Carolk

I recently purchased a Nikon 3200 and am new to this. In our Mpls. suburb an ice castle has been constructed w/strobing lights and inner chambers. What is the best setting to capture castle?

tradio Loc: Oxford, Ohio

You need to google the "exposure triangle", read and understand it completely. Then get a tripod and a remote release. you may be in bulb mode but it will take a few shots to zero in on the proper effect that you are looking for.

Dave R. Loc: PNW

Purchase Bryon Petersons book "Understanding Exposure". It is a must read IMHO especially for someone just starting out. He will explain the triangle and so much more. Well worth it.

Shellback Loc: North of Cheyenne Bottoms Wetlands - Kansas

Welcome to the forum :)
Here are a couple of links to help you navigate the forum and a couple of resources to hopefully answer your questions or guide you in your quest...

Looking forward to seeing some of your photos.

Mr PC Loc: Austin, TX

Good luck, that's a good entry level camera to start with. I have a D5200 and one way I "cheat" is to try one of the Scene modes. You might try the one for Night time Cityscape or something similar. Then, look at the settings that the camera chose. On my camera and maybe on yours, you display the picture on the LCD and hit the down arrow on the selector to see different info about the picture. I can go down for about 3 screens to see the settings, a Histogram and more. If the image is too dark or too light, or even spot on, you can then take these settings and plug them into Manual mode as a starting point and experiment from there. You might also use A or S mode and start with the Aperture or the Shutter speed the camera chose and go from there as well. Good luck, this is the fun part of learning your camera. Also, get the PDF version of your camera manual for free from Nikon and carry it on your smartphone. It's handy to have it with you.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Don't buy or read anything. Go out, put your camera on a tripod, set your ISO to 800 and take a bunch of exposures, using your lens wide open. For each image, double the exposure. Start at 1/25 and go down to 1/15/, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2 and 1 sec. If the image still looks too dark, then try 2 secs, 4 secs 8 secs and so on. If there is too much blur, then increase the ISO and shorten the exposure.

This, in essence, is all you need to know. At first it will seem awkward, but eventually it will become second nature.

You can read this if you acquire information easier by reading:

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/camera-exposure.htm

jkatpc Loc: Virginia Beach

What Gene said. I took photographs at a light and glass nighttime (outside) exhibit last Saturday night. With the exception of the exhibits, there was no other light. I kept ISO at 100 and most shots ended up with a shutter speed longer than 30 seconds (Bulb). I just played around with f/stop for focus and highlights and shutter speed and took lots of variations. Have fun!

Don, the 2nd son Loc: Crowded Florida

:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

I should have added that in order to properly assess if you got a good exposure, you might want to rely on the histogram view. Now this can be misleading, because brightly lit areas will appear and a peak on the graph all the way to the right, actually touching the right side of the box. For night exposures this can be normal, since this reflects the lights in the scene. What you are looking for is for the left side of the graph to just barely touch the left side of the box. It will also look like a peak, but if you have nothing or little actually touching the left you are assured of getting all the shadow details with enough information. Again, bracketing (multiple exposures at different settings) is your best bet.

Dave R. Loc: PNW

I would agree if night photography is all that is of interest. Getting proper exposure takes into account so many different aspects dependent on lighting conditions at the time thus understanding what occurs is critically important. If the OP can't learn by reading then watching videos or hands on practice is a good place to start. I still support getting published articles / books that guide a photographer in his / her area of interest. I'm generally a hands on learner but have purchased published material that have helped as a reference when needed. Bryon Peterson's book is by far the best reference I have to date (YMMV). Perhaps you are way beyond that and 100% capable 100% of the time. If so perhaps you could memorialize your vast knowledge via video or written materials and share with others.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Actually, Dave, I work one on one with fellow photographers, and I adapt the delivery method to the individual's learning style. Books are ok, but often don't present the entire story in a factual manner - it is more about the way the author sees things.

In particular Bryan Peterson says things that I take issue with like the following:

"I know of no other way to consistently make correct exposures than to learn how to shoot manually." A newbie may be mislead into believing that the camera can make a mistake, if set to do determine exposure automatically. The only mistake is in not understanding what the camera is telling you base on what it is reading. So here is the first example of his approach, or opinion, being strongly presented as the best way to go.

In his chapter on Aperture, nowhere does he mention the impact on image sharpness of using tiny apertures, like F16 and F22, which will take any modern, high megapixel camera and have it produce images that have all the sharpness of a drugstore disposable film camera, though it will have great depth of field for "storytelling." He even describes in an anecdote how setting the lens to F22 and pressing the shutter release "the [automatic] lens would stop down to F22, transforming the fuzziness to sharpness" of a distant landscape with strong foreground and background elements.

In fact he routinely advocates using F16, F22 and F32 to achieve depth of field or F2.8 to achieve focus isolation - and suggests that F8 and F11 are "middle of the road" apertures that "rarely tell a story." You can see how someone who is new to this can misconstrue such a statement, basically an opinion, as gospel.

His treatment of aperture and depth of field is incomplete. He does not discuss the relationship between focal length, subject distance (image magnification) and aperture - another "trinity."

In similar fashion, he fails to describe the relationship between shutter speed, distance (magnification again), and freezing (or blurring) motion - yet another trinity. if your subject is moving and you are at 200 ft distance you do not need as fast a shutter speed as if you were 50 ft away, with the subject moving at the same speed.

I can go on but I think you get the picture.

I am not condemning the book. It is a very useful reference with lots of good information. But it does have a fair amount of opinion presented as fact, that can steer someone in the wrong direction.

This book was written in 2004, and some of the info is dated. DSLRs were only available with cropped sensors, and the term digital camera generally applied to what we refer to as point and shoot or bridge cameras. I have not seen the 3rd edition, which was published in 2010, so my comments are based on the original edition.

A more complete practical understanding of exposure can be achieved by reading the Zone VI workshop by Fred Picker, The Negative by Ansel Adams, adn The Practical Zone System by Chris Johnson. Unlike Peterson's book which is all about how, these books also cover the why. There are others, but these are the ones that come to mind.

Dave R. Loc: PNW

It's OK to agree or disagree at any level. A couple of things that I question with your response are these. "I am not condemning the book. It is a very useful reference with lots of good information. But it does have a fair amount of opinion presented as fact, that can steer someone in the wrong direction."
Aren't you doing the same? After all the book was not written to be all inclusive just a tickler regarding exposure. It seems to me to be written for beginners and amateurs wanting to have a better idea what exposure truly is. Secondly "This book was written in 2004, and some of the info is dated." Correct that the original was published in 2004 but there are other revised additions. Mine happens to have been written in 2010. I can't say what was corrected or revised but just thought it fair to point out your time of reference is incorrect. I'm not saying all he presents is gospel by any imagination, but only that the information it has does get one started understanding better what is occurring when enjoying photography and in particular the process for obtaining proper exposure. After all that is what the OP apparently was struggling with. To say just go practice without using other aids to get there faster and likely with better understanding is in MHO not helping. Bottom line is we apparently need to agree to disagree. Good day.