Xti newbie difficulty with night shots

[ZoicX]

I went to Disneyland yesterday, and had a horrid time taking shots of the parade at night with all the Xmas lighting. Tried taking shots on Auto (yuck!), Landscape (blurred), Night Portrait (too much flash, and long load times), Tv (some blurred, some dark, some ok), Av (more of the same).

Granted, I'm a total newbie with the Xti and 18-55 lens, but I need some serious pointers. I tried a bunch of things, and none of them really game me that AWESOME shot I was hoping for. Please help!

[Nickcanada]

I'm afraid there is no easy answer for you. I think what would help you most is to learn about how aperture, shutter speed and ISO work together to expose a scene. Adjusting every one of them will effect the photo differently.


If you post up some examples we can give you some pointers as to what you could have done to get a better shot but learning about the things I wrote above will teach you how to expose any scene..... you know "teach a man to fish.... blah, blah, blah...."

[ZoicX]

I hejar ya Nick..

I'd love to post some pics, but can't get to shrink the file size. Any tips on how to do that w/o PS?

[griptape]

Yeah, there's unfortunately no set formula for correctly exposing something. Your camera can try, but as you've found, it's only as smart as it can be programmed to be. In addition to the ISO, shutter speed, aperture, read the "metering mode" section of your manual until you full understand it (or I'm sure some of us here can help you understand metering).

As for re-sizing, the software that came with your camera will let you do that, assuming you bought it new.

[Nickcanada]

What application are you using to view/edit your photos? usually under the edit menu there is a resize feature, or when you save your file most applications ask you if you would like to resize, convert file formats (JPEG) and pick a save quality.

Some good #s would be;

600-800 pixels [on the long side]

Convert to JPEG, save quality around 80%

Now you should be able to upload directly through the forum but sometime the file might be too large. You could go back and re-save at a lower quality level, or you could upload your pictures to a photo site like photobucket.com. It's free and you can upload your pictures and then use a handy image tag to post directly into the forum.

Like this.....

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k162/nickandaline/testing/IMG_8898-Editcopy.jpg (usually copy pasting that tag in the forum would show an image but I added a space on purpose to disable the link)

That is what an image tag looks like and it links up the image at photobucket and automatically displays the image on the forum so it would look like this....

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k162/nickandaline/testing/IMG_8898-Editcopy.jpg

[tim11]

A camera is merely a machine, the brain is the photographer. Like others said, you need to understand light and exposure and the best way is to get a book on basic photography. Then you need to read the camera user manual and do lots and lots of practice shooting.

[ZoicX]

Cool, thanks.

http://s236.photobucket.com/albums/ff227/ZoicX/

As you can from these pics, I definitely need help with exposure. What's more, I'm headed over to Las Vegas for Thanksgiving, and would really like to capture some neat night shots (without flash).

[Nickcanada]

Sorry my post didn't come out as planed :o:o


If you copy and paste the "IMG code" into your forum response you can post the photos directly onto the forum like so....

#1 SS 1/8 F 5 ISO 400 (action program)
http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff227/ZoicX/IMG_0939.jpg



#2 SS 1/8, F 10 ISO 1600 (shutter priority)

http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff227/ZoicX/IMG_0915.jpg

#3 SS 1/8 F5 ISO 400 (Action Program)

http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff227/ZoicX/IMG_0887.jpg

[Nickcanada]

Those are some tough conditions!

Okay, here is how I would have handled the situation.

Things I know I need to think about:

1. moving subjects, I will need a fast enough Shutter speed to "stop the action" so my subject will be nice and sharp. A Shutter speed of about 1/200 should be a good place to start.

2. camera shake, I'm hand holding these shots so I need to have a fast enough shutter speed that the tinny motions from my hands/body don't show up in the photos. This won't be an issue at 1/200 second.

3. how much of the scene do I need to be in focus. The aperture value will determine how much is in focus. The larger the F# the more will be in focus.... BUT! the larger F # will let less light into the camera... I know it's dark and I need a high shutter speed so I will pick a small F#

4. Now I know what shutter speed I need and what aperture value I want so now I set my camera to Av mode, set my aperture to the lowest # I can, press the shutter button half way and it is reading 1/8 of a second..... that is way too slow

This is when I adjust my ISO. If my ISO was set at 200 and I needed a faster SS I would increase the ISO to 400, if I still needed a faster shutter speed I would adjust it to 800 or 1600 if needed.




This is a very quick and dirty explanation. Please ask some questions, because I left a lot out. :o

[ZoicX]

Thanks Nick .. appreciate it.

Now how about the pics, eh? I know they're bad (slightly embarrased by displaying them here), but how could I have potentially taken shots that came out better?

[Nickcanada]

These shots need a faster shutter speed so you can stop the motion. 1/8 of a second shutter speed is very slow, at this SS you are introducing hand motion blur and subject movement blur.

Composition looks good. Only suggestion might be to include the bottom of the floats, but it looks like you were a few rows back so that might not have been possible.

I give you a lot of credit for sharing your photos! There is absolutely nothing to be embarrassed about! all of us have been there and we all know what you are going through. :cool::D It's not easy but when you do get the shot it makes it worth the effort!

[ZoicX]

Thanks Nic, for the suggestions. Yes, good guess, I was a few rows back and didn't want the bald head right in front of me. :p

I've been trying to read up all I can on shutter speeds, aperture values and ISO settings, and its still difficult to really figure everything out in the nick o' time that the photo moment provides. However, I'm much better informed today than I was yesterday.

The biggest thing I lack is a tripod - will have to invest in that sometime soon. I'd really like to get into photography as a serious hobby and am just starting to build out my equipment.

Also, thanks for your encouragement - its a tough raod I've embarked on, but I'm determined to master it. Seems like I'm at the right place for advice/suggestions/encouragement. I'm on my way to Las Vegas in a couple of days, and will come back armed with better (i hope :confused:) photos.

[Nickcanada]

Oh and about the Vegas question.


If you don't have a tripod yet, beg, borrow, or steal one! Tip: Tripods are usually* only good for subjects that aren't moving.

If you are using a tripod set your camera to Av:

set your F # to 10

set your ISO to 100

don't worry about your shutter speed because you are using a tripod.

Make sure you use the timer function or use a remote to trigger the shutter. Touching the camera on the tripod will make it shake and give you blurry pictures even if all you are doing is pressing the shutter button.

Use the "bracket exposure" function. This function takes three pictures of the same scene but at different exposures (brightness levels). This is good because sometimes..... most of the time the camera picks the wrong exposure. Usually because of an over powering light source etc. so the things in the scene you want to be well exposed turn out too bright or too dark. By taking multiple exposures of the same scene you are improving your chances of getting one that you like.


Notice how my advice for this situation is much different then for the previous one. The main differences are that you are not trying to stop motion when taking landscape pictures and you don't need to worry about hand shake when using a tripod, although a crappy tripod can vibrate and shake in the wind and cause blurry images. You can reduce this by keeping the tripod low and by hanging your camera bag on the little hook thing under the tripod head (if you have a hook thing that is).


I hope that helps and makes some sense.

*using extremely large lenses and extremely long focal lengths require tripods.

[sunnythepsychocat]

*using extremely large lenses and extremely long focal lengths require tripods.
Actually all you need is a lot of muscles, so you can have a steady hand;) Remember one of those professionals at air shows who handheld a 600mm. I am waiting to see someone handhelds the new 800mm. Ah, that will be quite a sight to see.

Sorry could not resist:D

I agree with Nick that your framing is good. Composition is sometimes harder to get it down right than other aspects of the techniques.

Keep shooting, and you will get there eventually.

[chardog]

there is easy solution here. Basically, shooting in dark settings, you will want to capture two things: The background and the subject focused on.

What you need is a powerful flash and a fast lens.

So you dont have either.... ok, then you'll just need to work around the issue with basic concepts.

You will need to capture at faster shutter speeds if you want to freeze the picture with no blur, OR use your flash to freeze the action.

The problem with the high shutter speed is that you will LOSE light coming in ( low apeture and high sensitivity will make up for that). A flash will help you capture a picture with high shutter speeds, but the problem is that you will lose your ambient light at high shutter speeds.

There is a very good video on youtube to explain how a camera works:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xnn5nzPvoIM

It's a shame that you lost your pictures to blur, but next time around, for darker settings, you can try:
Manual mode (I would suggest NOT using AV mode when it's very dark because the shutter speeds will be automatically set and possibly too low, causing blur!)
Lowest F stop
25-50 shutter speed (going too low may cause a ghosting effect)
ISO 400(medium dark)-1600(very dark)
^^ These settings will grab the ambient light and background. it may not grab it all, but should grab enough.

and a Flash!
^^ The flash will grab the subject you want to focus on!