Aperture Priority Critique

[bisso7]

Hi, All:

You'll be seeing a LOT of requests from me in the near future to critique my photos, so, please, don't hold back.

The photo below was taken near ground level. My objective was to attain a clear forefront and blurred background. Shooting mode was "Av" (Aperture Priority), f/5.6, 1/4000 (don't know why I had the shutter speed so high), ISO-800, 65mm.

I understand the exposure triangle and the fact that when one setting changes, adjustments are often necessary in others. I've been trying to focus on one particular element in my beginning stages of learning. Your feedback on this exposure is appreciated.

I've hardly had any experience with this camera since I bought it (Canon Rebel T3). Been mostly educating myself on some of the basics, not only on CIC but other sources, as well. I almost hate to start out using only the basic modes of the camera, as there seems to be no "challenge" behind these. Guess I'm a bit anxious to learn more. Trying to run before walking, I guess. LOL

[dje]

Hi Jeff, some comments on your picture and settings :

Firstly I'm not sure why you'd want a blurred background in this sort of shot as there's nothing particularly exciting in the foreground. But leaving that aside

In Aperture Priority Mode, you set the aperture and ISO and the camera works out the shutter speed to get suitable exposure.In this case here, an ISO of 100 would have been a better setting as there is plenty of light. Always use the lowest suitable ISO setting.

With the aperture and ISO settings selected, the camera has come up with a shutter speed of 1/4000 which is the fastest shutter speed for the T3i. But you probably had the light blinking to indicate that proper exposure could not be achieved as an even faster shutter speed was necessary to get proper exposure - how do I know this ? - because if you look at the histogram you can see that the highlights are blown and the image is a bit over-exposed. If you had used ISO 100 instead of ISO 800, the shutter speed would have been 8 times slower.

Dave

[jcuknz]

Specifically to this shot but the principle applies in many cases. To get a blurred background you need to focus on the grass in the foreground [ which despite your intentions is blurred ] while taking half trigger and then lift the camera for the composition you wanted while continuing to hold HT and fully press the trigger. Read your manual to work out how to lock focus because pointing the camera down at the grass could give you a wrong exposure.
I expect if you use 'single area' focusing you could move the area down to correspond with the grass to get it sharp as the principle focus point. I don't know your camera but I can do this with mine.
Another point about this shot .. the sky is burnt out ... the technique of focusing/meter reading and then re-framing can be used to avoid burnt out skies. You need to take a exposure reading including more of the sky. the camera will expose less though you may need to lift the dark shadow detail in a shot back home in editing
If you cannot do this with your current editor then you need to get one that enables you to do such adjustments It not need cost becuase in a clunky way the free download Paint.Net will do that. But there are others Elements and Paint Shop Pro which are not that expensive.
Some will say raising shadow detail in editing creates noise but I've not noticed this to any great degree.