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    Storm Pics

    Here are a couple pics I just snapped with my camera. I am still learning so please critique. I'm trying to understand shutter speed and all that. The first pic I had set at no flash and it's brighter than the second I took with the setting on the night photo setting. Do I need to just start manually setting everything? These were taken around 10:10 PM.

    James
    Last edited by jbitt4x4; 08-30-2009, 11:43 PM.

    #2
    Looks great! And a lot better than anything I would take.

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      #3
      storms are always fascinating subjects, you did well

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        #4
        Thanks

        Thank You


        Originally posted by Sunshine View Post
        storms are always fascinating subjects, you did well

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          #5
          You might try Av or Tv setting. Av lets you set the ISO and the f/stop, and then the camera pics the shutter speed. Try Av with ISO 100 and f/5.6 or f/8 and see what happens. If the shutter speed is slow enough that you get hand shake in the picture, then put your camera on a tripod or even set it down on a table or something that will keep it still.

          Pay attention to what your camera chooses for shutter speeds to go with the ISO and f/stop that you set. That will help you get an idea of how to set things manually. Learn to read your camera's light meter and the histograms of the pictures you take. Once you understand those (and they're not incredibly complicated), you can start to use the manual setting successfully.

          A flash won't do anything when your photographing clouds or anything else that's more than just a few feet away, so leave it off.

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            #6
            They look pretty good to me, but all I know how to do is push the button.

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              #7
              Thanks

              Thanks Shane. The first pic I set the flash to off and that's how bright it came out???. The second pic was set on the night setting and it uses the flash somehow, but I did not see a flash...see how dark it came out. It just confused me. I'm still learning for sure and appreciate all you guys and gals imput. Keep em coming please. I'm gonna have to buy that book Hilly is always talking about so the wife and I can learn more.

              James


              Originally posted by Shane View Post
              You might try Av or Tv setting. Av lets you set the ISO and the f/stop, and then the camera pics the shutter speed. Try Av with ISO 100 and f/5.6 or f/8 and see what happens. If the shutter speed is slow enough that you get hand shake in the picture, then put your camera on a tripod or even set it down on a table or something that will keep it still.

              Pay attention to what your camera chooses for shutter speeds to go with the ISO and f/stop that you set. That will help you get an idea of how to set things manually. Learn to read your camera's light meter and the histograms of the pictures you take. Once you understand those (and they're not incredibly complicated), you can start to use the manual setting successfully.

              A flash won't do anything when your photographing clouds or anything else that's more than just a few feet away, so leave it off.

              Comment


                #8
                Switch to M for manual. Set the f stop to 11 or 16, ISO 100, and BULB for the shutter speed. Use a tripod. Set to manual focus and turn the focus ring to infinity. If you have a cable type release you can experiment with holding the shutter open for 4, 5, or 6 seconds. Recheck the focus. If you're happy you can reset the shutter speed to the number of seconds you liked the best. If you don't have a release you may get blurry pictures from touching the shutter button.
                Lightning can sometimes make you close down the f to 20. Street lights can also burn out the photo with the longer exposures.
                I took about 100 exposures last night and didn't get lucky with the lightning. Then it got too windy.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by jbitt4x4 View Post
                  Thanks Shane. The first pic I set the flash to off and that's how bright it came out???. The second pic was set on the night setting and it uses the flash somehow, but I did not see a flash...see how dark it came out. It just confused me. I'm still learning for sure and appreciate all you guys and gals imput. Keep em coming please. I'm gonna have to buy that book Hilly is always talking about so the wife and I can learn more.

                  James
                  You must have been on the auto settings without the flash for the first one. Since there was low light and no flash, the camera chose a longer shutter speed to allow more light in for the picture. That's why it's brighter.

                  On the second shot, the camera didn't know that you were shooting distant clouds, it just knew that you picked night mode (which tells the camera to fire the flash). With a bright flash (and a subject that is a few feet away from the camera), there is plenty of light for the camera to capture with a faster shutter speed, so it set a fast shutter speed. The clouds were too far away to be lit by the flash, so the fast shutter speed didn't let in enough light to fully expose the clouds. That's why that pic turned out dark (under-exposed).

                  For difficult exposures like that, you really do need to get off of full auto and onto either full manual or Av or Tv mode and dial in the appropriate settings. You can do it by trial and error if you have to. If the pic is too dark, then you need more light.

                  To get more light, you can go to a higher ISO setting. The disadvantage is that higher ISO settings give you grainier-looking pics.

                  Another way to get more light without changing to higher ISOs would be to set a larger aperture. The lens's aperture is like the pupil of your eye. When it's bigger it lets in more light. Smaller f/stop numbers = larger aperture....for instance, f/2.8 is a much larger aperture than f/16. Everytime you go down one full stop on the f/stop setting, you DOUBLE the size of the aperture. Full stops are f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16, f/22, etc... (I think I named the right numbers there.....somebody double check me). Anyway....smaller f/stop numbers = larger apertures = more light.

                  The last way to get more light is to use a longer shutter speed. Again, when you double the shutter speed, you cut the light in half. When you cut the shutter speed in half, you double the light. For instance, if you took a pic at 1/250th of a second shutter speed and it is too dark, you can double the light by shooting the next picture with the same ISO and f/stop and a shutter speed of 1/125th of a second (twice as long for the shutter to be open). To make it easier....say your first pic's shutter speed was 1 full second. To double the light, make the next one a shutter of 2 seconds.

                  You can change all three (ISO, f/stop, shutter speed), but it gets confusing if you change multiple things. Bluesman's recommendations for getting lightning shots will work great. You could do it a similar, but a little more "automatic" way by setting ISO to 100, set camera to Tv mode and select a 4" (4 second) shutter speed USING A TRIPOD, and then let the camera decide what f/stop to use. If that comes out too dark, then set a longer shutter speed until you get a good exposure.

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                    #10
                    Great shots, sometimes being lucky is better than being good. The main thing is you never know what will happen, but nothing will happen if your not shooting.

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                      #11
                      pretty cool

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                        #12
                        Another Try

                        OK, here are some more that I gave a try tonight. Yall wasn't lying about lightning being hard to capture. Please critique some more please.
                        Last edited by jbitt4x4; 08-30-2009, 11:43 PM.

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                          #13
                          like the pics

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                            #14
                            you did well

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                              #15
                              Storms are beautiful!

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