I was out looking for a nice setting for a photo idea I have. Came across these seagulls resting on a floating dock seemingly enjoying the sunset. Capturing the sunset in the water on the dock gave the image a nice balance I think.
I’m mostly shooting in fully manual mode these days, not even the ISO is on auto. I like to have control over the tradeoffs between shutter speed, aperture size and ISO value. Then I can only blame myself if I don’t get the shot I want. It’s a good way to learn. Also I’m using back button focusing. Half pressing the shutter button will now only engage the image stabilization if enabled.
These are the steps I do when taking a photo:
- I check that shutter speed, aperture size and ISO are to my liking. Always keeping ISO as low as possible. And I always try to expose to the right in the histogram.
- I set the focus with the “back button”
- I recompose the image
- I half-press the shutter button, check the focus and manually adjust the focus if needed
- I fully press the shutter button to take the image
This technique has helped me a lot to get sharper images.
