The million dollar question - 600D usage

[Paulstw]

I feel this question or query could be asked here as you all seem a really decent bunch of people who are there to help, no matter your experience level, so here goes.

I've had my 600D about 2 months. Before that I used a Fuji S4500 bridge. Manual mode suddenly hit me one day, No idea how or why, but I've been using manual mode on my 600D ever since.

Since I'm self taught, I wonder -- Am I doing it right?

Set the scene....

Daylight, bright sunshine, so I set ISO 100 or 200. I'll be using my 75-300mm F4-f5.6 USM III for capturing birds or any wildlife. I set f4 to get maximum light in, however I know that at 300mm it's going to change to f5.6.

Naturally, If I see the exposure meter wandering off to the right in the viewfinder, I'll rapidly move the scroll wheel to speed up the shutter, and to the left, I'll slow the shutter. I tend to float between partial and spot metering, because I don't want the overall sunlight to mess with the subject.

I find the rapid scrolling action of the scroll wheel distracting to the animal and noisy too. However, using Av is not an option to me, because I try not to go below 1/80th of a second due to my ability to steady the camera handheld, and Av mode will probably go there at a moments notice.

Is this what mostly everyone does in manual mode? or is there some mythical way of doing it better? I tend to us AWB too, as I feel it's not really that bad at getting it right. I've never used custom WB using an 18% grey card either.

Sorry for the long post, however, I just want to know if i'm headed in the right direction.

Thanks for listening folks

Paul
glasgow

[Trevoreast]

Re: The million dollar question - 600D usage

Great question Paul,

Is this what mostly everyone does in manual mode? or is there some mythical way of doing it better?

In situations were very rapid, frequent adjustments are required manual may not be the right option.

In the same situation were AV is giving you too slow a SS, ISO is your "go to" setting.

Trev

[dkane95]

Re: The million dollar question - 600D usage

If I'm photographing animals at something like 150-300mm I use TV at 1/250 minimum and ISO 400-800. I find Canon DSLRs tend to overexpose if left to it so I set exposure compensation down by 1/3 or sometimes 2/3 a stop. Both my 50D and 600D overexpose slightly.

[Paulstw]

Re: The million dollar question - 600D usage

Great question Paul,


In situations were very rapid, frequent adjustments are required manual may not be the right option.

In the same situation were AV is giving you too slow a SS, ISO is your "go to" setting.

Trev

Thanks Trev, I tend to ramp up the ISO if need be, however the 600D noise is terrible above 800 I think.

If I'm photographing animals at something like 150-300mm I use TV at 1/250 minimum and ISO 400-800. I find Canon DSLRs tend to overexpose if left to it so I set exposure compensation down by 1/3 or sometimes 2/3 a stop. Both my 50D and 600D overexpose slightly.

I've felt that too, and there's such a fine line between blowing out the lights and making it too dark. I'm sure I'll dial it soon :)

[Trevoreast]

Re: The million dollar question - 600D usage

So many issues Paul, one would have to write a book to cover them.

You’d factor in the capability of the kit, and the lighting conditions.

So on a dull day were you figure you’d need to shoot at above 800 ISO, aperture wide open, to get a motion freezing shutter speed, you could decide to give it a miss, and photograph something else.
TBH that’s what I do. Your out to get good pictures, and I’ve figured that no-one outside of photography circles cares that you’ve got the best possible image despite poor conditions, they’ll only like or ignore on face value, or will prefer a clean (noisless), sharp shot taken in nice light

By all means we can go and push our equipment to it’s max and gain valuable experience of shooting in poor conditions, and practice all the associated techniques, not forgetting less technical but equally important aspects like composition and scoping out locations.

The way I think about manual mode, is you use it when you think the meter will be fooled or produce inconsistent results. If you’re going to try to manually do what the camera does automatically in AV or TV mode (eg centre the meter) then you may as well use AV or TV with exposure compensation. The constant adjustments can be distracting, and could lead to you “taking your eye off the ball” re composition etc.

These are my personal musings on the subject, just giving you my view. I don’t think what I say is 100 % right, or even relevant.
I look back in horror about things I thought were 100% right 4 years ago when I took up photography seriously.

Trev

[oldbaldgit]

Re: The million dollar question - 600D usage

For wildlife and moving things, I tend to use Tv set to a speed relevant to the subject, stick it on auto iso and let the Av sort itself out.

Which may explain why my pics are ****..................

[Paulstw]

Re: The million dollar question - 600D usage

Good points there, and when I went out today, It suddenly clouded over, so I thought about B&W images instead of animals. So a re-direction of thought might not be a bad idea. It then started raining so I headed back in. :)