Back to manual

After returning from my afternoon walk and feeding the dogs their evening meal I noticed a change happening in the sky and knew the time to capture it was limited. I raced inside and grabbed the camera but I knew as soon as I was back at the gate that the Auto and Scene Recognition functions on my camera just weren't up to it....so I bit the bullet and turned the dial to Manual. Not something I am familiar with on this camera.

Now, manual on a mostly Automatic digital camera offers restricted f numbers so I'm stuck between 2.8 to 8, not like my old 35mm SLR (may it RIP), so I have to be a bit clever with the speeds and viewing angles especially when I would have used 1.4 for a night shot or 16 or 22 for a daylight shot involving bright sun, water or snow. I still can't figure out what replaces the film speed option either as I used to use 400 film for indoor/night shots and also had the option on moonless nights of popping the camera on the tripod, opening the shutter to 1.4 and leaving the lens open for up to 8 seconds. I had a few great night shots of towns, moving traffic and stars at night (no moon) using this method :). I actually use the flash more in the daytime to combat shadows as it can bleach out the colours in night shots.

Out of 6 shots I have 3 useable ones. The first useable one was a bit of a washout as I had the speed on 1/50sec, f5 and the camera was on the wrong angle so that also made for too much direct light. It's still a pretty accident though :). Taken 5:32:02pm.

The next two were more realistic and close to perfect. Both taken at 1/80sec, f6.4 and with my little finger under the camera lens so the "angle" was giving the picture the same colours as my eyes were seeing. I will never have the depth of field I want with this camera as I don't have the range of settings but it does a pretty reasonable job for the price. Top one taken at 5:37:04pm, bottom one at 5:37:48pm.

I didn't change the camera position but I had to wait a little for the camera to process the previous photo. The bottom photo is a fraction lighter and the colours aren't quite so intense. 44 seconds can make a difference and sometimes even 5 or 10 seconds, earlier in the day, can lose you a great shot as the light won't be exactly the same ever again. Lol, bit like trying to photograph kids and animals :D!

Thanks for looking at my amateur photography and I must start taking more outside shots as the current farm photos are outdated. The farm looks fantastic after all the rain and there's something more personal/romantic about the natural lighting in Autumn and Winter. If you like photography you'll know what I mean :). I'm looking forward to a frosty Winter as frost makes for really interesting sights, lighting and photos.

Cheers,

Robyn xo