Hi everyone, new to the forums

[mediadiva]

Hello!

My name is Brandy and I have been taking photos for a long time, in High School I used to take black and white film of the guys playing football and develop in in our darkroom at school. This was in the late 90's. I stopped taking photos for a while, at-least with a nice camera until after college and after I had my first kid I got a nice camera. I have a Nikon D80 and a 1.8 50mm and I am saving up for the 17-55, should be able to get it soon!

I take photos of my kids in hand-knitwear for self-publication, indie basically. Then I also occasionally take photos for an online magazine I run, when a designer can not supply a model or photos on their own. I do not remotely consider myself a professional, but i would LIKE to. I am learning to use my camera on manual now, and I have a photo class set up for one weekend in July.

Here is the latest photo I took, futzing around on full manual and trying to nail the exposure.

I have not a clue about shutter speed!



Questions I have;

"It is best to use sRGB for web display." What does that mean?
When someone says "less than 2/3 stops" What does that mean?

[CheaperKings]

Hi and welcome!

sRGB is the standard color display. A "stop" is a measure of the light and how bright it is. Light can be dimmed or brightened in levels (stops). Shutter speed controls the ambient light around you. The faster your shutter speed is, the less ambient light will go into the lens. Hope this helps. Sorry to keep it short but, I'm at work.

[Indigo November]

Hi, Brandy, welcome to DPS!

The focus is nice and sharp on his/her eyes, but the skin is very gray/silver.

[mediadiva]

I know what a stop is, but not a 2/3 stop?

[mediadiva]

ohhhh now i feel dumb, they must mean 2 OR 3 stops, I read it as "two-thirds"!! GAH!!

And for sRGB okay but what does that mean? How do I use that? I don't know what it meant I was supposed to do!

[mediadiva]

Indigo does that mean I need to go down an f-stop so it's a bit less exposed and maybe more natural looking? I want things to look good post-processing.

[CheaperKings]

Originally Posted by mediadiva

Indigo does that mean I need to go down an f-stop so it's a bit less exposed and maybe more natural looking? I want things to look good post-processing.

Exactly. Maybe even 2 or 3 stops...

[Indigo November]

Originally Posted by mediadiva

Indigo does that mean I need to go down an f-stop so it's a bit less exposed and maybe more natural looking? I want things to look good post-processing.

Going down an f-stop would help, see the blown out bits on the forehead and shoulder?
It looks like the WB is off too. That's probably the cause of the grayish skin

[mediadiva]

I thought that about the forhead as well, glad to hear I'm on the right track, some people told me it was fine but I kept thinking I could have gone one stop down, also I am thinking my ISO could have been lower, it was 300-ish.

[PhotoPatzer]

Welcome to the forums, Mediadiva!