NEW ARTICLE: Night Time Portrait Mode

Tim

Tim

Administrator
Staff member
Craig writes a fantastic article on using Night Time Portrait Mode
READ THE ARTICLE HERE!

Discuss the article here! Great job, Craig, and thanks!
 
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Yes! Just in time for the trip! Thanks Craig!
...now to bribe my family members outside in the snow for me to practice. Or maybe atleast in front of the Christmas tree tonight.

Thanks again!
Katie
 
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Okay so Ive been practicing. Its too cold and snowy to go outside so Ive been using ornaments on my Christmas tree for models. (Can you see the hidden Mickey? ;D)
Heres a little photo gallery of my progress

First of all, I have never really used night settings on this camera before...and probably never will again
IMG_0035-1.jpg

Waay too bright!
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So I got brave and took things into my own hands and moved to manual
IMG_0037.jpg

Shutter Speed 1/80
Aperature f/5.0 (as low as I could get it..any solutions to why I cant get it down to 3.5 in manual mode with these settings?)
ISO 200
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For testing purposes I then bumped the ISO to 400
IMG_0036-1.jpg

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I figure as long as Im experimenting I may as well play with the flash. I moved it down to -2/3

Yuck! Too dark! But I can definately see where this would come in handy.
IMG_0042-1.jpg


(I also moved it to -1/3 but didnt bother posting it because it didnt look that much different from the second to last picture!)

To sound like Im writing a paper in college. In conclusion, not perfect, but Im learning! And to sound like London from Suite Life of Zack and Cody -- "Yay Me!" for using something other than the green box!

Katie
 
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katie, when photographing Christmas lights, you def. want to go available light and not use flash. this way you get all of the colors with no harsh flash
 
Craig (and everybody else)

Is the slow flash the same as second curtain? (Flash goes off when the button is pressed, flash goes off again just before the exposure ends

(Im working with a Canon Rebel Xti)
 
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&quot;Tim&quot; said:
katie, when photographing Christmas lights, you def. want to go available light and not use flash. this way you get all of the colors with no harsh flash
Click to expand...

Thanks Tim for the heads up.
I wasnt too worried about the lights in these shots as I was about the ornament, but Ill definately keep that in mind!

Actually I did practice with Christmas lights yesterday. If I did this again I would put it on a tripod and use a slower shutter speed. I kept it low and bumped up the exposure since it was handheld

IMG_0026.jpg
 
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&quot;mainstreet1997&quot; said:
Craig (and everybody else)

Is the slow flash the same as second curtain? (Flash goes off when the button is pressed, flash goes off again just before the exposure ends

(Im working with a Canon Rebel Xti)
Click to expand...

Second curtain flash usually refers to where the flash goes off right before the shutter closes rather than when it opens. Totally different from slow shutter flash.
 
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&quot;Roger&quot; said:
Second curtain flash usually refers to where the flash goes off right before the shutter closes rather than when it opens. Totally different from slow shutter flash.
Click to expand...

Hmm...well is this something I can do on my Xti?
 
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you need to check in the menu settings... usually a custom function. like roger said, it fires the flash at the end of the shutter cycle instead of the beginning. it makes no difference in the actual exposure, but it does change what moving object is frozen in time. 1st curtain would have the object frozen then streaking, 2nd curtain has it streaking then frozen at the end. clear as mud?
 
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Yes, I know you can do it. How, that I don't know.
 
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Okay after a little snooping - heres one way to do it (or I think Im doing it). Focus, press the * (or FE lock) button. A flash fires. Press the shutter button, at the end of the exposure the flash fires.

*sigh* what we do for great pictures.
 
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that's sounding more like flash exposure compensation instead of 2nd curtain sync. check your custom functions in the menu.
 
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&quot;Tim&quot; said:
that's sounding more like flash exposure compensation instead of 2nd curtain sync. check your custom functions in the menu.
Click to expand...

That's right. The first flash is a "pre-flash" which the camera is checking the exposure with.
 
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hmmm oh well. More experimenting tomorrow - ive got to go to bed. Work tomorrow. Should be fun, the kids have been off for four or more days and there's snow! (the weather men are saying about 2-4 inches) Why do I live here?
 
I'm glad you guys liked it!
The slow synch flash combined with high iso is one of my favorite upgrades I got when switching from film to digital!

thanks :)
 
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