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Author Topic: Too many blurry pictures, how to stop this...  (Read 3316 times)

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Offline jdawg

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Too many blurry pictures, how to stop this...
« on: September 21, 2004, 06:06:07 PM »
Hi all,

Currently using an Olympus C-4000 Zoom digital camera. Seems to have a lot of bells and whistles, just need to figure out how to use them. Basic questions is, how to take concert photos and reduce the blur factor. And I realize there isn't a magic answer out there but maybe some help I'm hoping. Mainly taking indoor photos with light shows,etc...

Here are some pics I took just last week as an example of what I'm talking about: http://jdaly.homelinux.org:2112/photos/particle
And these are the "good" ones, most were just too blurry to post. Many of these shots I had the camera resting on something, rather than holding it free hand. All taken w/o the flash of course. And yes, I'm somewhat of a camera novice.

Maybe someone has so helpful links they can pass along or any picture taking advice of this nature would be extremely helpful.

Thanks,  john

Offline bhtoque

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Re: Too many blurry pictures, how to stop this...
« Reply #1 on: September 21, 2004, 11:00:41 PM »
I'm not a camera guru, but I had the same problem. I was suprised how much better a shot I could get when I used my bogen stand as a camera tripod. I tried holding the camera against flat surfaces, but the stand worked 10x better.

Because of the low light, the shutter stays open longer, and movement is that much more noticeable.

On the plus side, it gives you great color streaked shots of flying glo-sticks.

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Offline phanophish

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Re: Too many blurry pictures, how to stop this...
« Reply #2 on: September 22, 2004, 04:05:20 PM »
Ditto the above post.  Getting a good concert photo is very hard without the correct equipment.  If you can't adjust the amout of light hitting the film, either with flash (not an option for concerts), faster film or digitla sensitivity settings (some digital cameras have this) or a "faster" larger aperture lens then you almost have to have a tripod.  Be sure to use the self time or a release cable as just the movement of triggering the shutter can shake the camera enough to ruin the photo.  I have a pretty digital SLR and even with a great lens it is tough to avoid camera shake when handholding the camera.  Concerts are also tough forr auto fucus systems to work in as the contrast is often low.

The one good thing about digital is it costs very little to keep trying.........

It took me about 20 or so shots to come away with 2 or 3 good ones....

http://www.liverecording.org/gallery/2004-Wakarusa-Fest/2004_Wakarusa_Fest_2_030
« Last Edit: September 22, 2004, 04:08:05 PM by phanophish »
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Offline highwayjill

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Re: Too many blurry pictures, how to stop this...
« Reply #3 on: September 23, 2004, 04:12:39 AM »
if your camera has a setting for fast motion shots, use it... its perfect for low light pictures.  If you can (not always possible) try to get the stage lights in what would be the borders of the pictures... like at the very top or along the sides, but not actually in the picture.  and take lots of pics...  a lot of them will be bad, but you never know when you'll get that one that totally takes your breath away the first time you see it on the computer

my gallery: http://bt.shnshare.org/gallery/cindy
all of those are with a canon powershot a80 (10-31-03 was the 2nd time i used it)

Offline dmonterisi

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Re: Too many blurry pictures, how to stop this...
« Reply #4 on: September 23, 2004, 08:06:22 AM »
what is happening is because of the low light the shutter has to stay open longer for the meter to think you are properly exposing the shot.  what mode settings are available on your camera?  can you manually set the aperture and shutter speed?  what about ISO speed?  what you want to do is set the aperture to be as open as possible (lowest f-stop possible) and a higher ISO (though if it is too high, the pictures will be grainy or noisy).  also, the camera is being fooled by all the black that is typically involved in a concert shot.  what the meter is trying to do is expose the picture so that the average of all the colors in your shot is a medium grey.  so it think it needs to expose more than it does because of the dark background.  so if you can set "exposure compensation", set it to "-1 stop".  if you have the ability to select metering mode, set it to spot or center-weighted, instead of matrix or evaluative.  this will take the meter reading off the subject directly and less of the black background.

if you can post some of the info on your camera (shooting modes, ISO selectivity, metering modes, maximum aperture of the camera lens), I can help you try to find the best settings. 

damon

EDIT: ok, i just looked up the specs on the camera.  the max aperture of your lens is f2.8, the max ISO of the camera is ISO 400, and you can set to spot metering.  so for the next time you are planning to take concert pics, i would set the camera to "aperture priority" shooting mode, set the aperture to f2.8 and ISO to 400 and the camera to spot metering.  then compose your shot with the center of the viewfinder on a portion of the stage that is lit by the stage lights but don't point directly at the lights.  also, don't point directly at a black background (you're trying to have the camera's internal meter measure off the part of the scene you want to be properly exposed).  based on this method, the camera will select a shutter speed that properly exposes the scene.  hopefully, it will choose a shutter speed of 1/30th of a second or faster.  at 1/15, you could still get some blur.  at 1/60 or 1/120th, you should be fine.  try to hold the camera as still as possible and examine the shot.  i couldn't find if your camera has built in exposure compensation.  if you still get blur, try and set exposure compensation to "-1 stop".  hopefully you can still get well exposed shots at these settings.

additionally, you do have a full manual mode.  you may try some shots with these settings in manual mode: aperture f2.8, ISO400, shutter speed: 1/60.  see how it comes out.  too dark, try 1/30 for shutter speed (as the denominator gets smaller, the shutter speed gets longer increasing the chances for blur).  it looks like you can set up custom shooting modes in advance.  it's probably worthwhile to set a couple of these different settings in advance so you just have to select the custom mode for ease of use during the show.  good luck
« Last Edit: September 23, 2004, 08:25:19 AM by dmonterisi »

Offline jdawg

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Re: Too many blurry pictures, how to stop this...
« Reply #5 on: September 23, 2004, 06:48:08 PM »
Wow, thanks for the tips!, I've got much more to go on now. I'll be trying these out real soon.

thanks again!

-john

Offline jeff fulton

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Re: Too many blurry pictures, how to stop this...
« Reply #6 on: October 03, 2004, 12:20:14 AM »
I'm looking at getting a digital camera here in the future, so I would like to ask one question along with this.  Would it be better to get a camera that can shoot at 1000 speed for this?  I take it the hire the faster the shutter goes, which means less chance of blurry pics?  Thanks,

Jeff

Offline dmonterisi

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Re: Too many blurry pictures, how to stop this...
« Reply #7 on: October 03, 2004, 10:43:00 AM »
jeff-

yes, theoretically a faster shutter speed would eliminate blur and 1/1000 of a second would certainly eliminate blur.  however, such a fast shutter speed indoors without flash will result in a severely underexposed shot.  depending on the aperture of the lens and what ISO setting you use, to properly expose a concert shot, you will need shutter speeds in the 1/30 of a second to 1/90 of a second range.  it gets a bit complicated, but each time you move the shutter speed up a full "stop", you are cutting the amount of light to reach the sensor by half.  1/15, 1/30, 1/60 are full stops.  so 1/30 lets in half the light that 1/15.  similarly, 1/60 lets in only 1/4 of the light that 1/15 does.  a shutter speed of 1/1000 will let in 64 times less light than 1/15.  now at 1/15, you are likely to get some blur. it takes some experimentation to figure out what aperture, shutter speed and ISO settings work best for an individual camera. 

with my 50mm/f1.4 lens, i typically start shooting at f1.8, ISO400, 1/60, then check the pics on the lcd and adjust from there.  a lot of variables enter into these settings so experimentation is key.  good luck.

damon

Offline jeff fulton

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Re: Too many blurry pictures, how to stop this...
« Reply #8 on: October 03, 2004, 01:00:04 PM »
Appreciate the help.  I'm just getting into getting a non instamatic camera.  Once I get some money I'm going to be reading up on lens and cameras, before I make my purchase.  Thanks for the help though.

Jeff

 

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