Saturday, June 18, 2011

My journey with the D7000

Thus far.

Two weeks ago, I finally opened the box and unwrapped my new camera. It didn't take long to get up and running but I'll be honest, I kind of know what I'm doing and going from an old, entry level camera to a big boy camera is a bit intimidating. There's a lot to figure out.

I won't go into the differences between old camera and new camera now. I'll reserve that for an upcoming post in case there are any readers with entry level cameras who are interested.

So back to night #1 with the new camera. It was late and pitch black outside so I was excited to test out the ISO capabilities. I tried to take some pictures in the house and to my surprise, they were all overexposed. I was perplexed but placed the camera aside and decided to deal with it later.

The next morning, I tested out the camera in the house with my Speedlight (Nikon SB-600.) At certain times of the day in certain locations, there is decent natural light but for the most part, there is not so I choose to use the Speedlight.

Test shots.

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My attempt at outdoor photos that day ended with many overexposed, blown out shots. I did manage to get these ones of the girls. I was trying to get a picture of all three for a Father's Day gift for Rich. They started off the session exactly as I wished but by the time I figured out how to get a decent photo, they were disinterested.

But still cute.

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Here is Emily. She posed this way and said, "Come on, Mommy! It's fun!"

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Now, I metered in the camera and that photo is blown out. If you can't see where on her face, just check out the upper right portion of the picture. Her shirt should not look like that.

I didn't have much time during the week to play around with my camera but I started to realize that I needed to meter down to come close to correct exposure.

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But even still, some photos were still greatly overexposed. Like this one of Allie. You can really tell by looking at her shirt.

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So last night, I decided that enough was enough and I needed to figure out what was going on. I started reading more of the book that came with the camera. (I can't even call it a manual because there is so much information in it.) At first I thought that my problem may be with which metering mode I was using (matrix, spot or centered- weighted.) Nope, not the problem.

I continued to read and even searched the internet. Very long frustrated story short, my exposure compensation was set for +1.0! I never even thought to look at that because I certainly hadn't set it on purpose. Who knows how it ended up that way but the issue has been resolved. Hopefully.

Test shots of Anna from this past week.

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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

you seriously have the cutest kids ever <3

Unknown said...

Yes, you do have the cutest kids! Except maybe for mine.. :-)

Wendy said...

Ah yes! The book helps haha! Check your screens brightness, too. Mine came set really dark so my first few pics looked funky (thought I was metered, but I guess I wasn't). Also, I don't know if you change your white balance, but with my 90 I can't keep it on auto and go. Everything comes out looking cool/ dark. Is your focus set to AF Area Mode? That's what I have to use. Ah! I'm so jealous and excited to see more!

Tracy said...

Ok, was totally confused why you were having exposure issues with such an awesome camera.... glad you figured it out. Great shots... have fun!!!!

Christi said...

I felt the same way when I upgraded from the Rebel XT to the 5D. Took a while to get used to everything. But 3 months later I'm really comfortable with the controls. So much so that when I used my Rebel XT body at the Brimfield Fair (because it's smaller, lighter and it was rainy) I had forgotten how to change the aperture!

Sarah said...

Thank you! Yes, they are pretty cute.

Anonymous said...

i've had my d7000 for at least 6 months now and i still haven't read the book..shame on me! what should the exposure be set at? any other tips for good photos?! i guess i should just go read the book.