Anyone know what I might have done? (Camera settings on old shots)

[Geoff79]

Just curious to see if anyone has a quick-fire answer to this. Not massively important if I get no bites, but I'm curious.

So in 2010/2011 I went on a roadtrip as I was commonly doing at the time due to a job I had shutting down over the Christmas / New Years period. For four years in a row I went on these awesome roadtrips, which, to this day, are the only things I really miss about life before kids. Wouldn't change it... but jeez I loved my solo roadtrips with essentially just a camera and a surfboard. Good times.

Anyway, 2010/2011 was the first time I took - at the time - my wife's DSLR out on a roadtrip. It was also a time in my life when I thought HDR images were the raddest thing ever so I pretty much took three exposures of every single photograph I took and at the end of the holiday, just Photomatixed them all together and created a horrific album, thinking it was awesome.

The upside of the story is that I "recently" discovered I still had all the original shots. All JPEG, but that's not important to me. I was just happy to have the base exposures all there, available for me to revisit them and un-HDR the trip. I was happy about it, until I saw how bad the photos are, lol. Talk about polishing dog shi- shoes. Polishing dog shoes.

Anyway, again, to get to my point. There's really not many keepers in this lot, but something I've noticed that I cannot explain is... if and when I have taken any single exposures (which was very, very rare - including selfies and photos of wildlife) the exif data seems to be pretty sensible; around ISO 100, f/10, 1/250s. Not across the board, but seems pretty similar most the time.

However, the thing I just started to notice is that every single triple exposure set of bracketed shots I have taken are at a variable shutter speed depending on the time of day, and a variable f/stop, also depending on the time of day (f/3.5 for dawn shots and f/20 in the middle of the day) but the ISO is stuck on ISO 1000 the whole time. Every single bracketed shot I took is @ ISO 1000.

So it's probably pretty obvious to switched-on folk out there, but what setting would I have been using? Obviously not Tv (Shutter priority) or Av (Aperture priority)... but obviously a setting where I had unknowingly, and stupidly set the ISO to 1000 and never noticed or understood what I was doing. On the Canon 40D, would it be a setting like P (Program?) I'd have set it on for the duration of the trip (except single exposures?) to get these results?

Anyway, like I said, silly and pointless question. But I am curious if anyone knows what a stupid, young and reckless version of myself might have done?

[ameerat42]

I get pretty wild fluctuations in camera settings when using the phone cam,
which is always set to "Auto" because I couldn't be bothered changing it.
(This is certainly not the case for the DSLR, which is never off Manual)

Does your Exif data indicate the likes of "Exposure Mode: Auto..."? I did not
find "auto" in a search of your text.

[ricktas]

The idea of bracketed shots is to get a range of exposures. So you can...

1) pick the best one
2) layer then and blend them to create one single photo with the best bits of all the exposures.

To to bracketed shots well to blend, you need the camera on a tripod or stable surface when you fire off the shots to ensure that when editing, everything aligns well.

If you can find your manual, you will find that there are a heap of settings you can use for bracketed shots. And my guess is that either the default, or someone set it, is for ISO to remain the same and shutter speed/aperture to alter to get the bracketing range. For me, bracketed shots are done with ISO and Aperture being constant and shutter speed being the variable. So to answer your question, somewhere in the camera menu will be an option related to bracketed shots, and the settings should be in there.

[Geoff79]

I get pretty wild fluctuations in camera settings when using the phone cam,
which is always set to "Auto" because I couldn't be bothered changing it.
(This is certainly not the case for the DSLR, which is never off Manual)

Does your Exif data indicate the likes of "Exposure Mode: Auto..."? I did not
find "auto" in a search of your text.

I’ll check that at lunch today, Am, but I’d ruled out Auto as I didn’t think you could set the ISO in Auto mode? It would explain the other fluctuations, but not the stable ISO? Or can you set the ISO for Auto?

[ameerat42]

I’ll check that at lunch today, Am, but I’d ruled out Auto as I didn’t think you could set the ISO in Auto mode? It would explain the other fluctuations, but not the stable ISO? Or can you set the ISO for Auto?

I meant full auto exposure. I only have a Samsung S5 on me today, and it specifies you can. However, I think that means auto exposure anyway, as the one nxt to it is metering mode.

[Geoff79]

The idea of bracketed shots is to get a range of exposures. So you can...

1) pick the best one
2) layer then and blend them to create one single photo with the best bits of all the exposures.

To to bracketed shots well to blend, you need the camera on a tripod or stable surface when you fire off the shots to ensure that when editing, everything aligns well.

If you can find your manual, you will find that there are a heap of settings you can use for bracketed shots. And my guess is that either the default, or someone set it, is for ISO to remain the same and shutter speed/aperture to alter to get the bracketing range. For me, bracketed shots are done with ISO and Aperture being constant and shutter speed being the variable. So to answer your question, somewhere in the camera menu will be an option related to bracketed shots, and the settings should be in there.

Thanks Rick. That probably explains it, that it was the default settings when we got the camera.

These days the only thing I vary is also the shutter speed, mostly in Manual. Still curious what setting it was I was using back then, though. I’m assuming the Program mode, as I used to like that before I understood anything. And the camera was still more or less new then, so would still have original settings.

I’ll have to check how long I kept doing this for. Explains a lot things like, in hindsight, wondering how I (unintentionally) avoided slow shutter speeds for so long, and also the amount of noise in all my HDR output from that era. I know I was still using these settings a year or two later on a holiday in Fiji. So I didn’t learn anytime quick...

If I only knew that what I know now...

[arthurking83]

Had a quick dig, and can't see anything obvious.

But can you post up one of those images, making sure you don't use the likes of Adobe software to process it in any way(even a resize).
It'll destroy some bit of exif info that could be pertinent.
If you had to resize, use something like Fastone FSViewer to resize an image, it'll maintain exif data intact.

I've never looked into maintaining ISO as a stable setting, and allowing aperture and shutter speeds to become the variables .. woould have never thought it needed as a feature, but, I guess there could be a use for it in some way(eg. astro photography .. maybe?)
Dunno.

Anyhow, I'm sure that the exif would have some telltale setting within it to shine some light on what happened.

[Geoff79]

Had a quick dig, and can't see anything obvious.

But can you post up one of those images, making sure you don't use the likes of Adobe software to process it in any way(even a resize).
It'll destroy some bit of exif info that could be pertinent.
If you had to resize, use something like Fastone FSViewer to resize an image, it'll maintain exif data intact.

I've never looked into maintaining ISO as a stable setting, and allowing aperture and shutter speeds to become the variables .. woould have never thought it needed as a feature, but, I guess there could be a use for it in some way(eg. astro photography .. maybe?)
Dunno.

Anyhow, I'm sure that the exif would have some telltale setting within it to shine some light on what happened.

I’ll see what I can do, regarding resizing without PS. Will have a try tonight.

[arthurking83]

I’ll see what I can do, regarding resizing without PS. Will have a try tonight.

I know that FSViewer will do the job, as well as Canon's DPP.
Can't remember is DPP was set to remove exif by default when doing conversions, but I don't think it does.

Can't think of any other programs that will not mangle exif data when saving jpgs, but there must surely be others too.

[Geoff79]

I know that FSViewer will do the job, as well as Canon's DPP.
Can't remember is DPP was set to remove exif by default when doing conversions, but I don't think it does.

Can't think of any other programs that will not mangle exif data when saving jpgs, but there must surely be others too.

Sadly the day I bought a Mac I lost Faststone forever. Still miss it, though I’ve become accustomed to the Mac alternative, being Photoscape, which is pretty good. Will see if it does the trick.

[Geoff79]

Jeez, that was really basic with PhotoScape X... the browser program I use on the Mac. Very good.

Anyway, so here's one of the exposures from one of the lots of 3 bracketed shots.

The info I could pull from PhotoScape X is as follows;

Name: IMG_5695 copy.JPG
Location: /Users/geoffwols/Pictures/2010 & 2011 - Road Trip/2011_01_07
Dimensions: 3888 x 2592
File Size: 3.2MB (3,315,176)
Date Created: 7/8/17 1:58:26 PM
Date Modified: 1/9/11 5:54:06 PM
Camera Make: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS 40D
F-Stop: F7.1
Aperture: F7
Focal Length: 18.0 mm
Shutter Speed: 1/128 s
Exposure Time: 1/125 s
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
ISO Speed Rating: 1000
Date Time Original: 1/6/11 5:42:33 PM
Date Time Digitized: 1/6/11 5:42:33 PM
White Balance: Auto
Metering Mode: Multi-segment
Flash: No, compulsory
Exposure Program: Auto
Exposure Mode: Auto bracket
Color Space: sRGB
Orientation: top, left
Pixel X Dimension: 3888
Pixel Y Dimension: 2592
X Resolution: 72
Y Resolution: 72
Resolution Unit: inch

IMG_5695 copy.JPG

[paulheath]

maybe ISO was SET to a Minimum 1000 in the settings, So as your on "Auto everything" the camera would have picked the lowest ISO, 1000 in this case ( the 40D had a max 1600 ISO as default)
So it would pick iso1000 increase your fstop (f 7.1 ) and choose an appropriate shutter speed

[Geoff79]

maybe ISO was SET to a Minimum 1000 in the settings, So as your on "Auto everything" the camera would have picked the lowest ISO, 1000 in this case ( the 40D had a max 1600 ISO as default)
So it would pick iso1000 increase your fstop (f 7.1 ) and choose an appropriate shutter speed

Thanks for your thoughts. Is that the kind of thing that might have been a factory set default? As my wife and I wouldn't have altered this setting (mostly because we'd have had absolutely no idea how to at the time, lol) I assume it's how it was when we got the camera? Shame the default wasn't ISO 100. Or even up to 400 would have done the job...

[arthurking83]

At least we know that PhotoscapeX doesn't mutilate exif data.

According to exif viewer, you use Program Auto Exposure mode.
I remember trying it out once to see 'what it did' .. more accurately 'see how it worked'.(on my Nikons)

Confused the bejeezus out of me quickly. No idea what it was trying to do .. I think maybe similar results happen in Canon circles too.

exif say:

" Auto ISO : 100"
and
"Base ISO : 1037"
In the maker notes section.

I read that as maybe AutoISO is programmed to start at ISO100 in the camera or something when in AutoISO mode.

But Base ISO in that field obviously implies that ISO was set to ISO1000 for that shot(and the assumption is that for all other similarly done shots .. ie. the bracketed ones .. they too were all set to ISO1000.

Do you still have the 40D? .. or using something else now?

Interesting to then compare with one of the non bracketed shots exif data too now.
The question is; did you consciously then set camera to Aperture Priority for the single shots .. did you set it to Program AE for the bracketed shots .. etc, etc.

Did you somehow set up some type of memory system in camera whereby the camera used those settings when set to that memory bank, and then switch to another memory bank.

But the exposure mode used for this shot is definitely Program AE or [P] on the camera .. so yep.
The only two reasons it held ISO value so high up and shutter and aperture variables at strange settings must be that it was manually set this way .. either mistakenly, or by memory allocation or something like that.
I can't imagine that Canon would hard program the P mode to set ISO higher than "as low as possible" or what the user required.

There's no obvious exif entry to indicate if a memory slot was used in camera.
Exif is detailed quite well(bravo PhotoScapeX!! )

I can see that you used Landscape Picture style, only setting tweak in Landcape is that sharpening is set to 4, all other parameters are at 0.
it even shows all the Picture Style settings, even tho they werent' used.
I can see that AEB mode chosen was 0,-,+

The very short amount of time I've tried to get my head around [P] mode is that it's nothing like [M] [A/Av] or [S/Tv] modes in the way it affects aperture and shutter.
As the term implies, it seems to be a programmed(into the camera) interplay of specific aperture-shutter settings.
I've tried to get my head around it by just turning dials, and it makes zero sense what it does in relation to the variables as you turn the dials.
That is, turn a dial one click in either direction and you affect either the 1/2 or 1/3rd exposure difference in a linear manner for that dial - hardware change.
With Program mode tho, that same single click changes both shutter and aperture at the same time.
It's plain to see that there is some hidden programming within the camera as to what it is doing.
I just can't understand it.
Maybe time to RTFM.

[Geoff79]

At least we know that PhotoscapeX doesn't mutilate exif data.

According to exif viewer, you use Program Auto Exposure mode.
I remember trying it out once to see 'what it did' .. more accurately 'see how it worked'.(on my Nikons)

Confused the bejeezus out of me quickly. No idea what it was trying to do .. I think maybe similar results happen in Canon circles too.

exif say:

" Auto ISO : 100"
and
"Base ISO : 1037"
In the maker notes section.

I read that as maybe AutoISO is programmed to start at ISO100 in the camera or something when in AutoISO mode.

But Base ISO in that field obviously implies that ISO was set to ISO1000 for that shot(and the assumption is that for all other similarly done shots .. ie. the bracketed ones .. they too were all set to ISO1000.

Do you still have the 40D? .. or using something else now?

Interesting to then compare with one of the non bracketed shots exif data too now.
The question is; did you consciously then set camera to Aperture Priority for the single shots .. did you set it to Program AE for the bracketed shots .. etc, etc.

Did you somehow set up some type of memory system in camera whereby the camera used those settings when set to that memory bank, and then switch to another memory bank.

But the exposure mode used for this shot is definitely Program AE or [P] on the camera .. so yep.
The only two reasons it held ISO value so high up and shutter and aperture variables at strange settings must be that it was manually set this way .. either mistakenly, or by memory allocation or something like that.
I can't imagine that Canon would hard program the P mode to set ISO higher than "as low as possible" or what the user required.

There's no obvious exif entry to indicate if a memory slot was used in camera.
Exif is detailed quite well(bravo PhotoScapeX!! )

I can see that you used Landscape Picture style, only setting tweak in Landcape is that sharpening is set to 4, all other parameters are at 0.
it even shows all the Picture Style settings, even tho they werent' used.
I can see that AEB mode chosen was 0,-,+

The very short amount of time I've tried to get my head around [P] mode is that it's nothing like [M] [A/Av] or [S/Tv] modes in the way it affects aperture and shutter.
As the term implies, it seems to be a programmed(into the camera) interplay of specific aperture-shutter settings.
I've tried to get my head around it by just turning dials, and it makes zero sense what it does in relation to the variables as you turn the dials.
That is, turn a dial one click in either direction and you affect either the 1/2 or 1/3rd exposure difference in a linear manner for that dial - hardware change.
With Program mode tho, that same single click changes both shutter and aperture at the same time.
It's plain to see that there is some hidden programming within the camera as to what it is doing.
I just can't understand it.
Maybe time to RTFM.

Funnily enough, out of all the features on my camera currently, Program is the only setting I'd never use again as I too really have no idea what the point of it is... which makes it even stranger that it's the setting I chose for such a long time. I vividly remember using Program through our entire Fiji holiday later in 2011... or possibly 2012. So I used it for a long time, somehow thinking I was on a good thing.

If the ISO settings weren't factory set and somehow tweaked by either myself or my wife... I'd be amazed as to how we'd have done it. It would have been by complete accident, lol, and I'd have no idea what I did. At this time, a DSLR was completely new to my wife and I and everything and anything we'd have done with it would be more or less auto stuff, without any manual tweaking at all... intentionally.

I do still have the 40D but it is just a back-up camera which I don't use anymore unless things go wrong with the 70D.

Here's one of the non-bracketed shots;

IMG_6541.jpg

Name: IMG_6541.JPG
Location: /Users/geoffwols/Pictures/2010 & 2011 - Road Trip/2011_01_08
Dimensions: 3888 x 2592
File Size: 4.3MB (4,468,603)
Date Created: 7/8/17 2:04:14 PM
Date Modified: 1/9/11 6:09:40 PM
Camera Make: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS 40D
F-Stop: F10
Aperture: F9.9
Focal Length: 18.0 mm
Shutter Speed: 1/332 s
Exposure Time: 1/320 s
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
ISO Speed Rating: 100
Date Time Original: 1/7/11 10:29:37 PM
Date Time Digitized: 1/7/11 10:29:37 PM
White Balance: Auto
Metering Mode: Multi-segment
Flash: No, compulsory
Exposure Program: Landscape mode
Exposure Mode: Auto
Color Space: sRGB
Orientation: top, left
Pixel X Dimension: 3888
Pixel Y Dimension: 2592
X Resolution: 72
Y Resolution: 72
Resolution Unit: inch

As for what I did when I shot these single shots... I really don't know. Could it just have been full Auto, perhaps?

[fillum]

Geoff, it looks like you've set your ISO to 1000. Perhaps in your n00bness you thought 1000 seemed like a good round number, or more likely you misread it as 100 when setting. I think it's unlikely that you will be able to determine your exposure mode from the exif above as I think any auto/semi-auto (Tv / Av) mode is reported as "Auto" in exif - at least that's how it's been for any cameras (Nikon / Fuji) I've owned.

I'm assuming that for the one-off / selfie shots you mentioned you put the camera into a fully-auto mode, perhaps one of the 'picture' modes. In these modes usually the camera sets aperture, shutter-speed (s/s) *and* ISO, so the settings will override the ISO that you've set, typically giving the base ISO in reasonable light (ie 100 instead of the 1000 you set).

The auto-bracketing feature can affect the auto aperture settings particularly in very bright scenes (e.g at the beach, middle of the day, height of an Aussie summer). The camera needs to pick a s/s and aperture combo that will enable a shutter speed that is fast enough to get the under-exposed bracketed shot. For example, if the max s/s for a bracketed shot is 1/4000 and your bracket is +/-2 stops, then the 'correct' exposure will be 1/1000. On a bright day at ISO 1000 this might require an aperture of f/20. All three bracket shots will then be taken at f/20. If you took a single shot (no bracketing) in auto the camera might give you something like 1/3200 at f/11.

I'm not familiar with Canon, but I think this seems reasonable (assuming my maths is ok ).




Cheers.

- - - Updated - - -

Only just saw the 2nd image you posted. If 'Landscape Mode' takes control of aperture, s/s and ISO then my assumption above (2nd paragraph) would appear to be correct...

[arthurking83]

.... I think it's unlikely that you will be able to determine your exposure mode from the exif above as I think any auto/semi-auto (Tv / Av) mode is reported as "Auto" in exif - at least that's how it's been for any cameras (Nikon / Fuji) I've owned.
....

First pic is reported as Program AE in the exif(maker notes). Exiftool is good for such detailed info.
(@ Phil: I don't use [P] mode, and of the times I've tried it, I don' think I've ever kept the images, just tested the shooting experience. Tried it out on a quick snap, definitely comes up in exif as Program AE mode .. not just Auto.
That's for both the D5500, which has the consumer level program exposure modes, and for the D800E for which the only auto mode is [P] mode.

Exiftool used for viewing exif.

And as Phil points out, you've used Landscape Exposure easy mode for the second image.
Also of note is the ISO data in the exif.
In the second image, ISO data reads ..

Auto ISO : 100
Base ISO : 100(whereas in the bracketed image base ISO is 1000!)

So as said, you probably set ISO to 1000 for the bracketed image when you started doing them .. but on the day of this pic tho, you set it to ISO100(or maybe the camera default may have).

First image posted shot on 6/01/11, whereas the second image posted was shot on 7/01/11.

.... The auto-bracketing feature can affect the auto aperture settings particularly in very bright scenes (e.g at the beach, middle of the day, height of an Aussie summer). The camera needs to pick a s/s and aperture combo that will enable a shutter speed that is fast enough to get the under-exposed bracketed shot. For example, if the max s/s for a bracketed shot is 1/4000 and your bracket is +/-2 stops, then the 'correct' exposure will be 1/1000. On a bright day at ISO 1000 this might require an aperture of f/20. All three bracket shots will then be taken at f/20. If you took a single shot (no bracketing) in auto the camera might give you something like 1/3200 at f/11 .....

Technically the AEB feature shouldn't do anything out of the ordinary, as it could impede the photographer using it. Nikon's don't do this, and in general they operate similarly, with slight differences to other makes of camera. A shoephone ... sorry! smartphone may do whatever the hell it wants, but on the whole, DSLRs wont.
But what Phil describes above is a feature you can turn on/off, but it only works in Aperture and Shutter priority modes.
It's called Safety shift. It kind'a does what was described, in that when set to on, it will set aperture or shutter to something other than what you wanted for a safer exposure in case of a sudden Ev change in conditions.
That feature is set to off in camera tho, for both shots.
And I can't imagine it being the default mode of operation in AEB mode.

[ameerat42]

...
...
Exposure Program: Auto
...

^Hmm, eh! - But I didn't know you could auto here:

...
Exposure Mode: Auto bracket
...

[Geoff79]

Thanks for the feedback, guys. It’s a shame I didn’t just read the manual at the time, or take a few moments to read up on good camera settings to use for landscapes, etc. It definitely takes time to learn and I still very much am today... but it’s such a silly thing, having all these shots - many of which are shot in broad daylight - @ ISO 1000.

Like I said above, the photos themselves and lazy compositions very much compliment my in-camera knowledge at the time, so it’s not like I’m dealing with works of art, though. It’s actually quite enjoyable going through the old shots and looking for the odd (accidental) winner here and there.

I do now remember having the camera set to Landscape for a long time too, once I quickly got out of the HDR phase.

[arthurking83]

You know, a lot of cameras seem to produce their best dynamic range output at high ISOs!!
Caveat for that is when the file type output is jpg tho. And this would be because jpgs have less processing ability than raw file types.

But when shooting raw, best to always try to use as low a ISO as practical, to help recover detail in PP.