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ctfchallenge | all galleries >> Challenge 137 - Negative Space >> Challenge 137 - Eligible > Sunflower's Tear
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15-JUL-2007 jstrong

Sunflower's Tear

Any suggestions on my settings is always helpful, since I'm just learning this new can and lens. I find shooting in manual best right now with the jump from the Pro1. Seems like when i use priority AV or TV, i have trouble. It took me some shooting before I could get this exposed correctly for sky and flower. Unfortuanately my flash batteries knockered out, so I didn't have that convenience. The Pro1 only went up to F8...so I'm not sure what to do with anything above that 'yet'. lol When will all this come intuitively?

Canon EOS 5D ,Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM
1/13s f/20.0 at 97.0mm iso200 full exif

other sizes: small medium original auto
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sue anne16-Jul-2007 12:27
Beautiful Jano and I think you did exposed fine in manual to me :)
Rod 16-Jul-2007 06:14
The picy looks quite nice so I don't know if other settings would look any better. As for your camera settings for this shot they seem to be not right for guaranteeing getting the shot, like the shutter speed of 1/13s when your lens is on 95mm (shutter speed should be at least the focal length of the lens with no IS) this would normally lead to not very sharp picys but if your IS was turned on then maybe you're covered. I have no experience with IS. As Tommy said the sweet spot for most lenses is around F8 but don't be scared of other settings as most problems only show up in large blow ups. If you're having exposure problems it might be best to set your exposure preference on Evaluative so the meter averages the light for most of your frame, some of the other settings like spot metering can give bad results unless you're really thinking with some knowledge about light & exposing. I would think you could get good results with the camera set on AV mode with the F stop at F8 & the exposure set to evaluative. With these settings I would have got a bit closer to the sunflower so it filled about half of the viewfinder, half clicked then lock the exposure & then walk back to where you want the composition focus & shoot. This way the evaluative metering would have struck an average of the bright sky & the darker flower giving you something to work on in PP.
ctfchallenge16-Jul-2007 01:35
Nothing wrong with this exposure Jano. Nice rich colors and detail. No focus problems and right on topic. The smaller aperture adds depth of field but here you didn't need it, and apertures smaller than f/16 add DOF but are actually not ideal because of diffraction problems. Sharpest apertures are usually f/8-11. You must have used a tripod or you have rock steady hands at 1/13 sec. Frankly, there are too many variables to expect it to ever become intuitive. I mess up all the time after almost constant practice for 35 years. I never use flash because it flattens the natural shadow effects. -tv
janewigginsphotography15-Jul-2007 23:47
Thanks for commenting jonny. The drop is just a little sap coming from within. I took this very early this morning before any wind picked up. At first I thought it might be dew...but it was sap. jano
Guest 15-Jul-2007 16:48
great composition, very good colours. how did you get the tear? I mean: what is it? jonny