I give ,I'll ask the experts

[cpasley]

I have a couple of questions I know someone here can answer

1.when out at Deer Valley shooting FIFI I tried some different settings cause one thing I noticed is when I would shoot in "TV" mode to lower my ISO to capture that all important "prop blur" (thanks chris palmer for putting that word in my vocabulary) the photos came out dark ,well I should say "darker" then when I shot in full auto ,is there a way to fix that without editing cause it seems a huge contrast ,bright on top of plane and super dark underneath

2.my second question is about my lens ,my 300mm ,is seems kinda jerky when zooming in and out ,its nothing special its just a Canon 75-300mm but is that normal and if so do they make a lens with some kind of like damper for a smoother motion

[Jay Beckman]

Not sure about the smoothness issue Chris as I've never used that particular lens.  I know my 100-400 is very smooth (too smooth if you don't lock the zoom before letting the lens drop ... CLUNK!)

As for the exposure issue, it sounds as if you've got a couple of things at work and may be mixing them together.

The battle of "prop blur" is won by using as little light as you can get away with.  Obviously, the three ways you can reduce your exposure are:
1) Fast Shutter Speed
2) Small Aperture Opening (large f/stop number)
3) Least Sensitive ISO (probably 100 in your case unless your camera can go to "L" which is software-induced 50 ISO)

Since shutter speed dictates your ability to freeze a subject (or not freeze it in the case of prop blur) we'll start there...

If you choose to work in Tv Mode, you choose the shutter speed and for a given ISO (which you set as well), your camera will opt for an aperture that achieves a nominal exposure.  So now we come to be at DVT shooting FiFi and what do we have?  A giant, bright, shiny airplane that will pretty much dominate the frame.  Your camera sees shiny airplane and will want to stop down to try and make the airplane 18% grey.  In doing so, it drives down the overall exposure.  But we don't want an 18% grey airplane because we want to preserve the highlights and keep it shiny.

This is where "Exposure Compensation" comes into play.  Whenever you're in Tv or Av Mode, exposure compensation allows you to over-ride the programmed exposure and shoot a little brighter (+EC) or a little darker (-EC) to keep shiny things shiny or dark things dark.

Think about it via two examples:
1) White Cat on White Silk
2) Black Cat on Black Velvet

If you let the camera meter do all the work for you, both examples will render themselves as a Grey Cat on Grey Material.  The camera will want to underexpose the white cat (push it down to grey) and overexpose the black cat (lift it up to grey.)  You have to grab that Exposure Compensation and get the exposure back to where it should be for each.  You may need 1.5 to 2 stops more light for the white cat and maybe 1 to 1.5 fewer stops of light for the black cat.

So going back to FiFi, you've got an airplane that's akin to the white cat and your camera wants to make it grey (the absolute brightest or "specular" highlights will really play hell with your camera meter because in essence, you want those areas blown out completely and your poor camera meter will think you're nuts for doing so!)

So set your shutter speed for the amount of blur you want (little = 1/500 or so, moderate = 1/250, lots = 1/125 or slower) and then via the EC, dial in a stop or a stop and half of more exposure and I bet shiny airplanes come out looking better!

Hope this technical stuff makes sense...

- Jay

[Joe Copalman]

1. There are a few things you can do to compensate for this.  The first would be to change your metering mode.  I've found that center-weighted average works best for most applications when trying to get prop blur.  Evaluative tends to be the worst.  With the case of the CAF stuff, they're all bare-metal glare monsters, so your camera will try and compensate for the brighter subject with a narrower aperture, meaning a darker photo.  You can also jack up your exposure value by +1/3 to +2/3 to yield a wider aperture.  More light, brighter photo (and less dust spots).

2. That lens doesn't have image stabilization, so the trick is to be as steady as possible or use some kind of support (tripod, monopod, fence or railing, etc).    Woops, misunderstood the question.  It's a cheaper lens, and mine has some jerkiness to it as well.  Maybe work it back and forth a few times to loosen it up a bit (downside of this is that it can let dust in and whatnot, as it's not a weather-sealed lens either.

[BillOz]

I have been having more and more problem with my 70-300 IS lens doing a similar thing.  It is real sticky above 200 mm.  I think it is age, I've had it about 5 years, and it is probably needing to be serviced, to free it up, maybe lube it or something along those lines.  Not sure I'm willing to spend the money on it, as I'd like to get a better lens.

[cpasley]

I cant thank you guys enough ,Jay and Joe explained it really well and as I am reading this at work I wish I had brought my camera to play around with the settings cause Jay is absolutly right ,if you see my shots of FIFI from DV it does look gray as opposed to like well Jays shots of FIFI which have a a more natural look or how it looked to the eye ,guess its time to sign up for a course as I know nothing but even at that I wouldent have goten where I am now without all your guys help ,so THANKS!

[Paul Dumm]

I'll start some thing new, Besides two monitors, what did I need to use a dule monitor set up?

[Chris Kennedy]

I'll start some thing new, Besides two monitors, what did I need to use a dule monitor set up?

What kind of computer are you using? If it's a Windows PC, you need a second video card to run a second monitor. Windows can handle two monitors otherwise.

[Paul Dumm]

Hey Chris, So that's all I would need and Windows will do the rest.?

[Jay Beckman]

I'll start some thing new, Besides two monitors, what did I need to use a dule monitor set up?

You need a single card that can provide "dual head" output (there's usually the standard 15-pin connector (usually blue and tapered on the sides), a DVI connector (usually white and rectangular) and sometimes there is also an HDMI connector (looks like an over-sized USB port.). You'll need monitors that can accept different inputs.  One can be 15-pin while the other is DVI or HDMI.

You can install two video cards but unless you need the GPU horsepower beyond just photo editing, "SLI" lashups are (IMO) overkill.

Once everything is up and running, you can go in and set it up as either two displays or one extended desktop.

One other thought...  Don't try to calibrate both monitors!  Pick one and make that your "go to" display and leave the other for displaying pallettes and tools.  Trying to get two monitors to exactly match (even when they're cherry-picked twins) will have you tearing out your hair in short order.

[Paul Dumm]

Ouch, to much work and money. Was just woundering.

[Chris Kennedy]

I didn't know you could use the other ports on the card for separate monitors. In that case, your computer may already have that capability. Check to see if it has DVI or HDMI outputs as Jay described. If so, all you would need is the new monitor (with DVI or HDMI inputs) and the appropriate cable. Windows has settings to allow you to use two monitors.

There are instructions from Microsoft about this here:

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/organization/twomonitors.aspx

If your computer doesn't have multiple video outputs, you can get a second graphics card for 40 bucks or so. You don't need anything fancy unless you are running sophisticated games on both monitors.

[Paul Dumm]

Darn, That now means I need to get down on the floor. 

[cpasley]

Hey Paul if you need a card I have one im not using as long as your PC is using PCI-X its nothing great 1GB Nvidia and its free plus if you need help installing it let me know