Day 30 - The Joys of Manual Control

A bright, sunny day, strong shadows and a zoom lens. That's a recipe for photographic disaster if you're dependent on the automatic settings of your camera.

That's why I'm delighted with this fairly average shot of our dog, Marlee, taken at the UNB woodlot today. Using the manual settings on the camera, I was able to compensate for the brightness of the sun-drenched snow background and still get this detailed, well-lit photograph of Marlee (and the icicles on her chin).

The most important trick, I think, is not to let the camera's light meter fool you. On a sunny day, with snow in the scene, it's going to try to convince you there's more light on the subject than there really is. You've got to ignore its advice and open up the aperture more to allow enough light in to bring out the detail in your darker subject.

The original of this photo included more of the snowy background but I decided to crop it out so as to focus attention on Marlee's face. I'm glad I was able to set the camera manually for this picture, however: if I had had the camera on automatic, the face would have been much too dark.