Settings for a Canon Rebel XT

[pilotdave 0]

Autofocus (in AI-servo mode) works great for me. I occasionally get an out of focus exit shot when I'm looking right into the sun (like the one attached), but usually the autofocus works great. And I'm using the kit 18-55.

Praying for good weather this weekend... I have a canon 10-22 to play with. Also praying for soft openings cause this thing feels like a brick compared to the 18-55.
Dave

[Laszloimage 0]

As you see there's a lot of respond to your question in a very short time. Also as you can see every body told you a bit different thing about camera settings.
They all work, but also any of those setting can be NOT the best choice as well. It all depends by the light, the nature of the skydive, and who knows how many more circumstances. So based on that we can keep writing never ending comments since there's so many combinations, and every single possibilty has its own optimum camera setting.
So my reccomendation is try all of them and try to have an "intention" with each practicular setting.
If one work it dosen't mean it work all the time, or if one dosen't work it won't mean it'll never work.
Further more there's another factor to take nice photos of a jump. You can have a best camera gear, you can be a best photographer, if the skydive doesn't go too good it wiil be hard to get nice pictures. (...a bad ass photographer can make it look good anyway)
As I said already in my first post, start to learn the very basics of photography (books, magazines, online, experts, and etc...)! Compare your photos to others, and be able to take critisism (constructive critisism when the critic lets you now how can it be done better), and practice a lot. Success comes from knowlege, knowlege comes from experince, to gain experince takes lots of practice, patiente, and time.
Would anyone ask "What accord is the best to play music" after buying a new guitar? The answer is just about the same, every single one of them.
So just start playing with all the settings on your new camera, and don't be disappointed if you won't always get the greatest shot. It takes awhile to learn it.
-Laszlo-

Matt, thank you for the compliment about my article!

[AUSkyguy 0]

I just want to make sure before i go on tandem that putting my 10-20 on manual focus and setting it somewhere near infinity is going to ruin all my shots

-Chris Martin

[jtval 0]

play with your camera on the ground.

have someone stand still and find where you get the best focus at 1ft and at 10 ft. play with it until you get a good feel for the lens,

THEN, do it in the sky.

My photos

My Videos

[The111 0]

Quote

I just want to make sure before i go on tandem that putting my 10-20 on manual focus and setting it somewhere near infinity is going to ruin all my shots

Then do another jump, before that tandem. Even if we give you all the answers, it's only fair to the customer you test out your new gear BEFORE they are paying you.

www.WingsuitPhotos.com

[Laszloimage 0]

In that practicular case without a flash I would probably chose the Av setting(f5 or above at 10mm) with ISO 200. This way your manual focus range won't chage since apeture is always going to be same. Also at ISO200 you'll get a descent shutter speed and not too much grain.
For example if you're going to focus manually to 3.5feet at 10mm at f5 with your XT (the sensor has the 1.6 factor) everything is going to be sharp from 1.74 feet to infinity.
Here's a link for a Depth Of Field calculator:
http://photoinf.com/Tools/Don_Fleming/Depth_Of_Filed_Calculator.html
For manual focusing most cases you want to keep your apeture or a.k.a. "F stop" at same value.
Also I like to use a safety step as well. If I make my calculations, and set the focus ring at f8, after I give an extra step up and shoot at f9. You can always go above but you really don't want to go bellow of the apeture value where you made your calculations.
...and yes I use tape mesaure on the ground to set up manual fucus. Also I select only the centre AF point at one shot mode, I place an object to the calculated distance from the camera lens, press the button half way. After the camera focused the lens I just switch to manual, and fixt the focus ring normally with gaffers tape so it cant turn any more.
If you want to use AF again make sure you remove the tape before, so you won't damage the gear inside your lens. (there's very few lens this isn't an issue).
-Laszlo-

[DSE 3]

Quote

...and yes I use tape mesaure on the ground to set up manual fucus. Also I select only the centre AF point at one shot mode, I place an object to the calculated distance from the camera lens, press the button half way. -

you'd make a great DP.

[Laszloimage 0]

Thanks!
Maybe one day...
I still have a lot to learn about to set up lighting.
I need to attend a a few more seminars, and of course practice too.

[DSE 3]

If you can make your way to Washington, DC on the 13/14/15, Jeffrey Fisher, myself, and Victor Milt are teaching a class on small lighting systems, how to use them, and where they apply. It's a steriod-version of the short course I did at the theatre in NYC last week.

[Laszloimage 0]

Thank you for the invitation Spot, but I guess I have to skip that one. I would love to attend though...

[KennyP 0]

Laszlo,

I'm looking at your photo on the USPA calander. This may be a dumb question but are you using a warm card to set your white balance on that.

[Laszloimage 0]

I didn't even know I have a photo selected to the USPA calendar. I sent 4-5 pictures but I don't know yet which one has been printed.
So thank very much you for letting me know!!!
Firs I have to see the print, then I can tell you what's going on.
Sometimes just the printing itself changes the colors.
For example the whole 2007 calendar is purple.
As soon as I see that I'll let you know.
-Laszlo-

[KennyP 0]

Sorry, I guess I should have said what picture I'm looking at. You've 2 in the 2007 calander. I'm looking at the Nov 2007. The tadem master and student seem to haved a warm tone to their faces.

And now that you mention it, the sky does have a purple tint.

[Laszloimage 0]

Sorry guys, we are getting off topic here a bit...
I used a flash when I took that shot, so the WB is somewhere 6000-7000K. (I can't remberer the exact temp. but I can look it up)
But the colors are screwed up in the whole calendar.
Everything is purple. Take a look about Norman's flag shot. I'm pretty sure that American Flag has blue field where the stars are and not purple.
It looks like at the printing facility they put too much red into the entire project (more red over blue= purple) At the mean time the digital files I sent out contained ICC profile, obviously they didn't use it.
-Laszlo-

[ChangoLanzao 0]

Quote

Autofocus (in AI-servo mode) works great for me. I occasionally get an out of focus exit shot when I'm looking right into the sun (like the one attached), but usually the autofocus works great. And I'm using the kit 18-55.

Praying for good weather this weekend... I have a canon 10-22 to play with. Also praying for soft openings cause this thing feels like a brick compared to the 18-55.
Dave

Ditto. For tandems I have nice results with the sports basic mode which uses AI-Servo ... plus it uses continuous shooting. Since I'm most interested in the shots I get at hi-five distance, focus is not a problem and works well for the exits. The biggest drawback is that in basic mode, the XT forces auto ISO, so I end up with ISO at 400 usually; not a problem for the tandem customer, but I have some great shots that won't pass muster when submitted to stock photo houses because of the noise. I also really dislike how loose the 18-55 kit lens focusing ring gets when in manual focus mode when the servo is disengaged - it's all over the place.