How could I have taken a better image?

[D.P.]

Yes there has been some good stuff here and many thanks to you all.

What I am currently having problems getting my head around is focal length and shutter speed and how I go about setting these correctly. I am assuming that Auto is not good for this? Would I need to be in either TV or AV mode to change these settings?

It likely doesn't matter if you are on Tv mode or Av mode in this instance.

What I tend to do is use Av mode and set the aperture wide open (lowest f number, so f/5.6 on your lens). I then use Auto-ISO to ensure the the desired shutter speed, so on your lens I might set a desired speed of 1/500th of a second and a max ISO of 3200.

It is also perfectly fine to control the ISO yourself, just increase the ISO until you get your desired shutter speed, and remember to decrease the shutter speed when the light level increases. This is very easy to do but it just another step in the process that you don't really care about but needs to be done, so it is perfectly fine to let the camera deal with the ISO and let you concentrate on composition.


When you are aperture mode you will have the flexibility of stopping the lens down a little if you need a greater DoF (or to improve image quality). When you want to maintain a certain fixed shutter speed like 1/500ths then typically you would use the Tv mode and dial in 1/500th . However, with your lens this means the camera will chose the widest aperture and you will still need to use auto-ISO or control the ISO yourself, so it ends up being the same thing as using the Av mode. The Av mode just has the small advantage of stopping down easily when desired.



Think of filling a bucket of water form a tap. The wider open you turn the tap the faster the water comes out and the quicker the bucket fills. this is equivalent to lens aperture. The goal is always to fill the bucket up to the top without spilling. You can have a smaller aperture and the bucket fills more slowly, or a wider aperture and the bucket fills fast. ISO is a bit like have multiple taps. So at ISO 100 you have 1 tap and at ISO 200 you have 2 taps, and ISO 400 you have 4 taps, etc. that all open and close together to the same aperture. With more taps open at high ISO then the faster the bucket fills.


There are 2 caveats with this analogy.
1) The aperture (how open the tap is) has a profound effect on the image.
Compare the flowers at f/5.6
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jonquil_flowers_at_f5.jpg
and
f/32
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jonquil_flowers_at_f32.jpg


2) At high ISO the image quality degrades so you want to keep these low if possible.

 

[WoZZeR]

I have a 350D and I used to use the Auto mode all the time and you can get pretty sharp piccies with auto:

That was taken with the stock 18-55 lens.

But as said earlier you need to get fairly close to the subject. The 350D doesn't have the megapixels of the newer cameras so filling the frame with the subject is a good start.

Have a good read of the manual and play with the settings, I tend to use Manual a lot when out for a walk and stationary, setting the ISO to 100 or 200 depending on conditions and setting the aperture and shutter speed based on what I want to shoot. Flicking it back to auto whilst actually walking, just in case something exciting happens.

The autofocus on the 350D can be a bit wacky in Auto, when in Manual mode I have set mine to Centre Focus, in Auto it tries to decide itself and does get it wrong, half pressing the shutter a few times can get it to focus on the required subject, keep an eye on the red dot in the viewfinder when the camera peeps and make sure it is over the subject.

I would also just keep taking piccies, I bought my 350D new in 2006 and I still take more bad piccies than good ones. When a photo comes out really poor or excellent I try to learn from it.

EDIT: Use Auto when it is an unmissable moment, but do try other modes and play about, the manual is worth reading and with practice adjusting apertures and shutter speeds on the fly becomes pretty quick and natural.. The 350D can tend to over expose the image giving it a washed out look, I try to under expose slightly in Manual to compensate.

 

[WoZZeR]

Also, I have found the realistic max ISO is 400, above that the images get very noisy. You can 'up' the noise reduction but lose sharpness as a result.

Don't expect miracles from an IS lens, you will still need to hold the camera steady, support the lens when using a long telephoto and concentrate on holding it steady. Without IS I can just about get decent images in low light at 1/50 - 1/25 or so. But take more than you need and bin the rubbish ones.

The built in Flash is rubbish with telephotos when used 'close up', the lens obscures the flash so experimenting with Manual settings is worth it indoors.