Whole lot of Variety at Sam Smith

[MEGHAN]

[Niloc]

Nice set!

[Anonymous]

Nicely done.

If I may ask, how high is your ISO set?  Some of your recent shots seem very noisy.

[ravynne40]

wow very nice Meghan! looks like you had a great day. Love the grebe!!

[beresford]

Some great shots.

Thanks for posting!

-TIm-

[MEGHAN]

Thanks to Tim, Colin and Irene!!

Nicely done.

If I may ask, how high is your ISO set?  Some of your recent shots seem very noisy.

Attila,
I have been playing around with my setting as of late.
I think I'm kinda  doing OK, then someone say, "oh no, you have to have you camera on these settings. So I try it out.
Up till a few weeks ago I had my ISO at about 200 or 250. Someone said always leave it on  1000 all the time, so I did. Not a good idea eh?
I'll drop it back down and see if that helps.
Any pointers are much appreciated.
Thanks Meghan

[ravynne40]

Meghan here is a site that helps me a littlel bit with Iso and aperture settings. I been doing some research and am just starting to shoot manual (but mostly for stills, like scenery or if a bird is not moving LOL)

http://www.digital-slr-guide.com/when-t ... e-iso.html

i like the little mini cheat boxes

[Anonymous]

Attila,
I have been playing around with my setting as of late.
I think I'm kinda  doing OK, then someone say, "oh no, you have to have you camera on these settings. So I try it out.
Up till a few weeks ago I had my ISO at about 200 or 250. Someone said always leave it on  1000 all the time, so I did. Not a good idea eh?
I'll drop it back down and see if that helps.
Any pointers are much appreciated.
Thanks Meghan

1000?? Yowza!  I don't know who gave you that advice, but, in my opinion, that is just wayyyyy too high.  On a bright sunny day I shoot at 100, with overcast like today I was still at 100 until a really dark cloud came over then I went up to 200.  I was shooting in Aperture mode, going anywhere from 5.0 to as high as 11.0.

The higher you have your ISO the noisier your photos will be, and that isn't what you'd want - you want clarity and detail yes, but not to the point where it becomes so grainy.

I'm posting a couple of photos that I took today, you be the judge and make the call for what you feel is most comfortable for you.

Cheer, Attila

[MEGHAN]

Hey Irene...thanks for the link!
Attila,
Thank you for the info. I think I'll go back to a lower ISO.
Any extra hints?
Always appreciated.  
Meghan

[ravynne40]

Meghan the best advice I was given was take the camera, and play with the settings, I took the camera and took still shots of the path...with different iso, aperature, on manual on p and on A just to see what would happen
this was in the evening, no sun, cloudy day believe it or not...
sorry its not a birdy shot:



Exposure     0.013 sec (1/80)
Aperture    f/5.6
Focal Length    80 mm
ISO Speed    1400
EV 0.0
Manual focus

I also found out that your Aperature will only go as low as your lens will allow so if your lens is 5.6..that is as low you can set your aperature setting...lucky if you have a lower (which means it is a faster lens too)
but i'm not sure why I had the iso on so high either...to let more light in ..i think..

[Moira]

Meghan:  First of all, I don't claim to be anywhere near an expert - I just started shooting Manual in the past year.  I find that the camera body you have can limit how high ISO you can use.  I have a Canon 50d with 400 f5.6 lens and for birds, I always shoot with ISO 400 and usually at F5.6 or 8.  The ISO is one factor that will let you get extra light (for faster shutter speed).  If I really want the shot, I'll crank the ISO to 800, but I need to do some extra noise reduction (which I do anyway).  Friends who have the 7D or one of the Mark models, seem to be able to shoot at higher ISO.  Most people do noise reduction in their post processing work flow.  I downloaded a free version from the Internet.  Just be sure to select the bird and inverse your selection, so that you are not doing the noise reduction on the bird - it can soften the focus a bit.  

For portraits or landscapes, I try to use ISO 100 - using my 24-105mm lens - which isn't such a light hog.

I hope this is helpful.  There's so much to learn - I just try to take it a chunk at a time.

[MEGHAN]

Thanks Irene and Moira.
Still so much to learn.
Many thanks to you and everyone for the tips and advice.
Meghan