Buffet's photography journey

Urbanfreestyle said:
I use it for 70% as it's my preferance, I like having full control over what settings i use. :-)
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All a personal choice but seems like a colossal waste of time and a recipe for failed photos.


If I am shooting some generic subject I don't care if the shutter speeds 1/300thor 1/400th so I'm not going to waste my time worrying about such trivialities and will simply pick the aperture to achieve the desired DoF. Its not about having full control, it is about concentrating on the task at hand.
I have a thermostat in my house which I like to use. Of course I could manually switch the heating and AC on and off when ever I'm too hot/cold but really, the thermostat is going to be much easier and I can concentrate on drinking beer and watching Game of Thrones.:D

Of course I may be after a specific effect and want a slow shutter speed and thus shutter priority comes in to its own.

And I only say this because my photography improved a lot from simply enabling auto-ISO. Now I can have the viewfinder glued to my eye and concentrate purely on getting a good composition and correct DoF rather that keeping an eye on the shutter speed and ISO.
 
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Another quick +1 for running in aperture priority (A/Av) mode most of the time. I even do this when shooting aircraft - I just up to f/11+ when shooting prop planes to get the shutter speed down to ~1/125th.
 
I tend to shoot in Av in daylight too but with a shade of negative compensation to keep overexposure under control if it's sunny. Shadow detail can always be reclaimed in RAW editing, blown highlights are much harder and in most cases, impossible to reclaim detail from.

If you want a cheap entry into Macro shooting and to see how DoF plays a big roll in that type of photography then buy some cheap extension tubes for your existing lens. The focusing will have to be done manually of course this way but at least you can see the kind of results you will get before paying large money for a dedicated macro lens.
 
D.P. said:
All a personal choice but seems like a colossal waste of time and a recipe for failed photos.


If I am shooting some generic subject I don't care if the shutter speeds 1/300thor 1/400th so I'm not going to waste my time worrying about such trivialities and will simply pick the aperture to achieve the desired DoF. Its not about having full control, it is about concentrating on the task at hand.
I have a thermostat in my house which I like to use. Of course I could manually switch the heating and AC on and off when ever I'm too hot/cold but really, the thermostat is going to be much easier and I can concentrate on drinking beer and watching Game of Thrones.:D

Of course I may be after a specific effect and want a slow shutter speed and thus shutter priority comes in to its own.

And I only say this because my photography improved a lot from simply enabling auto-ISO. Now I can have the viewfinder glued to my eye and concentrate purely on getting a good composition and correct DoF rather that keeping an eye on the shutter speed and ISO.
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I dispute it being classed as a recipie for failed photos, My keeper rate is over 90%, I like to keep away from Auto ISO too. again keeping control of what comes out of my camera. For a beginner i would recommend using auto iso and the Ac / Tv controls, however i dont tend to use them. You could say that using a film camera would be a waste of time too all that processing and digitizing stuff. but i still like to use my film 'blad for some portraits.
 
Day 4 - National Memorial Arboretum.

So today we spent the afternoon at the National Memorial Arboretum to try and get a better handle on shutter speed and aperture. It was a bright day and even on f12 I was getting over exposure. Managed to get some relatively nice shots in the end though. Out of 158 shots, I am going to keep 25. They are not brilliant by any means but I am pleased enough with them mainly because I was in Manual mode and only using auto focus but also because there were hundreds of people around and getting shots without people in was hard work! :p

I tried Aperture priority mode but it just seemed to under expose everything. I need to read up on how my camera works in that mode as I was struggling with it. It didn't want to let me adjust shutter speed.

I do feel like my shots today were lacking inspiration, and I reckon I could have done a similar job with my iphone! But I have at least got a little more familiar with the camera, if nothing else :)

DSC_0002 by Buffet Slayer, on Flickr

DSC_0026 by Buffet Slayer, on Flickr

DSC_0038 by Buffet Slayer, on Flickr

DSC_0048 by Buffet Slayer, on Flickr

DSC_0050 by Buffet Slayer, on Flickr

DSC_0057 by Buffet Slayer, on Flickr

DSC_0058 by Buffet Slayer, on Flickr

DSC_0072 by Buffet Slayer, on Flickr

DSC_0084 by Buffet Slayer, on Flickr

DSC_0086 by Buffet Slayer, on Flickr

DSC_0095 by Buffet Slayer, on Flickr

DSC_0097 by Buffet Slayer, on Flickr

DSC_0099 by Buffet Slayer, on Flickr

DSC_0118 by Buffet Slayer, on Flickr

DSC_0120 by Buffet Slayer, on Flickr

DSC_0121 by Buffet Slayer, on Flickr

DSC_0125 by Buffet Slayer, on Flickr

DSC_0130 by Buffet Slayer, on Flickr

DSC_0132 by Buffet Slayer, on Flickr

DSC_0146 by Buffet Slayer, on Flickr

DSC_0151 by Buffet Slayer, on Flickr

DSC_0156 by Buffet Slayer, on Flickr

DSC_0160 by Buffet Slayer, on Flickr
 
Hi folks.

What do you guys tend to use for lens cleaning? Lens pens seem quite popular but I have been reading many of them are cheap fakes that deposit fibres everywhere.

Nikon do a lens cleaning kit on their website but it is £40. Not sure if that is a bit OTT?

I just want products that get the job done without worry of them causing more harm than good. I don't mind paying more if it is quality stuff that I can rely on.

I would appreciate your recommendations. :)
 
OK, thanks. I have just ordered 2 Hoya slim UV filters for our cameras (was going to do that anyway). Taking a punt on a Spudz too as they seem to be well received wherever you read about them.
 
BuffetSlayer said:
Day 4 - National Memorial Arboretum.



I tried Aperture priority mode but it just seemed to under expose everything. I need to read up on how my camera works in that mode as I was struggling with it. It didn't want to let me adjust shutter speed.

I do feel like my shots today were lacking inspiration, and I reckon I could have done a similar job with my iphone! But I have at least got a little more familiar with the camera, if nothing else :)
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Some good composition and some shot for the sake of it by the looks of it...BUT you wont learn unless you press the shutter.

If you were in A mode then they shots should'nt really be underexposed unless you have your ISO at 100 and not on auto. If your shooting Nikon you can limit the max ISO so may be worth putting the max to 3200 for now and see if that helps. But what would normally happen is you set the aperture and the camera does most of the rest.

The camera will work out the best shutter speed to get a "properly" exposed shot. "Properly" is how the camera "Thinks" you would want the shot exposed

It might be worth making sure your settings are neutralized before playing anymore. Making sure ISO is set to Auto and make sure you've not dialled in so exposure compensation or anything silly.

For playing with DOF "Depth of Field" I put a pencil on a table and set the camera up on a tripod starting at f1.8 (with my 50mm) Fixing the focus on the rubber and then starting shooting but each shot with a different fstop. 1.8, 2.0, 2.4 etc etc. Then compared the shots and you could see the DOF getting larger as more and more of the pencil came into "Focus"
 
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Best advice that I can give you from experience (and I'm still early into my own 'photography journey') is to think a bit more about what you're trying to achieve before you press the shutter.

When I started out, I used to rely on the 'take a thousand photos and there will definitely be a good one in there somewhere' approach which is so easy to do, but since I've started thinking about the composition of the shot and what I'm actually trying to portray before hitting the shutter button I find myself taking far better photos more consistently.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a beginner hobbyist myself, but since doing this I've sold a few of my photos and I'm getting better all the time.

Youtube is your friend, so many good channels out there for beginners so I'd also recommend watching how the professionals do it.
 
Spleen Sauce said:
Best advice that I can give you from experience (and I'm still early into my own 'photography journey') is to think a bit more about what you're trying to achieve before you press the shutter.

When I started out, I used to rely on the 'take a thousand photos and there will definitely be a good one in there somewhere' approach which is so easy to do, but since I've started thinking about the composition of the shot and what I'm actually trying to portray before hitting the shutter button I find myself taking far better photos more consistently.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a beginner hobbyist myself, but since doing this I've sold a few of my photos and I'm getting better all the time.

Youtube is your friend, so many good channels out there for beginners so I'd also recommend watching how the professionals do it.
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Great advice.

Avoid the spray and pray. think before you press the trigger
 
Once again thanks for the advice from the above posters.

I haven't made any updates in a while as I haven't actually had the time to go out and do any shooting other than of my cats in the garden. Its good practice but I think folks would soon get bored of endless pictures of puddy cats! :D

My wife finishes her current job at the weekend, and from there on in we will have more free time together so hoping to get out and about a bit more in the evenings while we still have some light.

So far I am thoroughly impressed with the image and colour quality on the D5200, and the 70-300mm lens is brilliant.

So I am still floating about and lurking in this forum, but I just don't really have anything to add to my 'journey' just yet :p

EDIT - found out that Auto ISO isnt selectable under normal circumstances. For some reason it was buried in the camera options menu rather than the GUI options on screen when using the camera. Suffice to say, results in Aperture priority mode are now far better :)
 
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