Tucker, golden hour, and my first attempt at manual, CC appreciated

[Trina]

SOOC

F-9
1/500
ISO 200
Lens EF-S canon 55-250
FP 214

PP'd



SOOC

F-9
1/500
ISO200
Canon EF-S 55-250
FP 116mm

PP'd

[Sergio M.]

Trina, they look mighty good to me. Well done.

Serge

[dubaiphil]

Manual instead of Aperture or Shutter Priority?

If so, I have to ask why. The reason I ask is because you are using a zoom lens, and presumably evaluative/matrix metering to base your initial estimated exposure. Now if you have the camera in full manual, then you shutter speed will remain constant. However if you use Aperture Priority your shutter speed will change as your focal length increases or decreases (due to there being more bright and white dog as a percentage of your frame as you zoom in)

Now as your dog moves in the bright light, the exposure will change based on how the light is falling on your dog. Therefore you may have clipped highlights with your finished shot if part of doggie's fur is too bright. It looks as if that is what has happened here. In other words, the whites are too bright and detail is lost.

You're wanting to freeze the action, and so 1/500th second is working well here. However, I'd be tempted to make sure you dog's fur is better exposed. Personally I'd use shutter priority or aperture priority here - but either way with exposure compensation of -0.7 to -1.0. This will bring the detail back in Tucker's fur and the backgrounds will look a little warmer.

Either way is a bit of a compromise - Shutter priority and your aperture will change, resulting in differing depths of field - Aperture priority and your shutter speed will change. You won't have consistency.

The ideal situation, if your camera has it as an option, is to use auto ISO and aperture priority. Then you don't need to worry about either of these compromises. Your shutter speed will stay fast enough to freeze motion (in this case a min of 1/500th would be great), your aperture would remain consistent as you set it, and your ISO would change to maintain your minimum shutter speed. In this bright light your ISO will probably not go much over your base ISO. Adding some -ive exposure compensation will slightly under expose the shot and keep all the detail in doggie's fur.

If your camera can't do that, then I'd go for shutter priority, let the aperture look after itself, and still dial in -0.7 to -1.0 exposure compensation.

[Trina]

Thank you Serge:>

Phil, Thank you for responding ....you make several very good points.... yesterday, I totally forgot about the exposure compensation dial, I have used it often before. Normally my favorite setting is aperture priority, that seems to be what I change the most.... I also occasionally use shutter priority when I am trying to catch something like a youngster or Tucker running, by so I can get the speeds up high enough to stop action. The only time I have used manual before was when I was trying to shoot fireworks.... yesterday I decided to give manual a shot again:> and honestly with all the other wonderful settings I am wondering where manual actually fits in anymore, other then maybe night photography and such.
I have always set the ISO because with my camera it seems like the noise gets very noticeable after about 400, I will try giving the auto ISO a try and see what happens.... Thank you for your thoughts and explanations, they are very helpful to this newbie:>

[Sergio M.]

Trina, based on Phil's great explanation and your concern about going over ISO 400, check your camera. You may have the option to set the maximum ISO your camera will change to while on auto ISO.

Serge

[Trina]

Thanks, Serge I will check that out:>