SLR's are terrible...

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urbanx said:
Whilst I detect derision and sarcasm in your post, I think this may actually be the best setting for me? Except flash, I CANNOT use flash in the situations I'm in!
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It wasn't meant to be derision, sorry. If you can't use flash, get a fast prime lens and shoot it wide open to get as much light to the sensor as possible.
 
Pablosammy said:
It wasn't meant to be derision, sorry. If you can't use flash, get a fast prime lens and shoot it wide open to get as much light to the sensor as possible.
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Soz, my misunderstanding.

I Love the idea of this - I use a nifty 50% of the time, I'm as happy as Larry. Problem is I cant find a 10mm prime! My Cockpit shot would never have the same memory for me shot on a 50mm than it does a 10mm, that's just how I remember it.
 
Get used to how the camera behaves is the best way. I spend most of my time in aperture priority adjusting aperture and ISO manually. I also end up taking a lot of snapshot type photos, as I use it when doing active things. Most of my photos are sharp and most are exposed right. Learn what happens when you point the lens at different areas in the frame, and learn what your autofocus system does. I have a 650d. Left to it's own devices, it will almost always focus on the nearest thing it can. I don't like this a lot of the time, so I tend to leave it on the middle AF point, focus and recompose.

But practice practice practice!!
 
urbanx said:
Soz, my misunderstanding.

I Love the idea of this - I use a nifty 50% of the time, I'm as happy as Larry. Problem is I cant find a 10mm prime! My Cockpit shot would never have the same memory for me shot on a 50mm than it does a 10mm, that's just how I remember it.
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Best option if you're serious about it would be a 14mm f/2.8 on a full frame body. You could get away with 1/30th of a second or so. That's a fairly specialist scenario, so you'll need fairly specialist kit - 14mm primes (or even better, the Nikon 14-24mm) aren't cheap!
 
urbanx said:
Brilliant. Glad we agree! Any advice?
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Yes, learn how to use it. Read the manual, buy a beginners camera book. Or you need is to come and use the camera for you? I'll come! .. £50 an hour ok?
 
Not being funny, but if I took a shot in broad daylight at ISO 1250, 1/30th sec, I'd expect it to be blown out. No matter the aperture, unless it was something stupid like f/32

If you spend a lot of money on gear, least you can do is learn the basics, look up some tutorials on youtube even. Get the exposure triangle down, until you're confident you can read a scene and adjust you settings to suit within seconds. Otherwise you're going to be disappointed a lot, and miss tonnes of shots while fumbling about with settings
 
urbanx said:
Wow, nearly 9000 posts And no photos uploaded... I'm sure you're quite the pro...
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Daugirdas posts quite a lot of photos actually. Also clearly has a link to his commercial website in his signature. Not sure what any of that has to do with a joke about a phone though. Probably better not to be an arse if you want people to continue helping you. :thumbs:
 
I cannot see the Exif either, I'm sorry. But I assume you did not take the picture in RAW, but used the camera-created jpg? If you created the jpg yourself outside the camera, using the in-camera jpg creation may also help.

With so much light, a shutter time of 1/125 or 1/250 would be enough, and ISO 200. When it gets a bit cloudier, and you want to use fast shutter times, use ISO 400. Having that bright surface and the dark area in the same picture may indeed throw your metering off track. If you took RAW pictures, you might be able to recover the detail in a tool like Lightroom. Another source of risk is when you have a viewfinder which doesn't show 100% of the actual picture. There may be a bright sand pathway at the bottom edge of the image which you don't even see in the viewfinder when you take the picture, and it may completely throw your metering off track.

I had cheap compacts for several years. I took a lot of really nice pictures with them (carefree package, point and shoot). When I got my first DSRL, I was also disappointed. I had pretty much the same symptoms you're showing in that image. I at the time chose to buy a camera which is particularly good at coping with high dynamic requirements, and I was happy ever after. But I'm being told by many that it is just a matter of how you use the camera. I don't entirely believe it, as logically, when the camera has physical limits, even the best photographer can only work around them, but not eliminate them.

By and large, if you want to be more serious about photography and are willing to spend the time to process the images, you should take RAW format images and process them in Lightroom. There, you can do a lot with the images. If you don't want to be too serious, a compact may indeed not be the worst way to go. Or something in the middle, there is a wide range of good cameras in between compacts and SLRs. You might want to ask the users of M42 cameras how good their camera's jpg engine is. As I understand it, the compacts process images quite heavily to create the jpg. Apparently your and my first DSLR (also a Canon) don't do that. Or it is just you and me not using them optimally ;)
 
urbanx said:
Some ace advice. I am grateful.

OK here's a typical snap shot I take: It's of two people from a volatile country which have just taken control of a passenger jet.
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o_O
Can't believe no one else has commented on this yet!
A typical snapshot of two highjackers? How does the OP find himself in these situations regularly and would they allow photos anyway!!

J
 
I was looking at the scene and thought straight away I'd dial in some exposure compensation due to the dark interior and bright windows. Can't read the exif on a phone.
As for the situation, it's a little unbeliveable. Terrorists take over a plane and you've time to take out your slr, take an image, get seen, yet get away with the image...
 
I haven't read all the answers, but my guess is (sorry for the bluntness) the method you believe to be the 'proper' way is miles off what I'd call 'photography'.

I never have to take 'loads of photos at various settings' then 'post process to get it right'.

I spent some time and effort learning what it all does, now I just take photos, in the same amount of time it takes me with a P&S or with my phone.

Those setting are just weird, I've no idea how you decided on such a high ISO and slow shutter speed, the 'I know I shouldn't have - but!' Is exactly the reason the picture is crap. And deep down you know that! The camera isn't responsible for the bad choices, you are.

If you want SOOC without thinking, same as you get with a P&S, then shoot in green box mode, let the camera make all the decisions, it won't make the hash of it that you did. Again, sorry if that's blunt, but you know as well as I do that it's true.
 
Jimi-the-fish said:
o_O
Can't believe no one else has commented on this yet!
A typical snapshot of two highjackers? How does the OP find himself in these situations regularly and would they allow photos anyway!!

J
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Try googling the photo- the original story isn't quite that 'sexy'.
 
urbanx said:
Some ace advice. I am grateful.

OK here's a typical snap shot I take: It's of two people from a volatile country which have just taken control of a passenger jet.
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Ermmm not its not , your an urban explorer and that's an abandoned plane cockpit and two of your mates. Any more trolling you would like to do while your hear wasting everyone's times ??
 
urbanx said:
Ahaa, Thank you for your help. That's exactly what I was thinking.
So any ideas on how to correct this?
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Ideas to correct it?....no.

Ideas to check it......
Set the aperture to f/8 or f/11, peer into the lens and press the DoF preview button....you should see the diaphragm close up.

If it's slow rather than not moving then you need to be a little more creative.....
Set up in manual at maximum aperture and get a correctly exposed shot. Then reset the aperture to f/8 and shoot again. If the exposure is the same then the aperture probably wasn't correct when the shutter opened. If everything went off okay then you'll have a shot several stops under-exposed.

Bob
 
i would have thought the camera would throw up an error if the aperture didn't close up when the shutter button was pressed

surely the info in the viewfinder would have told you before you pressed the shutter the shot was going to be vastly over exposed
unless you had no idea how the camera was set before you took the shot

even the very best DSLR's won't get it right every time i think it's just a simple case of getting to know your camera
 
urbanx said:
Is it just me, or is this a bit s**t for £1000 of gear?
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No its a bit s**t because you haven't done your homework. Follow the advice of some of the other members and get over to the tutorial section.
The only thing that can improve your shots is spending a bit of time and effort to learn the camera controls and what they do/are for, and get the basics of composition, exposure and light into your head. I guarantee those poor shots will improve but its no quick fix, its down to you.
The forum is a massive source of help and info but you have to give and take advice in equal measure and with a good dose of humility.
Stick with it and try not to post while you are still angry/P'eed off, which is how your first post came across.
 
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Jimi-the-fish said:
o_O
Can't believe no one else has commented on this yet!
A typical snapshot of two highjackers? How does the OP find himself in these situations regularly and would they allow photos anyway!!

J
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It's clearly a set up pic of his mates, that's why nobody bothered I guess
 
Have you got another lens to check against?

Best thing I was told when I started with a camera with manual controls was; Set everything to Auto and then choice one part to place in manual. So ISO and shutter set to auto, aperture to manual. Use that for a week. Then ISO and Aperture to Auto and Shutter to Manual, use that for a week etc etc etc...

Shutter speed to 1/60 as a minimum for hand held is a good guide. 1/125 even better. Some people can go slower and still keep a good crisp image, some can't.

Shoot in fully auto off a tripod just changing the ISO from 100/200 up to the max setting. Check your photos on the computer and see how high you can go with the ISO before your not happy with the results. Then you have a benchmark for ISO settings too.

Same as above but now only change your aperture. Some lens's aren't necessarily best at f22. f16 might be as small as you need to go (if you really need the depth of field at this sort of aperture).

Personally if I wanted a camera for snaps, I wouldn't bother with a SLR. But once you get the basics of your slr then you become quicker at setting them up for quick shots.
 
urbanx said:
Yep. Will do. I've never been on one, never claimed to know what I'm doing at all. Was kinda hoping for a few free tips off a forum first.
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I recommend forums for when you can't get to grips with information you have read and that you make some effort to learn first :)

Best of luck!
 
urbanx said:
I just want the best images from the crap situations I'm put in!
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Then you need to learn to read the situation you're in and make the adjustments. No camera is gonna be perfect in every situation straight out of the box. My iPhone takes awesome pictures in some situations and rubbish ones in others.

Phil V said:
I haven't read all the answers, but my guess is (sorry for the bluntness) the method you believe to be the 'proper' way is miles off what I'd call 'photography'.
I spent some time and effort learning what it all does, now I just take photos, in the same amount of time it takes me with a P&S or with my phone.
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As Phil has said you need to learn to take photos. You want to get it right in camera, not in postprocessing.

Gazamonk said:
No its a bit s**t because you haven't done your homework. Follow the advice of some of the other members and get over to the tutorial section.
The only thing that can improve your shots is spending a bit of time and effort to learn the camera controls and what they do/are for, and get the basics of composition, exposure and light into your head. I guarantee those poor shots will improve but its no quick fix, its down to you.
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+1. Learn to use the camera and learn about photography. It's a skill. Like driving. Nobody would expect you to get into a car and drive a journey if you've never driven a car before. Whatever the camera is, it's a basically "stupid". It doesn't always know what you want a photo of. It'll make its own guess, which may be right or may be wrong.

I've been watching the Mike Browne tutorials on youtube. Go through it all and you'll have an idea. If photography isn't for you, then sell your equipment and move on.
 
OK, firstly that sample shot in the back garden is massively over exposed. Just look at the histogram. There's no way any of the automatic metering modes would hagve rpoduced anything like this.

View attachment 22014

The most obvious explanation, as Canon Bob and others have suggested, is that the lens is faulty. You've told it to stop down to f/8 but it can't.

But going beyond that, if you want to get correct exposures in situations where the lighting is tricky, the key to it surely is understanding how the metering in your camera works, how well the different modes cope in different situations, and stuff like that. It's boring but necessary.

The default metering mode on Canon DSLRs is 'evaluative'. This samples the brightness at lots of different points in the scene and compares the pattern with a built-in database of hundreds or thousands of specimen photos to try to work out what it's looking at and what the important bits of the image are to expose correctly. It might use information from the AF system too, giving more weight to the bit where you've focussed. But the key point here is that you don't know what the camera is going to do and what decision it's going to make. It will usually get it right. I think it would have got your sample image right, if your lens hadn't been faulty. But it won't always.

If you want to be sure of nailing the exposure, learning how to use the spot metering mode might be beneficial.
 
having read through all this.. my only advice to offer is buy a point and shoot and leave dslrs to people who at least know the basics of using them.
better still stick to taking "snapshots" on your phone.
sorry if that doesnt sound helpful but if you cant even set basic function like ISO on your camera ( i mean 1250 in broad daylight and a 1/30 shutter speed ) then there really is little hope.
you shot with the perfectly good 10-20 should have been at ISO 100, around f /5.6 and shutter speed would /should have been looking at those conditions somewhere around 1/200th sec at a guess. you dont spend hundreds let alone thousands of pounds on camera gear to take "snapshots". ( makes me cringe just typing the damn word and DSLR in the same sentence ).
and if you are even remotely serious then do as said above, read a book, leanr the basics.. heck even just reading the cameras manual might help.
look on youtube, look on sites like practical photography google search DSLR beginner guides then come back in 3 months and show us what youve learnt
 
Defo a very strange thread!

Seems a few `edits` have also happened since originally posting?

The OP has been registered for over 4 years & even traded a few items........but doesn't know the basics? (n)
(also changed his `profile viewing` settings since this morn, so can't see if/when he/she is online)

A thread where he was selling a lens, inc a couple of `snapshots` :D using beauty dishes; http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/sold-tamron-17-50mm-f2-8-non-vc-£220-sold.279315/
WIND UP......BAN HIM! ;) :ty:
 
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Come on guys, don't be uncharitable.

If the OP has a real question or problem, then try to help - as some of us are doing - or just shut up. It doesn't help anyone when you attack the OP.
 
dean messenger said:
having read through all this.. my only advice to offer is buy a point and shoot and leave dslrs to people who at least know the basics of using them.
better still stick to taking "snapshots" on your phone.
sorry if that doesnt sound helpful but if you cant even set basic function like ISO on your camera ( i mean 1250 in broad daylight and a 1/30 shutter speed ) then there really is little hope.
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I'd disagree with that. The OP may not be fully aware of how to do this. I certainly didn't when I first started out but I read up and I learnt and I am still learning. Along with tutorials on photography, I'd recommend a camera model-specific user guide that tells you what each function is for.

Something like: www.amazon.co.uk/Canon-Rebel-T1i-500D-Snapshots-ebook/dp/B002TN1M30/ or http://www.amazon.co.uk/David-Buschs-Digital-Photography-Edition/dp/1435454960 would greatly benefit OP.

Interesting that OP has retracted their entire post. Does raise suspicions esp of trolling. But as always, give everyone the benefit of the doubt.
 
@urbanx I have restored your original post, editing it all out for a single word is both pointless and unfair on those people that have taken the time to comment and try and help you and also to anyone else that is looking to learn from the content of this thread.
 
StewartR said:
Come on guys, don't be uncharitable.

If the OP has a real question or problem, then try to help - as some of us are doing - or just shut up. It doesn't help anyone when you attack the OP.
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Agree with that sentiment 100% .............but for someone who has owned a Dslr & lenses for 4 years & been a member of a camera club & taken photo's inc using beauty dishes etc......I find the OP very strange to say the least.
 
Well, I learned a valuable lesson whilst reading this thread, large mugs of steaming tea entering a keyboard, shirt front and the lap, cause massive disruption and hardware trauma:eek:

Bloody nuisance!
 
omens said:
I'd disagree with that. The OP may not be fully aware of how to do this. I certainly didn't when I first started out but I read up and I learnt and I am still learning. Along with tutorials on photography, I'd recommend a camera model-specific user guide that tells you what each function is for.

Something like: www.amazon.co.uk/Canon-Rebel-T1i-500D-Snapshots-ebook/dp/B002TN1M30/ or http://www.amazon.co.uk/David-Buschs-Digital-Photography-Edition/dp/1435454960 would greatly benefit OP.

Interesting that OP has retracted their entire post. Does raise suspicions esp of trolling. But as always, give everyone the benefit of the doubt.
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theres no benefit of the doubt when the op has been as stated a member for several years and even traded on here equipment not normally associated with someone starting out
 
back in 2010 the OP said this

urbanx said:
Hi, welcome to SLR photography! I bought a 550D today, but have been using Canon SLRs for years.

SLRs are generally a lot slower than people percieve. In a room that looks well lit, say your average living room at night with a light on, you SLR views this scene as quite dark.

As a rough rule of thumb you shouldn't go hand held on if the time is slower than the focal length. i.e. 1/60th a sec at 60mm or 1/200th sec @ 200mm.

I remember someone grabbing my SLR at a party once, and treating it like a point and shoot, but without flash. All of the exposures were 2", and the person was like "It's really really blurry, I always thought you had a really good camera!"

You could try upping the ISO to speed up the exposure?

The flash will pop up if you're on the green square setting, but it will stay down on 'P'

Avoid using the extreme ends of the spectrum on your Av settings, the sweet spots are in the middle.

Good luck!
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so being (overly) charitable an assuming that he's had a bang on the head in the meantime and suffered complete amnesia, i'd broadly suggest taking your own advice. (you might like to also review your old posts in order to regain some of the knowledge you've tragically lost in the interim ;)
 
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