what am i doing wrong ?

gus · May 21, 2004

Ok so i head up the local mountain at 5am to se if there is another good sunrise. Whilst im there i take a panarama....what a mess !!!

It has the flash off ...set on program. Whilst the camera isnt something andy would have in his backpack, it is still a 12 month old camera that i paid over $1000 for ...so whats going on ?

gus · May 21, 2004

Heres a non panarama shot. The lights are blury.

Is it time that i started to learn the manual settings ?

digismile · May 21, 2004

Blurry Night Photos

Humungus wrote:

Heres a non panarama shot. The lights are blury.

Is it time that i started to learn the manual settings ?

Are these with a tripod? Even with a tripod, I found that I have to use a remote release sometimes for night shots because the vibration of my finger releasing the shutter was enough to blur the photo.

Regards,
Brad

damonff · May 21, 2004

You can also use a tripod and then set the timer, then there's no vibration from tripping the shutter.

Shay Stephens · May 21, 2004

Humungus wrote:

Heres a non panarama shot. The lights are blury.

Is it time that i started to learn the manual settings ?

This one is easy. For some reason, cameras just have a terrible time trying to focus on light bulbs in low light. Something about the contrast they pick up when the light is out of focus maks them think they have achieved the right focus. This can happen with stars too. So the only foolproof method is to set the focus to manual and focus on infinity. Presto change-o, problem solved. Don't even attempt to autofocus in conditions like this, it just isn't worth it.

gus · May 21, 2004

Shay Stephens wrote:

This one is easy. For some reason, cameras just have a terrible time trying to focus on light bulbs in low light. Something about the contrast they pick up when the light is out of focus maks them think they have achieved the right focus. This can happen with stars too. So the only foolproof method is to set the focus to manual and focus on infinity. Presto change-o, problem solved. Don't even attempt to autofocus in conditions like this, it just isn't worth it.

Thanks ray....i was wondering if the auto focus was tripping out in that enviroment. manual it is.

gus · May 22, 2004

THanks for the other replys also guys...i pretty well always use a tripod as i did in these shots.

Its funny though...in the last 3 or 4 days we were getting brillient sunrises & as i was waiting up on the hill in the dark...along came more & more weirdos with cameras & tripods. No one was talking to each other even though we were all 5 feet apart. So i yelled out " what are normal people doing at the moment you think ?" From that point on we all started checking each others cameras etc out. We were all rugged up with gloves & beenies (hey it was 52 f).

Andy · May 22, 2004

Humungus wrote:

THanks for the other replys also guys...i pretty well always use a tripod as i did in these shots.

Its funny though...in the last 3 or 4 days we were getting brillient sunrises & as i was waiting up on the hill in the dark...along came more & more weirdos with cameras & tripods. No one was talking to each other even though we were all 5 feet apart. So i yelled out " what are normal people doing at the moment you think ?" From that point on we all started checking each others cameras etc out. We were all rugged up with gloves & beenies (hey it was 52 f).

hey 'gus -- would love to see your second stab at this using infinity focus. ... can you shoot raw with your camera? if so, give it a try for your nightshots ;-)

gus · May 23, 2004

Andy you should know by now there are going to be questions assosiated with that.

I just took my 1st raw photo 5 mins ago..XP wouldnt be in it so i d/loaded it to the cameras Olympus software & it was ther no worries (7 meg !) now it is an ORF file. How do i view that...on my computer it is the old blank square with an 'x' in the top corner.

gus · May 23, 2004

Ok i managed to put it onto SMug but the computer somehow reduced it from 7 meg to 5 meg prior to me doing it ...is that normal ?

wxwax · May 23, 2004

Did it convert it to a jpeg? If so, that involves some compression, I think.

I haven't played with RAW, but I'm about to.

BTW, I get a ton of out of focus night shots... wish I'd thought of the infinity trick.

gus · May 23, 2004

yer it did convert but hell it took me an hour to do it.....

Sam · May 23, 2004

Humungus wrote:

Andy you should know by now there are going to be questions assosiated with that.

I just took my 1st raw photo 5 mins ago..XP wouldnt be in it so i d/loaded it to the cameras Olympus software & it was ther no worries (7 meg !) now it is an ORF file. How do i view that...on my computer it is the old blank square with an 'x' in the top corner.

I'm no genus on this, and I will be taking more shots in RAW in the future. That said, here is how I handle this situation. I have a Canon and it came with software to view, and minipulate the Raw file. I open (actually I think you/we can only open see the attached jpg file, I will make exposure, and white ballance adjustments, then convert / save as a TIFF or JPG file. Then I always have at least two versions of the photo. The RAW is kept untouced ( you/ I can not perminetly alter the RAW file). I / you can always go back the the original. I / you open the RAW file, make adjustments, save with adjustments in a different file format (jpg, tiff) the RAW file remains unaltered.

Andy · May 23, 2004

Humungus wrote:

yer it did convert but hell it took me an hour to do it.....

what camera do you use and what software do you have? (something to decode the raw file)...

also you can only put jpgs on smugmug ;-) not raws

gus · May 23, 2004

Tks andy...olympus c 5050. Should it have gone from 7 meg to 5 meg when i converted it from raw to jpeg ?

gus · May 28, 2004

Shay Stephens wrote:

This one is easy. For some reason, cameras just have a terrible time trying to focus on light bulbs in low light. Something about the contrast they pick up when the light is out of focus maks them think they have achieved the right focus. This can happen with stars too. So the only foolproof method is to set the focus to manual and focus on infinity. Presto change-o, problem solved. Don't even attempt to autofocus in conditions like this, it just isn't worth it.

Presto chango shay...

Its still a bad pic cause it was blowing at least 15-20 knotts up on that hill at 5.30am & the tripod was shaking like crazy...i had to hold the camera/tripod still ..but it mad a big diff...ta

Shay Stephens · May 28, 2004

There you go! Very nice. You will make big strides in taming the night photos now :-)

Humungus wrote:

Presto chango shay... Its still a bad pic cause it was blowing at least 15-20 knotts up on that hill at 5.30am & the tripod was shaking like crazy...i had to hold the camera/tripod still ..but it mad a big diff...ta

Andy · May 29, 2004

Humungus wrote:

Presto chango shay... Its still a bad pic cause it was blowing at least 15-20 knotts up on that hill at 5.30am & the tripod was shaking like crazy...i had to hold the camera/tripod still ..but it mad a big diff...ta

nice 'gus...

try the 10lb weight in a bag hanging from the center post of your tripod..

also, this pic s/b rotated a few degrees to the right imo.

nice shot!

surly · June 23, 2004

I like to save my raws as tif then work with the tif and save as jpeg if i need a smaller file
jpeg involves (re)compression every single time you save it and that means a loss of quality every single time too

Humungus wrote:

Tks andy...olympus c 5050. Should it have gone from 7 meg to 5 meg when i converted it from raw to jpeg ?

what am i doing wrong ?

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