Total Beginner needs help please!

[Deckydodo]

HI, I am a mom of three kids who are models. I need to take pics of them regularly to update their portfolio and send to their agent. I usually take them outside to play and snap pics of full body and some face shots. They move around a lot.

I have a Canon Rebel T5 kit. What setting should I have it on so I can have the flexibiity of moving around with them and taking pics. Auto?  If not auto setting, can someone talk me through each setting in another program please?  My photos look grainy, washed out, blurry, etc. I can't get it right. Thanks so much!!

[Deckydodo]

you guys are so helpful! thank you! 

I took some pics to today in TV: set to 1/1000 ISO: 800 (I have no clue what the "F" thing is or where to find it 😞

Can you see my pics and see where I can improve?

[Waddizzle]

Nice photos, and they are not pics, BTW.  Just keep on shooting.  Program mode, [P], is a good shooting mode to use to learn about the camera, and general photography.  It gives you a better opportunity to see what changes in settings do to a photo.

Once you get good understanding of the " Exposure Triangle " and " Depth Of Field ", you will be well on your way.

Oh yeah, that "F" thing you mentioned, that is one leg of the exposure triangle, the aperture, which controls depth of field.

[Deckydodo]

LOL, i cannot find the F setting anywhere! I'll google it 🙂

Thanks!

[kvbarkley]

The setting is the Aperture, Av, and it is called out in "f numbers" because it is a ratio of the focal length to the opening size. Large "f numbers" result in small openings.Lenses are specified as to the largest opeing available: Primes typically f/1.4 - f/2.8 or so and most reasonalbly priced zooms f/4.5 and up. Since a larger openeing allows more light, the primes are better in low light. Also, low numbers give you a narrow depth of field - the band of sharp focus.

[Waddizzle]

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@Deckydodo wrote:

LOL, i cannot find the F setting anywhere! I'll google it 🙂

Thanks!

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The "F setting" is the Aperture setting value.  If you are using Tv mode, which us shutter priority mode, then Av, aperture value, is being set automatically for you.  Until you can understand the " exposure triangle ", I recommend that you stick to [P] shooting mode and forget about Av and Tv modes, at least for now.

Look at the link that kvbarkley posted.  Try doing web searches for the terms I posted in quotes.

[TCampbell]

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@Deckydodo wrote:

LOL, i cannot find the F setting anywhere! I'll google it 🙂

Thanks!

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The "f" values (aka "f-stops") are "focal ratios" (they are explained in the video).  Canon uses the notation "Av" (for "Aperture value").  

BTW, to help this make sense, the "ratio" is actually the focal length of the lens (in millimeters) divided by the physical diameter of the aperture opening (also in millimeters).  For example, if you had a 100mm focal length lens and your aperture opening happened to be 25mm across, then 100 ÷ 25 = 4.  So the focal ratio would be "f/4"

The real reason we care about those numbers is because when you increase the diameter of a circle by the square root of 2 (approximately 1.4) then the "area" of that circle will EXACTLY double.  That results in the camera collecting twice as much light in the same amount of time.  

For this reason the "f" values have a strange order... instead of just being "1", "2", "3", 4", they're actually values of 1, 1.4, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16 ... and you'll notice that the next value in the sequence is always the previous value multiplied by 1.4 (although we do round off slightly to make it easier).    Each value in the sequence (going from lowest value to highest value) means that the "area" of the aperture opening has been reduced to half, then half again, and half again, and so on.    The numbers seem slightly non-intuitive (wouldn't it be easier if they were just plain sequential counting numbers) but that's the way math and geometry works (we photographers didn't get a vote).

The video gives good examples ... watch it (if you haven't already watched it.)

[ScottyP]

Google 2 or 3 free videos on YouTube on the exposure triangle.   Good composition and handsome little guy and dog. 

You were outside in good sun and your subject was moving but not quickly so you didn't need to use the 800 ISO because it lowers image quality.  In bright sun, try to use ISO 100 or 200 unless your subject is absolutely screaming fast.   

You could have slowed the shutter to 1/400th to gain some light and still avoided subject motion blur.   I didn't see your aperture (f/stop) but you could have opened it up more if you still needed more light. 

[ScottyP]

I suggest a book lots of others will endorse. "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson shows how you can trade off one variable (aperture, shutter speed or ISO sensitivity) to get a correct exposure, but he then shows how you can do more trading between the variables to get about 6 different but equivalent exposure combinations from which you can pick the one that meets your artistic vision. 

This is important because each of the 3 points on the exposure triangle has a side-effect on the image.  Aperture controls the depth of field in focus. Shutter speed freezes motion of different speed, or allows blur if that is what you want.   Increasing ISO above 100 ISO gives progressively more sensor sensitivity in low light, but at the cost of image quality (noise/grain and loss of resolution).

[John_SD]

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@ScottyP wrote:

I suggest a book lots of others will endorse. "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson...

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Absolutely, Scotty. I think that book is great and it continues to help me tremendously. That book is what got me shooting in Manual mode, as he insists on it. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be and he does a great job explaining how. 

Also, his book on composition entitled "Learning to See Creatively, Design, Color, and Composition in Photography" is one I read and study often. Like many others, I recommend Peterson's books highly. 

[Deckydodo]

THANK YOU, EVERYONE!!

EXTREMELY HELPFUL!!!