May 2017 Subject Competition “MANUAL”

I use Manual most of the time and Auto, maybe I should try the other settings!!! Or learn more about Manual to help my photos, but I do like

Being in control of what my camera is doing sometimes.

Nikon D5200

Lens 55-300mm – photo taken on 300mm

IS0 100- lovely sunny day

F8 – hopefully letting enough light in without getting too much glare.

Exposure 1/1000

“Greedy guts”

Canon 70D with 18-135mm lens

f/8, 1/320sec, ISO-100, f/length 124mm (in Manual Mode)

I rarely shoot in Manual so was out practicing on lavender. This tiny spider & its catch of 2 baby flies were all so small I didn’t even notice them until I looked at my progress on the computer. I quickly fitted my 100mm lens & raced back out to get in closer. Too late… Mr Greedy had dropped his dinner!!

Have had to crop this past the max unfortunately, but am still pretty happy I got the exposure how I wanted it by experimenting with manual settings. The unexpected subject was a bonus!

Manual setting takes me right out of my comfort zone.

So today I took myself off to give it a go

This photo was taken on Manual with settings – f/20 as I was going for an in focus depth of field – 1/125 sec – ISO 100 and white balance was on auto

The only post editing I did was to tweak the brightness and contrast a fraction

Warrumbungle Blossom.

f/11, 1/40sec, ISO-100, 100mm

Striving for a clear flower and blurring the background enough to help the flower standout. Used the tan of the leaves to help with contrast.

“Kitten Play”

1/1000, ISO 100, 2.8 and I used my 70-200mm lens.

Kissing Under the MilkyWay

This photo was a bit of fun.

We had the camera set up on the tripod with a light sitting behind us but in the middle of us. We had the timer set and run into position to hold the kiss for the 30 second exposure! (I know, the things we have to do for our art!)

F/Stop – 4.5

30 sec Exposure

ISO 6400

The white balance was also set to my fav 9400.

Autumn Leaves

This is a 5 photo HDR (stacking). It was all done on Manual setting with the f 18, ISO 100, Zoom 35mm and the Shutter speed was changed each time it ranged from 1 sec for the overexposed photo and 1/20 for the underexposed photo then I ran it through Lightroom to stack and bump up the Red.

‘Just One Drop’

Settings: 50mm lens f/22 1/60 sec ISO 500

I wanted to capture the lovely light reflecting in the drop of water so I shortened the depth of field to blur the background and limit the amount of light with a small apperture. Combining this with a fast shutter speed resulted in a nice flare.

I liked the aged texture of the tap and cobweb. The ISO promoted it’s grittiness, contrasting with the being backlit with morning sun, the flare in the drop and the glistening dew on the grass.

Junior Entry “Leaping Lucy”

Rosie took this pic of her mate after some bare instructions about the f stop and shutter speed. It shows a great silhouette image after bracketing of the settings. Not sure what the final settings were.

Focal length is 14mm

F 3.2

30 sec exposure

ISO 100 ?

I had a little experiment with slow shutter speed, manual setting without a ND filter to see how it would go. It was late in the afternoon and the natural light was dull however I think it went pretty well for a first attempt at slowing down the shutter in the daylight.

ISO 200, 102mm, f6.3, 1.6 sec

“Bubble Reflection.”

Canon 7D Mk11

1/160 F5.6 ISO 200

18-135mm Lens

No post production…apart from 180 degree rotation, to adjust upsidedown reflection.

“Sunset Bridge”

Manual ISO 250 26mm f7.1 1/80 sec

I always struggle with getting exposure right taking this type of shot because of the contrast between sky and shadows so I like to bracket exposures just to be sure. Also I often find it better to manual focus as my camera doesn’t always get it right in low light!