And the learning never stop

This is the second photography post from the cool Starbucks drinking, artsy old soul, fun loving Brady Bunch Mom Ruthanne from Eclectic Whatnot.

I’m going to confess something here.

Gulp.

I only know about 5% of what my camera is capable of. There. I said it.

Also . . . .

Most of the shots I’ve been taking have been very frustrating.

Hangs head in shame.

Here’s the deal:
In order to get my shots to properly expose, I’ve had to adjust my exposure about six, seven or even eight clicks to the left of zero. That’s a lot! Now shooting with my d60, I almost always went two or three clicks to the left of zero. I just liked it. But, going as much as eight clicks just seemed wrong. I had this awful fear that something was wrong with my camera {that should’ve been my first clue *snort*}.

Yesterday, I broke down and e-mailed a sweet, blog reader {Thanks, Laura!} and explained the problem. She did some research and sent me some ideas back. I tore the house apart looking for my manual. No, I didn’t know where it was. {averts eyes} I looked up exposure compensation. And whaddya know?! I had adjusted the exposure compensation to -1.7. No wonder my images were so dark!

I must have done it as soon as I turned the camera on and started playing with it. Without even knowing.

Once I fixed that, I took some test shots. Much better.

BUT

There was still this dark ring around the edge of the shots that should not have been there. I knew I had the correct lenses for a full frame sensor, so I knew it couldn’t be that . . . . turns out I had the Vignette control turned ON.

Uh. Duh.

I turned that off and Voila!

Sigh.

The learning never stops.

P. S. I would like to thank my goofy, lil’ Stinker for helping me practice with the new settings on my camera last night.

P. P. S. All of these were shot with the meter at zero. I’m now a happy girl.