 Rosie Fodera |
ISO Questions Hi. I have the Canon D60, and shoot with a manual aperture of f/5.6. I found that I'm constantly increasing my ISO in settings where it's not even that shady. Even when I increase the ISO to 600 or above ,my shots are still coming out dark. I had the Canon Rebel and felt that if I left the same settings my images would have been a lot brighter. Anyone experience this?
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- Carlton Ward Contact Carlton Ward Carlton Ward's Gallery |
Read the manual and check your exposure compensation setting. If you are not familiar with using a DSLR manually or the ability to use the camera settings, you may consider taking a course for the 60D or an exposure class (even better). What shutter speed are you using? If it's sunny outside, you should be able to shoot at ISO 100 at f/16 with a fast enough shutter speed (1/60 or faster) - aka as the sunny 16 rule. I shoot in the Pacific Northwest and overcast skies are the norm, so I often shoot at ISO 400 or more so that I can get the Depth of Field (like f/22 for landscapes) with a fast enough shutter speed for hand-holding. But I prefer to use a tripod so I can use longer shutter speeds like 1 second or slower and keep my ISO at 100 or 200. I also shoot full frame (5D Mk II) which is better at higher ISO's but you should not be having this problem with your 60D. Hope this helps.
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- Greg McCroskery Contact Greg McCroskery Greg McCroskery's Gallery |
Rosie, If you are choosing to shoot at a fixed aperture (e.g. f5.6) you really should consider shooting in "A" Mode (Aperture Priority). In that mode your camera meter can select the correct shutter speed for the overall scene. If your scene contains very bright areas, such as a brightly lit background, your meter will not adjust for a subject that is lower light, and will under expose the subject. In those instances, you can either use flash to fill in the exposure on your subject, or use the exposure compensation adjustment on your camera to brighten the overall exposure. I suspect from what you are saying that your shutter speed is simply too fast for the scene you are shooting. God Bless,
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Dan W. Dooley |
I am not sure about one small point noted. You said that you use a "manual" setting of f/5.6. So the presumtion is that you are in the Manual (M) mode. You could be in Av mode and of course lock the aperture at that f-stop setting. You said that you are having to increase the ISO setting in order to achieve a good exposure but you made no mention of the shutter speed. In Av mode, the camera will set the shutter speed to achieve the desired exposure since you've locked the aperture setting. Of course in the Manual mode you'll have to set the shutter speed yourself. That's been covered nicely by the previous comments. One thing I'd like to add though. The difference between what can be done with the 60D and the 5D which Carlton is using. Be carefull about trying to go to too small an aperture setting. It won't be a problem on a good full-frame but shooting at f/16 or especially f/22 is going to result in a very noticable softening of the image due to Diffraction Limited Aperture. Keep the aperture setting somewhat wider if possible. Then the question is, why only use f/5.6? Base the aperture setting on the desired outcome of the scene and the lighting conditions.
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Rosie Fodera |
thanks for all of our help. I photography children, outside so I have always set my aperture to 5.6 and I like my ISO to be 200-400. I shoot in Manual Mode. I'm usually at a park or city streets and as you know with kids and lighting combined the conditions you shoot in are changing every second. I"m clearly doing something wrong as I should be getting clearer shots. I just find myself constantly changing either the shutter speed or ISO to get a perfect metering even in good overcast conditions but they are coming out too dark. I'm going to upload an example. I so appreciate all of your help
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Rosie Fodera |
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- Carlton Ward Contact Carlton Ward Carlton Ward's Gallery |
Hi Rosie, Because the kids & wall are on different planes, I would use a little more DOF like f/7.1 or f/8. This will require a slower shutter speed but you should be able to keep your ISO about the same and get a sharper image at 1/200s which should be fast enough. Are you shooting RAW ? I always shoot raw and sometimes under-expose a bit because it is easier to lighten an image to bring out details than it is to try to darken uncover-able blown highlights but your example image is lit well and you should be able to center your meter and get a near perfect image. I use ACR in Photoshop CS5 and editing exposure is quick & easy. Hope this helps, Carlton
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