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Z

zachary80

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Oct 15, 2002
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dark.JPG

bigger version

here is one with medium darkness:
small
bigger version
and one with good lighting:
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bigger version
All were taken at the same time of day.

I took this manually on a C-750 during midday. I am relatively sure that I had the aperature and fstop (I'm new to manual -- as in I don't know whats going on) balanced out.
 
The pictures come out underexposed because the snow is white and reflects more light than any other color so the meter on your camera thinks the entire scene is brighter than it actually is. So you should take your meter reading off of something else to get the correct exposure, like a grey card.
 
First let me outline exactly what the setup is.

I have my C-750 mounted on a tripod looking at the birdfeeder. The drive on my camera is set to take as many pictures in a row as it can. When I begin to see motion, I press and hold the button on my remote that triggers the camera.

When you say to take my meter, do you mean set all the manual settings off of it?

What exactly are grey and white cards (I've heard people recommend them before but I have no idea)?

Where do I get one?
 
By meter I mean the built-in light meter in your camera. It reads how much light is in the scene and tells you what it thinks is the correct exposure. For instance if you have it set for f/4 and 1/250s and it is telling you that if you take the shot now it will be overexposed, you should increase the shutter speed (or aperture depending on what effect you want) until the meter says it is a correct exposure.

On average all colors reflect roughly the same amount of light (around 18% of the light that hits it), except black (below average) and white (above average). So when you take your meter reading off an 18% grey card, it should give you a more acurate representation of a scene that has a lot of black or white that might trick the meter into thinking the scene is brighter (or darker) than it actually is. So for instance with a snow scene, white reflects more light on average than any other color, so when you take your meter reading with a scene with a lot of white, more light is being reflected which your camera perceives as more light in the scene than their actually is, hence setting a higher shutter speed or aperture than you actually need.

A grey card is exactly that, just a grey card that you set in the scene and you take the meter off of the card. Your local camera shop should have them in 4"x5" or 8"x10" for a few bucks.
 
Alternatively, you could just meter off the back of your hand. That should be well within the latitude of your camera. Only do this if the camera is outside. If you meter off your hand inside and are shooting through the window, then the exposure won't be the same. Also, if you were using the flash, it may not have had time to recycle between shots, thereby underexposing that one pic. A higher capacity external power adapter may be available for your camera, or you might be able to build one that would work.
 
EXIF reads:

1/400 sec. exp.
f/3.7


Aperture's fine, but the shutter speed was a bit too quick w/o a flash. Or, if you were using a flash, you were a bit too far away.
 
Originally posted by royjr
EXIF reads:

1/400 sec. exp.
f/3.7


Aperture's fine, but the shutter speed was a bit too quick w/o a flash. Or, if you were using a flash, you were a bit too far away.
Click to expand...

where do you get the EXIF from?
 
Good advice here about metering with a gray card. This approach will also yield a proper gray balance. However, that would require you to have the gray card outside in order to meter with it. You have two other options that haven't been discussed here:

1. Use exposure adjustment. This requires "metering with your eyes" and guestimating how far off your camera will meter. Eyeballing the first bird feeder photo, it looks like it is underexposed by about two stops. Even the third one is slightly underexposed. This technique is useful when you can't trust your camera to meter correctly. I do this often with good results.

2. Meter on the bird feeder with your camera's spot metering mode, if it has one. I'm not familiar with the C-750.

<$.02>
Personally, I wouldn't shoot the scene like that; too much contrast between the snow and birds. When correctly metered for the birds+feeder, the snowy background will be blown out into pure white, and your sensor will likely show blooming. Also, from a composition point of view, the pipe support for the feeder running vertically through the frame really hurts it.
</$.02>

Enjoy the day :)
 
I am not a big fan of the pole either, but I just like seeing the stop-motion of birds flying, and the only thing I can think of would be a change of location (with the tree in the background)

edit: I guess you can't really see the tree. It is about a foot beyond the pole.
 
I'm not too familiar with the C-750. I would assume that it sets the ISO automatically, unless you can otherwise set it manually?
 
Originally posted by royjr
I'm not too familiar with the C-750. I would assume that it sets the ISO automatically, unless you can otherwise set it manually?
Click to expand...

In manual mode, you have to choose one of the four. I know how to, I just don't know which to choose for what situation.

In all of the other modes, you can choose one of the our or AUTO, which chooses for you.
 
ISO rating is a measurement of how sensitive the sensor (or film) is to light. A 200 rating is twice as sensitive as 100. 400 is twice as sensitive as 200, and so on. For example, a 200 ISO will allow a shutter speed twice as fast as a 100 ISO shot of the same scene (exposure), or a one stop smaller aperture.

For shooting fast-moving subjects, like birds, use a higher ISO. Likewise for shooting in low light. The tradeoff is greater noise in high ISO modes.
 
Originally posted by Bones
For shooting fast-moving subjects, like birds, use a higher ISO. Likewise for shooting in low light. The tradeoff is greater noise in high ISO modes.
Click to expand...

So for a faster picture, a higher ISO is better, but a lower ISO would look better?
 
For metering a scene like that you can also use the zone system. I won't go in to detail about it since it won't make much sense to you probably, it takes most people some time to learn it.

Basically the camera sees that scene being very bright, but it's goal is to set the exposure so the metered light averages to 18% gray (some say its 12 or 13 but lets ignore that). This means your camera is basically pretty stupid, but all in camera meters do this basically (even nikons with their "fancy" meter).

Using the zone system lets you compensate for the meters inabilities to correctly expose.

If you want to shoot a scene like that you can meter off the white snow. All you need to do is then open up the aperture or slow the shutter speed down by 2 to three stops. The meter is going to tell you that you're over exposing but this will put the white snow at white and will expose the bird better.

The same can be done shooting a black object, meter off the black and then remove 2 stops of exposure (smaller aperture or faster shutter speed). This will shift the exposure so that it looks right to us, although the camera will disagree.

If your camera has it, for that scene you could also use a spot meter and meter off the bird feeder. However this may still be skewed slightly, so the method i explained above is actually better in some circumstances.
 
Exactly Emorphien. I was going to say center the metering spot, if you have that option.Also you might try tweaking the White Balance in manual. Should be able to go + or - on that. See if that helps afterall it is digital and, you can delete it. Better than shooting a roll of film and, gatting the :eek: response. Good Luck!
 
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