OK, I have my new Sigma 30mm 1.4...

[Craig E Hood]

and I am in Animal Kingdon at night just wandering around taking in the atmosphere and I want to take pictures without flash (no tripod stuff). For all you veterans out there, what setting should I be shooting with? Is it just trial and error, or is there a general shutter/f-stop/ISO that would practical for a starting point? Is it even possible without a tripod. I fully understand what each setting does, I just don't yet know what combination is best for different lighting, or lack there of. Hope this doesn't sound dumb. I have learned so much from just reading these threads already, I knew you guys would give me answers that a green horn could understand.

Craig

 

[Master Mason]

To see if you can hand hold, my suggestion would be to go to av mode, turn your iso up all the way, open the apeture all the way and see what shutter speed you have, If it is below 1/30 sec, it probably isn't going to work out for you.

If that's the case, your going to need some sort of stablaizing device, be it a tripod, a convienent garbage can etc. Once you have that, I would shoot in manual move the iso back down to 100/200 range, set the apeture at f/8 to start then the shutter speed at whatever it says as a proper exposure if you don't have a remote shutter release then use the timer release. Take a look at what you get and adjust from there.

 

[Craig E Hood]

Thank you so much, I will try that tonight.

Craig

 

[handicap18]

I walked around EPCOT, MK and DHS at night with the 30mm. I used ISO 1600 (the highest my camera would allow) and Aperture Priority starting at f/1.4. Most of the time I was able to get good shutter speeds. If you go below 1/30th you can still get good shoots, but you have to be very careful with your technique. Hold your breath, slowly press the shutter, try to brace yourself against something. Also try using Spot Metering.

You will get a lot more noise than normal with the f/1.4 and high ISO combination. But there is software out there than can cut that down in PP.

 

[Craig E Hood]

I will definitely try that. Thank you! So far I have gotten some pretty decent shots around the house, but this lense is far beyond my capabilities. Gonna need lots of practice.

 

[Gdad]

I would advise using shutter priority at 1/30 Second- Highest ISO possible- an underexposed or noisy image is usually recoverable whereas shots with motion blur typically are not.

 

[Code]

When I am near the limit of handhold-able shutter speeds (1/30 - 1/45 in this case), I always go to continuous mode and take every shot 3x. The sharpest one is rarely the first due to movement from pressing the shutter button.

 

[Craig E Hood]

What do you mean by continuous mode? Continuous focus?

 

[MICKEY88]

What do you mean by continuous mode? Continuous focus?

continuous mode is the drive mode, you hold down the shutter release and the camera takes a series of pictures, some cameras will do a limited number such as 3 others will continue to take pics until your buffer is full,,


the reason for doing this, is ,any movement caused by pressing the shutter release is not present in any pics after the first, so pics after the first should be at least a little sharper..

 

[Craig E Hood]

10-4. Thanks.