I always shoot in manual mode and I have never shot in auto, so I don't know much about it. My 20D is my very first auto camera. All these bells and whistles to use, but I never use them, go figure? I really need to sit down an read the owners manual some day. hehehe ;)
Don't worry about shooting in manual mode, because you can either set the aperture, or shutter speed you want, then set the other one while shooting manually. You will have an exposure meter seen through the viewfinder, so just line it up on 0. It will show you +1, or -1 if your over or under. No worries...
You just have to know what f/stop, or shutter speed to use for what effect you want. f/8 - f/11 would be great for portraits and f/32 is good for the above shot and landscapes. At f/32 you would focus on the wirligig and then everything behind it would be in total focus.
I hope this helps,
Marty
PS. You have become very good at the racing shots and I think they are as good as any I've seen in Sports Illustrated... I going to try some Drag Boats this weekend. Wish me luck...
Thanks for the advice! I will try this next time. I found it difficult with the shot having such a bright background to get good colors of the wirligig. I am hesitant to shoot in manual mode in fear of overexposing or underexposing the photo.
Do you shoot mostly in manual mode or do you use aperture or shutter priority modes?
A 1/250th would have worked very well for getting a much better DOF... I would have shot it at 1/60th - 1/750th with the proper f/stop for exposure to see, which worked best for you...
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{K:24957} 8/4/2006