Last night I was trying to take a picture of a tree. I was using auto mode and the pop up flash on the camera which is a Canon Rebel T3. All of the pictures I took came out very dark. Does anyone know if it is because the flash is most likely not enough or if there is a setting that I could use to get a better shot at night? Thanks in advance for any advice!
Hello Nikki, while I am not a "landscape photographer" per se but having had the T3 for 2 years, you may want to consider:
1. Distance between camera and subject - You may be right that it is dark or at least the subject you were hoping to capture is in shadow because it just was not within the radius of the flash because there are limitations to an onboard flash.
2. Focus - in "auto", you don't get to choose what the camera decides to focus on. It will pick it for you so it may have picked a different area to focus on other than the tree.
3. Scene - going to basics.. well sometimes, it is just too damn dark and we really need more lighting for something to come out the way we want it to.
As for TIPS:
Night time is always tricky.. but I find that the best results will be captured "off-auto" so you can play around more with the best ISO and Shutter speed.
I forget now too.. but if all else fails, pick Creative Auto and there should be an option for Night Scene.. and TRIPOD is always helpful since low light almost always results to blurred image because it will require steady hands and the shutter is open for longer.
Night time photography is a whole thing unto itself :)
I think the flash can work if you're very close to your main subject, but as I've never tried that, I'm not much help there...
You can also try bumping up your ISO, but at a guess, your camera would already have done that for you and as the photo didn't come out, that might not be enough...
For stationary objects (like trees ;p) your best bet may be long exposure - which requires a tripod (or something to perch your camera on so that it stays steady) and taking your camera off of auto... Are you up for that? :D
Flash is good for about 10 feet. Though just having it up will sometimes slow down the shutter and you accidently get the shot you want, even if the flash was of no use.
Sounds like a good place to try out other functions on your camera. A night scene will use the flash, but leave the shutter open longer.
Or you can go to a mode which allows you to keep slowing down the shutter speed till you get one with the right light.
Also increasing the ISO will help too.
My recommendation is to get out your manual and learn to do one new thing, in this case, slower shutter speed and then practice.
I suspect the main problem it is that you used auto.
Usually you will need a Tripod and manual adjustments of ISO, Aperture, and Shutter speed. If you use flash, usually the need is for a speed light and adjusting it to get the proper light.
Understand that night photos will not look like those in daylight. This is not bad, only different.
It is hard to get more specific about this question without seeing what the camera did. EXIF info?
Low light photography is great fun but number one on the list is get of auto and get yourself a tripod.
Flash will have a guide number which will give its effective distance at a given ISO but to be honest most low light is about using the available light.
For trees try setting your camera on a tripod camera on manual f8 and 15 seconds then shine a torch over the tree if it's too dark longer shutter speed too light up the f stop.
Here's my latest low light taken yesterday exposure was 15 seconds
Peter's correct. Night photography requires a) a tripod b) no flash unless you are using slow sync for foreground fill-in c) long exposure time, typically 10, 20, 30 secs.
Add a shutter release cable to the list of equipment for long exposure night shots. You can use a shutter delay on the camera until you get one, just to make sure the camera is steady throughout the whole exposure.
The camera flash is very short range (10-12 feet at most) and probably can't reach the tree at all I would suspect. That's why you just have dark and black at probably something like 1/60 second exposure. Even a high powered flash is not the way to approach general night views. As others have suggested, the way to get night pictures is to break out the tripod, be prepared for long exposures (several seconds) and think carefully about your exposure parameters, perhaps experimenting with a few different ones since the camera's light meter might not do too well in the dark. If you have a very fast lens (f/2.8 or wider) and that lens is image stabilized (IS, VR, VS and other manufacturer acronyms) you might attempt to shoot hand held for anything down to about 1/5 second. But tripod is best even though it requires some preparation and thought. Afraid that AUTO will not cut it.
@nikkifreeman as others mentioned above first I will recommend to you to wear a tripod. Try to set speed and apperture using mode M or Av. And try to keep Iso setting as low as possible to balance sensor noise from large exposition time or high iso.
Nikki, best thing is to learn to turn the flash off. You will set your shutter to a low number so you have a long exposure. Also if you can adjust your ISO around 600 to 800 (my Olympus likes 640), and find a place to put your camera on it so it will be still (no need for a tripod, if you have a table or a pile of books to put the camera on. Also with night shots, you may actually want to set the timer to a 2 second delay to prevent camera movement from you.
@padlock A or P and relying on the camera's light meter in conjunction with the exposure software is perfectly fine. I presume you would be planning to use the camera light meter anyway to set or evaluate the exposures chosen? Most digital shooters don't carry around a separate stand alone meter as our fathers once did with the old time film cameras. Now "manual focus" is another matter altogether, since the AF system might not have enough light to function.
@nikkifreeman If your exposure gets to be more than 10 seconds, and that would not be uncommon, you might wish to turn on "long exposure noise reduction." It will be in your shooting menu somewhere.
What this actually does is after you have taken the shot, the camera takes another with the shutter closed of the same exposure time to try to catch the "hot" pixels generated by the long exposure, then try to remove them from the original raw source. I have found it not reliable in that many "hot" pixels are random, at least on the digital cameras I have used to date. Others claim it works great for them, so go figure. The practical issue, of course, is that the camera is "busy" for that second time and won't release control back to you for that second length of time.
I never use the flash. Although a tripod is essential. If you have a screen on your camera focus with that manually increasing the digital zoom as much as possible on the screen then focus. Exposure varies but the last one I did was 25 seconds and came out well. ISO too play around with. Auto at night does not work for me and no flash.
@northy Thanks so much for the advice! I don't know if I'm up for my camera being taken off auto BUT I'm jumping in and trying each day to take some pictures without my camera being set to auto!!!
@swguevin I love the recommendation of getting to learn one new thing at a time. It doesn't seem so overwhelming thinking of it like that! Thanks for you help!
@nikkifreeman hello nikki! Yes.. I have a 430 ex ii speedlite. Like I said though I am not a crazy landscape photographer because I like taking photos of people and animals and beautiful things so while I have dAbbled with it off camera... Its just more to make the subject more intersting looking. It works for my style because I dont get that over exposed look where peoples faces are washed out and shiny and extremely white when you use the built in flash or glares on people's glasses...and unwanted shadows (that drives me nuts). Stuff like that. If you are looking to do lanscapes... There's more to it than just the flash. I am assuming you like lanscapes basing on what i've seen in your photos. (I do love that pic of the nest on the tree! Great job!)As advised here, start exploring manual and slow shutter speeds but you reAlly will need a tripod.
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1. Distance between camera and subject - You may be right that it is dark or at least the subject you were hoping to capture is in shadow because it just was not within the radius of the flash because there are limitations to an onboard flash.
2. Focus - in "auto", you don't get to choose what the camera decides to focus on. It will pick it for you so it may have picked a different area to focus on other than the tree.
3. Scene - going to basics.. well sometimes, it is just too damn dark and we really need more lighting for something to come out the way we want it to.
As for TIPS:
Night time is always tricky.. but I find that the best results will be captured "off-auto" so you can play around more with the best ISO and Shutter speed.
I forget now too.. but if all else fails, pick Creative Auto and there should be an option for Night Scene.. and TRIPOD is always helpful since low light almost always results to blurred image because it will require steady hands and the shutter is open for longer.
I think the flash can work if you're very close to your main subject, but as I've never tried that, I'm not much help there...
You can also try bumping up your ISO, but at a guess, your camera would already have done that for you and as the photo didn't come out, that might not be enough...
For stationary objects (like trees ;p) your best bet may be long exposure - which requires a tripod (or something to perch your camera on so that it stays steady) and taking your camera off of auto... Are you up for that? :D
Sounds like a good place to try out other functions on your camera. A night scene will use the flash, but leave the shutter open longer.
Or you can go to a mode which allows you to keep slowing down the shutter speed till you get one with the right light.
Also increasing the ISO will help too.
My recommendation is to get out your manual and learn to do one new thing, in this case, slower shutter speed and then practice.
Usually you will need a Tripod and manual adjustments of ISO, Aperture, and Shutter speed. If you use flash, usually the need is for a speed light and adjusting it to get the proper light.
Understand that night photos will not look like those in daylight. This is not bad, only different.
It is hard to get more specific about this question without seeing what the camera did. EXIF info?
Not sure if it will do anything, but maybe it's worth a try...
Flash will have a guide number which will give its effective distance at a given ISO but to be honest most low light is about using the available light.
For trees try setting your camera on a tripod camera on manual f8 and 15 seconds then shine a torch over the tree if it's too dark longer shutter speed too light up the f stop.
Here's my latest low light taken yesterday exposure was 15 seconds
@nikkifreeman If your exposure gets to be more than 10 seconds, and that would not be uncommon, you might wish to turn on "long exposure noise reduction." It will be in your shooting menu somewhere.
What this actually does is after you have taken the shot, the camera takes another with the shutter closed of the same exposure time to try to catch the "hot" pixels generated by the long exposure, then try to remove them from the original raw source. I have found it not reliable in that many "hot" pixels are random, at least on the digital cameras I have used to date. Others claim it works great for them, so go figure. The practical issue, of course, is that the camera is "busy" for that second time and won't release control back to you for that second length of time.