Cookie223 Loc: New Jersey

I’m trying to determine what does “FOO” mean in my aperture window? I see I can go to either Large F/no or Small F/no. But I can’t make any changes. It stays on FOO.

Anvil Loc: Loveland, CO

I've done some searching on the web, for F00 (those are zeros, not letters), with a Canon camera. The lens is not transmitting information to the camera, which can explain why you are experiencing the exposure problems. More than one post indicated that F00 may mean the lens is not properly mounted, in that the lens mount button may have been pushed, allowing the lens to shift.

Cleaning the contacts may help.

agillot

raise the iso to at least 500 .when doing birds in bright sun , i start at iso 1000 , at 1/ 1000 sec , at f11 .manual mode .

Cookie223 Loc: New Jersey

Anvil, I feel like an idiot, since my lens is big and heavy, and I was making my adjustments at the kitchen table, I didn't properly check to ensure I had a solid mount! I'm lucky I didn't drop the darn thing!

Thanks

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Great that Anvil found the answer!

My comments here are regarding your overall approach to exposure. You posted some shots 11 months ago that were highly over-exposed and your opening to this topic suggests you're still taking a "guess" approach nearly a year later. For most situations, guessing is neither needed or desired, nor are random changes to one setting or another. Every change has a consequence and should be well thought out.

Take some time to learn the basics of exposure and then practice specific situations where you want a fast (or slow) shutter speed, and a deep (or shallow) depth of field (that is controlled by your aperture). An ISO that's "too high" for your specific camera model will produce a grainy look (in digital it's called noise) that may detract from your intended result.

Learning the "beginner" stuff will serve you well, and allow you to make informed choices over the result, as well as widen your ability to be more creative or to deal with tricky lighting situations.

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

You have a good camera and a good lens so a better image is in the settings. Aperture controls depth of field, Shutter speed controls motion blur, and ISO amplifies the sensitivity of the sensor to light and of course one has effect on another in their balance. Your image has a high contrast so metering (and where you meter) will be important (much like shooting back-light subjects).

ISO 125 is a bit low if the intent is to stop the ball in motion which requires a high shutter speed. F-6.3 is open enough to give a modest blur to distant items if that's the intent.

I agree with those that recommend cranking up the ISO and with your camera you should be able to go fairly high without introducing too much grain. The great news for the digital camera world is that we can shoot and see our results and make on the fly adjustments until we get what we want.

Cookie223 Loc: New Jersey

Thanks Linda, you’re absolutely correct. I do need to get a much better understanding of my camera.

Cookie223 Loc: New Jersey

Thanks Sippy,
I’ll keep plugging away at learning the basics.

Ched49 Loc: Pittsburgh, Pa.

I think if you concentrate on bringing up your iso and slowing down on the shutter, you'll notice a big difference.

DanielB Loc: San Diego, Ca

This is a common mistake when you have accidentally moved your exposure compensation up or down. But also in manual mode you have to make sure your metering your scene well. If your not paying attention to the meter while your playing with your shutter speed and aperture you can easily miss the mark on exposure. In this situation I think I would stay in AV or TV and stay away from manual mode.

Cookie223 Loc: New Jersey

Thanks Ched, I'll definitely give that a try.

Cookie223 Loc: New Jersey

Thanks Daniel.
I guess besides being an amateur, not have much time to play with my gear, and trying different ways to achieve a decent result I'm not grasping this to well. Past suggestion made were to avoid AV at all cost especially for sports shooting. Maybe manual mode isn't what I should be using, at least not yet.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Daniel's mention of Av and Tv is worth pursuing IMO, not that Av is appropriate for sports (you're right; it's not), but for the idea of moving away from manual until you get a chance to learn more about exposure overall and about the properties of aperture and shutter speed.

Av = aperture priority, a great way to photograph flowers, landscapes and anything not moving. You control how much of the image you want in focus (front to back) - the term is depth of field. In this mode the camera sets the shutter speed.

Tv = shutter priority. You set the shutter speed and the camera sets the f/stop (aperture). You may have the option of setting the ISO or let it stay in automatic. Auto ISO is handy for when you are shooting in different lighting situations, such as sun to shade, and the action doesn't allow time to change the ISO yourself.

Although you would be setting the shutter speed, you still have to be aware of how fast it needs to be or how slow you can get away with and not end up with blurry subjects. This will vary with the speed of the action in front of you. Some folks here have suggested that slower than 1/1250 would work. You could check out other sports postings on UHH and also take a lot more photos to see what works for your situations - especially now that you have the lens on tight!

The "different ways to achieve a result" are surely frustrating and I'm reminded of similar feelings when I was learning certain processing techniques. As you see, asking in an open forum will give you many suggestions. Perhaps look for one person to whom you can correspond via private message (particularly handy since we can now attach photos to pm's), or commit to a schedule of learning - via articles, books or videos. Small bites at a time will aid in digestion, believe me

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Looking again at your last year's over-exposed sports topic, this user PaulR01 mentioned he does sports photography. And looking at a couple of his topics I was reminded of the sports forum on UHH! Check it out:

http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/s-103-1.html

If you use Chrome for your internet browser, there is an extension for exif reader. Once you click the download link on a photo, all you have to do is hover your mouse near the top of the photo and you'll see a little bar with shutter speed, aperture, ISO and focal length (sometimes this info has been stripped; you can always ask the person who posted the shot).

This is the exif viewer I have:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/exif-viewer/nafpfdcmppffipmhcpkbplhkoiekndck

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Cookie223 Loc: New Jersey

Thanks Linda, the link is an great help.