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Offline Big Perm

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newbie question
« on: June 20, 2010, 08:56:17 PM »
ok, so ive been getting into taking photo's lately.  i have a nikon D-80 and just picked up a 50mm f1.8 lens.  If i set it on AUTO, will this be good enough to get some nice picks at the next night concert i go to, obviously not trying to get close ups here, just sweet light shots etc
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Offline rastasean

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Re: newbie question
« Reply #1 on: June 20, 2010, 11:26:01 PM »
I think you will have better results if you put it in aperture mode and keep it pretty wide open (small numbers) and stand very still. try using spot metering as well as matrix metering depending on the lighting in the room.

oh, also put it in the highest frame rate you can so you can get a lot of shots at once.
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Offline thekhz

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Re: newbie question
« Reply #2 on: June 21, 2010, 12:40:44 AM »
Auto mode will probably pick too slow of a shutter speed.  I know that some people like to use aperture priority, but I prefer to use shutter priority so that I know that I have a shutter speed fast enough to stop motion.  There is no point in having a properly exposed image if it is a blurry mess.

With the 50mm lens on your camera, you probably want to be at least 6 feet away from the subject.

I don't use a Nikon camera, but these are the settings that I typically use and would suggest.

- ISO 1600

- Shutter priority: 1/100s - 1/200s.  Try for 1/200, but that depends on how much light is available.

- In shutter priority, the aperture will be selected automatically for the given shutter speed.  If there is enough light that the camera picks a smaller aperture (larger f number), all the better in my opinion. If there isn't much light, the camera is going to pick 1.8 anyway.

- Spot metering, with negative exposure compensation to correct the metered exposure.  The camera's meter reading is probably going to be wrong, so you will need to compensate with exposure compensation.

Here is the most important point.  After you take a picture at the show, look at the histogram to check the exposure and adjust your settings according.  The settings that you would be adjusting are exposure compensation and shutter speed.  Then take another shot and check the histogram again.  Repeat until you get a correct exposure.

- Manually select the focus point so that the focus point is over the performer's eye. Do not focus and recompose, since you will be working with thin depth of field.

- White balance: auto.

- Shoot in raw + jpeg for optimal post processing.

- Single shot. Continue shooting just means you get a whole bunch of similar shots.
« Last Edit: June 21, 2010, 02:16:21 AM by thekhz »

Offline rastasean

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Re: newbie question
« Reply #3 on: June 21, 2010, 01:03:52 AM »
nice advice, khz!

I think shooting single vs. multi may be a preference as there are several photogs who do both. out of many out of focus ones, a nice sharp one will exist and if you were doing single, you may not find it.

besides, this is digital so there's no harm in deleting later.
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Offline thekhz

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Re: newbie question
« Reply #4 on: June 21, 2010, 02:09:03 AM »
When taking pictures in low light at large aperture and with thin depth of field, the 1st frame is the one most likely to be in focus when taking pictures in continuous shooting mode.  If continuous shooting is 3fps, usually that just means that I have to go through 3 times as many pictures and delete 3 times as many of them. I sometimes use continuous shooting when taking pictures of drummers or of hair flip shots though.  The rest I prefer single shot.

stevetoney

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Re: newbie question
« Reply #5 on: June 21, 2010, 10:28:08 AM »
I second the shutter priority advice. 

Whenever I'm at a show, the only time I can get consistently decent shots that are worth a darn are shot in shutter priority mode with my shutter speed selected at 1/60th or faster to stop blur (two types...camera shake and subject movement).  If my lens weren't an image stabilized lens, that shutter speed would probably need to be faster.  As stated, max out the ISO for show shooting. 

That said, I can get decent shots in auto or aperture priority, but the results are far less consistent.  While most shots may have decent exposure, in aperture priority it doesn't matter because the shutter speed will be too low and there's too much blur...I might get one out of 10-20 keeper images, where in shutter the success rate is much higher. 

In shutter priority, at least you get sharp images even though underexposure can be an issue.  I just shoot more often during shows to compensate and make sure I'm shooting more when the lights are a little brighter.

You can also use Photoshop to bump your underexposed images to some degree.
« Last Edit: June 21, 2010, 10:30:20 AM by tonedeaf »

 

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