Newbie - Help needed

[stu1903]

Hi guys and Gals, I'm a newbie to this forum and this is my first post so please go easy on me.

Just purchased my first SLR camera, Sony Alpha a300.

I decided to jump straight in at the deep end and go to manual mode but all my pics are black. I've tried mucking about with different setting F & shutter speed with no sucess.

Is there any tutorials that you guys know of that would be good for a complete beginner?

Will also need to purchase a tripod as I just can seem to hold the camera steady!

Thanks in advance and hope to be a regular contributer to your forum.

[yelvertoft]

Hi Stu, fisrtly, welcome to WPF.

Secondly, you say you've gone straight to manual. When taking the pictures in manual mode, how were you deciding which settings to use? Was the camera's metering system telling you that you would be correctly exposed when you used the settings you did?

Even though you are in manual mode, the camera's metering system will still be advising you of its idea of how "correct" the exposure will be given the settings you are dialling in. It would help if you could take a picture in manual mode (presumably black), and the same scene, in the same conditions, in fully auto Program mode, and post them both here. We can then look at the settings each mode has used, and hopefully see why one is black.

For a tutorial on understanding manual exposure mode, and how the settings interact with each other, see this thread:
http://www.worldphotographyforum.com...read.php?t=125

Duncan

[stu1903]

Originally Posted by yelvertoft

Hi Stu, fisrtly, welcome to WPF.

Secondly, you say you've gone straight to manual. When taking the pictures in manual mode, how were you deciding which settings to use? Was the camera's metering system telling you that you would be correctly exposed when you used the settings you did?

Even though you are in manual mode, the camera's metering system will still be advising you of its idea of how "correct" the exposure will be given the settings you are dialling in. It would help if you could take a picture in manual mode (presumably black), and the same scene, in the same conditions, in fully auto Program mode, and post them both here. We can then look at the settings each mode has used, and hopefully see why one is black.

For a tutorial on understanding manual exposure mode, and how the settings interact with each other, see this thread:
http://www.worldphotographyforum.com...read.php?t=125

Duncan

Duncan, many thanks for your response. Ah so that what the metering system was meaning. I will try and get a couple pics posted up shortly.

As I say I'm new to this so it's probably something simple I'm doing or not doing.

[Birdsnapper]

Welcome to the forum, Stu. Hope that you get things sorted and we can see some of your pics.

[stu1903]

Originally Posted by birdsnapper

Welcome to the forum, Stu. Hope that you get things sorted and we can see some of your pics.

Cheers birdsnapper. I'm sure i'll get it sorted, just dabbling in unknown territority!

As they say the best way to learn is grab the camera and go and shoot some pics.......... then ask the guys @ world photography forum! lol

[postcardcv]

Personally I'd recommend getting the camera out of manual mode straight away! In manual mode it's all down to you and it's very easy to get it wrong - personally I think you're better off stick your camera into program mode (P) to start off with. That way the camera will deal with the aperture and shutter speed while you can get to grips with using it. Once you've got the hang of the camera then try other modes like aperture priority and manual. I use P as a safety net on my camera, it's what I leave it in when travelling, that way if I need to grab a shot I won't mess up the exposure. Once set up I often switch over to aperture priority so I have a bit more control and only use full manual mode on odd occassions.

[stu1903]

Originally Posted by postcardcv

Personally I'd recommend getting the camera out of manual mode straight away! In manual mode it's all down to you and it's very easy to get it wrong - personally I think you're better off stick your camera into program mode (P) to start off with. That way the camera will deal with the aperture and shutter speed while you can get to grips with using it. Once you've got the hang of the camera then try other modes like aperture priority and manual. I use P as a safety net on my camera, it's what I leave it in when travelling, that way if I need to grab a shot I won't mess up the exposure. Once set up I often switch over to aperture priority so I have a bit more control and only use full manual mode on odd occassions.

Yeah I realised the hard way that it's best to leave the manual mode alone. I've started gettingthe hang of aperture priority thankfully.

Thanks for your words of advice, I am taking all advice on board and hopefully be able to post some images up here soon.

[happy chick]

hi there!! like you I am a very new person to Photogrphy. I bought the A200 last month and havent yet gone onto manual! most of mine seem to be aperture prioriy which I have got the hang of now. All I have to do is sort out rest of it but in the meantime I have had some good (for me!) photos while I am on my learning curve. I have found loads of articles on various sites of help. If I still have them i will send you them