First Silhouette 365/3

Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi
Exposure: 0.1 sec (1/10)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 55 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program: Shutter speed priority AE
Date and Time (Original): 2010:01:06 19:29:45-05:00
Date and Time (Digitized): 2010:01:06 19:29:45

Thank you to everyone who recommended the book "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson.
All Silhouette and Sunrise pictures I tried were failures. I got the book yesterday, read it until late last night and then tried again to take a Sunrise shot at 5:30 this morning. First attempt and I had a Sunrise/Silhouette shot!

This is the best of 20 shots :o)

To anyone who is starting in photography..This book is the one you need!

More shots from 1/1/10

A few more shots from yesterdays outing:

Starting a journey

Digital Photography School Assignment: New Beginnings

Starting a journey, originally uploaded by BabsS.

New Beginnings...
This bridge is about 5 min from my house and crosses over the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area.
This is the place I'm going to start learning techniques. Learn to catch the ripples of the water going over the rocks in Manual Mode, Learn to compose in shade and light, take a photo, study it, go back the next day and take it again.
A really beautiful area place to begin my journey into photography )

Day 5

Last night I set up my tripod and played. I have some red lighted balls that everyone makes fun of. Though, for some reason I just adore them. One of my favorite Christmas Decorations.
Here is a picture of how I have them decorated:



As I was playing around with my camera I thought I'd get a good photo of my lights.
Whenever I've taken Christmas Light shots they've never came out. So..I thought before I take the decorations down I want to see what I can do using the Manual Mode on my camera.

Having no clue what settings to start with, I just kept moving settings and see what it would look like.

Here is an example of my first attempts:



Manual Settings were:
Exposure: 0.05 sec (1/20)
Aperture: f/4.0
Focal Length: 24 mm
ISO Speed: 1600
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off, Did no

I kept playing around with the manual settings to see if I could figure out a setting to capture just the lights..no luck!

So I posted the picture on the group Canon EOS 450D (aka Rebel Xsi) on the flickr website and asked for help.

Michelle (a member of the group) gave me great advise. Lower my ISO and use a tripod.

I was already using my tripod so I tried lowering my ISO:
Whoolaaa!



Exposure: 0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 35 mm
ISO Speed: 400
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off, Did not fire

If you look closely there is noise. But for my first attempts at manual mode. I'm pretty pleased!

I think..reading, reading, reading...is getting me no where. Playing and being not afraid to move settings is at least getting a few results!