2010 - Week 25, Manual Exposure with a Kit Lens

Neighborhood Pool
June 12, 2010 7:51 pm
Nikon D90, 18-105 3.5-5.6 VR @ 70mm
Manual, No Flash, ISO 1250, SS 1/500, f/5.3
RAW, Spot Metering, AF-C, WB in Auto

I didn't have any other pictures from this week, and I hated to miss a week in their book, and while this isn't a spectacular photo, swimming is an important part of our summer and the camera technique is an important one.

When moving from the little green rectangle (full auto) on your DSLR to manual, most people suggest getting a fixed aperture lens. Since telephoto lenses that are also fixed aperture cost as much as a well used car, most hobbyists find themselves trying out the prime category, with the "nifty-fifty" (50 mm f/1.8) probably topping the list as the most affordable prime, fixed aperture lens.

The reason that kit lenses (the ones that come with a camera) aren't as handy to use for learning manual is that as you use the zoom to move closer to or farther away from your subject your aperture also changes - which means that if you had a close up shot, and were using a focal length of 55 mm, and then went wide angle to get your toddler's whole body so maybe now you're at 20mm, your aperture changed from f/5.6 to f/3.5 or 1.33 stops, so the shutter speed would also have to change 1.33 stops and most usually by the time you make the changes your toddler has run away and you've missed the shot.

Even on days when I throw a kit lens (this one was bought used at an insanely reasonable price) on my camera I find myself moving to manual so I can control more of what I like to control (metering mode, focus point & focus mode). I'm starting to learn that if I overexpose my images by 1/3 or 2/3 stops they don't need as much brightening in post-processing. I could also do that by using aperture priority and a standard exposure compensation, there is almost always another way to do something - and I'm trying to do them all!

In this case, my aperture was set by my focal length, and I had set my ISO up at 1250 to grab some of the first shots up at the pool where the girls were going down the slide and I needed to freeze the action. I could have lowered it to 800, and still been ok on shutter speed for this one, but the exposure was good and there's very little noise (the biggest problem for high ISO and consumer grade cameras).



post-processing
Pushed the Aqua Hue slider to +48 to make the water more blue, I can't help it - I'm a sucker for blue water and green grass.