Ugly Hedgehog Newsletter

Hi,

I have a canon xsi rebel and I cant seem to get good night shots I put it on Av, Tv, Auto and still seems to be blurry. My shutter also opens very slowly after a shot. also how do you get the camera to not say busy after each shot?

Joy

jwpulliam Loc: New Harmony, In

Joy,
Here are a number of things I do when I shoot through my telescope, but should work for you.
First and foremost use a tripod for all shots that have less than 1/60 of a second exposure times with a 24mm or higher lens.
1. put your camera in manual mode (M).
2. use a remote shutter control, or a timed exposure drive control, such as 10 seconds or 3 seconds if you don't have a remote. That is under the drive control section of the set up menu on my camera.
3. Under the M choose the number of seconds you want the shutter to remain open, ie, 1/2, 1, 15, for the shutter speed, or bulb for longer periods and you will need a remote shutter control for this. (This what is used in astro-photography and if you have mirror lockup it will reduce camera vibration, but you need to click the shutter twice when in mirror lock-up mode.)
4. Set your lens to manual focusing and turn off the image stabilization if using a tripod.
5. set your ISO to between 100 up to 400 determined by the amount of light available in your scene. Higher than this may produce unacceptable noise. I still use a canon 40D and the next stop up starts getting somewhat noisy in the dark areas.
6. Set the aperture (f4 to f9 depending on how much fore and background you want) so that it will allow you to get the light meter into an exposure compensation area that will read on the Ev chart on the bottom of your window, then adjust aperture for a centered reading. (or as close s possible.)
7. Take your picture and see how it comes out, and then adjust the shutter speed and aperture to increase or decrease the exposure for your picture. I use ISO 100 to 200 to keep noise low and you can also turn on long exposure noise compensation to help with this if it becomes a problem, but will increase your time per picture.
Good luck
Adorama TV has an excellent tutorial on night photography and they explain it very well.

dicspics Loc: southwest fla. 10 mins from the gulf

What a great explaination from jwpulliam, I don't think I can add anything, except you even have to be careful about a wind at night that could move the camera..

Normanc Loc: Manchester UK

Hi Joy,
I think James gave you lots of good advice. There is just one point that I would like to add. If you are shooting landscape shots at night, I am a firm believer in shooting whilst there is still a little ambient light left in the sky. Not only does it give an added depth to the image but it usually compliments other colours also. The only problem with it is that the ambient light is not there for very long, so pre planning your shot is essential. Good Luck, Norman

FilmFanatic Loc: Waikato, New Zealand

USE A TRIPOD!!!!!

Also, if your shutter opens after a shot, it probably means you have Long Exposure Noise Reduction turned on, just turn it off.

billybaseball Loc: Bel Air MD

Use a flash.

deej

Turning noise reduction off will speed up the after shot wait time.