What happened?

[casil403]

Thank you everyone!
I went out and gave it another go...btw, I found out I am the world's worst left-handed frisbee thrower! Waaay hard to hand hold camera in right hand and throw with left..tried throwing with right then getting camera ready with right! Holy multi-tasking Batman!
Hand held camera...no tripod
I used manual mode this time and manual white balance read on the snow.
Applied f16 rule therefore.... f16 1/125 ISO100
Center weighted metering
The first shot is without PP and crop... I cropped & pp'd 2 & 3 some to get rid of the unecessary.
Again, C&C's and input are most appreciated as it helps me understand the jist of it!

[Barefoot]

No more snow than we get here in the mid-lands of South Carolina, I managed to get it down pat in less that a half hour back this past January. I had to drive 70 miles to get to where there were more than just a few inches, but it paid off for me.

Pretty easy, really. Manual mode, spot meter, and dial in +1.5-2.0 exposure compensation.

Bookmark the homepage for the link below if you haven’t already. There’s good info to be had there.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tu...ing_snow.shtml

[tirediron]

Thanks Tirediron...So say if you were taking that photo ...or anyone else experienced/or not on here feel free to jump in as well.... what would you have done differently on your exif data, settings etc.? I really want to understand here how to change this for the better so are there some concrete settings I could try out next time?
Could you pretend we are out shooting together and you are coaching me...please tell me exactly what to do...if that's possible.
Also know that I really appreciate the advice given already.

There aren't really any concrete settings, although the 'Sunny 16' rule is a very good guide. I usually tote my old Luna Pro around in my bag, but if I didn't have it there are one of two things, in addition to the 'Sunny 16' rule that could be used:

1. Set the camera to manual, meter the scene and open it up 1 1/2 - 2 stops, make the exposure and look at it on the cameras LCD screen; if you see nice, bright white snow with little or no clipping, you're good to go, if it's still got a grey cast, open up another half stop, if you see a lot of clipping (blown highlights) close down one third - one half stop.

2. Buy a grey card from your local camera store (< $20) and put that in an area of average brightness, set your meter mode to spot, and take the reading from the grey card. This gives the meter something with the reflectivity it expects to see. If you don't have or don't want to get a grey card, then you can use your built in one - again, set the camera to manual and the meter mode to spot, then meter the palm of your hand, and open up one full stop from there.

[EJC]

Hi Casil

I took some shots with the camera on a tripod this weekend and forgot to turn off the vibration reduction/image stabilization and they all came out slightly blurry too. The lens manual recommends IS be turned off when using a tripod. Basically the lens thinks it should be correcting every shot so it try's to compensate when it doesn't need to.

cheers
EJC

[Mad Aussie]

The guys have done a good job of explaining the technical reasons and solutions for you there Casil but you still sound a bit confused I think?

What's happening is when you are metering the scene, the amount of snow in the photo is fooling your camera into thinking the scene is brighter than it really is, so it darkens the shot. Result ... grey snow and an almost silhouetted dog.

Remembering that you are still learning I, personally, would reccomend that you try to shoot this first on shutter priority but push the Exposure Compensation up at least to '1' (1 stop). This counteracts the camera's darkening effect.
Try just shooting the snow first with 1/1000th on Shutter Priority and the Exposure Comp at 1 and see how it looks. If the snow looks reasonably white but you can still see detail in it then great ... try with the dog in the shot too.
Take note of what aperture (f-stop) the camera was choosing and then you can use Manual mode to fine tune that aperture to see if you can improve it.

I do agree that 1/1000th is fast enough to stop the action sharp handheld and EJC is right when he mentions taking the IS off when using a tripod is necessary.
I also agree that ISO 200 should be fine depending on the light level.

Ideally, for this shot I would be using an external flash that allows me to shoot at high shutter speeds like my Speedlite 580EX ll. Adding just a little fill flash to lighten Mutley up would help I think.

You mentioned Centre Weighted metering and I think that's a safer bet for you at this stage than Spot.

The other thing would be make sure your AF Points (auto focus points) are set to center so you definitely get the camera focusing on Mutley and not the trees or snow.
Also, if your camera has it or similar try using AI Focus or AI Servo (settings that force the camera to keep refocusing) to try and get Mutley focused.

Lastly I would definitely be using burst mode to increase your chances.

[Marko]

I'll use the sunny 16 rule when I'm stumped or if my meter is broken, but generally use your camera's meter or a light meter. Both are more sophisticated and more reliable than a 1 line 'rule', trust me.

In terms of the first set of shots - ok snow eh.... is tricky it's true.

In general...if the scene has a nice selection of tones it's a NORMAL scene. All that bright snow makes this a NOT normal scene

All the camera meter does is average out the tones in a scene and spit out an exposure. So shot 2 in post one, came out ok because you have about 50% black dog and about 50% white snow...this make the exposure normal.

Shot 1 has a lot more white snow which is very reflective. Shot 1 therefore is NOT normal. Basic exposure theory tells you to let in more light in cases like this. This is done by using a longer shutter speed OR a bigger aperture (smaller F-stop number).
Just as an fyi - the reverse is the same. if the dog was white on a black tar surface. The shot would have been too light, and you would have had to REDUCE the exposure...again because that scene is not 'normal'.

For me white balance is not an issue here. Snow has a blue cast when it reflects a blue sky. I might get rid of some blue in PP but I would not have fiddled with the white balance here during the exposure. I would have left it on automatic white balance.

The shot is blurry because you missed it. simple as that. It's INCREDIBLY hard to attain sharp focus on ANY moving object, especially one that moves in a jagged fashion like a dog. Your shutter speed of 1/1000 was a good choice but especially in shot 2, you focused on the snow not the dog. (Look at the snow in the background...it's sharp). With practice you'll get better but this type of shooting is difficult for ALL photographers.

In terms of which meter is best for this...imo it's your camera's meter.
You cannot use a handheld meter with a dog running at the speed of light.

For this scene, given that the snow is SO reflective and the dog likely takes up a small %age of the scene - I too would have chosen shutter priority. BUT to compensate for the non normal scene I would have set my exposure compensation to plus 1 or plus 1.5. What that does, is let in more light in every shot.

BUT

If during the shoot I kept that setting, if in some shots I were to actually get a shot with 50% black dog and 50% snow, that setting would not work for that exposure and the shot would be overexposed.

For me the best practice in a scene like this is to set a general exposure compensation amount.

If this were a basketball game, I'd expect the tones in the scene to be more even or normal so chances are i would NOT use exposure compensation in that case.

Hope all that made sense. i do realize that i repeated a lot of what other members posted...
Thx - Marko

[casil403]

Thanks Marko for your input..I read the tips on metering and i spent alot of last night reading about exposure compensation also btw.. I guess I need to get a lighter coloured dog or wait for the snow to melt...lol!

Is a grey card something I should be thinking about purchasing also?

[Marko]

Grey cards are great - but not for scenes with dogs running around. The light changes, the tones change. By the time you get the grey card set up in front of the dog, the dog had already finished the Iditarod

Both Grey cards and incident meters are great when subjects are static or if the light does not change that much during a certain period....and both suck for moving objects.

It sounds like you are looking for the trick, the key, the 1 device that will get you great exposure 100% of the time. It's not what you want but............
The KEY to all of this is built into your body. It's your eyes and with practice they will KNOW when a scene is not normal. It's as simple as that, when it's overly bright or dark it's not normal and adjustments need to be made.
Hope that helps - marko

[casil403]

It sounds like you are looking for the trick, the key, the 1 device that will get you great exposure 100% of the time. It's not what you want but............
The KEY to all of this is built into your body. It's your eyes and with practice they will KNOW when a scene is not normal. It's as simple as that, when it's overly bright or dark it's not normal and adjustments need to be made.

I think you hit the nail on the head there Marko...I guess I figured there must be a simple answer but again it's about learning and practise and experience...like everything else in life huh?
Thanks again to everyone for all your help with this.

[Marko]

My pleasure. I think this is a good teaching thread.

Do you mind if I blog it with your image?

thx - Marko