Posted: 7/19/2012 3:59:44 PM EDT
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I'm a photography newb and just bought a Canon T3i last night. Getting married next week in St. Lucia and the camera was cheaper than the photo package.
I got the package with the EFS55-250 and the 18-55 lenses and I was curious if anyone had a good suggestion for settings for outdoor photography using either lense. For the wedding obviously, but also other outdoor shots of the beach, sunsets, jungle etc.. We might do a helicopter tour as well. Any info would be helpful, thanks. |
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Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson
Doesn't matter what camera you have, it's not going to do the work for you. You need to meter appropriately, and ensure your aperture and shutter speed (and ISO) are set for the given composition. |
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Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson Doesn't matter what camera you have, it's not going to do the work for you. You need to meter appropriately, and ensure your aperture and shutter speed (and ISO) are set for the given composition. I was going to post that. READ IT. You will then really understand the three things that make exposures - aperture, shutter speed and ISO. Then read your owners manual. I got a T2i a few months back, and read that book. My camera LIVES in Manual mode. Occasionally I go to aperture priority, but mostly on Manual. Once you get through that and understand the basic functions, you can look into the Magic Lantern firmware add-on. It adds some neat features and settings not in the OEM firmware. |
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Biggest mistake I see with people taking outdoor portrait photography is the do the old wives rule of sun at photographers back
First , that makes your subjects squint and often faces are blown out . Direct sunlight is typically harsh and unflattering Best is have sun behind the subject Problem with having sun on subjects back is two fold 1. faces are underexposed relative to background Buy off external flash ( like the Canon 430EX ) and use it as fill flash . Key is the fill flash ratio ( ratio of light contributed by flash and ambient light ) Having sun behind subject creates "rim light" effect If you google outdoor portrait photography there is a ton of info on this Problem with just adjusting exposure to bring out the faces is that it will overexpose background. Thats why you need the fill flash If you don't want to buy an external flash, use the cameras pop up and turn the flash EV down at least -1 . Only problem is you won't have the reach of external flash You can do killer shots at sunset will just a wee bit of fill flash on subjects face. Trick is have camera meter sky / background ( EV lock , or just remember exposure and put camera in manual mode and set to those settings ) . Then turn on your flash ( turned down ) . Adjust till subject is lit to your liking. It is much easier to do this than to explain this Google some of Joe McNally 's work. The has a great book " Hot Shoe Diaries" and is master at getting the most out of Speedlights If you just turn on flash and bang away , the camera decides to fire the flash way to hard, runing the nice balance of sunset and exposing your subject I assure you if you play around for less than a day doing this you will have the hang of it 2. depending on your cameras metering setting you camera may underexpose body and face of subject Pattern ( Evaluative ) will look at the exposure on the whole frame. The sun around your subject may not choose the best exposure. Center weighted average may be a better choice |
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Picked the book up yesterday and have read a little of it today. Only 25 pages through it and stuff is already making more sense. Thanks for the recommendation. It's a great book for beginners, isn't it? It really solidified the relationship of the major components of exposure for me! |