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D50 modes: M Vs the rest

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asarda007

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Hi there,

Until D50 I had a Kodak P&S camera (2 months ago). With D50 I started with Auto mode, then tried the A mode, moved to S mode - now only using M mode. I skipped the P mode.

I am only using the Exposure indicator in the D50 in M mode to either adjust the shutter speed and/or adjust the ISO (other than WB) to take my pics. I myself am very pleased with the pics I have taken as they have come out pretty good (at some point I have to get some web space to post them for your eyes).

My question is - it is appearing to be too easy to take pictures in the M mode at the moment by changing the parameters listed above. D50 makes it very easy to change all these settings on the fly.

Am I missing something??? All I am doing is getting the Exposure correct and choosing the WB which I like. It just cant be that easy - and this is my concern/worry.

I know this is a vague kind of question, but pls advise.

--
Adi

I can only look at the bigger picture, and therefore, desparately need an eye for detail.
 
This thought has also gone through my mind. An exercise I read about, and I practice often when i'm not under pressure, is when you are going to shoot something, guess at what settings you should use. Dial them in(w/o paying attention to the exp meter) and see how off or spot on you are. I think the biggest lesson about photography is learning the light and which way it should be shot for the perfect exposure.

Sooner or later (and its way later for me lol), you won't need the meter to tell you how to set it.
--
Nikon D50
18-70mm DX
Sigma 70-300 APO DG Macro
Lowepro slingshot 200
loving every minute
 
Are you adjusting Aperture to vary Depth of Field?

Shutter Speed to stop or blur motion.

Aperture to control Depth of Field. This is where much creativity can be found. Don't underestimate controlling depth of field.

ISO for ambient light conditions. The brighter the conditions, use a lower number. Leave the camera at ISO 200 unless it's necessary to raise ISO. Outdoors during the day you'll generally be able to keep ISO at 200. Think of ISO 200 as your starting ISO value.

Don't raise ISO above 200 if you have enough light to get proper exposure by adjusting Shutter Speed and Aperture. Higher ISO numbers result in more noise in the image.
 
asarda007 said:
Hi there,

Until D50 I had a Kodak P&S camera (2 months ago). With D50 I
started with Auto mode, then tried the A mode, moved to S mode -
now only using M mode. I skipped the P mode.
Click to expand...
Very similar expericne although I hardly used auto and used P to avoid the flash. I tried M but did not have the success you appear to have had. I have been using A mostly.
asarda007 said:
I am only using the Exposure indicator in the D50 in M mode to
either adjust the shutter speed and/or adjust the ISO (other than
WB) to take my pics. I myself am very pleased with the pics I have
taken as they have come out pretty good (at some point I have to
get some web space to post them for your eyes).

My question is - it is appearing to be too easy to take pictures in
the M mode at the moment by changing the parameters listed above.
D50 makes it very easy to change all these settings on the fly.
Click to expand...
Based on your expericne I will go back and dabble with M again. thx
.
asarda007 said:
Am I missing something??? All I am doing is getting the Exposure
correct and choosing the WB which I like. It just cant be that easy
  • and this is my concern/worry.
Click to expand...
If you are satisfied, I wouldn't worry. That way, you have more time and capacity to worry about other things.
asarda007 said:
I know this is a vague kind of question, but pls advise.
Click to expand...
Some picutres would be good when you can.

gk
--
'I'm not as smart today as I will be tomorrow.'
 
I think it all revolves around what gets you the results you want, I find myself almost always using aperature priority mode, this pic was taken at a resturaunt that had a backlit bar for their bottles, couldn't pass this one up. Shot with a 50mm f/1.8 D50 at 1.8 and 1/100 in incandesant wb iso 200. But there are definately times i shoot all manual, shutter, and even auto, depending on the situation, best answer is - you are shooting digital, no harm, no foul, get out there and shoot everything every way, but watch your exposure meter with really dark items, you will want to actually underexpose those, and really white objects need to be overexposed, like snow shots.

 
Thanks folks... regarding the F value, I generally prefer to used the smallest value (F2.2 on the 50mm 1.8 AFD) to get max DOF (asssuming this is the way to do it). I like blurring my background as much as poss to bring the subject to focus.

The reason I moved away from A mode was cos pics were coming out blurred (camera controlling the shutter speed was driving me mad). I now tend to keep shutter speed at around 1/60 for semi-still pics (mainly indoors) even if it mean moving to higher ISO.

I guess if I start shooting RAW, then it wouldnt matter that much if the image was slightly underexposed. PP should be able to fix it (me hopes).

By the way, that bar looks fantastic! I see what is meant by creativity now!

Thanks all once again and all the best.
--
Adi

I can only look at the bigger picture, and therefore, desparately need an eye for detail.
 
@PhurPhur

Kinda confused... why would you want to underexpose a dark object (make it even darker) and overexpose a white/bright object (blow it out more)
????
 
asarda007 said:
Thanks folks... regarding the F value, I generally prefer to used
the smallest value (F2.2 on the 50mm 1.8 AFD) to get max DOF
(asssuming this is the way to do it). I like blurring my background
as much as poss to bring the subject to focus.
Click to expand...
I think you are confused. You get the least DOF by using the smallest aperture number (widest aperture). Then you go on to say you like to blur the background. That's called shallow depth of field.
--
GHW
 
asarda007 said:
Thanks folks... regarding the F value, I generally prefer to used
the smallest value (F2.2 on the 50mm 1.8 AFD) to get max DOF
(asssuming this is the way to do it). I like blurring my background
as much as poss to bring the subject to focus.

The reason I moved away from A mode was cos pics were coming out
blurred (camera controlling the shutter speed was driving me mad).
I now tend to keep shutter speed at around 1/60 for semi-still pics
(mainly indoors) even if it mean moving to higher ISO.

I guess if I start shooting RAW, then it wouldnt matter that much
if the image was slightly underexposed. PP should be able to fix it
(me hopes).

By the way, that bar looks fantastic! I see what is meant by
creativity now!

Thanks all once again and all the best.
--
Adi

I can only look at the bigger picture, and therefore, desparately
need an eye for detail.
Click to expand...
Ok, now you have me confused. Why use manual, F2.2 adjust shutter, adjust ISO, readjust shutter... when you could use Aperture Priority F2.2, check the shutter and if it is to slow adjust the ISO. It sounds to me like you are making a simple task more complex than it needs to be.

There seems to be a real drive around new SLR users to use Manual. I am not sure why this is. After years of only having Manual I find it much easier to use Aperture Priority if I want to control DOF, Shutter Priority if I want to freeze or blur motion. There are some tricky situations where I like to use manual, mainly flash (above or below water!).

Ant.
 
Arlius said:
@PhurPhur
Kinda confused... why would you want to underexpose a dark object
(make it even darker) and overexpose a white/bright object (blow it
out more)
Click to expand...
Cameras used to rely on an averaged or center-averaged luminance reading of the scene. They were calibrated to assume that the scene contained, an average brightness of 18% grey. So when the metering needle told you that your exposure was correct, the meter was assuming that what you were pointing it at was 18% grey. This works well for most scenes, particularly when you're using a colour or b/w negative film which has a lot of exposure latitude and is therefore quite forgiving of exposure errors.

But even so, if you meter a scene with a lot of white (skiers or someone standing against a brightly lit background) or a scene with a lot of dark (someone standing against a black curtain), the meter will be thrown off. It will set an exposure which will result in the snow being exposed incorrectly because it thinks the snow should be 18% grey. Why does it think that? Because it is dumb...as far as it knows, EVERYTHING should be 18% grey. Similarly, a black background will be too light because the meter wants to make that 18% grey too.

And THAT is why bright scenes need to be overexposed a stop or two, and dark scenes need to be underexposed a stop or two.

Today's multi-segment/matrix/evaluative metering systems are pretty good at avoiding this pitfall but there are still situations when they can be fooled.

larsbc
 
asarda007 wrote:
[snip]
asarda007 said:
My question is - it is appearing to be too easy to take pictures in
the M mode at the moment by changing the parameters listed above.
D50 makes it very easy to change all these settings on the fly.

Am I missing something??? All I am doing is getting the Exposure
correct and choosing the WB which I like. It just cant be that easy
  • and this is my concern/worry.
Click to expand...
A/S/P/M ... they're all easy if all you want to do is to adjust the exposure till the meter is centered. If you're happy with your resulting photos, then why change your technique? Basically, the metering system is good enough to correctly read the types of scenes that you shoot.

If you want to learn more about exposure technique, read a book on the Zone system or digital exposure.

larsbc
 
thanks for typing that explanation for me. save me some time, exactly on the point, I remember when I first got my camera, and was taking pics of a party in a room that had incredibly dark walls, brick reds, almost black blues, and I became very frustrated when I got home and uploaded my photos, all the walls were filled with noise and way to bright, I was very dissapointed I just got the D50 and the SB600 flash and couldn't believe that the pics looked so bad. Now I know why it did it, I should have stoped down the exposure a step to step and a half and all would have been well. I know it doesn't sound right but you are correcting the camera for its inability to understand its environment.
 
Well, last night I got a chance to check out the metering. Man, I feel like an idiot - these cameras do everything and I was thinking that with manual you were just flat on your own. And I had gone through the owners manual slowly and methodically to catch/learn everything I could about the camera. Apparently, since I assumed that metering was just not availbe, Ijust never picked up on it.

This now changes how I use the ISO. I was recently using auto ISO so I didn't have to fuss trying to keep the ISO down. With auto I was getting pictures with ISO's of 360, 420, 500 instead of either 400 or 800 which I was pleased with. The manual mode lets us set our own exposure, but you have to take auto ISO off or the latitiude will be too far. In other words, two or three clicks off center will not change the exposure using auto ISO because the camera adjusts the ISO to compensate.

Anyway, I will take some picutres this weekend and see how we are doing. The ones in the LCD looked great but then everything looks great at 2".
gk
--
'I'm not as smart today as I will be tomorrow.'
 
Well, I went back and dabbled and found using manual and the meter in the camera very satisfying. Thanks for starting the thread.

Here is one picture taken indoors with a little PP. These days, I tend to use the 50mm1.4 because I can take pictures of the dogs indoors pretty easy. They are about the only thing I shoot these days- unless I am testing something.
gk



--
'I'm not as smart today as I will be tomorrow.'
 
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