Practice pictures

[Copy_Kot]

I took a few practice pictures today after work with my new Canon 30D and the 18-55mm kit lens. The lighting was very dark and I couldn't figure out how to get the correct exposure.

For the two bee's I used the TV setting on the camera, the shutter speed was 1/500, aperture was 5.6, and ISO was 400.

For the two mushroom's I used the TV setting again, the shutter speed was 1/125, aperture was 5.6, and ISO was 400.

What did I do wrong?

[Loupey]

First of all, let me say that I'm working on a different monitor tonight from what I normally use so I can't judge the colors or exposures too accurately. But in what way do you feel these are lacking? The exposure on the mushrooms look ok (you did use fill flash on the first mushroom?).

The bees look a little dark to me. How are you metering it - evaluative, center-weighted, or spot? Also, did you shoot these in RAW format? If so, how much did you post-process? RAW images are always "flat" to begin with. Post processing is a fact of life when working with digital.

Did this help?

[Copy_Kot]

First of all, let me say that I'm working on a different monitor tonight from what I normally use so I can't judge the colors or exposures too accurately. But in what way do you feel these are lacking? The exposure on the mushrooms look ok (you did use fill flash on the first mushroom?).

The bees look a little dark to me. How are you metering it - evaluative, center-weighted, or spot? Also, did you shoot these in RAW format? If so, how much did you post-process? RAW images are always "flat" to begin with. Post processing is a fact of life when working with digital.

Did this help?

Loupey, I didn't use 'fill flash' on the first mushroom, I only played with the exposure and lighting a little using my editing software (Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006, and very little with Canon software). I feel they are lacking because the histogram said they were For each of the pictures, the histogram showed that they were way under-exposed.

I was using spot metering. And yes, I shot them in RAW format. I'm very afraid of making my images look cartoonish by doing too much to them while post processing so I usually do not do very much to them.

I guess my question should have been: Where should my camera settings be while taking wildlife and nature pictures when the lighting conditions are very dark?

Your reply did help some Thank you.

I worked with one of the bee pictures a little more, is it any better?

[Loupey]

I'm very afraid of making my images look cartoonish by doing too much to them while post processing so I usually do not do very much to them.

I guess my question should have been: Where should my camera settings be while taking wildlife and nature pictures when the lighting conditions are very dark?

Definitely better. As for the post processing, keep in mind that RAW requires you to perform certain enhancements. If you feel unconfortable about it, just keep in mind that you are trying to replicate what you saw at the time. Another thing to keep in mind that many people use the "picture style" modes instead of RAW. That's just a lot of post processing but done by the camera (pre processing, I guess ). I'd rather be in control of it

As for the histogram - yeah your image is shifted to the left (dark). But remember, if your scene is made up of a lot of shadows and dark colors, you are going to get a shifted histogram like that. Don't rely entirely on the histogram without remembering what the scene was like.

As for the settings, I always recommend full manual That's just me If you still want to use AE, I would recommend AV instead of TV. For nature, I usually know what aperture I want to shoot first. Then adjust shutter speed and/or ISO to get the proper exposure. TV is usually good for action-related stuff (sports, air shows, etc) when you want to use very specific shutter speeds.

Hope that helps.

I also tried my hand with your image.

[Copy_Kot]

Wow Loupey, that looks great! And I'll have to try using AV instead of TV. Thank you very much for the advise, it's really appreciated.