Discussion of all digital SLR cameras under the Minolta and Konica Minolta brands
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I'm confused.
It's a bright sunny day so as a relative newbie using manual settings, I set "sunny 16" to start. (f16 S 1/100 ISO 100)
I shoot and the pic is totally underexposed. I try again and note the exposure is flashing like mad at -2.
I check the manual, to see how to adjust that to 0. It doesn't really explain that.
When I focus elsewhere the exposure changes say to -1.7 so there's an auto adjustment going on I think.
At this point, I switch to landscape and get a great pic.
Any suggestions here for this elderly, confused shooter??
Many thanks,
Taxeye from Canada
I'm not acquainted to A200, but IMHO "sunny 16" setting should be either for beach scenes (mid summer) or bright sunny day on snowy mountains.
Before using the manual regime, do shoot with "P" as a start, and step by step you'll learn how to use the other modes.
Thus, let the camera decide for you what aperture and speed to use, then gradually change to say "A" setting where you define the aperture and the camera decides appropriately the speed. And so forth.
Will be glad to be of asistance if further questions arise.
'Sunny f/16' dates back to the time when films were labelled DIN 18°/50 ASA - and before the international standards for film speeds were revised, and films suddenly appeared to double in speed overnight (they did not actually change - this happened in the 1950s but I do know which year). So sunny f/16 was really sunny f/11 all along, back when Hugo van Wadenoyen was writing Focal Press Pocket Guides. Of course, the rule was invented in Europe - mainly propagated by German and British publishers - where f/11 really is about the best you get for a summer scene in full sun.
It happens to work in very bright places, with whitewashed houses and sandy streets, even with the change in ratings. So you can use 1/125 at f/16 at ISO 125 in mid-June, at mid-day, in Valencia or Algiers. But you'll be lucky to get away with f/12.5 anywhere in Britain except on the beach or at high altitude in snow, where f/18 may just be needed; I guess Canada has many places at similar latitudes.
And, it only ever applied from four hours after sunrise, to four hours before sunset, in the middle four months of the year in temperature latitudes (my old Johnson's Exposure Calculator, a kind of slide rule, confirms that). And it only applies to distant views - for portraits, increase by 0.3 stop; for close-up details, by 0.5 stop (these old figures applied to rollfilm formats - actually, with APS-C the conjugate distances are very different and portraits need no increase, plus many zoom lenses have compensated apertures so when you focus close, f8 is still f8 - on a prime lens, the aperture becomes effectively smaller as you focus closer).
Increase 0.5 stops for sidelight or backlight, 0.5 stops for dark subjects (such as a black dog or dark earth). By this time of year, October, another permanent 0.5 stops increase applies. For urban environments, anywhere where there is pollution (which means most cities and towns) between 0.3 and 1 stop extra may be needed as the sun is made that much weaker.
For all these reasons, you may well find the correct exposure in what appears to be sunny day conditions can be f/8 not f/16 and occasionally even f/5.6!
It's a surprisingly complicated subject, and TTL metering really does wonders once you know how it responds. Also, you can just check your histogram, make tests, and adjust.
Shooting in manual mode you can use the meter in the viewfinder to adjust your exposure but the scene and metering mode sets the meter not you. you have to set the camera by using the Fstop/ Shutterspeed/ ISO setting to make the meter read diferently. (most of the time thats 0, neither over or underexposed) . The metering is very good in this regard on that camera. if you set the cameras metering to matrix pick an F stop (F16 for conditions like the DOC says above you would have very sharp shadows that are completely dark) or try F8, F11 or so at Iso 100. then dial in the shutter speed untill your meter reads 0. this will work for a landscape type shot that are evenly lit across the scene. if there is a subject other than the whole scene (like a horse in a field) you may need to use centre weighted metering (which means the VF meter will read from the centre of the frame the most, or rather the centre of the frame will have more influence) or spot metering (which makes the meter read from the centre spot) you can try out the diferent modes if you have a scene with diferent leveles of light near by and see how each metering setting affects the image. the one that will give you the most radical changes is the spot metering. if you try that one first you'll see pretty quickly what happens when you point it at a dark or light area and take a shot.
If you get to the shutterpeeed setting and you start getting into smal fractions like 1/60 or 1/80 you may want to decrease the F stop (open the aperture) this will allow you to increase the shutter speed accordingly. The faster the shutter speed the less likely you'll get a blured shot.
Also on some (most) lenses when you zoom the lens it will change the largest F-stop that can be set. on a lens thats say F3.5 at it's largest aperture when it's zoomed all the way in the camera may change that to F5.6 as the maximum (smaller the Fnumber the larger the aperture). this of course affects the shutter speed you will need if you've already metered the scene. Thats probably yhte automatic seeming adjustment you saw the camera make
I hope I didn't confuse you more.
in short you control the light that enteres the camera with the F-stop, shutterspeed and ISO setting. but mainly the F-stop and shutter speed. The meter in the camera tells you what the intensity the light will be at when it hits the sensor. you use the above settings to make the meter read zero (for the mot part) to expose a scene correctly.
taxeye wrote:I'm confused.
It's a bright sunny day so as a relative newbie using manual settings, I set "sunny 16" to start. (f16 S 1/100 ISO 100)
I shoot and the pic is totally underexposed. I try again and note the exposure is flashing like mad at -2.
I check the manual, to see how to adjust that to 0. It doesn't really explain that.
When I focus elsewhere the exposure changes say to -1.7 so there's an auto adjustment going on I think.
At this point, I switch to landscape and get a great pic.
Any suggestions here for this elderly, confused shooter??
Many thanks,
Taxeye from Canada
Gentlemen,
Thank you all for excellent responses to my situation.
You may chuckle at this - I checked my source for the sunny 16 info and discovered that the author lived in Hawaii
Anyway, back to the drawing board for this geezer armed with all of the great advice from y'all.
Thanks again,
Taxeye from Canada
Hi there,
I went out yesterday and shot "Our Smoke Tree" using manual settings. The pic is available at http://flickr.com/photos/10585131@N07/
The EXIF is there too under "more properties."
I was amazed at the settings I came up with. However, the colour is "as is" and the sky wasn't blown out.
I hope I'm on the right track here.
Thanks again for helping this geezer.
Regards,
taxeye from Canada
looks like you have a handle on it. 1/4000 is a high shutter speed. you could have used a smaller apertuure which would have dropped that speed but most lenses are sharper at smaller apertures and you might have gotten a little sharper image with the same exposure.
thanks javelin,
I'm thinking I may get a better clue if I use the AP setting which establishes the shutter speed.
I've had success with AP f4 shooting faces not scenery.
Sure appreciate your response. So much to learn - so little time
BTW There's some Muskoka colour shots at that URL if you're interested.
Thanks again, javelin.
taxeye
