Manual shooting.

junebug

junebug

New member
i'm trying! its hit and miss, but i think i'm starting to 'get it' more. i took these pics on this layout in full manual. the only editing i did was sharpening a bit and a tad bit of soft light blend mode. the hardest thing for me is avoiding camera shake and the kids not sitting still. as long as i have natural light or i'm outside i don't do too bad! :thumbup:
 
Manual shooting takes practice.
My 50mm lens I got for Christmas is all manual so when I use that lens I try to use the manual setting on my camera as well.
Those pictures don't look bad at all either.
 
Those are beautiful pictures. I tend to shoot in AV and TV mode. I need to do more manual. It still frustrates me to no end right now though!
 
To avoid camera shake or movement from kids you need to up your shutter speed. With moving kids you should never go below 1/125 for your shutter speed. However, when you up your shutter speed you will have to make up for that by reducing your aperature or upping your ISO.
 
thanks! i need to get a tripod. that would help a bit too. i wish i could afford to get a bunch of fancy camera equipment. but i make do, lol.
 
Honesly, Corey, a tripod won't help much for portraits (unless you want to be in them). People move to much and it's really the subject's motion rather than the camera's motion that causes most of the blurriness when you shoot people. I agree with Mel that you've gotta keep that shutter speed up, which means you need more light (which is why you have more success outside) or a bigger aperture (lower f-stop).

Those photos are terrific!
 
yah, usually when i want to be in the pic, i sit the camera on books or the kitchen counter, lol. but sometimes its hard to get it just the right height i need. with a tripod i'm assuming you can adjust the height easily. and i 'd love to take family pictures, and get a remote for it. so thats mainly why i want a tripod.

my outside pictures always turn out fantastic. if i have light coming in the window (like with those pics of Emma) they are fine too. usually though, any inside pics have an annoying orange cast to them, even when i adjust the white balance so i have to spend a lot of time editing them. but i'm getting good at it, lol.
 
junebug said:
usually though, any inside pics have an annoying orange cast to them, even when i adjust the white balance so i have to spend a lot of time editing them. but i'm getting good at it, lol.
Click to expand...

I have recently switched to shooting RAW in which you can adjust the white balance in ACR (adobe camera raw) or Lightroom before converting it to a jpg. Granted - you can't shoot RAW in auto mode.
 
i have shot i RAW before. i had a trial version of Lightroom. i'd love to have the full program. i dont know if i can edit RAW pics in PSE6.
 
I *think* with PSE 6 you can open and edit file with ACR (Adobe Camera Raw.) That is the program that I use since I can't justify buying Lightroom right now. Maybe someone with PSE 6 can confirm this though...
 
Corey, you can download the beta of Lightroom 3 and use it until April. Also, if it's ever in your budget and you have kids in school, you can get it at a discount through Academic Superstore. I picked up LR2 for $99 that way.

And if you have RAW capability on your camera, you should be able to set your white balance before you even take the shot. See what your manual says about it. I do it the cheap and dirty way by taking a picture of something that's true white (I tend to use cardstock or printer paper) then setting that image as the custom white balance. I have to make minor adjustments in LR, but it's nothing compared to shooting in JPEG.
 
I just checked and in PSE6, under Edit -> Preferences -> Saving Files there is a box to check for Prefer Adobe Camera Raw for Supported Raw Files. If that is checked it should automatically open CR when you open a RAW file in PSE :)
 
i always shoot in full manual mode. Once you get the hang of it, you wont look back. I cant stand shooting in auto now. It frustrates the hell out of me.
 
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