How to Shoot: SpectroMagic

[ukcatfan]

The fireworks info above is good, but I will add one thing. The S2 has no remote shutter release possible or bulb mode, so the best way to get the fireworks shots is to shoot in a 2 second delay mode and hope for the best on timing. Pressing the shutter itself, even if on a tripod, can create visible shaking and blur.

Kevin

 

[ukcatfan]

You might be able to get a nice "star" effect, though, if you close the aperture to it's smallest (8.0) -- I haven't tried this, yet, and I've been focusing more on getting the most light into the camera.

If you want that type of effect, buy a star filter and the conversion adapter. You would not change the exposure much if you did that. Switching to f/8 would dramatically reduce the amount of light to the sensor and make the required shutter speed too long for a p&s camera to deal with for something like Spectro.

Kevin

 

[LPZ_Stitch!]

If you want that type of effect, buy a star filter and the conversion adapter. You would not change the exposure much if you did that. Switching to f/8 would dramatically reduce the amount of light to the sensor and make the required shutter speed too long for a p&s camera to deal with for something like Spectro.

Yeah, it's probably not something good to try with a moving night parade like Spectro, but I've seen some really pretty pictures of bridges and the like done this way with longer exposures and tripods.

 

[AbbysFamily]

I've shot Spectro with my S2.. Its not easy, and you definately have to be prepared for both 1) a bit of blur and 2)a bit of hard work.. The S2 is no slr from a light input perspective, but it can do pretty decent.

Here is a couple of the ones that I took... A couple of notes - these were handheld, so had I hauled a tripod, they might have been better. I shot under aperture priority to keep the lens wide open, then the times ended up around 1/4 to 1/8 which is going to get a bit of motion.

 

[LPZ_Stitch!]

Here is a couple of the ones that I took... A couple of notes - these were handheld, so had I hauled a tripod, they might have been better. I shot under aperture priority to keep the lens wide open, then the times ended up around 1/4 to 1/8 which is going to get a bit of motion.

Not bad ... not bad at all!

Do you happen to remember what ISO you were at?

They're just a little blurry (the second one, at least), but they don't seem too noisy....

 

[CheshireVal]

I've gotten some decent Spectro pictures using the Sports setting on my S3 (no flash). I sometimes just can't be bothered experimenting with the manual stuff, especially when I'd rather actually be enjoying the parade than concentrating on taking pictures!

 

[AbbysFamily]

Not bad ... not bad at all!

Do you happen to remember what ISO you were at?

They're just a little blurry (the second one, at least), but they don't seem too noisy....

Unfortunately, no I don't remember... And I can't find ISO in the EXIF data?? If someone can point me to where the ISO is hidden in EXIF for and S2, I can look it up.

 

[ukcatfan]

Unfortunately, no I don't remember... And I can't find ISO in the EXIF data?? If someone can point me to where the ISO is hidden in EXIF for and S2, I can look it up.

For some reason Canon hides the ISO deep in the cracks of the EXIF data. I think you need to use something other than Windows to see it. There are EXIF viewers that you can build into web browsers that should show it.

Kevin

 

[LPZ_Stitch!]

Unfortunately, no I don't remember... And I can't find ISO in the EXIF data?? If someone can point me to where the ISO is hidden in EXIF for and S2, I can look it up.

Yeah, I couldn't see it with my FireFox plug-in, although some other EXIF data was there.

Are you using ZoomBrowser? You should be able to get *all* of the EXIF from there. Just go to the Preview Mode tab and the EXIF should be in the left-hand panel....

 

[Groucho]

Here is a couple of the ones that I took... A couple of notes - these were handheld, so had I hauled a tripod, they might have been better.

I don't think that a tripod would help, as the stuff you're photographing is constantly moving, so you'll get motion blur (like in the second photo) if you use a tripod.

FWIW, IrfanView shows the ISO of the second photo (I didn't look at the first) as 32,767 - that can't be right! Apparently Canon buries it into the Maker note, and third-party programs don't always read it right. Why, Canon, why do you do these things?

For some specific SpectroMagic info, you may want to read this thread, where we talked about specific settings. It took my DSLR at 1600 ISO and my fastest lens (F1.4) to get the photos where I wanted them, and even then it was just barely enough. SpectroMagic is tough to get really nice photos of.

 

[handicap18]

Fireworks really aren't that hard if you use the correct equipment. As has been mentioned a tripod is the best piece of equiment you can use. Either a full or a pocket sized one. Disney's trash cans are flat on top so using a little table top/pocket sized tripod is pretty easy. ISO is film speed. When you had a film camera and bought film is was most likely 100, 200, 400 or 800 speed film. With digital it can be changed right in camera. Because you are going to use a slow shutter speed for fireworks keep your ISO low to limit noise. 100 or 200 is good. If your using a tripod then a shutter speed of 2-6 seconds is good. With the S2IS it does have Image Stabilization so you might be able to get some decent pics handheld. But you'll want to bump the ISO higher and will only be able to get a shutter speed of about 1/10th maybe lower if your steady.

SpectoMagic is a whole different ballgame. IS will not help. Your taking pictures of a moving subject at night with not a whole lot of light available. The slowest shutter speed you'll want is maybe 1/60th. You'll also want the ISO at its highest to help get the shutter as high as you can. Also as been previously noted, you'll want the f/stop (aka aperture, same thing as the pupil of your eye, it gets wider in dark rooms and smaller outdoors in light) as wide as possible, f/2.7. You might have to be at the widest part of the zoom, I don't know if the S2 closes the aperture more as you zoom in. You can also try adjust the exposure compensation. This will lend to more noise, but will help in getting a faster shutter.

SpectroMagic is probably one of if not the hardest subject to photograph at Disney. But it can be done.

 

[LPZ_Stitch!]

It took my DSLR at 1600 ISO and my fastest lens (F1.4) to get the photos where I wanted them, and even then it was just barely enough. SpectroMagic is tough to get really nice photos of.

Unfortunately, going to 1600 isn't even possible on the S2/S3. Even 800 is very noisy, and best avoided if at all possible.

I've noticed from your Spectromagic photos on that other thread that they all seem *really* clear ... much clearer than any of the ISO test pictures I've ever seen on camera sites. Is that all the result of the Noiseware?

I'm hoping to get a chance to change the ISO multiple times for shots of each major float, trying to see if I can get the clearest shot with the least noise. Luckily, it's an easily reachable button!

 

[MorningGlory]

The fireworks info above is good, but I will add one thing. The S2 has no remote shutter release possible or bulb mode, so the best way to get the fireworks shots is to shoot in a 2 second delay mode and hope for the best on timing. Pressing the shutter itself, even if on a tripod, can create visible shaking and blur.

Kevin

Just wanted to emphasise ukcatfan's comment about using the timer delay for low-light shots. The shots below were all in a cathedral in Barcelona. Im not good at the technical stuff (this thread has been great for info though!) so I just set my camera to 'night' mode.

This first shot was taken with the camera resting on a font at the back of the cathedral, but no timer delay;

This second shot was done the same way, but with a 2 second delay to compensate for the movement of pressing the button to take the shot;

Finally, this picture was taken just off the right side of the cathedral and serves to show how low the light level was in the church;

As you can see, the timer delay definitely helped me to get that shot I wanted

 

[Groucho]

Nice work on the second photo, MorningGlory! That's a good example of what can be done if you know the tricks. As long as there's a still subject and somewhere to rest your camera, you can just take a long exposure and leave the ISO low in order to get a nice low-light photo from a PnS. Of course, it doesn't hurt that you're using a Fuji.

I've noticed from your Spectromagic photos on that other thread that they all seem *really* clear ... much clearer than any of the ISO test pictures I've ever seen on camera sites. Is that all the result of the Noiseware?

Well... I don't think that Noiseware did TOO much to help those particular pictures. In that thread, I did post "before" and "after" photos and you need to look REALLY closely to tell the difference.

They look much clearer than ISO test photos for two reasons... 1) they're not 100% crops, like you see in test photos... in the full-size 6mp pictures, you can see the noise a little more, but it's still fairly mild. And 2) from my experience, you really notice noise in an expanse of a specific color, some seem to be worse than others.

The Spectro shots have mostly very dim backgrounds and small details (lights) without big, bright solid colors. Now, if I take an ISO 1600 photo of my living room, which has bright green walls, you'll definitely notice the noise more. (This particular color seems to really drive digital sensors crazy - it was pretty much impossible to get any photo in there from my old 5mp PnS without the walls being a noisy mess, and even with my DSLR, you can start to see a little bit of noise even at ISO 400.)

Anyway, if you like, I'll be happy to share any pre-Noiseware Spectromagic photos, or even 100% crops if you like.

 

[LPZ_Stitch!]

Well... I don't think that Noiseware did TOO much to help those particular pictures. In that thread, I did post "before" and "after" photos and you need to look REALLY closely to tell the difference.

I did notice the before and after, but I couldn't tell much of a difference....

They look much clearer than ISO test photos for two reasons... 1) they're not 100% crops, like you see in test photos... in the full-size 6mp pictures, you can see the noise a little more, but it's still fairly mild. And 2) from my experience, you really notice noise in an expanse of a specific color, some seem to be worse than others.

I expected it to be pretty clear around the lights, but it seems in many cases that the worst of it is around black ... and your blacks are really, really smooth.

Anyway, if you like, I'll be happy to share any pre-Noiseware Spectromagic photos, or even 100% crops if you like.

That's OK ... I was just trying to get a perspective on just how much noise can be cleaned up; I can go look at the other pictures, again. I've tried out the Community (free) version of Noiseware, and it does a pretty good job even with the noisy ISO 800 from my S3!

Do you have experience with different NR software? Which do you think does the best job?

 

[Groucho]

Well, I have tried both Noise Ninja and Noiseware and have been using the latter mostly because it was "one step" out of the box instead of "profile" then "de-noise" like with Ninja. Noiseware seemed to make slightly less noisy photos, though it's probably also taking away slightly more detail. This can probably be tweaked to be about equal with both.

I have used it a lot on photos from my old Minolta Z5 PnS, which was a 12x zoom IS camera with a 1/2.5" sensor, like the S3. It makes a huge difference on those - they go from being very noisy to half-way decent looking, but a fair amount of detail is gone and you're also left with a "plastic" look to everything, as the software can't tell the difference between image noise and fine textures like skin tones, etc. Sometimes it's fine, sometimes it's not desirable.

I also pointed Irfanview to the Noiseware plug-in (as it can use standard .8bf Photoshop plug-ins) so that I can run it straight from Irfanview quick 'n' easy without having to go through each photo one at a time in Photoshop.

 

[roger_ramjet]

I took these photos of the parade just with sports mode turned on. I don't have the steadiest of hands so these pictures turned out surprisingly well. Obviously a tripod would probably be ideal in this situation, but I certainly can't be bothered toting one around Disney. Sports mode will probably do well in a pinch.

 

[LPZ_Stitch!]

I have used it a lot on photos from my old Minolta Z5 PnS, which was a 12x zoom IS camera with a 1/2.5" sensor, like the S3. It makes a huge difference on those - they go from being very noisy to half-way decent looking, but a fair amount of detail is gone and you're also left with a "plastic" look to everything, as the software can't tell the difference between image noise and fine textures like skin tones, etc. Sometimes it's fine, sometimes it's not desirable.

The freebie Noiseware Community seems to do a good job with "lights in the dark" shots ... which should be good for cleaning up Spectromagic pics. I'm not sure I'd want to be taking too many ISO 800 pics of other stuff, though ... unless, as you say, there wasn't a lot of texture.

I tried shooting a strand of white Christmas lights, last night, just to see how fast I could get my shutter speed at ISO 800 ... the best I could get is 1/13. Most of the Spectro floats are much brighter than a single strand of lights so I'm hoping I'll get a little faster at Disney.... Even so, 1/13 was fast enough to let the IS handle any shaking on my part!

 

[cathy0124]

I agree with Roger...my best ones were taken in Sports mode..
(Cannon S3) Hopeing to improve before my next trip in Dec

 

[craig]

For the life of me I cannot take a decent picture of the Spectromagic floats. using a flash shows all the black fabric and not using a flash blurs the lights.

What setting, shutter speed or what ever do I need to do to get a decent shot?