot. Gives me a lot of control over the exposure.