Beginners Advice

[T4i]

Hi forum ppl,

Had a E550 for about 4 months now, got some quite nice photos from it and I've also got some rubbish photogrpahs.

I've been really gettign my head into books and internet pages to get clued up on all the manual settings.

Is there any kind of 'rule of thumb' used by photographers as regards to shutter speeds, aperature, ISO, photometry? Obviously these are going to change according to the enviroment etc but I was just wondering if anyone had any hints as to all the above in outdoor/indoor/bright/dark enviroments.

Shutter Speed - 3secs to 1/2000 - Will I ever need to go as long as 3seconds? Is there a 'range' of speeds I should be concentrating on?

Aperature - This is the one that I really get muddled up with - Will I be expected to use the whole range of apertaure on the E550? Or again do I need to concentrate on a 'range' of apertaures?

ISO - Higher levels are used in low light situations. Higher the ISO the more grainy the picture? So for ALL outdoor shots I should use ISO 80?

Photometry - Another one that I'm not sure about, multi-spot-average. Will these make a huge difference to the end result? What should I be looking for to make me change it?

Focus - I really cant get the nack of using manual focus, very hard to see if the LCD is focused when outdoors, I'm 97% out of focus. So I tend to use continuous focusing, but this drains battery much quicker :(


I find myself taking pictures of my two little girls playing on grass or in the park. Some come out cracking, really sharp and focused. But its not till I see them on a 17" TFT until I know if they look good or not. So any tips, help or advice would be greatly appreciated as I hate getting a great moment on camera but it turning out to be blurry or grainy.

Cheers,
T4i

[AlexMonro]

For most shots, you're probably best sticking to the Program exposure mode or the scene modes, with area metering (photometry). Don't worry too much about aperture, though around f/4 is probably best. Shutter speed - at least 1/60 at wide angle, 1/150 at full zoom, to avoid camera shake, unless you're using a tripod, faster to stop motion blur of a moving subject. Use Program shift (left or right arrows) to adjust the aperture / shutter speed tradeoff.

Don't bother with manual focus - it's almost unusable. Stick to AF multi for most shots, possibly AF area & chose a focus point for tricky shots, or use AF centre, half press the shutter with the desired focus point centred, then recompose & full press.

Continuous AF is really only for moving subjects.

If you got a tricky exposure, with very bright or dark areas, it might be worth using exposure backeting, with +/- 2/3 or 1 EV. The camera will then take 3 shots, varying the exposure, when you press the shutter, and you can choose the best one later. Switch to playback mode and use the histogram in the info display to check exposure - if it bunches up to the right, it's overexposed. so use the exposure compensation (+/- button) to drop it by 1/3 or 2/3 stop.

ISO 80 or ISO 100 is probably best for most outdoor daylight shots. You might like to try the "Crome" setting under Finepix Colour for bright, saturated colours.

[speaklightly]

Good Advice Alex-

Keep in mind, as well, that if you are going to use the E-550's built-in flash to keep your subject or subjects within no more than 10 to 12 feet to obtain the proper exposure. Beyond 10 to 12 feet, your flash photos will be increasingly dark due to light fall off.

Speaklightly

[T4i]

:)

Cheers guys, very good advice for me to take away there. Just found quite a good page with histgram tips/tricks here http://www.nikonians.org/html/resources/guides/digital/histogram_101/index.html

So thanks guys, gonna take me camera away and try use it more in non-auto modes.

[AlexMonro]

You might find some of the articles on this page helpful too:

http://www.megapixel.net/html/articles.php