Let That Be a Lesson, or, AARRGGHH!!

[KurtM]

This morning I shot a few food pics in the kitchen in natural light with ISO set to 3200. Then in the afternoon headed off to the sticks to do a little bird photography ....... neglecting to reset the ISO. I had already made a promise to myself to take a look at the playback every several shots or so to ensure all's well, but I tend to forget. Well, all my photos came out way over exposed; and I had some seriously great shots! Well, for me, anyway, and at least I had put quite a bit of effort into them.

So I post this as a warning to other noobs, and to see what advice the veterans might have to offer for avoiding such stupid mistakes? Also, I suppose this might be a good guinea pig photo to use for asking what measures might be taken in PP to rescue such images, and what section is best to ask it in?

American Kestrel with small snake, after a quick crop and tweak in DPP.....



Camera Canon EOS REBEL T3i
Exposure 1/4000 sec
Aperture f/8.0
Focal Length 400 mm
ISO Speed 3200
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash Off, Did not fire

[windrider86]

i do it all the time if I change my iso. Which is why I almost always leave it at 200

[OsmosisStudios]

I have to say, part of the ISO issue is that you've oversharpened it.

[scootermcq]

Been there done that

[Tzetsin]

Ditto. !!!

[Doug Sundseth]

I've done it too. And it's mostly when I've been shooting in low light, so I don't necessarily see it until I get to processing. In fact I did it Christmas Eve for family portraits. (Dang it!)

No good suggestions, I'm afraid.

[NgaiHill]

I always return my camera to a kind of default setting when I have finished using it. If I've been doing a long exposure shot I will reset the shutter speed to something suitable for handheld, reset the aperture to about the middle of the range etc. If using my telephoto lens I will put the wide angle lens back on, partly because it fits in the bag better but also mainly because if I want to grab my camera in a hurry for a snap photo then nine times out of ten the wide angle is the lens I need.
So its a habit to return the camera to "normal" settings so its ready to go the next time without too much checking. Maybe you need to make it a habit to do something like that.

[SwissJon]

I do it quite regularly.. What the camera really nees is a "Return everything to default" button so that it sets your ISO, Aperture, Speed, exposure, flash etc etc. to a default setting in one go.. I've set up my U1 and U2 settings to something like that, but I'd just like a simple combination of 2 buttons that you press together that resets it all.

[MindyRaeL]

Originally Posted by SwissJon

I do it quite regularly.. What the camera really nees is a "Return everything to default" button so that it sets your ISO, Aperture, Speed, exposure, flash etc etc. to a default setting in one go.. I've set up my U1 and U2 settings to something like that, but I'd just like a simple combination of 2 buttons that you press together that resets it all.

There's the two-button reset. Just hold the exposure compensation button and the zoom in/ image qual button down for more than two seconds.

Oh wait. Was that sarcasm? I haven't had coffee yet.

[KurtM]

Well, who knew? And me, just a bumbling noob, already achieving professional level misfires! I must be a prodigy.....