STUPID....yet EASY question

[RBennett]

Ok, so I'm trying to learn how to take as good of photos as everyone else here, and I know it's not going to happen, but I'm hoping that someone can help me with a question I just thought of; when trying to take pictures of Spectromagic or any other such event, what type of settings do I need to use to get the best picture? I'm worried that if I try to raise the ISO too much that the pictures will come out too bright or washed out. But not enough and you won't be able to tell anything.

 

[tinksdad]

Sure!!! Start with the easy stuff.......

Actually those shots are some of the hardest to capture with good exposure since it's dark, the floats and charactors are moving and the addition of lights on the floats makes things a bit difficult.

You might want to start out with auto ISO in the program or auto mode. The faster shutter speed will freeze the movement, with a large aperture (about f/4 or less) will help.

I used my speedlite with a diffuser on it the last time and got some decent shots.

 

[mabas9395]

It might help to know what general kind of camera you have so we know what settings you have to work with. Some have ISO settings. Some have ISO, apperture, shutter speed etc. My P&S only has exposure compensation.

 

[Steve's Girl]

I used my speedlite with a diffuser on it the last time and got some decent shots.

I have been looking at diffusers. What kind do you use?

 

[handicap18]

Need to know what kind of camera you have. You might have issues with raising the ISO, but not the kind of issues you mentioned. Chances are that with a high ISO and taking pictures at night in the kind of setting you mentioned you wont washout the picture (unless of course you use a bright flash). But you could have noise issues.

A little more info and we can get you some better advise.

Its definately not a stupid question. Taking pictures of Spectromagic is very hard. There are quite a few dynamics that come into factor with that parade (night time setting, moving objects, lights on the floats, etc...)

 

[boBQuincy]

It's neither stupid nor easy. Aperture, Shutter speed, and ISO all interact to give an exposure. Change one and another must change, to keep the same exposure. ISO by itself has little to do with over or underexposure, the other two can change to compensate.

What ISO will do that the others won't is add noise to your image. For Spectromagic you will want a fairly high ISO but not so high that the noise is bad. I find that Spectromagic photos work well with just a hint of flash, maybe -2 stops or more, to give some detail to the unlit portions while allowing the lights to be the major factor.

I have heard of flash not being allowed during Spectro but in February there was no announcement to that effect.

 

[tinksdad]

I have been looking at diffusers. What kind do you use?

One of the little Stofen Omni bounce types that fit over the strobe head. Does spread the light and with a min size.

I also made one for the strobe head that works good for soft lighting situations that is pretty easy. See DIY diffuser.

 

[mabas9395]

I also made one for the strobe head that works good for soft lighting situations that is pretty easy. See DIY diffuser.

I made this same one just last Sunday night. Works great. And it only cost me $7 at the craft store. Would have been less but the wife was all out of velcro.

 

[Groucho]

I'd recommend going through this thread, where we go through a lot of in-depth info on settings for SpectroMagic, including some example photos.

The quick answer based on my experience would be highest ISO you can handle (I did 1600, I might even consider 3200), the fastest lens you can get (I used a 50mm F1.4), exposure compensation for about +1.5 (or +1.3 or +1.6 if you are configured for thirds, not halves) and shutter priority for 1/90th or maybe 1/60th of a second. I took most of my "good" ones in aperture priority but I think I'd have more keepers if I did shutter priority.

And like the others have said, it is really, really difficult to photograph well, especially if you don't want to use a flash. I didn't, for a variety of reasons but especially because I wanted to capture more of what it actually looks like when you're there, and a flash will give you overbright objects in the foreground, and inky blackness in the background. OK, maybe not overbright, especially with a diffuser, but I don't think the photos look at good. Remember that SpectroMagic is mostly lights, and shining a light at a bunch of lights will not give you the same look.

 

[RBennett]

Sorry for the confusion. I guess it would help if you knew what kind of camera I'm talking about. It's actually a Sony H-5. And actually I'm looking at going to the H-7 very soon so, that's why I say the H-5. The two are very similar, at least for this conversation. Thanks for everyone's help!!!

 

[Groucho]

Oh, and a point that I don't think we addressed from your original message... raising the ISO should not make your photo any brighter, because your camera will automatically adjust the other settings (shutter speed and aperture) to keep the exposure consistent. What it will do is allow the shutter speed to be faster and/or the aperture smaller, at the expense of increased image noise.

 

[RBennett]

So from what I hear here and on the other thread posted above is to keep the ISO around 1600? Thanks everyone for all of your help! Keep the tips coming for a photographer-wanna-be!!

 

[ukcatfan]

So from what I hear here and on the other thread posted above is to keep the ISO around 1600? Thanks everyone for all of your help! Keep the tips coming for a photographer-wanna-be!!

I personally would not go with that high of an ISO on a p&s camera. The noise at that level is not acceptable to me. If you plan to print the images, then I would not even consider that high of an ISO. ISO 800 might be alright on your camera, but that is still a little much from a p&s IMO. You will have to make that decision yourself. Try some test shots in a similar situation.

Kevin

 

[Pugrpooh]

So from what I hear here and on the other thread posted above is to keep the ISO around 1600? Thanks everyone for all of your help! Keep the tips coming for a photographer-wanna-be!!

I have the H5 and the highest ISO is 1000. I find that there is a lot of noise when I use a higher ISO. I'm still learning how to use the camera though, so I'll have to fool around with it to get good results.

 

[RBennett]

So for all the noise, can I just use a noise reducer or whatever downloaded from google? I hear about this on some other threads as well.

 

[ukcatfan]

So for all the noise, can I just use a noise reducer or whatever downloaded from google? I hear about this on some other threads as well.

You can reduce the noise to a point, but it is not perfect. The biggest drawback is that with noise reduction, you soften the image. Some can be added back by sharpening afterwards, but if the two processes are too aggressive, the image ends up looking almost fake or plastic like. For a p&s camera, I personally do not like to go past ISO 200, but will go as high as 400 if I would miss the shot otherwise. For a DSLR, I prefer not to go past 800, but will go to 1600 if needed. Mine also has 3200, but it is pretty much worthless and only used as a last resort.

Kevin