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Jul 27, 2014 09:51:19   #
bigtex2000 Loc: Arlington, TX
 
Last night, I shot some photos of the wife hula hooping with her Fire Hoop. Settings are as follows; f5.0, ISO 100, 0"8 shutter speed, tripod, shooting in manual mode. Canon T3i w/ Tamron 18-270 lens. It was very difficult getting an in-focus facial picture. I kept telling her, "very still", but hard to "freeze" for long. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to help!!


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Jul 27, 2014 09:55:26   #
346pak Loc: Texas
 
bigtex2000 wrote:
Last night, I shot some photos of the wife hula hooping with her Fire Hoop. Settings are as follows; f5.0, ISO 100, 0"8 shutter speed, tripod, shooting in manual mode. Canon T3i w/ Tamron 18-270 lens. It was very difficult getting an in-focus facial picture. I kept telling her, "very still", but hard to "freeze" for long. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to help!!


Hey big tex,

Just north of you in Southlake. I would try raising the ISO level and speed up the shutter speed. That should help reduce or eliminate the blur.

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Jul 27, 2014 10:58:55   #
bigtex2000 Loc: Arlington, TX
 
346pak wrote:
Hey big tex,

Just north of you in Southlake. I would try raising the ISO level and speed up the shutter speed. That should help reduce or eliminate the blur.


Thanks 346pak.....I thought about that, but also trying to keep the light to a minimum. I really don't want it too bright, trying to concentrate on the fire in the dark, but I will definitely check it out.

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Jul 27, 2014 13:15:10   #
jethro779 Loc: Tucson, AZ
 
bigtex2000 wrote:
Thanks 346pak.....I thought about that, but also trying to keep the light to a minimum. I really don't want it too bright, trying to concentrate on the fire in the dark, but I will definitely check it out.


Maybe you should try a slow shutter sync shot. I don't have my brain wrapped all around it yet but it seems like to me that would work since it would give you the flash to light her face and the extra time of the open shutter to capture the darker elements. I am trying to learn this technique myself.

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Jul 27, 2014 14:23:09   #
bigtex2000 Loc: Arlington, TX
 
jethro779 wrote:
Maybe you should try a slow shutter sync shot. I don't have my brain wrapped all around it yet but it seems like to me that would work since it would give you the flash to light her face and the extra time of the open shutter to capture the darker elements. I am trying to learn this technique myself.


Thanks Jethro779.........never even dawned on me to try that. Any idea what settings I should start at?

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Jul 27, 2014 14:37:54   #
jethro779 Loc: Tucson, AZ
 
bigtex2000 wrote:
Thanks Jethro779.........never even dawned on me to try that. Any idea what settings I should start at?


I have no idea, it is just something that the tutorial I watched last night on slow sync flash on the Steele training you tube videos were talking about. It seemed to me this would be a candidate for slow sync flash.

Maybe 1/30?

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Jul 27, 2014 15:12:58   #
346pak Loc: Texas
 
jethro779 wrote:
Maybe you should try a slow shutter sync shot. I don't have my brain wrapped all around it yet but it seems like to me that would work since it would give you the flash to light her face and the extra time of the open shutter to capture the darker elements. I am trying to learn this technique myself.


Rear or slow sync is a great idea. I have done that with good success but, if you want to keep everything dark you will have to experiment with the flash power. The nice thing about the flash is it freezes the picture at that moment eliminating the blurr you were getting.

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Jul 27, 2014 15:25:30   #
bigtex2000 Loc: Arlington, TX
 
346pak wrote:
Rear or slow sync is a great idea. I have done that with good success but, if you want to keep everything dark you will have to experiment with the flash power. The nice thing about the flash is it freezes the picture at that moment eliminating the blurr you were getting.


Thanks 346pak.......obviously much more to learn.

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Jul 27, 2014 15:52:03   #
rpavich Loc: West Virginia
 
One thing that is a concern is that you (probably) let the camera to most of the "heavy lifting" for shooting this; that is to say that you let IT decide on the settings.

It appears that way because of the ISO chosen...nobody would choose ISO 100 to shoot in the dark.

You need to look into a book called "Understanding exposure" by Bryan Peterson. You need to understand what the "exposure triangle" is and then you will have a giant leg up on understanding what's going on inside that little box.

The reason I bring that up is that you could have used MUCH different settings with some success (possibly)at least your shutter speed might have been faster.

Your current settings were:

ISO 100, f/5.0 and 1/8" shutter speed.

If you had put your ISO at 3200, that would mean that even if you didn't change the f/stop you could have enjoyed 6 stops of faster shutter speed..

1/8 of a second. (your starting point)
1/15 (1)
1/30 (1)
1/60 (1)
1/125 (1)
1/250 (1)
1/500 (1)

That's 6 stops faster without changing the aperture and 1/500 would certainly freeze action.

If that sounds like gobbledygook to you, then go get Bryan's book.

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Jul 27, 2014 22:28:18   #
davidheald1942 Loc: Mars (the planet)
 
exactly right. you saved me some typing.

jethro779 wrote:
Maybe you should try a slow shutter sync shot. I don't have my brain wrapped all around it yet but it seems like to me that would work since it would give you the flash to light her face and the extra time of the open shutter to capture the darker elements. I am trying to learn this technique myself.

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Jul 27, 2014 22:32:32   #
bigtex2000 Loc: Arlington, TX
 
rpavich wrote:
One thing that is a concern is that you (probably) let the camera to most of the "heavy lifting" for shooting this; that is to say that you let IT decide on the settings.

It appears that way because of the ISO chosen...nobody would choose ISO 100 to shoot in the dark.

You need to look into a book called "Understanding exposure" by Bryan Peterson. You need to understand what the "exposure triangle" is and then you will have a giant leg up on understanding what's going on inside that little box.

The reason I bring that up is that you could have used MUCH different settings with some success (possibly)at least your shutter speed might have been faster.

Your current settings were:

ISO 100, f/5.0 and 1/8" shutter speed.

If you had put your ISO at 3200, that would mean that even if you didn't change the f/stop you could have enjoyed 6 stops of faster shutter speed..

1/8 of a second. (your starting point)
1/15 (1)
1/30 (1)
1/60 (1)
1/125 (1)
1/250 (1)
1/500 (1)

That's 6 stops faster without changing the aperture and 1/500 would certainly freeze action.

If that sounds like gobbledygook to you, then go get Bryan's book.
One thing that is a concern is that you (probably)... (show quote)

Thank you for the reply, but I clearly stated this was shot in Manual Mode. I shoot almost all my night shoots in this genre @ ISO 100. I am intentionally keeping the background dark. I am accenting the fire or LEDs when shooting those. I wanted to capture a clearer image of the face using just the available light of the fire. My question was answered pretty well in some previous replies, and I really think the slow shutter sync flash option will give me the results I am seeking. By the way, I own and have read the gobbledygook in Bryan's book. A great read with excellent information. He relays his lessons in such an easy manner, without coming across as a pompous ass. Enjoy the picture below, also shot @ ISO 100, f11, @10 second exposure while zooming in and out during exposure!


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Jul 28, 2014 04:37:02   #
rpavich Loc: West Virginia
 
bigtex2000 wrote:
Thank you for the reply, but I clearly stated this was shot in Manual Mode.


Ahh...I should have read more closely.

Quote:
I shoot almost all my night shoots in this genre @ ISO 100. I am intentionally keeping the background dark.


You don't have to shoot at ISO 100 to keep the background dark.


Quote:
I am accenting the fire or LEDs when shooting those. I wanted to capture a clearer image of the face using just the available light of the fire.


I get it...you want to expose for the light on the face and the fire.
My comments still stand...the exposure wouldn't change if you used my numbers...it's still the same exposure...just faster shutter speed.


Quote:
My question was answered pretty well in some previous replies, and I really think the slow shutter sync flash option will give me the results I am seeking.


Not if you are trying to expose for the available fire light and want to keep that ambiance it won't.


Quote:
By the way, I own and have read the gobbledygook in Bryan's book. A great read with excellent information. He relays his lessons in such an easy manner, without coming across as a pompous ass. Enjoy the picture below, also shot @ ISO 100, f11, @10 second exposure while zooming in and out during exposure!



That's cool.

At this point though I'm not sure what you are trying to accomplish...to keep the face sharp or to keep the face sharp while the rest gets smeared.

In any case...here is why I was pointing out that the equiv exposure would keep the background dark.

I shot my coffee cup lit by my laptop monitor with your 8 second exposure and also by a 1/8 exposure. Aperture was the same, ISO went from 100 to 3200.

Both exposed (relatively) the same (I eyeballed the second one)

background dark on both.


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Jul 28, 2014 05:13:48   #
grandmadeb Loc: illinois, usa
 
love the second picture. the light trail is wonderful. I hope you figure out your problem as it will look very cool once you do. deb

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Jul 28, 2014 07:14:16   #
Gary Truchelut Loc: Coldspring, TX
 
I don't know if your camera was mounted on a tripod or not but if not this would have helped a little for camera shake at 1/8th second could be part of the problem. Higher iso and shutter speed has already been mentioned but not sure if f-stop your used was wide open on your lens or not. If you were using an f 2.8 stopped down to 5 then you had more room to go there as well.

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Jul 28, 2014 07:57:40   #
bigtex2000 Loc: Arlington, TX
 
grandmadeb wrote:
love the second picture. the light trail is wonderful. I hope you figure out your problem as it will look very cool once you do. deb


Thank you very much grandmadeb. I'm working on it thanks to the many suggestions from the great people of the hog!!!

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