Canon eos 450d

[JamesM]

Clive, I wish more people were like you 🙂

 

[ceg4048]

Yeah, but then I'd be like Agent Smith in Matrix Reloaded. Can you imagine a world filled with me, me me? And me too...

Cheers,

 

[Mark Evans]

ahhh, i wondered what you meant when you replied to my pm the other day.... so im free now? cool

 

[ceg4048]

ahhh, i wondered what you meant when you replied to my pm the other day.... so im free now? cool

Agent Smith's response would be something like; "We're not here because we're free, we're here because we're NOT free..."


Looked a bit deeper at the exif data on the 450. It looks like tko is using fully automatic metering and that might explain some of the problems. I also checker the manual and it says that this is an IS lens (Image Stabilization). This means that the lens should compensate for camera shake, but you have to turn it on. You may want to check to see if the IS switch on the lens is set to the ON position. The following are illustrations of why you need to learn your software, and I mean learn it well because a camera does not think for you, and a camera does not see the world as you do. It's just a tape recorder.

Lesson number 1 is that in most shots, not everything in the frame is useful or even contributes to the composition. In the original shot there was some kind of orange mushroom in the lower left corner and someones bucket on the lower right. Also the top part of the image serves no function except perhaps to show height perspective. I suspect though that this was not your objective in the shot. Probably you wanted to show the deep mauve of the tree's leaves. The camera does a lot of filtration but not the same as our brain so the original colors get muted, whereas we remember the scene with more dramatic colors. Look at the comparison when all the extraneous things are removed from the scene, with the image sharpened, and the color restored:

Before:

After: Again, one could argue about how much was cropped out. This is just an example.

Before: In the original shot the color of the rose was oversaturated to the point where you could no longer see the detail in the petals. When colors become over-saturated this is called "clipping". Again there is a problem with blurring. The exif data shows 1/60th of a second at f5.6. You should, when possible try to use f8 or f11 on this lens because that is where it's performance is optimized. Use the Av mode as this allows you to set the aperture. If the camera calculates a shutter speed below 1/60 then just crank the ISO up until the shutter speed gets faster, like 1/125th.

After: A bit of sharpening and lowering of the highlights enabled recovery of some detail in the pink. Can you see how the dew drops are sharper and you can actually see through them? These are subtle adjustments that contribute to a better image.

Before: Instead of worrying about blurring the background, worry about getting the subject right first. Omar's right eye is in focus but his left eye is slightly unfocused. This due to the shallow depth of field at f5.6. The window light is really distracting. Using a flash so close often creates odd shadows, reveals surface imperfections and washes out skin tone.

After: We eliminate the video game controller and the window by close cropping. The we reduce the highlights to get a better, richer skin tone and rosier lips. I suspect Omar looks more like this with a deeper bronze tone in the skin. Sharpening the image gives him clearer, brighter eyes, which unfortunately makes it more evident that the left eye is defocused. Again, if you had used a smaller aperture like f8 or f11 you would have gotten both eyes sharper. When all those distractions are gone the image conveys a feeling that we are looking at a confident, happy kid who is responding to the photographer. This was the whole point of taking the picture in the first place.

Hope this gives you some ideas about metering, framing and cropping.

Cheers,

 

[tko187]

Hey Clive thanks for all the info and the in depth reply. As i said i just clicked away i wasnt really worried about whats in the background (wires , windows, my white sneakers) Im not trying to create anything as of yet, i just used auto focus i think. I will start using av mode. It helped me a lot anyway as now i know what i am doing wrong and also what setting and functions i can use to edit picture afterwards. This was the fist time using the camera and i didnt even try much of the settings, sorry about the window light, xbox controller and other things. I wil start to think about these things but as of now i just want to learn about my camera and what it can do. It shouldnt take me long as i have great advice coming from different people here (very helpful indeed). Im just thinking as if i were starting a planted tank, at first i thought what have i got myself into but then slowly with all the help i got it became a lot more easier and enjoyable. Thank you clive and to anybody else who answered to my thread. Ill be snapping away and posting more pics so Clive can edit them for me...hehe Take care.