What have I done wrong with this picture

[NotSure]

I am shooting with an 180mm Nikkor/ D500

The distance between me and the subject is 20 meters maybe and there is heavy wind and heavy overcast

I am trying to get in to M mode shooting

The reason I choose 1/400 is because they say with long range lenses you have to double the focal length in speed. Well here we have 270 (180x1.5). Well it is not exactly double but near. I could have also done it 1/640 & iso 640

The reason I chose F5.6 is because the sunny 16 rule says that for heavy overcast. And also, I want to see more details. More sharpness

The reason for the iso 400 is because the rule says it need to be equivalent to the speed number.

I am not touching the EV

...

so, what would you have don. Please tell me in speed, aperture and iso

 

[Mystery member]

Looks ok to me.

You state that the weather is heavy overcast. And the image conveys that atmosphere So what's the problem?

Yes, 90% of the criticism was that I should have played with the EV. Maybe yes. But the clouds were low and dark and it was near to late afternoon.

Whatever the conditions, there's also a 90% probability that using the camera in one of the auto or semi-auto modes would have been quite successful.

As already suggested, exposure problems can often be avoided by bracketing the shots, particularly if a live histogram display is not available.

It's also a valid point that digital photography is cheap. I've fired off upwards of 400 shots in less than a minute when following planes at an air show.

 

[Gerry Winterbourne]

I think the most important think I have learned from here is playing with the aperture to increase sharpness is working only if you shoot a subject not far from you.

Then you haven't learned because that's not true. The relationship between sharpness and aperture is completely independent of subject distance.

Combined with other research, I understand that the sweet spot of the lens is 2 stops further than the basic one.

For your 180/2.8, yes - but for other lenses it can vary from wide open to 4 stops down.

And the sunny 16 rule is for mid day only.

...

I think in the future, with this lens 180mm Nikkor, I will stick to S mode at 320 or up (more or less equivalent to its 270mm DX capacity) and let the camera decide A and ISO because anyway I will be far from the subject.

That's a possibility but it is unlikely to yield optimum results. Obviously you don't want to induce blur but pictorially that's a basic requirement rather than aesthetic. For a large proportion of pictures the single most important thing aesthetically is adequate depth of field, which you set by choosing aperture.

That's why Aperture priority is very widely used. First set your depth of field by choosing aperture with ISO as low as possible; then check shutter speed to see if it is sufficient to avoid blur (by chimping, as I said in an earlier post, not just by a rule of thumb); then - and only then - increase ISO if necessary and do it yourself, not by Auto-ISO.

And I play a lot with EV... which will be probably be minus 07 or 1 because D500 apparently has tendency of blowing up the highlights

Again, don't go by what other people say. Use your histogram and highlight warning to see what (if anything) really is blown rather than what people who weren't there think might be.

As always, you need to judge what parts, if any, you can accept being blown. In this version the yellows in your daffodils are still blown - you'd need about -1.5 EC to avoid that. Even at -0.7 you've lost a lot of detail in the shadows; so as well as exposure you need to learn about processing.

Here's an edited version with clipping eliminated and detail in the shadows.

taken in the morning with sun rising

--
---
Gerry
___________________________________________
First camera 1953, first Pentax 1985, first DSLR 2006

Galleries by Gerry Winterbourne

www.pbase.com

[email protected]

 

[baloo_buc]

I am shooting with an 180mm Nikkor/ D500

The distance between me and the subject is 20 meters maybe and there is heavy wind and heavy overcast

I am trying to get in to M mode shooting

The reason I choose 1/400 is because they say with long range lenses you have to double the focal length in speed. Well here we have 270 (180x1.5). Well it is not exactly double but near. I could have also done it 1/640 & iso 640

The reason I chose F5.6 is because the sunny 16 rule says that for heavy overcast. And also, I want to see more details. More sharpness

The reason for the iso 400 is because the rule says it need to be equivalent to the speed number.

I am not touching the EV

...

so, what would you have don. Please tell me in speed, aperture and iso

We cannot tell exactly what shutter speed, aperture and ISO speed you should have as these vary based on light. You got a very expensive setup and no clue about photography. Maybe a photography class would help you.

Later edit:

It seems your photo is about 1 stop underexposed. So you can use ISO 640, 1/320 s and f/5.6 or ISO 400, 1/400 s and f/4. The DOF would be 2.7 m @ f/5.6 and 1.9 m @ f/4 so f/4 would be preferable if it's the sweet spot of the lens.

--
Victor
Bucuresti, Romania

 

[SoCalWill]

Yes, 90% of the criticism was that I should have played with the EV. Maybe yes. But the clouds were low and dark and it was near to late afternoon.

No, 90% of the criticism was that you shouldn't have been in Manual mode to take a basic street snap.

If you're just in Manual as a learning experience, then your daylight M mode shots should come out looking essentially identical to shots from any other mode; if your result is darker, then something's not set correctly.

I think the most important think I have learned from here is playing with the aperture to increase sharpness is working only if you shoot a subject not far from you.

Combined with other research, I understand that the sweet spot of the lens is 2 stops further than the basic one.

The research says to avoid this lens; the sweet spot is not resolving as much as a cell phone, and the image quality is essentially only passable for one stop of aperture:

And the sunny 16 rule is for mid day only.

The Sunny 16 rule is for film cameras with no meter only. You're using an $1,800 camera, utilize it.

I think in the future, with this lens 180mm Nikkor, I will stick to S mode at 320 or up (more or less equivalent to its 270mm DX capacity) and let the camera decide A and ISO because anyway I will be far from the subject.

P mode, Matrix Meter, Auto ISO; that will cover 95% of your shots, you can move from outdoors to indoors and continue shooting without changing a thing.

And I play a lot with EV... which will be probably be minus 07 or 1 because D500 apparently has tendency of blowing up the highlights

Play with getting the overall shot exposed correctly first, then build on that knowledge.

--
Digital Camera and Adobe Photoshop user since 1999.
Adobe Lightroom is my adult coloring book.

 

[Bodkins Best Photography]

Well, at any rate you chose a very accurate screen name...

 

[PhotoTeach2]

Yes, 90% of the criticism was that I should have played with the EV. Maybe yes. But the clouds were low and dark and it was near to late afternoon.

No, 90% of the criticism was that you shouldn't have been in Manual mode to take a basic street snap.

But that was unfounded criticism ... there is nothing "wrong" w/ using "M" ... it WILL give you more "consistent" exposures compared to (any) "auto" mode, (if lighting is consistent).

Albeit I agree that for that specific shot, "auto" would have been better to allow for the later-afternoon failing-light, (and faster w/out needing EV/EC).

If you're just in Manual as a learning experience, then your daylight M mode shots should come out looking essentially identical to shots from any other mode;

yes

if your result is darker, then something's not set correctly.

YES ... and in this case he mis-understood that it only applies to "mid-day", (not early morning, late afternoon, and especially not "night").

Thus "SUNny" and "16" means that it is only f/16 in bright Sunshine (at mid-day).

I think the most important think I have learned from here is playing with the aperture to increase sharpness is working only if you shoot a subject not far from you.

Combined with other research, I understand that the sweet spot of the lens is 2 stops further than the basic one.

The research says to avoid this lens; the sweet spot is not resolving as much as a cell phone, and the image quality is essentially only passable for one stop of aperture:

And the sunny 16 rule is for mid day only.

The Sunny 16 rule is for film cameras with no meter only. You're using an $1,800 camera, utilize it.

Well, it originated back when cameras had no meter, but is still equally applicable and usable for "consistent" exposures.

Note that a $million$ camera will still give inconsistent exposures if shooting black/white subjects w/out proper offset w/ EC/EV ... so use "M" if lighting is consistent.

I think in the future, with this lens 180mm Nikkor, I will stick to S mode at 320 or up (more or less equivalent to its 270mm DX capacity) and let the camera decide A and ISO because anyway I will be far from the subject.

I don't see where distance had much to do with the context/problem.

P mode, Matrix Meter, Auto ISO; that will cover 95% of your shots, you can move from outdoors to indoors and continue shooting without changing a thing.

YES ... that combination will indeed will allow hands-free exposures in the most variety of lighting conditions. (But proper use of EC/EV will still be necessary to avoid inconsistent exposures if black/white subjects because "matrix-metering" is not perfect.)

And I play a lot with EV... which will be probably be minus 07 or 1 because D500 apparently has tendency of blowing up the highlights

Play with getting the overall shot exposed correctly first, then build on that knowledge.

Exposure is indeed the FIRST step to a good image. (Actually SECOND step because the first must still be a good-subject/COMPOSITION.)

Tied w/ THIRD and FOURTH are optimum Shutter-Speed and Aperture to match the FEELING of the image you want to convey to the eventual viewer.

Sometimes DOF is most important, and sometimes Shutter-Speed is most important if you either want to "freeze" action or show a specific amount of movement/blur to convey the feeling of motion/action.

 

[Bob]

Why didn't you take a set of bracketed shots to see the effect of changing speed and aperture?

 

[PhotoTeach2]

Why didn't you take a set of bracketed shots to see the effect of changing speed and aperture?

He certainly could have done that, (especially if "experimenting" w/ manual), but this was not a difficult lighting situation where you normally would have needed to, (other than the fact that "yellow" can be much brighter than the [dominant] darker subjects in the scene -- thus somewhat wider DR than typical).

His basic and SIMPLE explanation/answer was that he mis-understood that "Sunny-16" rule only applies to "mid-day" lighting.

 

[SirPeepsalot]

This is actually the best exposure for this picture - the flowers have the highest tonal value yet not too high so as to lose saturation. A "correctly" exposed photo would have been utterly boring.

 

[JRP64]

What I did in a college photography course for depth-of-field was to put three small objects in various depths. One far away from the camera, one in middle and one relatively close to the camera (still being able to focus on it). Then simply take various pictures change one setting at a time. I started off changing aperture settings focused on the back item first and then when I had enough aperture settings for that object I would focus on the next object, set the aperture setting back to square one and start the process over.

When I was a done I will look over all the pictures and if done correct that ah-ha moment should come to you. Then when you go out an actually take pictures that are keepers it will make more sense to you. The best advice someone gave me on photography is take a ton of pictures and fool around with settings until you know the camera like the back of your hand With digital it's more forgiving and less expensive for you don't have to worry too much about development costs.

With Mirrorless cameras what you see is what you get when taking a picture, but DSLR aren't too bad either for one can always chimp (look at the results after snapping the picture). The only downside of chimping is that it is after the results, but the worse that happens is you miss shot. However, I found that with both mirrorless and DSLR cameras is sometimes the picture will look great on the viewfinder, but when you look at on a computer it isn't as good as you thought it was. Even now I sometimes get disappointed in my own pictures because of that, but I guess that is what separates the great photographers from the average photographer (I fall in this category).

For example I have been trying to get a perfect picture of the following:

One of my first pictures



and my latest picture





I'm finally happy with this picture even though I still can find a few flaw with it. Though one has to know when to say enough is enough. Even this picture required post processing as I forgot to clean my sensor and I head to clean all the smudges up. I had to take out a line that was going down the mind as well.

Sorry about my rambling.....

--

https://www.miniaturephotographer.com/photos.php

 

[trac63]

TBH you shouldn't be shooting Manual until you understand how to properly expose the image, and stop following "rules" that counteract each other. What you did wrong primarily is not looking at the meter. Had you metered off a a mid-tone area of the image, say the green shrubbery on the right or the roadway in the background, it would have shown you were under-exposed (pointer would have been to the left of the center of the meter). So you should have either opened up the aperture, used a higher ISO, or a slower shutter speed.

It's a common mistake for beginners to shoot in manual "because that's how the pros do it". If shutter speed was the primary contstraint b/c of the wind and focal length, you could have shot in shutter priority with auto-ISO.

Mark

I agree on the metering.

A spot meter reading on either the foliage or (better) the asphalt in the background should provide the correct exposure.

On the other hand, shooting manual is a good way for a beginner to learn lighting, exposure and metering. As long as he/she understands that there is a learning curve and they are going to make mistakes along the way. If the photos they are taking are important, then by all means they should use A, P or S mode.

I would also suggest that a 180mm is not necessarily the best tool for this type of photo unless you want a close-up of one of the flowers







If you want a photo of an entire flower bed, use a wide-angle.

 

[tedolf]

I would have followed what the meter told me to do.

Why didn't you?

Also, I would have picked a more interesting subject.

tEdolph

 

[tedolf]

What I have learned is that most people would be better off taking pictures with cell phones, and that the DSLR market is probably doomed.

TEdolph

 

[PhotoTeach2]

What I have learned is that most people would be better off taking pictures with cell phones, and that the DSLR market is probably doomed.

TEdolph

Or a "you-know-what" kind of other camera, (w/out Interchangeable-Lenses?).

 

[Rolen]

You are over-thinking everything.

If you are shooting in manual, look at the meter in the viewfinder, if it is set close to the center, take a pic, if the pic turns out dark, you compensate right there on the spot until it looks good to you.

 

[ToxicTabasco]

I am shooting with an 180mm Nikkor/ D500

The distance between me and the subject is 20 meters maybe and there is heavy wind and heavy overcast

I am trying to get in to M mode shooting

The reason I choose 1/400 is because they say with long range lenses you have to double the focal length in speed. Well here we have 270 (180x1.5). Well it is not exactly double but near. I could have also done it 1/640 & iso 640

The reason I chose F5.6 is because the sunny 16 rule says that for heavy overcast. And also, I want to see more details. More sharpness

The reason for the iso 400 is because the rule says it need to be equivalent to the speed number.

I am not touching the EV

...

so, what would you have don. Please tell me in speed, aperture and iso

If anything the only thing you did wrong was follow the rules because you likely don't know what the rules are for. Much like compositon rules in photo/video are just guidelines to follow under basic optimal conditions. And once you know the rules and how they apply to real world experience, you'll understand that those guides are for optimal conditions as a basic starting point to getting the proper exposure in any given situation.


Reason the rules did not help you, is, you're shooting in higher wind conditions. And your just taking a random shot of no value. The best way to learn is, put effort into getting out just before sunset and shoot through twilight. These conditions will teach you from trial and error how to shoot in low light, and nail exposures to get the best optimal exposure to process and edit. Do this for a few months, over and over, and learn from your exposure adjustments what you're doing will teach you how to shoot in low light and nail exposure in any condition.


The thing about photography is there is no one formula to get optimal shots. Light value and color change with every scene, and at different times of the day. Thus, knowing where the base line is to set your camera, you can make small adjustments to suit the light you shoot. And this comes with trial and error. Thus, I suggest make the effort beyond the back yard to learn your skills, it will make your learning environment your real world shooting environment, much like wedding dress rehersal.

 

[DMKAlex]

I am shooting with an 180mm Nikkor/ D500

The distance between me and the subject is 20 meters maybe and there is heavy wind and heavy overcast

I am trying to get in to M mode shooting

The reason I choose 1/400 is because they say with long range lenses you have to double the focal length in speed. Well here we have 270 (180x1.5). Well it is not exactly double but near. I could have also done it 1/640 & iso 640

The reason I chose F5.6 is because the sunny 16 rule says that for heavy overcast. And also, I want to see more details. More sharpness

The reason for the iso 400 is because the rule says it need to be equivalent to the speed number.

I am not touching the EV

...

so, what would you have don. Please tell me in speed, aperture and iso

If you listen to the rules, you should have your subject looking into the sun when you take a picture of them.

That's century ago when ISO was low and cameras were primitive. You have some of the best image machine man kind ever made in your hand. You can throw those rules away and let your ultra sophisticated computer in your hand make those technical decision for you. As for you, concentrate on composition and lighting arrangement.

You will have better pictures you can imagine.

 

[Richmcqueenphoto]

Looks ok to me.

You state that the weather is heavy overcast. And the image conveys that atmosphere So what's the problem?

Yes, 90% of the criticism was that I should have played with the EV. Maybe yes. But the clouds were low and dark and it was near to late afternoon.

If your iffy about getting the exposure out of wack you can also assign the PV button to lock in EV even if you change composition.

If you don't want to change aperture just trade in a few stops of light by either dialing up on the ISO or dialing down on the shutter speed until EV is 0. Then use the PV button to lock it in for that shot.

the EV will be locked as long as you hold down the PV button

 

[PhotoTeach2]

Looks ok to me.

You state that the weather is heavy overcast. And the image conveys that atmosphere So what's the problem?

Yes, 90% of the criticism was that I should have played with the EV. Maybe yes. But the clouds were low and dark and it was near to late afternoon.

If your iffy about getting the exposure out of wack you can also assign the PV button to lock in EV even if you change composition.

If you don't want to change aperture just trade in a few stops of light by either dialing up on the ISO or dialing down on the shutter speed until EV is 0. Then use the PV button to lock it in for that shot.

the EV will be locked as long as you hold down the PV button

Ok please .... what is "PV" button ???

 

[Richmcqueenphoto]

Looks ok to me.

You state that the weather is heavy overcast. And the image conveys that atmosphere So what's the problem?

Yes, 90% of the criticism was that I should have played with the EV. Maybe yes. But the clouds were low and dark and it was near to late afternoon.

If your iffy about getting the exposure out of wack you can also assign the PV button to lock in EV even if you change composition.

If you don't want to change aperture just trade in a few stops of light by either dialing up on the ISO or dialing down on the shutter speed until EV is 0. Then use the PV button to lock it in for that shot.

the EV will be locked as long as you hold down the PV button

Ok please .... what is "PV" button ???

Preview button which shows depth of field before you snap the picture. You can asign this button for another feat, you can sign the FN button also. Both buttons are on front of the camera right side of the lens mount.