Manual Technique Day!

Well no excuses but the weather was grey and damp with a chilly wind, but i was determined to go out and spend a few hours working on Manual technique since Loupey has spent so much time giving advice and graphic details on how to use it, so off down the river i went and thought the Gulls (sorry yes more Gulls) would make a good starting subject, i used both the 70-200L f2.8 IS USM and the 100-400L f4.5 - 5.6 I USM and have detailed the shots settings below.

These first 3 shots have had no adjustments made ie cropping, levels, sharpening.

#1. 1/800- f5.6- ISO 320 -@ 300mm
#2 1/500 - f8 - ISO 400 -@ 180mm
#3 1/500 - f5.6 - ISO 400 @ 200mm

I feel that all the images are slightly underexposed.

The next batch of images are all in manual mode but have had slight levels and sharpening, and the images have been cropped.

#1. 1/500 f8. ISO 400 @ 200mm
#2. 1/500 f5.6 ISO 400 @ 200mm
#3 1/350 f5.6 ISO 400 @ 190mm
#4 1/500 f5.6 ISO 400 @ 200mm.

Its been a really challenging photo session, but Loupey your right, the more you do it the feel for it becomes easier, i will definately push on with the practice of manual and use it more.

Nice job Bev!

Looking good bev, as usual!

Excellent, Bev! I'm glad you gave it a shot :)

I think manual exposure will be particularly helpful for you as your subjects so often have whites which can easily be blown out (unlike my macros - unusual to find white bugs :p ). Once you meter for any given scene, you can lock it during the entire session and not worry about loosing detail in either the whites or blacks - whichever is more important to you at any given instance.

Thanks Paulnj, Payn817 and Loupey for looking, and comments.
I see what you mean about the whites Loupey, i was surprised when i checked the images on the screen to find, although my exposure was'nt spot on, and the scene was a dull grey due to the weather, the whites did hold true having very little shadow present, which often is the case when using other modes.
A bit of a brighter day today so hope to practice on getting the exposure right.