You guys are all responding to these challenges so well, that it’s a challenge to find you a challenge. I thought this week that we might try to find out just what the limit is of your camera and co-incidentally of yourselves, by taking some shots in the almost dark.
You know all about using flash in daylight now, so how about NOT using it in the dark. Your camera needs light to work effectively, so if you aren’t going to use a flash you have to compensate in other ways. There are three things which you can do:
You can have your shutter open for longer
You can have the iris opened wider
You can raise your ISO
I’m going to ask you to do all three. First you need to find out how high you can turn up the ISO without getting unacceptably grainy shots. Try a few shots to find out how high you think you can go. Next you need to find out how steady you can hold that camera. Generally if you are working under 1/60th of a second there will be some camera shake, but there are ways you can compensate. You can, of course, use a tripod, but they aren’t always available. Try leaning against a wall or doorframe, or, as I did for the shot below, try sitting on the floor with your back against the wall and your elbows in. Now don’t breath… Finally select the widest aperture your lens can handle.
This is always good practice because there are places (and times) when you can’t use flash and where you can’t set up a tripod.
I'd like to ask all experienced photographers to lend a hand by making positive suggestions on the contributions to this thread.
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Entries begin now and close at 12.00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday 6th June.
I just have a few rules of thumb when shooting low-natural light:
1- I rarely drop below 1/100 of a sec (1/250 is ideal); not only is it hard to keep the camera stable, but the subject may move as well and it is extremely difficult to get a clear image at a slower speed.
2- I rarely exceed ISO 800, even though the camera I shoot (Canon 5D Mark II) can achieve fair results at much higher. I just find that a lot of my shots may need to be cropped up, and the added grain at over ISO 800 just kills any kind of zooming crop.
3- My primary indoor lens' maximum aperture is f/4, but I prefer to shoot at f/5.6 to f/8 indoors as this is my lens' "sweet spot". While f/4 will let more light in, closing the aperture just a couple of stops can make a lot of difference in image quality; so google your lens and find out your "sweet spot."
My shooting preference to prep for indoor shots? Set camera on AV (aperture priority) mode, set the aperture to f/5.6, then increase ISO until my shutter speed is at least 1/100 (and with any luck, it will be below ISO 800... but if it is higher, that is the piece I would prefer to sacrifice).
Ok, sorry for the long post; just thought I would add a couple of suggestions :) Good luck!
That's where you can see it's so personal: two rather different stories/lessons of @swilde and @grizzlysghost. I even use the same camera Aaron uses and guess same lens too. Still I really have no problem shooting with ISO2000 even for a wedding. Sometimes even higher. It can be a choise: high ISO or flash or blurred pic. In fact everybody wants f/7, ISO100, 1/250 and no flash, but this combination will not work indoor.
For me high ISO was one of the main reasons to buy a more expensive, newer camera. Also for the f/4 I agree for flowers/macros, but not for portraits. So, dear photographer, just try and find out yourself. There is no good or bad, just find out what you prefer.
Just one example - so not for the challenge itself - how even ISO6400 can work:
Thank you for hosting this challenge, @swilde! It's so much fun and I have been learning a lot. Looking forward to this one.
I will see what I can do. My camera is already a little bit older than most others in this challenge and it's highest iso performance is 1600. Pictures start getting grainy at 800, so I guess I will have to learn how not to shake and that definitely is something I need to learn, especially with that camera, haha.
@grizzlysghost@djepie Thanks for your advice, really appreciated. It's funny how everyone does things differently. But I have to agree with Jaap on the better iso performance as a reason for a new camera. That is on the to of my list of "why I could need a new body".
Tripod or a wall and a lower ISO coupled with a self timer to eliminate any camera shake, I don't like my images even at 800 ISO.
Just the other night I was shooting at 200 ISO long after the sun had gone down right up until a couple of hours before it was due to rise again, its amazing how much light is really available to you inner city or even on the coast as I was at the time.
@swilde Thank you so much for hosting the challenge and I again love this new challenge. I had this very situation happen, I went to ballet lights were low and I couldn't use flash. I set my shutter speed so I could freeze motion - I learned how to do that at challenge #2. And when I had my point n shoot I discovered I could set the ISO to make things brighter so I tryed doing that with my DSLR and it worked. Now I'm going to try the different methods suggested by Sue Wilde, @djepie Jaap and @grizzlysghost and Aaron.
Might be worth a mention that the minimum shutter speed you can get away with (hand held) varies depending on focal length. The longer your lens the more it magnifies the shake. A useful rule of thumb is to shoot no slower than 1 over double the inverse of the focal length (eg 1/100s for a 50mm lens) but in reality that's quite conservative, as long as you're careful. Image stabilization can buy you an extra 2-3 stops (1/25s to 1/10s @ 50mm). Then again, unless your subject is stationary you have to deal with motion blur at those sorts of speeds. As for ISO I have quite an old camera (Nikon D200) and rarely get decent results above about ISO 500, but that is vastly improved in newer dSLR models.
1/50, f5, No Tripod, 1250 ISO , indoor lighting, Manual focus, No Flash, Tablelamp lighting
Adding here for feedback. took this one yesterday, June 1st. The picture looked too grainy to me. Please advise on what should i have done differently?
@smithak These are are good experiments! I'll try to help you on these shots.
- roses: the advantages of shooting without sun- nor flashlight is that the details are perfect, and you don't have to fight high contrast caused by sun/shade. The shot is underexposed. I don't know the Nikon cameras, but probably you can have the histogram shown on screen. The diagram shows if you have the entire area from light to dark. I opened the photos in Lightroom and please have a look to the histogram there, including some explanation: http://jaapmeijer.com/images/2012/smitha.JPG
Your camera is good enough to make pics that can be improved in software. I show that too in the jpg mentioned. I increased lighting and contrast plus some vibrance.
2- statues. Thanks to the manual focus, the statues are really sharp. That's important, because that's one of the few things software can hardly improve. I also like the small light on top of the glass object the left person bears. In the flower histogram the light areas failed. In the statue pic the blacks fail. Reason is that your camera always tries to make a pic that's approx. 18% grey. So when there is a lot of black, he tries to make it grey and you have to UNDERexpose. When there is a lot of snow, he also wants to make the result grey and so you have to OVERexpose, contrary to what you normally think you should do! I increased the blacks and the contrast. Both improvements also reduce your (small) grain problem.
As you can see, in both shots I increased contrast. In your camerasettings you can also try to increase contrast in the default settings. But it's also easy to do this in a tool.
Hope I helped you with these comments and processing tips. Enjoy the project and the csc-5 challenge!
5.6 aperture .01 10/1000 shutter speed 6400 ISO
I know that's pretty high ISO, but I didn't notice a lot of noise, if it's there tell me please. Perhaps in this type of subject it's hidden more.
AND this is completely manual. I set everything up EVEN the lens (first time) I took off of a and put it on M and adjusted the focus.
@myhrhelper Good composition and lighting. The natural light coming from the left perfectly lights the middel bear and gives him all attention.
Indeed with the latest cameras ISO6400 is possible without much noise/grain. And as said before, the best way of learning is practicing with manual settings and manual focussing. And you did it all right. When I watch the photo on large format, I see that nothing is perfectly sharp. I do not know what is the reason, because 1/100s should not give unsharp pics. Maybe it's still a result of high ISO?
Did you use liveview for the manual focus? For me that works great because you can zoom in to see if it's exactly sharp on the item you want. Did this also with yesterday's and today's poppy shots.
Kind regards, Jaap
@djepie Thank you Jaap for the feedback. I don't use the screen I look in the viewer (is that liveview?). I'm wondering if the focus could also be since my eyes didn't see as well in the dim lit room without glasses. Also using the manual focus I wonder if I moved it a bit after I had it focused. I do see what you mean once I enlarge the photo it is a bit blurry. Some shots I focused on the mouth area of the middle bear and others it was his bow. I am going to look at some of the other shots I took with different ISO's and see if they are clearer.
@myhrhelper Kathy, I think a toy should be treated like a person or an animal when you're focussing on its face. Make sure the eyes are sharp. Especially in a teddy bear where their faces are "sewn" to show certain emotions.
Think of a portrait of a person where the nose is sharp rather than the eyes. It's distracting because when we look at someone to communicate, we look at their eyes.
Your bear has a sad face. As the nose is prominent, it and the mouth will still be very visible when the eyes are sharp. We'll still see all of his emotion.
I agree with @djepie on using the screen to focus. I too wear glasses and I can take them off when I use the screen. I don't trust my eye through the view finder for low light situations. Alternately, use auto-focus but move your red focus point around until it's over the point on your subject you want to be sharp (e.g. the eyes). By this, I don't mean move the camera and recompose. Each camera is different but you should be able to control which part of your image your red focus point sits over. On mine, I have a little joystick on the back. Others may use their up/down/left/right buttons on the back.
@swilde@grizzlysghost@djepie Thank you I'm lovely this challenge it's making me do things i have not tried before - i will see what I can come up with for this one : - )
This was taken on the 27th before I had your great tips - I will do another one for the challenge so I can see the difference, what do you think? any comments improvements greatly received
@dieter Both of your shots are gorgeous but I'm especially fascinated by the moon shot. The colours you've achieved are amazing. Must try that when I'm there later this year.
I'm curious about shadows. They must still exist because the moonlight still has objects between it and the ground. It's also noticeable that the stars on the right have much more movement than those on the left.
@myhrhelper Kathy, I shoot with glasses on, because I'm increasingly blind. Have you found the diopter adjustment thingy (technical term of course) on your Nikon. It's a tiny little wheel on the top right of the viewfinder. By turning the wheel you customise the camera for your own eyesight. (Sorry if this is bleedingly obvious, but I've found a lot of people dont know it's there).
@mortisa This is a terrific night shot, but it probably needs a little more light in the background. You can get this by exposing for longer. When you expose for longer you will need to adjust your f stop to compensate. As one value goes up the other one comes down.
Help. I have been trying to take shots in dark areas in M mode. My shots have been fairly dark except for a couple that were way over exposed.
However, now I cannot get my shutter speed to go any higher than 8" . What have I done? I have a FinePix s1800 camera.
Well, DUH! I figured it out. I had the shutter as wide open as it would go and I was trying to go the wrong way. At least I learned one thing on this assignment. I remember now that when there is " after the number, it is a very small number.
I threw this challenge up in such a hurry yesterday (helping the children and grandchildren move house at the same time) that I totally forgot to congratulate Ramona on her great effort in winning challege No 4. That was really remiss of me. Here's her winning entry. @snipsnap
@sheliwithani thank you very much :) actually the difference in the movement of the stars I find quite distracting and is the main reason I'm not entirely happy with the shot. A longer exposure that made the rotation of the sky more obvious, or a shorter one that kept the stars as points of light, would have been preferable I think. The colour you get by moonlight is really neat. As I said to Nikki in the comments: it's light enough to see by, but not light enough to trigger the colour-sensitive cones in your retina, and so the world appears in b&w. But moonlight is just reflected sunlight, right? The camera can see it but you can't... As for shadows, I agree that the moon should throw quite strong shadows as it is effectively a point source of light. However the desert vegetation doesn't throw much shade as it is, and the plants were all blowing around somewhat in the wind, which would have blurred the shadows a bit anyway. Must experiment more with shots like that. I intended to do more in central Australia, but the pre-dawn starts rather sapped my energy for night photography!
I set my camera on Manual with these settings = f/4, ISO 6400, and 1/30. The lens couldn't focus so I manually focused using a prime lens = 85mm macro.
When I check my exif info. the ISO setting is different. It says 800. Can someone explain this to me? I was trying a bunch of different ISO settings.
@snipsnap Sometimes on my Nikon I think I've set the ISO but I really haven't because I tend to slip straight back out of the menu without actually hitting the OK as I go. I think the light is really good in this one. You dont need the higher ISO, but it's still fun to play with. The new Nikons are so good at shooting at higher ISOs without grain.
@djepie Thank you so much for the amazing explanation and th emodified pictures with histogram. This is great details and mostly make sense to me when I read it. I love the modified versions of both the pictures.. Amazing lighting in the first one and great clarity in the statues one.. I will try to see if I can modify the constrast in the camera when taking black and white pictures. What free tool can I use to understand histogram? Thank you so much once again. Very inspiring comments and feedback.
Taken with light from window (right) and dining table lamp above slightly to right.
ISO 1600, F5.6, 1/30 secs using self-timer and hand resting on table
I am including 3 photos. All are SOOC. I am trying to figure out what amount of noise is acceptable. I never shoot above ISO 200 because I don't like the way my camera handles noise. The camera is a D300. All three photos were taken just after the sun set.
1. ISO 200, F/8, 2.5 seconds
2. ISO 400, F/8, 1.3 seconds
3. ISO 800, F/8, .8 seconds
Am I being too picky about noise? If this was not for the challenge I probably would have use F/16 to try to get all of the stamen in focus and used a longer exposure.
@bmnorthernlight I love the idea of hand resting on table...I did one tonight which could be defined as...jammed against the car... I particularly like the white background...white is a great reflector and helps add a little light where it might otherwise be too dark.
@lstasel Laura...I think these shot are brilliant. How did you support your camera for those long exposures. I'm actually not seeing much noise (if any) in that third shot but I think it lacks a little of the definition of the previous two. So very well done.
@chapjohn This is quite an awesome effort. It's hard to believe how much light is actually about isn't it. How did you support your camers. I only ask because those front leaves, which seem to be your focal point, are amazingly crisp for this long an exposure.
@lstasel - Laura, I looked at the ISO 800 one and find it to be quite acceptable. I also have the D300 and one of the reasons I bought it way back when was its reviews regarding low noise at higher ISO settings.
However, do you have "Active D-Lighting" enabled in your settings? I used to think I was seeing noise due to ISO issues, but found out that it's the Active D-Lighting that really was making that bit of grain.
In case you want to check if it's on - Menu >Camera icon>Active D-Lighting>High, Normal, Low, Off.
There is also a High ISO NR (Noise Reduction) setting in the menu if you want to play with that.
Also, some of that can be eliminated in software. I use Nikon Capture NX2 and the noise reduction feature is quite nice.
@swilde thank you so much. The light in the picture was natural evening sunlight coming through a glass door. I wanted to bring a soft look to the light. It was pretty bright.That is why i ended using f20. i used f20 for this shot originally http://365project.org/smithak/365/2012-03-04 and then ended up using the same setting for the close up of the flowers. I liked the dark background that was created because of this setting. i am going to try a shot with f5.6 with these flowers too.
This is my shady outdoor shot (Boy's Clubhouse), but tonight I will try the indoors (which I think is more challenging) to work on different settings. I will try the various methods suggested at the beginning of this post to see what works best.
Both pic's are manual, white balance shade, spot metering.
Large - IS0 2000, 1/200, f7.1
little top pic ISO 2000, 1/160, f6.3
Okay, the subject is not interesting, but it's a good test to see how sharp a pic can be with high ISO (ISO3200). The tiny characters still can be read well.
@chapjohn 6400ISO with sunlight in most cases will not be the problem. Especially when used in dark settings, noise/grain will show up. The disadvantage of high ISO use with good daylight, is that both tones and sharpness are less beautiful.
@lstasel Wow, if these are SOOC, what happens if you process them? I think even in ISO800 it's still perfect, maybe not when zoomed to 100%, but that's something you can check. So give it a chance at IOS1600 or higher!
@djepie thank you for the feedback. I thought so too. the higher ISO was really killing the softness in the lighting. But i will try it to see how i can make that work. thank you for taking time ot provide feedback.
I hope this comes out right! Fist time I copy and paste so hopefully it is done correctly. It was getting dark and I didn't want to switch the lights in the room on. I placed the pencils on a piece of perspex for reflection and then pushed my ISO up to maximum for a faster shutter.
Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Exposure: 0.05 sec (1/20)
Aperture: f/8.0
ISO Speed: 6400
Focal Length: 105 mm
@djepie@swilde Thank you for the comments. I notice too many washed areas with high ISO. I have never used ISO 6400 before and with weird light, one source was yellow and the other was bright white, I was uncomfortable. I removed CPL to get this shot allowing all kinds of light. f4 was the widest this lens could use at 30mm.
@djepie A "CPL" is Circular Polarizing Lens. I think the term lens is used because it screws on to the end of the lens. I like the results from using it, keeping glare away and a little more color saturation.
@swilde Thanks Sue, because I was just testing noise at the higher ISO's I used a tripod. I tried ISO 1600 and did handhold the camera. Will be posting soon.
@mikehamm Thanks Mike. I double checked and Active D-Lighting is OFF, Long Exposure NR is OFF and High ISO NR is set to normal. Since I was just testing noise I did not do any processing but usually use Imagenomic or Topaz. Will post ISO 1600 later today.
1/50, f5, iso 1600,manual focus, no flash..some serious attempt, hard to resist the temptation to take brighter shots. Feedback appreciated a lot..thank you.
St. Andrews - miniture
Here is my inside very dim lighting shot. This is a practice shot.
I tried different things but since my camera is made to go high with ISO I ended up taking advantage of it.
ISO 5000, f10, 10/150
Shot taken June 4th but posted Nov 15th since I don't have an ACE account.
Comments suggestions welcomed.
@myhrhelper You are having fun with this. The newer Nikons, like yours, will go to ISOs which we wouldn't have believed a very few years ago with little or no noise and I agree that it's there to be taken advantage of. I am surprised that this second shot is at f10. It looks to have a much shallower DoF.
@carolinedreams Your cat shots are quite lovely. I particularly like the first one. It's very difficult to shoot people or animals under the conditions that we're talking about, because even if you don't move they will. Your first shot is spot on and has lovely light.
@lstasel The number 2 is great, low noise but indeed a bit less detail compared to low ISO. Indeed high ISO is always a second best choice. Everyone prefers ISO100, but indoor you have to choose flash or natural light.
@lstasel I must say I love the low key processing on that third shot Laura...very artistic indeed. Unfortunately there are times when a tripod is not an option. This challenge is meant to help you understand how you can deal with those situations. I think your shot is an excellent example.
@smithak I'll just bet your histagram shows this as quite dark, but my eyes see the brightness of the phone and the laptop. Manually focussing is a really good idea for these shots as your eyes are probably more accurate than the camera in low light. You now know that you can shoot at ISO1600 without ending up with a grainy shot.
@myhrhelper The DOF is very small, but that's normal when photographing miniatures. In the very left building there it is little noise visible, but just when viewed large. Very good for ISO5000! I would advise to higher exposure a bit in the processing, because it's underexposed now, making the photo a bit gloomy. Just the orange brings some freshness in it.
@smithak This shot is dreamy. You'll notice what an advantage that light coloured bowl gave you in reflecting some of the available light. See the difference in tone of the chocolate near the edge of the bowl to the choclate which is surrounded by...well...chocolate. So glad you are having fun with this.
@carolinedreams The pose of the cat against the window (?) I like most, but it's underexposed and not really a high ISO (400). Therefore I prefer the cat dreaming of fish. Because of ISO800 there is some noise visible, but the lovely contrast and the look in the cat's eyes makes me forget this.
22mm 1/30 f4 1600iso
Too scared to go slower with the shutter cos I got a lot of blurred shots as it was. Also I struggled with focus at different focal lengths, if anyone can explain that it would be greatly appreciated
28mm 1/30 f4 800iso
They both seem to dark to me but they were the best out of what I took, both with hardly any grain & focus
@swilde - yes I did, but the ISO that I pushed up helped very much. I tend to shake a bit because the camera and lens is a bit heavy, but I play around with my shutter, ISO and aperture. This photo was by accident and then someone saw it and suggested I must post it here :-)
@djepie - Thanks. Yeah, I wanted the background a bit dark because it would be too distracting if it were brighter. I wanted the focus to be on the bird.
I think I need some thoughts on the noise issue with this challenge. I was shooting dancers and to capture them without too much motion blur, I had to keep the iso really high.
1. ISO 1600, 1/1600 second, f/3.2, handheld
Best viewed large.
2. ISO 1600, 1/160 second, f/8, handheld
This is the first low light photgraph I took this week. I did not tag it because I used a tripod and ISO 200.
I have never used my camera at the higher ISO's because I didn't like the results. This challenge reminded me that I do have options if I really need them. So thanks to everyone for their help and suggestions.
@tigerdreamer I think sometimes noise is a matter of personal choice. Of course we don't want it, but if it's a choice of shot with noise or no shot at all I'll take the noise. The example I posted at the beginning of this thread is quite noisy but I wouldn't have missed that shot for anything. Cameras are constantly improving in this regard. Shooting at higher ISOs is becomming easier with each new model
@lstasel I really like all three shots Laura. Of course your tripod one is super crisp but the others aren't bad at all. Your camera is handling the higher ISO without any really severe noise and now you know that it will do this and what to expect when you need it.
@debrac You have your speed really low here, and it's really hard to get a sharp pic that way. You need to lean on something...a table, a chair or sit on the floor so that you have added support. While this challenge is about taking low light shots it's not about taking no light shots. Maybe you can move your model nearer a natural light source.
@swilde Yea, I was aware of that. Unfortunately with the weather we are having it seems that I either have extremely low light, or bright light (I pretty much don't have any natural light in my house...not my choice :) ). This was the only subject I could come up with that had any light to use, but not bright. I did try leaning against a wall, which really wasn't enough support. Ideally, I would have found a shot outside...it just wasn't to be this time.
@smithak Almost all tools will have a histogram. Just try the free Picasa ( http://picasa.google.com/). When you doubleclick you get a histogram bottom left.
I have been wanting to take a portrait of my dear Nellie, this fit in with the Camera Setting Challenge 5. Last night she decided to cooperate and sit still. Very low lighting and I was using my 200 mm lens. Settings were f5.6, 1/20 (hand held) and 3200 ISO. Usually not fond of high ISO due to graininess, but in this case I really liked how this turned out. I reduced some noise in Lightroom, added a small bit of vignette. No Crop involved. She looks soft and sweet!
@swilde Hi Sue,
Could you at your earliest convenience post the winners to start the voting?
We would like to announce the winner very early Friday so that person has some time to find a new challenge host which can start early Saturday.
Thanks for doing such an awesome job!
Tweets ahoy!
Join the Group
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1- I rarely drop below 1/100 of a sec (1/250 is ideal); not only is it hard to keep the camera stable, but the subject may move as well and it is extremely difficult to get a clear image at a slower speed.
2- I rarely exceed ISO 800, even though the camera I shoot (Canon 5D Mark II) can achieve fair results at much higher. I just find that a lot of my shots may need to be cropped up, and the added grain at over ISO 800 just kills any kind of zooming crop.
3- My primary indoor lens' maximum aperture is f/4, but I prefer to shoot at f/5.6 to f/8 indoors as this is my lens' "sweet spot". While f/4 will let more light in, closing the aperture just a couple of stops can make a lot of difference in image quality; so google your lens and find out your "sweet spot."
My shooting preference to prep for indoor shots? Set camera on AV (aperture priority) mode, set the aperture to f/5.6, then increase ISO until my shutter speed is at least 1/100 (and with any luck, it will be below ISO 800... but if it is higher, that is the piece I would prefer to sacrifice).
Ok, sorry for the long post; just thought I would add a couple of suggestions :) Good luck!
For me high ISO was one of the main reasons to buy a more expensive, newer camera. Also for the f/4 I agree for flowers/macros, but not for portraits. So, dear photographer, just try and find out yourself. There is no good or bad, just find out what you prefer.
Just one example - so not for the challenge itself - how even ISO6400 can work:
And now: enjoy and good luck!
I will see what I can do. My camera is already a little bit older than most others in this challenge and it's highest iso performance is 1600. Pictures start getting grainy at 800, so I guess I will have to learn how not to shake and that definitely is something I need to learn, especially with that camera, haha.
@grizzlysghost @djepie Thanks for your advice, really appreciated. It's funny how everyone does things differently. But I have to agree with Jaap on the better iso performance as a reason for a new camera. That is on the to of my list of "why I could need a new body".
Tripod or a wall and a lower ISO coupled with a self timer to eliminate any camera shake, I don't like my images even at 800 ISO.
Just the other night I was shooting at 200 ISO long after the sun had gone down right up until a couple of hours before it was due to rise again, its amazing how much light is really available to you inner city or even on the coast as I was at the time.
Once again, I am excited to do this challenge!
D O N ' T F O R G E T
TAG YOUR PHOTOS
csc-5
And this one was a 30s exposure:
1/200, f/10, ISO 1600, no flash. Feedback greatly appreciated. What could i have done differently to the picture look brighter..
1/50, f5, No Tripod, 1250 ISO , indoor lighting, Manual focus, No Flash, Tablelamp lighting
Adding here for feedback. took this one yesterday, June 1st. The picture looked too grainy to me. Please advise on what should i have done differently?
- roses: the advantages of shooting without sun- nor flashlight is that the details are perfect, and you don't have to fight high contrast caused by sun/shade. The shot is underexposed. I don't know the Nikon cameras, but probably you can have the histogram shown on screen. The diagram shows if you have the entire area from light to dark. I opened the photos in Lightroom and please have a look to the histogram there, including some explanation:
http://jaapmeijer.com/images/2012/smitha.JPG
Your camera is good enough to make pics that can be improved in software. I show that too in the jpg mentioned. I increased lighting and contrast plus some vibrance.
2- statues. Thanks to the manual focus, the statues are really sharp. That's important, because that's one of the few things software can hardly improve. I also like the small light on top of the glass object the left person bears. In the flower histogram the light areas failed. In the statue pic the blacks fail. Reason is that your camera always tries to make a pic that's approx. 18% grey. So when there is a lot of black, he tries to make it grey and you have to UNDERexpose. When there is a lot of snow, he also wants to make the result grey and so you have to OVERexpose, contrary to what you normally think you should do! I increased the blacks and the contrast. Both improvements also reduce your (small) grain problem.
As you can see, in both shots I increased contrast. In your camerasettings you can also try to increase contrast in the default settings. But it's also easy to do this in a tool.
Hope I helped you with these comments and processing tips. Enjoy the project and the csc-5 challenge!
TAG YOUR PHOTOS
csc-5
I know that's pretty high ISO, but I didn't notice a lot of noise, if it's there tell me please. Perhaps in this type of subject it's hidden more.
AND this is completely manual. I set everything up EVEN the lens (first time) I took off of a and put it on M and adjusted the focus.
Feedback wanted please
Indeed with the latest cameras ISO6400 is possible without much noise/grain. And as said before, the best way of learning is practicing with manual settings and manual focussing. And you did it all right. When I watch the photo on large format, I see that nothing is perfectly sharp. I do not know what is the reason, because 1/100s should not give unsharp pics. Maybe it's still a result of high ISO?
Did you use liveview for the manual focus? For me that works great because you can zoom in to see if it's exactly sharp on the item you want. Did this also with yesterday's and today's poppy shots.
Kind regards, Jaap
Think of a portrait of a person where the nose is sharp rather than the eyes. It's distracting because when we look at someone to communicate, we look at their eyes.
Your bear has a sad face. As the nose is prominent, it and the mouth will still be very visible when the eyes are sharp. We'll still see all of his emotion.
I agree with @djepie on using the screen to focus. I too wear glasses and I can take them off when I use the screen. I don't trust my eye through the view finder for low light situations. Alternately, use auto-focus but move your red focus point around until it's over the point on your subject you want to be sharp (e.g. the eyes). By this, I don't mean move the camera and recompose. Each camera is different but you should be able to control which part of your image your red focus point sits over. On mine, I have a little joystick on the back. Others may use their up/down/left/right buttons on the back.
I'm curious about shadows. They must still exist because the moonlight still has objects between it and the ground. It's also noticeable that the stars on the right have much more movement than those on the left.
However, now I cannot get my shutter speed to go any higher than 8" . What have I done? I have a FinePix s1800 camera.
Well, DUH! I figured it out. I had the shutter as wide open as it would go and I was trying to go the wrong way. At least I learned one thing on this assignment. I remember now that when there is " after the number, it is a very small number.
@snipsnap
Thanks Sue! I'm playing around right now with the new challenge.
I set my camera on Manual with these settings = f/4, ISO 6400, and 1/30. The lens couldn't focus so I manually focused using a prime lens = 85mm macro.
When I check my exif info. the ISO setting is different. It says 800. Can someone explain this to me? I was trying a bunch of different ISO settings.
Manual program f/5.6, 1/20, ISO 800
Picture was taken inside with help of the light from setting sun
Taken with light from window (right) and dining table lamp above slightly to right.
ISO 1600, F5.6, 1/30 secs using self-timer and hand resting on table
does this count or is the aperture too off? 1/60, f20, ISO 400, Manual focus, no flash,SOOC
1. ISO 200, F/8, 2.5 seconds
2. ISO 400, F/8, 1.3 seconds
3. ISO 800, F/8, .8 seconds
Am I being too picky about noise? If this was not for the challenge I probably would have use F/16 to try to get all of the stamen in focus and used a longer exposure.
1.6 sec; f4; ISO 6400 at 10:30pm
However, do you have "Active D-Lighting" enabled in your settings? I used to think I was seeing noise due to ISO issues, but found out that it's the Active D-Lighting that really was making that bit of grain.
In case you want to check if it's on - Menu >Camera icon>Active D-Lighting>High, Normal, Low, Off.
There is also a High ISO NR (Noise Reduction) setting in the menu if you want to play with that.
Also, some of that can be eliminated in software. I use Nikon Capture NX2 and the noise reduction feature is quite nice.
Both pic's are manual, white balance shade, spot metering.
Large - IS0 2000, 1/200, f7.1
little top pic ISO 2000, 1/160, f6.3
I hope this comes out right! Fist time I copy and paste so hopefully it is done correctly. It was getting dark and I didn't want to switch the lights in the room on. I placed the pencils on a piece of perspex for reflection and then pushed my ISO up to maximum for a faster shutter.
Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Exposure: 0.05 sec (1/20)
Aperture: f/8.0
ISO Speed: 6400
Focal Length: 105 mm
ISO 800, F4.5, 1/25s, 70mm
1. SOOC, ISO 1600, f/5.6, 1/500
2. Noise Reduction and slight curves adjustment.
3. Noise Reduction and Low Key Processing.
Not as bad as I expected but I don't think high ISO will ever be my first choice. :)
I've gotten spoiled using a tripod.
1/50, f5, iso 1600,manual focus, no flash..some serious attempt, hard to resist the temptation to take brighter shots. Feedback appreciated a lot..thank you.
Here is my inside very dim lighting shot. This is a practice shot.
I tried different things but since my camera is made to go high with ISO I ended up taking advantage of it.
ISO 5000, f10, 10/150
Shot taken June 4th but posted Nov 15th since I don't have an ACE account.
Comments suggestions welcomed.
Too scared to go slower with the shutter cos I got a lot of blurred shots as it was. Also I struggled with focus at different focal lengths, if anyone can explain that it would be greatly appreciated
28mm 1/30 f4 800iso
They both seem to dark to me but they were the best out of what I took, both with hardly any grain & focus
I know that it was not as dark as in some of the other pictures but my camera has limitations in that respect...
1. ISO 1600, 1/1600 second, f/3.2, handheld
Best viewed large.
2. ISO 1600, 1/160 second, f/8, handheld
This is the first low light photgraph I took this week. I did not tag it because I used a tripod and ISO 200.
I have never used my camera at the higher ISO's because I didn't like the results. This challenge reminded me that I do have options if I really need them. So thanks to everyone for their help and suggestions.
shutter speed 1/2 f4 ISO 800
It took several attempts to get one that was even remotely usable. I will continue to practice.
I have been wanting to take a portrait of my dear Nellie, this fit in with the Camera Setting Challenge 5. Last night she decided to cooperate and sit still. Very low lighting and I was using my 200 mm lens. Settings were f5.6, 1/20 (hand held) and 3200 ISO. Usually not fond of high ISO due to graininess, but in this case I really liked how this turned out. I reduced some noise in Lightroom, added a small bit of vignette. No Crop involved. She looks soft and sweet!
1/6, f/7.1, ISO 800 I chose the long shutter speed to capture and not freeze the motion.
It is sooc, as all my pictures for these challenges are.
Could you at your earliest convenience post the winners to start the voting?
We would like to announce the winner very early Friday so that person has some time to find a new challenge host which can start early Saturday.
Thanks for doing such an awesome job!
One more attempt..1/40, f5.6,ISO1000, Manual focus, no flash