All around work needed... Help please! Bear with me please

[mpphoto12]

SO for the past few years i have been into photography and plan on studying journalism in college. Now heres the problem. Over all these years i havent really learned any new shooting techniques to make my photos better or easier to shoot in bad conditions etc. Right now i shoot mostly on manual constantly adjusting the shutter speed and aperature and ISO to the lighting. Thats no problem i have been doin this for a while. There is this gray area however, that i dont know how to shoot, meaning things like, metering, histograms, exposure compensation,flash compensation, white balance etc. These are the things i would like to know how to do more often. I always see photographers pointing the camera somewhere else to meter a shot then back to the subject. I would like to know how exactly i do this and the point of it. I assume this is spot metering and i would like to know more about other types of metering as well as when to use them. If a subjects heavily backlit how would i properly expose the background and foreground in the same picture. I am completely lost when it comes to these things besides basic exposing in manual. I am asking for some major help! ALso the other parts of the grey area include exposure compesation in the camera functions, as well as flash compensation. I would like to know how to use these and when as well. Thanks in advance!


Gear:


1D MK III, 50 1.8, canon rebel XT, 18-55, 70-200 2.8L, Gitzo reporter tripod, sigma 500 DG ST super flash.

[bob williams]

mppphoto, Wow, you are asking a loaded question, actually several. Instead of getting a lot of different opinions from a lot of different people, May I suggest a couple of books:


Bryan Peterson's "Understanding Exposure" and "Learning to See Creatively". Bryan also offers online classes that are very good and worth every penny @ http://www.ppsop.com/unex.aspx .There are also many other online resourcesthat can helpyou. Here is a good article to start: Here. You can also get some great tips off of you tube---just type in exposure and exposure basics.Once you understand these things, the camera's operating manualwill explain specific functions of your camera such as metering.If you have a specific question or need advice about a specific function on your camera I am confident there are members on the forum that would be more than willing to help you.


Good Luck,


Bob

[TakahiroW4047]

I always see photographers pointing the camera somewhere else to meter a shot then back to the subject. I would like to know how exactly i do this and the point of it. I assume this is spot metering and i would like to know more about other types of metering as well as when to use them.

WHY: While shooting in anything but manual mode in a situation where you have strong backlighting, your camera will typically adjust the exposure to match the backlight. Thus you get underexposed subjects.


HOW (If you're not using fill light): Say in the same situation with strong backlight, you point your camera at something that has similar lighting as the subject (e.g. a furniture on the other side of the room in the shade). Right around where your right thumb would lay on your camera you'll see an asterisk looking button. When you press that, it "locks" your exposure settings for a number of seconds. Then you turn to your subject and shoot. The exposure setting should have been "locked" for the dimmer light, so your subject should be better exposed (but with severely overexposed background)

If a subjects heavily backlit how would i properly expose the background and foreground in the same picture.

You have the Sigma 500, which I believe has ETTL? It should automatically provide the right amount of fill flash....but I'm not too familiar with that one.

[Daniel Browning]

If a subjects heavily backlit how would i properly expose the background and foreground in the same picture.

Well, sometimes you can't -- when the dynamic range is higher than your camera is capable of, you have to choose what part of the image you want to lose -- in backlit situations it's usually the background, unless you're making a silhouette.