catalint wrote:
Hi all,
The student is backup from homework again, and needs to evaluate.
I had the opportunity to help my good friend with some family pictures this weekend. The photographer canceled last week, and they were very disappointed, so they turned to me for help. They knew I mostly do hobby photography and I do not go around and call myself a professional photographer. They've seen my pictures and they had a lot of confidence in me that I would do just grate.
For this session I really wanted to put in use my Sigma 1.4 ART. I used Aperture mode to begin use, but because of the pale bright sky, I was getting very blown out sky, so I switched to Manual. I could not figure out how to stay on aperture mode and correct the blown out sky.
Question : Should I have changed the metering in order to solve this? I used Spot metering.
My distance was around 3-4 meter away. This is my first prime lens, and now I see the challenge of moving around rather to zoom in and out as I was used to on my other lenses. Using prime lens, it showed me how important is to remember the aperture. Cause now I have to move from my standing spot i order to frame my picture, and moving back and forward has a huge impact on the result with proper aperture.
Aperture @widest (1.4) from that distance resulted in sharper details in front on the subject, while the main subject were soft. Because of very bright light, from the washed out thin layer of clouds, in front of the sun, ISO had to go very low: 100 . I wanted to shoot more from the left, but the sun bulb would be in front of me. Wanted a little of the water in the background so I had to be happy with light from the side.
I am pretty ok with the result. Analyzing the photo on my big screen, I see it could have done it better. I feel picture could have been more sharp.
So you, please feel free to share your thoughts on this. Critics and suggestions always welcome.
Cheers everybody
and greetings from Oslo
Catalin T.
PS: Forgot to mention PP. Original picture is a little overexposed. So I had to reduce highlight a little, changed to Daylight white balance, masked and sharpened a little more.
Gear: Nikon D750 + Sigma 50mm 1.4 ART
Settings: ISO 100, A6.5, Shutter Speed 1/200 , Spot metering.
Hi all, br The student is backup from homework ag... (
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Catalin,
Overall, your photo is not too bad, you have captured an image that is hard to get right the first time. You have a bright partly cloudy sky and this provided good lighting on your prime subjects. To improve your photo at the moment you captured it requires either some additional equipment for your camera, or a lot of Post Processing(PP) at home.
PP at home: At the scene before capturing the photograph you could have metered the scene for center average, then set Exposure Compensation to a -.63 to -1.3Ec. This would have under exposed all of the scene and at home you could have performed some careful selections and used a fill light tool to raise the exposure and contrast on the people in the scene.
On camera equipment: If you’re on camera flash is strong enough, or you have an external flash for the Hot Shoe on your camera, the flash can be used as a secondary light source using TTL exposure on the prime subjects. This uses a relatively new user control called Back Button Exposure Control. Making sure both camera and external flash are set for ETTL, perform the following.
Place camera exposure controls to Aperture Priority @ f/8 to f/11 for DOF.
ISO=200(value is not critical, the critical element is that it is not on Auto).
(TTL=Through The Lens, ETTL=Electronic Through The Lens metering).
1. Set camera Exposure Compensation to -1 to -2Ec
2. Meter the background light (clouds), press the back button exposure control.
3. Reposition the camera to compose and set focus for your prime subjects.
4. Depress the shutter release half way down to lock focus on one subject.
5. Reposition the camera for final composition.
6. Press shutter button all the way down to capture the scene.
What happens from 1 – 6?
1. The camera will under expose the general scene by the value you set in Ec.
2. Metering the background and setting the BBEc locks the camera exposure to the Ec you set earlier, and this exposure value is controlled by the shutter speed. (Aperture and ISO Manual)
3. Using the center spot focus in camera sets the focus on one prime subject, the Aperture Priority value assures good Depth of Field for focus on all the prime subjects.
4. Depressing the shutter half way locks the focus for the exposure and will assure good focus for all prime subjects.
5. Repositioning the camera allows you to compose the entire frame for the best artistic scene capture.
6. Pressing the shutter all the way down captures the scene, at that moment the background scene exposure is controlled by the Ec you applied in 2 above, the shutter speed sets the background exposure, the DOF is locked into place because the shutter is controlling the background exposure. The external flash fires at the moment the shutter opens, and the flash exposure is controlled by the light reflected back from the prime subjects through the lens.
Some minor PP may be needed to get the perfect balance you are looking for. Practice, practice, practice. It is a way to get both a bright outdoor scene and an interior room exposed correctly.
Michael G