Monday, October 22, 2012

-manual mode monday 2/52

Pillow Talk Swap

I got started on my pillow for The Pillow Talk swap this weekend.  I have finished all my blocks using this pattern.  This is a fun little block to piece.  I decided to go with a bright, rainbowy mix of colors, and I am using varying shades of white and notebook type fabrics for the background.

Bundle

 I was inspired by this color combo, and then decided to add a pop of orange to round it out a little more.  I think these kind of colors are to my partner's taste (at least, I hope they are!).   

Rainbow of blocks
Lens: Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II 
F 2.2 1/60 ISO 800

I shot these all in manual!  Yay!  I found that I liked the overexposed look for these photos, as they made the rainbow really pop against the white.  However, as much as I like the blur, I felt like there was too much blur.  I tried fooling around with it to open the lens a bit more, but eh...  I would appreciate any tips if you have any thoughts!



16 comments:

  1. Quilt magic!! The colour combos are just delicious and I like the blurry look.

    I am not experienced by any means but I wonder what your exposure compensation was advising? On my camera ( Olympus E520) it comes up as a grid line ranging from -3 to +3 with the other numbers in between. The ideal is to hit around 0:0 so just wondering if this particular facet was out of balance?

    Either way I still love the shot and the quilting!

    San

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  2. Don't you love the Canon 50mm?? I LOvE mine!!! Grey photos, great pattern, great job! I LOVe it all!!!

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  3. Gorgeous color. So, so pretty.

    If you want less blurring, you might try something closer to an F 3.5 or an F 4. Although I like the blur- especially in the 2nd one. And I love over-exposing photos, too!

    Thanks for linking up. :)

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  4. Yes, you need to your aperture number to be higher for less blur. It looks like you were probably set at 2.2-ish? If you change the aperture to 3.5 of so it should help, just make sure you increase your ISO or decrease your shutter speed to compensate for the difference. But I think they look great!

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  5. I love your patchwork! I also happen to like the blur but if you wanted to change that you need to raise your aperture number like the others said. Did you shoot your patchwork in a light box? I really like the background whatever you did. :-)

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  6. I think your blocks looks fabulous. Your pictures, look like they are in focus in the center, with the periphery blur, which I think is a settings issue, not just the aperture which brings in more or less exposure. Here's link to The Pioneer Woman blog who has some fabulous photo lessons, pictures, assignments that you might enjoy.:}
    http://thepioneerwoman.com/photography/

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  7. Ohh, it looks great !!! Thank you so much for the link !!

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  8. Very pretty colors and shapes!

    I can't offer advice about the manual mode, but I will say that I am trying to master my own. Last night I took my first in-the-house pics, with tungsten light, no flash--and I can actually see the colors well! That's a victory for me!

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  9. I love love love your pillow progress! Great photos too! You just need to increase your aperture (to like 3.5 would help) to reduce the blur, and then bump up the ISO or decrease shutter speed (or just increase your exposure compensation) to balance it out!

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  10. Meg, love the colors. Regarding the blur, it's a depth of field issue, which is controlled by your aperture - f stop - setting. The lower the f stop, the less depth of field or focal zone area. I like using a low f stop, because you get blurring in front/behind where you focus. Your bottom photo is the best example of that. If you lined up your fabrics horizontally, you would have blur front back, but your fabric would be in focus, with softness on the edges. Email me if you have any questions...I worked as a professional photographer for a while, so I do know my way around a camera!

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  11. Very pretty colors in your quilt and pretty pictures too!

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