otispunkmeyer
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- May 15, 2006
- Messages
- 4,829
- Location
- Loughborough UK
- Car(s)
- '03 Skoda Superb (farewell :(), '06 Honda Civic ES
gah i got really fed up yesterday with the 400d's metering and focusing. i was at a break dancing event that was held during the day in newcastles students union. i had daylight coming in from one side of the building and the rest was lit with horrible manky yellowish flourescent's
now the metering is probably my fault to be honest, theres 3 modes on the camera + full manual (which i eventually settled on) but of the 3 i just couldnt tell which was better... does anyone know the difference between evaluative, partial and center weighted?
i kept finding shots were either overexposed, or underexposed....but whatever, they were never right. its quite difficult though because although there is light, its not that good quality, and the dancers often wear dark colours so the camera thinks its looking at something thats not lit....hence shutter speeds to slow to capture the action.
the worst though was the focusing...... i was using my 50mm f1.8 (the fastest lens i have) and it just couldnt hack it. i think 2/3rd of my shots were binned because it had been focusing on the static crowd instead of the dancer.
i had it on center point only and initially set on AI servo mode which is supposedly best for moving subjects because it adjusts the focus continuously but it just didnt work at all and kept producing out of focus shots.
in the end AI focus was no better, and i got the best shots from using one shot AF mode and having to keep pressing the shutter button to re-focus
eventually 1/100 shutter, f1.8 and iso 1600 were my chosen settings coz it was the best compromise of speed and exposure. bit noisy tho.
but the focusing was just annoying
anyone got any advice for shooting in these situations? i usually cope quite well back at loughborough, but there we have the lights off and just have the dance floor illuminated with some quite powerful LED spot lamps so metering an focusing is generally spot on.
but yesterday i struggled.
now the metering is probably my fault to be honest, theres 3 modes on the camera + full manual (which i eventually settled on) but of the 3 i just couldnt tell which was better... does anyone know the difference between evaluative, partial and center weighted?
i kept finding shots were either overexposed, or underexposed....but whatever, they were never right. its quite difficult though because although there is light, its not that good quality, and the dancers often wear dark colours so the camera thinks its looking at something thats not lit....hence shutter speeds to slow to capture the action.
the worst though was the focusing...... i was using my 50mm f1.8 (the fastest lens i have) and it just couldnt hack it. i think 2/3rd of my shots were binned because it had been focusing on the static crowd instead of the dancer.
i had it on center point only and initially set on AI servo mode which is supposedly best for moving subjects because it adjusts the focus continuously but it just didnt work at all and kept producing out of focus shots.
in the end AI focus was no better, and i got the best shots from using one shot AF mode and having to keep pressing the shutter button to re-focus
eventually 1/100 shutter, f1.8 and iso 1600 were my chosen settings coz it was the best compromise of speed and exposure. bit noisy tho.
but the focusing was just annoying
anyone got any advice for shooting in these situations? i usually cope quite well back at loughborough, but there we have the lights off and just have the dance floor illuminated with some quite powerful LED spot lamps so metering an focusing is generally spot on.
but yesterday i struggled.