What settings would you use for...

[Matt Sayle]

What settings would you use for a shot of a bird in flight? All mine have come out with a black shape against the sky.

What settings do you use for landscape shots? I.e to give depth to trees and things like that.

Thanks
Matt

 

[Steep]

Bird against a bright sky, try over exposing by one or two stops, there's probably no happy medium, you should be able to get the bird exposed well but will burn out the sky.

Landscape, look into hyperfocal focusing, there's recent threads on here and lots more on t'internet.

 

[Matt Sayle]

Thank you.

 

[fracster]

What settings would you use for a shot of a bird in flight? All mine have come out with a black shape against the sky.

What settings do you use for landscape shots? I.e to give depth to trees and things like that.

Thanks
Matt

Spot focus, spot meter and overexpose 1 or two stops. If the sky is blue, which happens occasionally up here......, I tend to find that I don`t have to overexpose, if its grey then I do.

Landscape, I tend to use F8 or 11 and focus near the front of the scene, the DOF brings everything else into focus.

Basic help from a basic tog..............

 

[Matt Sayle]

Spot focus, spot meter and overexpose 1 or two stops. If the sky is blue, which happens occasionally up here......, I tend to find that I don`t have to overexpose, if its grey then I do.

Landscape, I tend to use F8 or 11 and focus near the front of the scene, the DOF brings everything else into focus.

Basic help from a basic tog..............

What is spot focus?

'' '' spot meter?

Apart from that Thank you.

 

[fracster]

On my Nikons......................You can select different metering and focusing modes, not sure about your camera Matt.

RTFM....:rules:..........

 

[russdaz]

Spot focus = single AF point, in servo mode on the 400d that be the center one being the fastest.

Spot metering the 400d dosnt have.

 

[Matt Sayle]

On my Canon i have Partial metering and Evaluative metering.

 

[Matt Sayle]

Spot focus = single AF point, in servo mode on the 400d that be the center one being the fastest.

Spot metering the 400d dosnt have.

Thanks. I mailnly have it on center point focus.

I see. Thank you.

 

[mrgubby]

To get a bird in flight against the sky you can overexpose to get the bird detail then shoot just the sky to expose for it. Paste them together & you've got a detailed bird against the genuine sky

 

[33L]

ignore me - read post wrong!

 

[Matt Sayle]

Thanks eveyone. I will have to try this is see what happens.

 

[russdaz]

not true the 400D doesnt have spot metering - its available on the XXD upwards.

its not the focus area but thet light meter measures the exposure for 5% (a guesstimate) of the frame at the center.

??? im confused, what did i say wasnt true?????

 

[Steve 7]

With the bird in flight, what if it is a dark bird??
I suggest after your first shot you look at the Histogram and adjust from there. The faster the shutter speed the better unless you want blur in the wings.
F11 - f16 for landscapes, I use f16 almost exclusively.

 

[Matt Sayle]

Thanks