Help about brightness

[PhreeZone 20]

The second one you are going to have issues on the face since its in shadow and shy of way overexposing the entire image or using a flash it will be dark. Overexposing will render the background as way too light and will wash out a lot of details of the image in general.

The first one shows you what an overexposure looks like. The sky has no color except shades of white almost since its being completely washed out. The jumpers face is dark since it has little light on it since he's facing away from the sun and you are shooting towards the sun. He is being backlight and shy of having a lightsource to balence the backlight (flash\bouncecard\reflector\etc... only the Flash is freefall compatiable) you are going to lose a lot of the details due to the poor lighting. In this shot you and the other jumper should have switched positions so he was facing into the sun and it was at your back to light his face better. I would have also stepped the shutter up to about a 500 or so to avoid washing out the colors of the sky. Meter off the clouds on the ground if you are unsure as to what setting you need to be running on any given jump to get a starting point. Its close to the 15% grey that the camera tries to auto expose to, its a lot closer then just random guesses.

You also have a dust spot on your sensor that is seen on the first photo that should be cleaned.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[saxboy 0]

oopps!
I forgot totaly "the rule" always the sun on the back :-)
I had my mind on the settings and nothing more.I did meter the clouds from the ground and to be honest I was exepted better results.But I forgot the sun and in this case I believe the reflection from the sea is an issue.Some things are "basic" in photografy.
The dust in the foto was from my filter.Now is ok.
I will be learn.This was my second try....
What about the blur???
Thanks for the help.

[PharmerPhil 0]

Ditto to all PhreeZone said. In addition,...

It looks (to me) like your blur is a caused by both too slow a shutter speed for the flying, and improper focus. You have to fly very still relative to your subject, particularly with such a slow shutter speed. (To start, I would up the speed to at least 1/400th, with compensurate changes to aperature). In addition, it look to me like you are not focused on the jumpers in the second image. Did you use manual focus or auto? If manual, at what dstance?

What resolution and compression was your camera set at? You really should be using the highest if you ever want to print any photos, and it looks like it is set to a lower res and greater compression. (The background in the second photo is very blocky, and these images have obviously been cropped, so it is hard to say what the original resolution was.) If you had to crop a lot of the image out to see the jumpers, that could definitely have something to do with the bluriness as well. If so, you need to fly much closer. But given the orientation of these jumpers (what exactly are they doing?), it might not be safe to get much closer...

FYI, your image data says these shots were taken at f11, not f9.

[saxboy 0]

Hi!
The one foto is the exit (3way)The result was nothing
The other guy never reach us.
I use manual focus.The distance is about 3-4 meters.
I am not sure if I will have a good result with auto focus...

[PhreeZone 20]

In your case until you can start framing and position better use Auto focus with the entire frame for your AF point. Once you can start to put the subjects closer to center for a while then change to using just the center point AF spot. Once you've got that under control move over to using manual focus since you should have knowledge of Hyperfocal distances and such to do full manual focus. Adjust one factor at a time until you fix it and then move to the next factor.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[lilchief 1]

I just started shooting pictures in freefall with my Canon 350D. I used autofocus on all photos and it never failed me.

are there any con using autofocus? i know that autofocus uses 7 marks in the frame to measure the distance and light(i use fully manual settings, the only auto is focus) and that may screw up the focus in some cases.

"Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you long to return." - Da Vinci
www.lilchief.no

[erikph 0]

Quote

shy of having a lightsource to balence the backlight (flash\bouncecard\reflector\etc... only the Flash is freefall compatiable)

You can sometimes use light bouncing of clouds for fill. Maybe you could use the sea as a giant reflector here?

It may need a bit of photoshopping, but I like that first picture: what a setting for a skydive!

blue skies,

http://myjumps.blogspot.com/

[PharmerPhil 0]

The downsides are having the camera not find a point to lock focus on (result: missed shot), or finding the wrong point to focus on (result: out of focus subject). BTW, although there are seven points for autofocus, you can pick any single point, or pick all of them.

[saxboy 0]

"FYI, your image data says these shots were taken at f11, not f9."

Yes you have right.I did wrong.
But how you can see the settings pharmerphil??

[ChangoLanzao 0]

Quote

Thank you very much for those informations.
I undestand that I must leave the "auto" programs and I must work enough the full manual...with flash or without flash,and I must "spend" a lot of jumps to find some setings, right?

Well, no not really. Just take your camera everywhere you go when you're not skydiving and practice the art of photography. It will help you gain the basic knowledge that you'll need in order to plan the settings you'll need before you make the jumps. Remember, your camera doesn't know the difference between a skydive and a ground shot. The same principles apply whether you're taking pictures of boring things in your back yard or stuff in freefall. It's easier/cheaper to practice and learn in your back yard, that's all. All things being equal if you want to "calibrate" your techniques to freefall, keeping a high shutter speed is your most important constraint.

[ChangoLanzao 0]

Quote

All 4 of these shots were taken at iso 100 ,shutter 200 , f13, 1/8th power fill flash. The last image was in parachutist this summer :)

Those are beautiful!

[garywainwright 0]

This is in no way a great shot but shows the advantage of shooting with flash. Without the flash it would have been much more difficult to make out the paying customer with the high layer of cloud.

This was shot in TV mode at 1/500
Flash set to high speed sync and zoomed in to 24mm (i've experimented a lot and like this setting with a 15mm lens)
Underexposed by a full stop.

Like I said, not a great shot but just trying to make the most of the situation without resorting to PS

http://www.garywainwright.co.uk

Instagram gary_wainwright_uk

[velocityphoto 0]

Was that manual or auto focus?

A friend will bail you out of jail , a REAL friend will be sitting next to you in the cell slapping your hand saying "DUDE THAT WAS AWSUM " ................

[PharmerPhil 0]

Quote

...But how you can see the settings...

It is in the meta data that is embedded in your image file. Just open the photo in Photoshop (or, I imagine, any decent photo editing software) and check the file info. You can often learn a lot about other how other people shot their photos this way.

[saxboy 0]

Thank you.

[Laszloimage 0]

In the "FlyMan" shot the AF must have been very difficult to achive to your camera. The reason is because the big part of the image is very bright (the water and the horizon) Your subject is dark and occupies a lot smaller portion of the frame, and of course lot closer too. For the camera this is extremly comlicated to focus on. I can tell the camera was focusing on the back ground rather than the jumper in the picture. The only reason for some sharpness is the high (f11) aperture value, so you gut some depht of field no matter what. (not enough though since the camera was fucusing far not to close).
Please look up the meaning of depth of field and its relation to aperture (f stop) based on that you'll be set manual focus lot easier. (its a big subject this post is way to short to explain the whole concept...)
...but here's the link for DOF:
http://photoinf.com/Tools/Don_Fleming/Depth_Of_Filed_Calculator.html
Also the "AI Servo" AF mode can fake the camera out if it shakes in free fall, which deffinitelly will happen if you're a beginner cameraman. If you're using AF vs. Manual I recommend to ose the "One shot" AF mode without using the burst on your camera. This way you have to press your tounge/bite switch more often, but you'll get better results.
...and of course in the future if you can you'll need to use a flash. Deffinitely when you have a bright back light.
Good luck!
-Laszlo-

the attached picture shows an example how the flash
"works". As you see the back ground of the image is just as bright as yours. But the subject (the 10-way) is all light up by a flash.

[Skydave103 0]

Laslo, PharmerPhil, Velocityphoto, Changolanzo,

What fill flash are you using? I have a 20D with a Canon 10-22 lens and have been thinking about adding a flash. What would you recommend?

Thanks,
Dave

LifeshouldNOTbeajourneytothegravewithawellpreservedbody,buttskidinsideways,cigarinone hand,martiniintheother,bodythoroughlyused upandscreaming:"WOO HOO!! What a ride!!!"

[Laszloimage 0]

The best you can get these days is the Canon 580EX.
...it's a bit expensive though. It's about $380-400,
but I love it. (I've got two...)
-Laszlo-

[PharmerPhil 0]

I use a 420EX, because I have had it and used it for a long time. but if I were buying today, I would get a 580EX, or (if cost is an issue) a 430EX which replaced the 420EX.

[DSE 5]

I bought the 580EXII based on Laszlo's recommendation, and it's great. Rechargeable batts make it easy. Get the TTL 03 cable for it for ease of use.

[Skydave103 0]

Thanks for the info. I'm looking into it now.

Dave

LifeshouldNOTbeajourneytothegravewithawellpreservedbody,buttskidinsideways,cigarinone hand,martiniintheother,bodythoroughlyused upandscreaming:"WOO HOO!! What a ride!!!"

[ChangoLanzao 0]

I don't use a flash, but I'd like to start sometime. I do enjoy the challenge of trying to get good shot's with natural lighting.

The only reason I haven't started using a flash, is because I'd want to use one with lot's of power, and that probably means putting more snag points on my helmet and definitely more money Since I'm already using a Bonehead optik with video and still, adding a flash would probably really complicate matters. I think I'd rather get a new helmet first so that everything will fit better

[saxboy 0]

Hello there!
This is my first tandem photo as a second camera man.I did't take money.It is tooooo soon for me to do that.
The first photo is the original and the second one is the fixed.
The picture was taken on TV prog and AF.

[PhreeZone 20]

First your Shutter is set on 1/1250, thats really fast even though you are set at ISO 400. Crank the ISO down during the day. having it higher is making the exposure more grainy then it needs to be and also forces you to move the shutter speed to the really fast range to keep from over exposing it.

On there ground where did you meter from? Did you try a spot meter or were you using the evaluative metering mode? Did you meter facing the sun or with the sun at your back? Have you useda grey card yet to help set your metering?

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[pilotdave 0]

Quote

forces you to move the shutter speed to the really fast range to keep from over exposing it.

He was on shutter priority, so nothing forced a shutter speed other than him setting it. He still got an aperture of f/6.3, but probably only because he was facing the bright sun. I would expect other pics from that jump to be underexposed. But this was a backlit shot... no surprise the tandem pair is so dark.

I typically use shutter priority at 1/800th or so with ISO 400. I'll drop the ISO occasionally on sunny days, but I don't find much difference between 100 and 400 with my XTi (as long as the pictures aren't underexposed) and I like fast shutter speeds. Much faster than a lot of people here actually.

Dave