Who knew that off white was such a difficult colour!

[JBW]

[Manfred M]

Look at your histogram, Brian. This shot looks quite underexposed; you've lost shadow detail and the light colours (off-whites) are rather gray and muddy.

[Loose Canon]

Is it finally time to lose your "go to" settings Brian?

[JBW]

Is it finally time to lose your "go to" settings Brian?

My first 15,000 shots do seem to have developed some hard to break habits. But this shot was way outside of the old habits. It was also way outside of my skill set.

I have been having trouble with overexposing my shots in bright light while shooting in RAW. To correct for over exposure in-camera I went overboard in pp.

Definitely the old habits will not get me to the next level. No that's not quite right one old habit will still work. I still will get out and click away trying to figure things out. There is just so much more to figure out with this camera.

[JBW]

Look at your histogram, Brian. This shot looks quite underexposed; you've lost shadow detail and the light colours (off-whites) are rather gray and muddy.

My trouble was that It was over exposed in camera. I did at least two things wrong in the pp. (1) I overcompensated for my shots lack of correctness rather than filing it in the round cabinet. (2) I added a light sepia layer to try to smooth things out as well as moving the exposure way down.

Here I ask a rookies question. Shooting in Aperture priority how do I correct for over exposure in some parts of a shot? Or do I move into Shutter priority on a sunny day? Or may the G-d's be kind do I move into full manual.

I never had this problem before. Not because I never overexposed but because the 4200 didn't show me where I was overexposing and the new one does.

[Stagecoach]

Here I ask a rookies question. Shooting in Aperture priority how do I correct for over exposure in some parts of a shot? Or do I move into Shutter priority on a sunny day? Or may the G-d's be kind do I move into full manual. .

Brian, If you hold your camera pointed at the subject and the lighting remains constant whether you use Aperture, Shutter or Manual (centring the meter) you will get exactly the same exposure.

You will need to compensate in whichever mode you use to deal with this difficult situation.

Grahame

[JBW]

Brian, If you hold your camera pointed at the subject and the lighting remains constant whether you use Aperture, Shutter or Manual (centring the meter) you will get exactly the same exposure.

You will need to compensate in whichever mode you use to deal with this difficult situation.

Grahame

Being the high tech sort of person I am my first thought is to shoot when the sun is not high in the sky?

[Manfred M]

My trouble was that It was over exposed in camera. I did at least two things wrong in the pp. (1) I overcompensated for my shots lack of correctness rather than filing it in the round cabinet. (2) I added a light sepia layer to try to smooth things out as well as moving the exposure way down.

Here I ask a rookies question. Shooting in Aperture priority how do I correct for over exposure in some parts of a shot? Or do I move into Shutter priority on a sunny day? Or may the G-d's be kind do I move into full manual.

I never had this problem before. Not because I never overexposed but because the 4200 didn't show me where I was overexposing and the new one does.

In that case, I have one suggestion. Slow down! In general the type of subjects you shoot are not going to run away. Experiment and bracket your shots and nail your exposure now that you have the tools to do so. You shouldn't have to write I overexposed in the camera and had to compensate in post.

Let me give you a quick tour of my workflow.

1. I evaluate the lighting. If it's not to my liking (and I can't fix it) I don't even bother to shoot most of the time.

2. If I decide to shoot I select an appropriate ISO manually and dial that in. If I am in a situation where the lighting will change quickly I might opt for auto-ISO. As I have stated elsewhere, I generally shoot at as low an ISO as I can, as that maximizes the image quality.

3. Decide which shooting mode I will use. If I am looked to shoot for a specific depth of field, I will usually select aperture priority. If I am looking at motion (either freezing it or blurring it), I will usually select shutter priority. If I am looking to do something where I want consistency or the shooting conditions are tricky, I will select manual. If I expect rapidly changing shooting conditions, I well select Program mode. I would say that 80-90% of my shots are aperture priority and most of the rest are shutter priority. I don't use manual or program mode all that often.

4. Select metering mode. I use matrix mode 99% of the time. Weird lighting I will sometimes spot meter. I never use centre weighted metering.

5. Select focus mode - most of the time I use single point continuous servo (Nikon terminology AF-C) focus mode using back-button focusing. This disconnects the focusing operation from the shutter release operation.

For static or slow moving subjects I use a technique called focus and recompose. I use the single spot to set focus by pressing the back button focus, remove my thumb from the focus button, reframe the image and then press the shutter release.

In action photography, I will use multiple focus points still with AF-C focus .

6. Dial in white balance - I find auto white balance gives inconsistent results, so I tend to select one of the presets and might even do a custom white balance. I know that in theory I don't need to if I am shooting raw, but I find that this gives me a very good starting point as my editor will use this value when I open the file.

7. Take a test shot and evaluate the histogram - if it looks good (i.e. the distribution looks like I feel it should), I'll shoot away. If I don't like the exposure and I am shooting in an automated mode, I will dial in exposure compensation and do another test shot. If shooting in manual, I will either adjust aperture or shutter speed, depending on what / how I am shooting and will take another test shot. After the shot, I will have another look at the histogram and either tweak some more or if I am happy, I will shoot away.

8. If I am doing a portrait, still life or product shot, I will shoot either a gray or colour target as my first shot. This helps nail the white balance in PP. A single shot only and I will repeat this when the lighting changes. It is important to have the same light hit the target as hits the subject. This helps nail the white balance in post. I might also do a manual incident light reading if I have a tricky shot to do.

[JBW]

In that case, I have one suggestion. Slow down! In general the type of subjects you shoot are not going to run away. Experiment and bracket your shots and nail your exposure now that you have the tools to do so. You shouldn't have to write I overexposed in the camera and had to compensate in post.

Let me give you a quick tour of my workflow.

Well it looks like Loose Canon was and is right. I need to develop new habits. Time to move into enthusiasts shots rather than snapshots. This is going to be fun!

[Geoff F]

I use two options for pale flowers in sunshine, Brian.

Introduce a little bit of light shadow, by various means. Or meter for the brightest area, as Manfred explained, and enter that setting manually. Add a little fill flash to brighten the shadows, but use a bit of flash output compensation as required.

Either way, keep a good watch for potential background issues. This sort of scene is very difficult to photograph well.

[JBW]

I use two options for pale flowers in sunshine, Brian.

Introduce a little bit of light shadow, by various means. Or meter for the brightest area, as Manfred explained, and enter that setting manually. Add a little fill flash to brighten the shadows, but use a bit of flash output compensation as required.

Either way, keep a good watch for potential background issues. This sort of scene is very difficult to photograph well.

I went back today and worked with the suggestions. I think it is a better shot.