That is why 85-90% of my shots are done in manual mode. It's all about reading the light, and to know how the camera's meter will interpret those difficult situations and to know when you need to overexpose, or underexpose a shot. If you rely on the camera's meter to get it right, it'll be pure luck. We also use an incident light meter in much of our work, typically a lot more accurate than the camera's reflective light metering system.

Jerry, don't you mean that your camera, with it's 39 focus points can track moving targets better? After all, our camera's ability to focus is not much different than our eyes where only one thing can be in sharp focus at a time, and all the rest of the objects viewed will be in acceptable focus (or OOF) based on DOF. My Nikon has a 51 point focus system, and I know I cannot expect to have 51 items in a scene all in perfect focus.

Yes, this^^^^

My recommendation is get out of shooting in auto mode, especially if sharp point of focus is critical as in portrait work, and select the point you want to focus on...if you let the camera make those decisions, you are likely to wind up with a lot of mis-focused subjects. So, as you compose your shot in the viewfinder, and the eyes (always critical in portrait work) of your subject happens to fall on point 9, that is what you use, and where you want to focus

You are very welcome...always happy to try to help

That's OK, even a quick grab shot provides a fine memory, and we should never stop doing those

Absolutely, because we always have to leave some headroom in our shots to deal with dissimilar crop aspect ratios I will always do some cropping when editing No, it's not. (unless the shot must be taken so quick that you may lose the moment) Over time, and after you've done it enough, you will find that many of the rules of composition will almost become second nature to you...not unlike driving a standard shift car, you really don't think about, "I have to put the clutch in now in order to change gears," it just becomes an automatic motion without having to think about it. When you reach this point and the light bulb goes off, you will then be "seeing" potential photo opportunities in a very different way. Enjoy, and just keep shooting.

Vince

Now, concerning your photo Kelly..I assume these cute kids are yours? There is a rule in composition called the rule of thirds. This rule is a guide to where the best place is in regard to subject placement and horizon line. Picture a tic tac toe grid superimposed over your viewfinder as here in this article:
http://www.ultimate-photo-tips.com/photography-rule-of-thirds.html

The four places where the lines intersect are the best places to place your subject in the photo..it can also be the best place for your subject's eyes in tighter portrait shots. In your photo, the children are pretty much smack in the middle, and this will create a less dynamic, more static composition. When you have equal distance on both sides of the subject(s) the composition will be less interesting. I would recommend reading a little about the rule of thirds, and start using it in your work. Once you are fully cognizant of use of this rule, it's then that you can consider breaking it from time to time. But, know when you are breaking it, and why! Another good reason that makes use of one of the other nine focus points more practical.
Also in your photo the light source was coming in from camera right, so it's a little bit dark on the right side of the kid's faces. a perfect time to have an assistant use a reflector to bounce, and fill in the shadows on their faces. (this does take a little practice though because a little goes a long way)
Lastly, you clipped the fingers slightly on the child closest to the camera. You will want to be more careful when you frame the shot to not crop off fingers, hands or feet. The general rule is to never crop at a joint, and when it comes to legs and arms, always better to crop above the knee, and above the elbow with arms.
There are many many other important elements to consider in composition, but the above info should be a good starting point. Hope this all helps Kelly...keep shooting and learning, a must for ALL of us!

It's my pleasure to help Kelly...sharing knowledge is a good thing, and we're never too old, or too smart to learn from each other..it is ongoing

On my good old Canon 20D, the back multifunction main wheel is used to dial onto, and select one of the nine points. I'm not familiar with how it would be done with the T4i, but I'm sure it's in the book on how to set this up on your camera. Once you do that, and while you are composing the shot in your viewfinder, simply move to one of those points and use that now active focus point and place it onto your subject's eye. One more thing that'll help is to try this: once you've place that active focus point on your key subject's eye is to continue pulsing the shutter button half down until you get the shot you want by following up with the full press of the shutter button. Understanding that subjects move, and you are still waiting to grab the best expressions on your subject's face(s) this little tip will give you some assurance that when you finally see the shot you want it'll be well focused...this is how we do it. We found that using the center point/re-compose method gave us too many missed focus shots, especially when shooting with wide apertures which doesn't give you a lot of room for errors. Living things move, including you the shooter, and even a slight change in the focus distance while you go through the motions of re-composing could yield some less than perfect results. Now I'm not saying that there won't be those times that you will be using the center point / recompose method...static shots like landscapes or for shooting things that don't move, that method works perfectly fine.


Kelly, working with the exposure triangle is all about trade offs and compromises, and whether you compromise by using high ISO, or slower shutter speeds, or wider apertures really depends on what you are shooting, or do you have an IS lens, or will there be the potential of subject movement or not, or what your goal is in your end photo. And remember, there's always use of tools like flash and reflectors to help ameliorate those little problems...certainly, lots of things to consider. We own tripods, but in our work we rarely use them..just too difficult when you're chasing a 5 year old around..we're almost always shooting hand held. That's just us, and using a tripod in some circumstances is a must.


yes, whenever possible unless a blurry look is what you are going for, or when it may be difficult in panning shots


more light is always the answer, remember, photography is all about light, and how you control it, how you read it, how you shape or modify it, and simply, how you can use it to accomplish the look you want. When needed, we use off camera radio controlled speedlights, reflectors, and strobes in our work. If you are serious about this new hobby I would recommend you start by buying a reflector, and the larger the better. They are inexpensive, and not only will they bounce available light back on your subject(s) but they also can be used as a scrim to block light, or filter bright sunlight through them.


This too depends how you expose with the light that is available to you. Noise is always more prevalent in dark, and under exposed areas. I would say it's always best to use the lowest setting you can possibly get away with...there are time you don't have that luxury though, and high(er) ISO is the only way you can get the shot. That said, there is no set rule of how high you have to go. I don't know how much post processing you do, but there are programs that will help remove some of the noise.


We shoot with both, but the 50mm, 85mm and 35mm are probably what we use mostly in our portrait work. when shooting an event, however, you usually need ability to change focal lengths fast, and on the fly, and zooms is what we will use.

Michael, I may be new to this forum, but I've been a photographer for over 40 years, so I know that S and A modes are semiautomatic, and certainly have been for almost as long as I've been shooting. Not to mention that these semi-automatic modes in their attempt to get you to a proper exposure may fail you with too slow a shutter, or too wide an aperture with very thin DOF. For that reason we will shoot in full manual mode and have full control of our exposure. Plus, there are times that you want to over, or underexpose a shot based on the ambient light conditions..semi automatic modes will not hack it in those applications.

I'd doubt that most people can manually focus faster than todays cameras. And without split screens and fresnel screens, manual focus is tedious, at best. Remember, this is shooting portraits and they are moving targets. And when you can lock focus with a half push on the shutter, or back focus button, you are not going to lose focus on your selected point, center, or otherwise, and it's just plain crazy to focus, and then go through the trouble of turning off autofocus...I'll never understand that. Maybe you can do that with non portrait work, but it still seems to be a waste of time.


Not true, as I stated above, you can lock your focus and re-composing the frame will not effect that

Today, high ISO noise is a relative thing. Many mid and high end cameras can live in the high, and very high ISO levels and still produce clean images. As far as adding light..? everything from reflectors, speed lights, strobes, and careful use of available light are always available options whether in studio or in the field...and you also have a good night

I want to get you started on a straight path, and what I'm telling you does not have anything to do with shooting in manual focus. You are, and always will be set in autofocus. Shooting in manual focus is just too damn difficult when shooting "things" that move..like kids. Maybe you are confused when I say "select the focus point." On your camera there are 9 focus points in a diamond pattern, and when you have your menu option setup to "select" one of those points, you can choose one of the nine determined by you, and on what is critically most important to be in sharp/correct focus. In portrait work, whether it be humans or animals, it's always on the eye(s). This eliminates the problem of center point focus, and re-compose. (although many still prefer this method) However, there is a risk in doing this should your subject, or you move slightly while in the process of doing that 2 step procedure. This becomes particularly problematic if you are shooting at wide apertures with very thin DOF. The safest way is to select one of those nine points, usually on an eye, and follow up with your shot. There are times, however, that because your crop in camera does not have one of those nine points lining up on an eye you have no choice but to use a point, move and re-compose the shot...or just re-compose the shot such that it does line up. As I stated above, your camera lens is still in the autofocus mode. A little tip of what we do...in a small group, we will typically focus (on an eye) of the middle subject. When faced with a large group setup with people in rows front to back, we will still typically focus on that center subject. But in these scenarios choice of f/stop becomes far more important, and dependent on the size or configuration of the group we're rarely less than f/5.6, and more often around f/11, or f/13. A few other things to remember that may be helpful, and forgive me if you already know this, most lenses are not at their best IQ when shot at either their widest or smallest aperture. Most will agree that the "sweet spot" for most lenses is usually 1-2 stops above it's widest aperture. Also, there's only one point or place in the image that is in perfect focus, whereas, all other points are considered acceptably sharp, or unsharp by virtue of DOF. Inherently, all RAW images are a bit soft, and will need some sharpening in post processing. (remember, when you are shooting JPEG, your camera is already sharpening the image for you when it converts in camera from RAW, it's native state) I hope this helps :)

Well Michael, I guess I'm still confused, maybe more so now, with what you are suggesting. Let me start by saying my wife and I are portrait / lifestyle photographers. In addition, there still is a few unknowns about the ops application. All things considered much of what you said is good information, such as the position of the lights, the subject distance from the background, shooting at f/8 - f/11 to maximize DOF, etc. What we don't know is about the lighting...is it constant power, if so, their power ratings, or strobes? Are they shoot through umbrellas, or reflective umbrellas, white or silver? If they are constant power, and not particularly powerful, shooting at f/8 or f/11 may not let enough light in for proper exposure, and would entail higher ISO settings, or slower shutter speeds, and/or a wider aperture..each having their potential downsides. We also don't know if the op is shooting in "One Shot" mode which is a must in most portrait applications, and not in AI Servo, or AI Focus. At this time we simply do not know these details, and it's hard to make meaningful recommendations.
Pertaining to your suggestions and what I am at odds with is this:
-set camera to aperture priority, set desired aperture, and then switch to manual mode...why? when you can set your desired aperture in manual mode, so why the switch?
- pre-focus using the center focus point in autofocus, and then turn off autofocus??...this will certainly set yourself up for failure and unsharp photos..a very odd, and unnecessary step. And using the center focus point/re-compose method is not always the most reliable. For that reason, we (the wife and I) always select a focus point on, or near the nearest eye of the subject. Additionally, the group size, and their arrangement will always be a key factor in your choice of f/stop, and all subjects lined up in a straight line usually isn't the nicest composition.

RE: armadillo "Set camera to Aperture Priority, F/8 - f/11"
"Set Camera mode to Manual"


All good info, but I guess I'm a little confused with this..why set to aperture priority, and then set to manual when it all can be set in manual mode?

As an owner of an "old" Canon 20D, and a Nikon D300 I can ditto MT's comments. Many functions on the Nikon body are switch controlled, and changes can be made very quickly. Of course, those same changes can be made on the Canon body, but with a more cumbersome procedure. Now things may have changed with Canon's newer models, but we (my wife and I are both photographers) select the focus point as opposed to center point re-compose method...it's a 2 step procedure on the Canon, and a single step with the toggle switch on the Nikon...just one example of the difference, and there are others.

ditto this...agree, OOF when shot is OOF when viewed

Unfortunately, once you blow out highlights like in your two images, there really is no fix to make them look natural. Try as you may, white is white, and it will never look like skin. As mentioned above, look for open shade, or if you are lucky to have an overcast sky, it's like a giant softbox in the sky. Better yet, if you can shoot your portraits in early morning or late afternoon light, I'm sure you will be happier, and not be so hard on poor old Mr. Sun.

ahhh, a b/w can be converted in seconds..you not talking hours