Do you shoot?

[murphyc]

I know these questions are ridiculous. Here's the thing: I'm a reporter. I got forced into photography and I love it. I never had anyone teach me how to use the camera; just kind of figured it out as I went along and asked the pros questions to help me. In fact, when we were checking our equipment today, schieza and I couldn't figure out why the cameras weren't rapid firing. I noticed one of the bodies was on S; I changed it to C and it worked. I'm guessing those letters stand for "Single shot" and "Continuous shot?"

Anything anyone can tell me, I'm listening. I want to learn as much as I can so when I talk my wife into buying us the D7000 (for our baby, certainly not for work) I have some idea of how to optimize it.

Rhody, first of all remember the only stupid question is the one left unasked. It's far better to make sure you understand something than to assume or guess and be wrong. So ask away.
I assume you are talking your D1H here, correct? By rapid firing do you mean you held down the shutter and it wasn't banging off non-stop at five frames per second?
On front, you will notice three settings: S, C and M. I'll start with the easier one: M is for manual focus. In that setting, the camera is doing no auto focusing, you have to adjust the lens yourself for focusing. In this mode, you can hold down the shutter and fill the camera's buffer (40 shots and 5 per second for 8 seconds).
C mode is continuous mode. This is what I always use for sports shooting or anything in general that moves. You can track a subject through the viewfinder, When you press the shutter halfway, it will auto focus. When you're ready to fire and you think the subject is in focus, press the shutter all the way and it takes the picture. However, if you hit the shutter all the way first it will take a shot before auto focusing. In C mode, the camera will shoot at max speed just like in M mode (5 per sec for 8 seconds), but if the subject has moved be ready for blurry pictures.
In S mode (I believe it's single-servo, but I call it stationary), the camera won't take a picture unless it feels the subject is in focus. If the subject is stationary (say you're doing a picture of a book), it will keep shooting. But if the camera moves at all or the subject moves, the camera will pause to make sure things are in focus again before recording more images. That's why it doesn't do the rapid firing in S mode.
Like I said, I usually shoot in C mode. The only downside is you can end up with blurry pictures if you're not careful. If doing pictures like portraits or grip of deaths, S mode usually works fine. But for subjects that move a lot, S can get frustrating. Having said that, with a newer AF-S type lens the delay until the shot is in focus would be less.
The D1H will make you a better photographer. Start experimenting with Aperature or Shutter priority modes. If it works (doesn't on mind), your D1H has a histogram function. When you look at pictures, scroll through different screens (go left or right on that joystick thing on the back) and find things like histogram, highlights and settings. Say you're in Shutter priority mode (which I prefer to Aperature priority, but that's just a personal preference; I prefer Manual mode to both). Take a picture of a stationary subject. Then change the shutter speed, look at the two pictures and the different screens (histogram, highlights, etc.) to see the differences. Change the shutter speed and repeat.
In the old (pre-digital) days, you had to make a fairly educated guess about exposure. I've shot rolls completely overexposed because I forgot I had 1600 ASA film still in the camera while shooting kids playing during the day. Oops! With digital, you take one picture and can tell right away how the lighting looks, plus you can experiment with different settings until you get it right.

 

[I Should Coco]

Great thread, and thanks to all for sharing their technical knowledge (and some pics!)

Murphyc, I remember those pre-digital days ... once upon a time, I even tried "pushing" 800 speed film to 1600, and my head spun with all the confusion in exposure and developing that entailed.

Here's my question ... I apologize if it's already been addressed:

I would like to buy an SLR-type digital camera (more for my personal use than for the paper), but my old camera is a Nikon FM, and all my lenses are manual focus. Will they work on a newish digital SLR camera?

 

[UPChip]

(I totally thought S was for Sports. Oops.)

 

[Tarheel316]

I'm amazed that there are still some functioning D1H's around.

 

[wicked]

I shot some photos at Little League opening day today. I didn't want to get too creative and just wanted to get a couple usable shots to go with my story.

I'm looking at them now and they're grainy. I did use auto focus, my ISO was HI-1 cuz it was light out, and I'm pretty sure I was shooting at F1.8.

Any feedback? I'm trying to digest everything I've seen in this thread, but I feel like I'm not "getting it."

Thanks for all of the previous feedback, too.

 

[ADodgen]

I pulled them up in photomechanic, and you're shooting at ISO 6400, which is part of why they are so very grainy. You're also shooting at 1/4000th of a second and f/5.6 -f/7.1 in the three shots. I'd shoot at more like ISO 200, f/2.8 and 1/200th(ish) of a second. You don't need to stop action for images like these, since no one is moving.

You're also shooting in manual focus mode, which surprises me. The shots are definitely not in focus (the focus point is somewhere well behind the subjects in all three images).

 

[wicked]

Thanks, AD.

 

[slappy4428]

Wick, what is the listed f-stop on the lens?
I've tried shooting in conditions like that and have had to shoot the ISO at maybe 800 -- even 1600 -- because my 55-200mm f4.0-5.6 zoom won't let the f-stop under 5.0 or so, depending on how long the zoom is at. If I'm shooting at full extension, I can't shoot at 4.0 -- even at manual. It has to be 5.6. So to let in more light, I bump the speed.
Only time I've ever shot 6400 outside was at night.

 

[Pilot]

Thanks, AD.

ADodgen pointed it out, but just to be clear: Sounds to me like you have the ISO backwards in your head. You want to keep the ISO number as low as possible. To let it creep up is to gradually trade photo quality for light-capturing ability. The darker it is, the more you need to capture the light, so you sacrifice some quality.

ISO 200 = the best quality your particular camera can shoot at.

HI1 and HI2 should only be used as last resorts, like when you're shooting a football game at night, if even then. I try to never go above the last real number before it gets to the HI1 and HI2 settings.

So, to be clear, as general rules, you want:

+ ISO as low a number as possible to preserve photo quality and prevent grainy images.
+ Shutter speed as high a number as possible to stop the action on the field and prevent blurry photos. Anything 250 and faster will stop a lot of action.
+ F-stop (aperture) as low a number as possible to keep the background blurred and allow your in-focus subjects to stand out more, and to allow you to keep your ISO low and shutter speed high.

Taking a good photo is really all about mixing those three settings. Read that light meter I wrote about a while ago and balance those three settings to get the dashes in the middle.

As for being in manual focus, I assume that's a mistake. The switch you probably have flipped inadvertently is on the front of the camera, just to the right of the lens as you're looking down the barrel of the lens. There's an "M" a "S" and a "C". Shooting sports, you probably want to be on "C", which mean continuous focus. As a player runs, if you keep the focus square on him or her and the shutter button (shooting button) pressed halfway down, the camera will continue to adjust its focus automatically. On "S" it will focus on one spot and not move until you release your halfway pressure on the shutter button and press it again. On "M" it's manual and it won't focus by itself at all.

Some lenses have their own "Autofocus/Manuel focus" switch, but if you were using that 50 mm f1.8, I don't think it does, so the problem was probably that switch I just wrote about on the camera.

 

[Rhody31]

+ ISO as low a number as possible to preserve photo quality and prevent grainy images.
+ Shutter speed as high a number as possible to stop the action on the field and prevent blurry photos. Anything 250 and faster will stop a lot of action.
+ F-stop (aperture) as low a number as possible to keep the background blurred and allow your in-focus subjects to stand out more, and to allow you to keep your ISO low and shutter speed high.

If I read this right, I think you just blew my mind away.
Let's say it's a perfectly sunny day.
My D1H has a high ISO of 1600 and goes down to 250. On a sunny day, I'd want it at 250, so does that mean I want my shutter speed at 200 or have it at like 800? And where would I put my F-stop? 4.0?
Normally on a sunny day, I'd be at 200 ISO, shutter speed at 800 and F-stop at 6.3.
Monday I shot on a foggy day with so-so light; the ISO was at 800, shutter speed was 800 and I think I had the f-stop at 5.0 or 4.5.
Am I doing this right?
I figure if I can figure out where things need to be on a sunny day, I can adjust them from there.

 

[wicked]

So, to be clear, as general rules, you want:

+ ISO as low a number as possible to preserve photo quality and prevent grainy images.
+ Shutter speed as high a number as possible to stop the action on the field and prevent blurry photos. Anything 250 and faster will stop a lot of action.
+ F-stop (aperture) as low a number as possible to keep the background blurred and allow your in-focus subjects to stand out more, and to allow you to keep your ISO low and shutter speed high.

Thanks, Pilot. That makes it a lot easier for me to visualize.

 

[Pilot]

On a sunny day, I keep my ISO as low as possible (200), set the f-stop where I want it, (somewhere between f 2.8 and f5.6, probably) and then adjust the shutter speed to where ever it needs to be to allow for those other two settings, probably between maybe 800 and 1600 on a nice, sunny day.

Sounds like you have been doing it right, so maybe my explanation sucked if it blew your mind one way or another.

In terms of keep the shutter speed at 250, I'm mostly talking about low-light situation, indoors or late in the day. If you're shooting action, you just need to keep it above 250. It doesn't matter how far above you go. (The ideal low is probably more like 500, but 250 is about the lowest you can go and expect generally usable photos.)

On the Monday foggy day photos, I'd probably have dropped the shutter speed to 400 or 500, which would have allowed me to drop the ISO to 500 or 640. That would have removed a little more grain and still been a fast-enough shutter speed to prevent any blurry photos. Generally though, it sounds like you were set up just fine.