Almost fall in New England - C&C welcomed

[KimC]

Gave auto IOS and back focus a try last night and this was the result (thanks to those offering these suggestions) ... I believe my focus is better. The leaves are definitely starting to change -- lots of yellow right now.

ISO 3600; 35mm; F7.1; 1/250

[Kodiak]

ISO 3600; 35mm; F7.1; 1/250

This shot was a neck breaker… but you survived it!

Of course, 3600 ISO will give you access to low light situations but at a
price: noise. Since the exposition was correct, it should be a lesser problem.
One important conclusion not to be overlooked here:
Your camera is behaving very well in lowlight situations! COOOOL!

ƒ7.1? At 1/250, you could have gone to ƒ8-10 and shoot at SS 1/125-1/100.

I'm proposing a somewhat subtle separation of the background and an
appropriate colour correction of the foreground.

[KimC]

This shot was a neck breaker… but you survived it!

Of course, 3600 ISO will give you access to low light situations but at a
price: noise. Since the exposition was correct, it should be a lesser problem.
One important conclusion not to be overlooked here:
Your camera is behaving very well in lowlight situations! COOOOL!

ƒ7.1? At 1/250, you could have gone to ƒ8-10 and shoot at SS 1/125-1/100.

I'm proposing a somewhat subtle separation of the background and an
appropriate colour correction of the foreground.

Thanks Daniel. I need to do some reading on the relation of the aperture to shutter... i know there is a tutorial on this site. I need to tie those two together better.

I like your edit! I rock and leaning tree now look like they have light on them... the background looks a bit brighter, is that how you separated? Thanks for taking the time to do that - love visuals!

[DanK]

My suggestion is related to Kodiak's: you don't need 1/250 for a scene like this, so you could slow down the shutter and use the additional light for something else. I would have used it to bring down the ISO because of the noise that Kodiak mentioned.

I need to do some reading on the relation of the aperture to shutter.

Yes, this is and ISO. All three work in concert. Learning how to trade off among the three is essential.

Others will disagree, but my suggestion would be to turn off auto ISO except under unusual circumstances. Use the lowest ISO that will allow you a combination of shutter speed and aperture that does what you want, and only raise ISO if there is not enough light to do that.

[Kodiak]

I need to do some reading on the relation of the aperture to shutter...

I would rather know that you are exploring than reading! Here is an exercise:
The quality of the subject is not important, like it could be an ugly plastic garden
chair somewhere on the lawn.

1. Start at 1/125, ƒ5.6, Mode A, auto ISO, and a lens longer than 100mm.
2. Turn around the chair shooting at equal frame crops and every shot at
one ƒ stop smaller: 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22.

This will tell you which is your lowest shooting speed and maintaining a crisp,
sharp photo, and will show you a difference in DoF in every shot.

I rock and leaning tree now look like they have light on them... the background looks a bit brighter, is that how you separated?

There are many ways to separate fore and background… this is just a suggested way.

[Shadowman]

What is this back focus that you speak of and would deliberately use?

[KimC]

I would rather know that you are exploring than reading! Here is an exercise:
The quality of the subject is not important, like it could be an ugly plastic garden
chair somewhere on the lawn.

1. Start at 1/125, ƒ5.6, Mode A, auto ISO, and a lens longer than 100mm.
2. Turn around the chair shooting at equal frame crops and every shot at
one ƒ stop smaller: 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22.

This will tell you which is your lowest shooting speed and maintaining a crisp,
sharp photo, and will show you a difference in DoF in every shot.


There are many ways to separate fore and background… this is just a suggested way.

This post made me smile -- oh how I would prefer to explore rather than read -- thank you for exercise - can't wait to try it.

[KimC]

What is this back focus that you speak of and would deliberately use?

Hi John, someone on here told me about it -- thought it might help my focusing problems. I had to find it in my camera book -- it's a button on the back of the camera that allows "me" to tell the camera to auto focus rather than the camera automatically focusing... So once it focuses, it stays put.

[Mike Buckley]

turn off auto ISO except under unusual circumstances. Use the lowest ISO that will allow you a combination of shutter speed and aperture that does what you want

That's exactly what using Auto ISO does. So, I'm apparently misunderstanding you.

[bnnrcn]

Hi Mike As far as I understand from Dan's comment , he suggests manual ISO so that Kim understands the 'ISO' matter better and has a discipline about it. Otherwise , no harm with auto ISO.

That's exactly what using Auto ISO does. So, I'm apparently misunderstanding you.

[Stagecoach]

Hi Kim,

I like the use of the rocks and their closeness to the tree as the main subjects and also the fact that you made these so prominent.

As for focus, seems like you cracked it and understand how the new method you trailed works. Shutter speeds when foliage is involved will need to take wind or breeze conditions into account depending if it is your intention to freeze any movement or not.

Grahame

[IzzieK]

Kim...very nice composition as usual...As with Grahame, I like the rock's nearness to the tree in the foreground. But I like the edit of Kodiak better.

[Mike Buckley]

Hi Mike As far as I understand from Dan's comment , he suggests manual ISO so that Kim understands the 'ISO' matter better and has a discipline about it. Otherwise , no harm with auto ISO.

Ahhhhhh. That makes sense.

Those of us who grew up on film photography had only one ISO setting for each roll of film inside the camera. So, we were forced to make a decision about the ISO as part of the decision about which roll of film to use. We even learned how to remove a roll of film from the camera before all of it had been exposed and how to reinsert it in the camera later to expose the rest of it. That allowed us to change to a different ISO rating before we had used up an entire roll of film.

After having selected the film with a particular ISO rating, I think most serious film photographers learned how to use the Sunny 16 Rule as a starting point of departure more so than digital photographers. That's probably because digital cameras today have such more advanced metering capabilities than the film cameras of decades ago.

[KimC]

Thank you Dan, Grahame and Izzie for your comments.

[KimC]

Ahhhhhh. That makes sense.

Those of us who grew up on film photography had only one ISO setting for each roll of film inside the camera. So, we were forced to make a decision about the ISO as part of the decision about which roll of film to use. We even learned how to remove a roll of film from the camera before all of it had been exposed and how to reinsert it in the camera later to expose the rest of it. That allowed us to change to a different ISO rating before we had used up an entire roll of film.

After having selected the film with a particular ISO rating, I think most serious film photographers learned how to use the Sunny 16 Rule as a starting point of departure more so than digital photographers. That's probably because digital cameras today have such more advanced metering capabilities than the film cameras of decades ago.

I agree Mike, all the technology we have today helps us in some ways, but not in others. In my opinion, it's the people who understand "x" (whatever that might be) before the advanced technology came along, that are truly the experts.

[Mike Buckley]

In my opinion, it's the people who understand "x" (whatever that might be) before the advanced technology came along, that are truly the experts.

I disagree, Kim. I would say that it's the people who understand "x" (whatever that might be) that are truly the experts. My point is that people who began their photography journey using digital cameras are at no more of a disadvantage than people who began it using film cameras. Those who began using film cameras had some challenges not experienced by the others. Similarly, those who began using digital cameras have some challenges not experienced by the others. To become relatively proficient, both profiles were (are) required to master the basic tools built into their camera.