-with AWB,
- Av
- no flash
- very bad
- changed to Tungsten light- still in Av mode
- flash added without any tissue- Changed to Manual
- 0 Ev exposure
- all points auto-focus
- set to spot-metering without know and without playing with it (so it must be metering off the center of the frame, which is the brown bear)
- white bear is pretty washed out (by flash and wrong spot-meter settings?)
- the color is better than without using flash. It's brighter. The previous pics without flash were too dark/yellow.
- I covered the flash with tissue paper.- also realized that the camera was on spot-meter since the beginning of these tests, so switched to partial-metering and just shoot by framing (so the meter must be taking the center of the frame)
- it turned worse. THe color was very bad because the "averaging metering" is taking in many colors.
- meaning I should switch back to spot-metering, and pay more attention to metering and setting the metering right before framing the pic. This led to next image.
This one is so much better.- changed back to spot-metering
- meter of the head of the white bear, and adjust the exposure at 0 Ev. (having the center of the frame at the head of white bear)
- then reframe and shoot. (now center is not at the head of the white bear)
- since the spot-metering of the head of white bear is correct, the color is good. Tissue paper effect is very good. The light is not too harsh. But the white bear is still washed out. So I need to adjust the exposure to either + or - some value to give it an offset instead of 0Ev.
This color is good. See now the white bear is not washed out, and his color is more distinguished from the curtain. And the whole picture is slightly warmer as result of + Ev bias.* spot-metered of white bear's head with +5Ev. (one big bar up, half way through the positive side of exposure bar)
- But note that the brown bear is slightly out of focus. Not too bad if shallow depth of field was intended, then it'd be perfect. But this blur was not my intension. This pic was shot with all-point auto focus. So, I thought maybe I should single-point focus on the brown bear's eye. ... So in, next image, I chose the single-pt focus that lined up with the brown bear's eye (focus at the second column from right and the upper point in that column)
I love this last image. Good focus, good color, and my rule of third is not bad.
- manual
- spot-metered at the head of the while bear and adjusted it to +1 Ev or +5Ev? (some offset on + side, half way on the positive side of the exposure bar for sure)
- f/5.6 and adjusted the exposure to get +1 Ev
- Tungsten light setting
- single focus point on the eye of the brown bear. Now both bears are in focus.
- flash was used and a tissue paper was covered in front (this is such a big improvement that I covered the flash)
Take away from today: sport-meter of something with white color in the frame (e.g: white cloth) using the center point of the frame as the spot point, adjust the exposure to some + number, re-frame the objects so that center of the frame doesn't have to be pointing at the white object. After re-framing, we don't need to adjust the exposure again although it'll definitely be pointing at some other number now. In this last pic, as my frame is centering on brown bear, the exposure needle moved, but since i've already spot-metered of the while bear, it's okay to (At night, add the flash covered with a tissue paper before spot-metering off). Shoot.
