Pre Shot Check List - Bring Home a Banger

English Bay - Epic Vancouver, Nikon 10-24 mm lens F14 @ 30 sec. iso 100

ND Grad 3 stop Hard.
English Bay - Sun Stare Sea Wall, Nikon 10-24 mm lens F14 @ 1/8 iso 100

ND Grad 3 stop & 1 stop Hard stacked.
English Bay - Battle Ship Bay Vancouver, Nikon 10-24mm lens F22 @ 15 sec. iso 100

ND Grad 3 stop Hard

The Quick Pre Shot Check List

1) Compose The Shot - Find your composition

- use the rule of thirds and leading lines.

- also try getting low and filling the foreground with something interesting like rocks.

2) Set Your Focus Point

- set the focus point over the object for accurate focus.

- set the focus towards the middle of the frame for wide angle landscape shots.

3) Select your F-Stop

- for a blurred out back ground set the desired focus point and use the widest aperture such as F2.8 - F5.6

(the look gets boosted with a telephoto (long) lens also allows for a fast shudder speed)

- when you want the largest area of accurate focus (longest Depth of Field) use a small aperture such as F16 - F22

(this works great for getting that great focus from the very front all the way to infinity in landscape shots also allows for a slow shutter speed)

4) Meter The Shutter Speed

- If in manual mode use the light meter and set the line in the middle to achieve your exposure.

- use exposure compensation (one stop over one stop under) this way you can choose your favorite exposure.

- use aperture priority mode and set the F-Stop and the camera will set the shutter speed.

- use time/speed priority mode and set your shutter speed and the camera will set the F-Stop.

- use a fast shutter speed to freeze action (125th - 2000th of a second)

- use a slow shutter speed to show movement such as milky looking water falls (60th - 30 seconds)

5) A Note On ISO

- use a low iso number like 50-200 for most shooting conditions.

- use the lowest iso number when decreasing shutter speed.

- use a high iso number like 400 and up when in need of a faster shutter speed such as low light hand held shooting.

- image gets grainy at high iso numbers on some cameras.

6) Take The Shot!!

7) Check The Histogram

- look for nice even spikes towards the middle and spread nicely across the histogram.

- look for clipped high lights and lost detail in shadow area.

- adjust exposure and re shoot if needed.

8) Zoom in to 100%

- once you have taken the shot zoom in to 100% to check for sharpness and focus.

Check out your photo!!

www.AaronGoodisPhotography.com

squaretail@hotmail.com