I’ve covered most of the basics of exposure at this point, and I’ve gotten a lot of positive responses. I want to keep writing, but I’m not sure where to go next. Several things have crossed my mind– advanced topics, focusing, some of the whizzier camera functions– but I’m not sure what people are most interested in, or what would be generally helpful.
One thing that I’ve thought about is a series of recipes– “What settings should I use to shoot my son’s softball game?” “How do I take a picture of the moon?”
I throw it open to the floor. What would you like me to write about next?
Stop Shooting Auto! 
I saw your comment on lens terminology and maximum aperture. Will you expand on that?
Just found this site, which I will be reading from the start tomorrow, but I just had to vote for the moon first. I’ve tried to take pictures of the moon earlier this month, as best I could with a 55-200mm lens. I’m wondering if extension tubes are an good option…
DaftMav, extension tubes are good for taking better close-up shots. What you want is a teleconverter– it will actually magnify the image. A 1.4x teleconverter will turn a 200mm lens into a 280mm, though it will cost you one f-stop worth of light.
StopShootingAuto – I think you’re right, but you’re only showing the easier half of the story. I’ve been reading this blog a lot, and this is my first comment here, and besides that it’s great, here’s my 2 cents:
Shooting the Moon is not easy, because of 2 things:
A. It’s very (very) far away – so far away, that most of us will never touch it. That’s why you need a good zoom lens (70-200 is a good start, 600mm f/2 prism is better.. *drool*) that could be kinda costly. (I think that is why you’re suggesting a teleconverter).
B. It’s very (very very) bright – and because the skies are dark, whether you’re shooting Auto, or [Av] – the camera will have a really hard time getting a shot like the one on the post – because the picture that the camera will produce will be mostly black, with a white blob somewhere there in the big sea of blackness – unless you know how to use Exposure Compensation (or whatever the “+\-” button is called)
So back to the OP (as we say in flickr) – Since that is the subject that I think should be discussed next.
How about exposure lock and when to use it (panoramas, compensating for certain metering situations).
Like Felix, I think that a discussion of exposure compensation/EV would be helpful. Whether or not you’re photographing the moon.
Discussing techniques for reducing camera shake would be good–body posture, bracing against surfaces, remotes, self-timer, string tripods, bean bags/bag o’ rice, and conventional tripods/monopods. And a discussion of why a longer lens=more shake=more risk of blur.
You talk about using shutter speed to freeze objects in motion and how blur can communicate motion, but not flash and action. Or, for that matter, any discussion of on-camera flash.
If you were expanding a discussion of built-in flash, how about including changing the power of the flash, using paper to bounce or diffuse the flash, and having someone hold paper or posterboard to bounce the light in a room so that faces look more natural? I don’t mean a strobist level of discussion of off-camera lighting, but a use what you probably have approach.
How about something on how to nail silhouettes? I seem to struggle with grasping what I should do in that situation!
Gail, can you give me an example of what you’re trying to do, and what you’re actually getting when you try?
This may be a bit out of the scope of this blog, but I’d love a quick primer on how to get the most out of consumer post-processing software like Photoshop Elements.
I love your blog and it has saved me from having to spend money on some basic photography books. I’m definitely going to pick up Peterson’s “Understanding Exposure.”
Unorganized or not, an index of all the topics on this site would be extremely useful. There is so much good info in here. I just went back and copied it all intoa document so I can reference it. I want to do read it all again and again and again…
I would be very interested in the “recipe” book you mentioned. I’ve started to compile one myself. It would be very helpful as a “starting point” in various situations and then you could experiment yourself from that point. Such subjects as: fireworks, moon, stars, sunrise/sunset, night photography, lightning, fall leaves, water, snow/beach, etc. I know that the lighting, etc. plays an important part in determining your settings, but just a basic starting point for aperature, shutter speed, ISO, White Balance would be great!
Terry
Thank you for the feedback! I think doing a recipe book would be fun, though the hard part would be figuring out what recipes to use. I tend to do fairly esoteric stuff these days, and I’ve forgotten what “normal” people take pictures of. :-)
Thank you for the tips on taking photos of the moon…I did great.. I just have a question What is the canon converter ? what do I use it for ?
A teleconverter is kind of like a magnifying glass for your lens. it brings things in closer, at the cost of one or two stops of light plus some image quality. There’s more information about them in the articles on taking pictures of the moon.
Portrait photography please; with black backgrounds, and dark shadows; film noir style.
For a bit of added information. I was interested in ‘Fill Flash’ and came across a great article giving advice on the subject. In the past, whenever I used ‘Fill Flash’ the main subject came out OK but the lit background was very washed out and the remedy for this was negative compensation on the camera and positive compensation on the flash but of course the amount of compensation would entirely depend on how bright the background was.
As an experiment, I took a photo indoors of an object in a corner of the room but I wanted the scene outside the window to be properly exposed as well as the object in the shade and I underexposed the camera by 2 stops but overexposed my external flash by 2 and the result was nothing short of amazing.
I’m pretty new to photography so I’ve found your articles extremely useful and easy to understand
Night Photography is something which would really be good to learn.
Is there something particular you would like to learn about night photography? It’s a fairly broad topic.