What did I do wrong?

vangogh

Hiya

Still trying to get to grips with my new camera (Oly E500 with 45-150mm zoom lens), so have been out & about at different places. This weekend Ealing council held some summer festivals & I took lots of pics. There were 2 music tents, which were quite dark. They were also red & blue which threw awful colour casts over the performers even with stage lights.

I tried to get some shots without flash, used an ISO of about 1000/1200 & used an ap of 3.4 but with a fast shutter speed. The pics were atmospheric, but not particularly sharp so tried the inbuilt flash, but didn't change any other settings. This is the sort of result I got.




What did I di wrong? Shoud I have changed ISO or ap etc? Are my flash settings too high?

btw the way this woman was great, but she never kept still so it was very difficult to get anything at all of her.

Some of the other pics taken outside are here:
http://iconiccreative.smugmug.com/gallery/1703497/1/83846862

gluwater

I'm not familiar with the specifics on the E500 but it looks like the camera changed your shutter speed to 1/30th due to the onboard flash, or you may have had it set to that and not realized it. Most cameras will sync with the onboard flash up to 1/250th. Your shutter speed was way too slow for 141mm as the Exif shows, so that is why you got the blur.

vangogh

gluwater wrote:

I'm not familiar with the specifics on the E500 but it looks like the camera changed your shutter speed to 1/30th due to the onboard flash, or you may have had it set to that and not realized it. Most cameras will sync with the onboard flash up to 1/250th. Your shutter speed was way too slow for 141mm as the Exif shows, so that is why you got the blur.

Thanks!

Seefutlung

Gluwater is on the mark ... slow shutter speed. Try to shoot manual ... that way you have full control over aperature and shutter. I dunno much about Oly, but Canons have very very good IQ (image quality) at 1600 ISO. So don't be afraid of higher ISOs (you might want to test the Oly first to see how much noise is gained at higher ISOs).

Nikolai

I agree!

Seefutlung wrote:

Gluwater is on the mark ... slow shutter speed. Try to shoot manual ... that way you have full control over aperature and shutter. I dunno much about Oly, but Canons have very very good IQ (image quality) at 1600 ISO. So don't be afraid of higher ISOs (you might want to test the Oly first to see how much noise is gained at higher ISOs).

What Nick and Gary said

vangogh

Seefutlung wrote:

Gluwater is on the mark ... slow shutter speed. Try to shoot manual ... that way you have full control over aperature and shutter. I dunno much about Oly, but Canons have very very good IQ (image quality) at 1600 ISO. So don't be afraid of higher ISOs (you might want to test the Oly first to see how much noise is gained at higher ISOs).

I did have it on full manual, but thought the flash would over ride the shutter speed. I'd left it on maual after trying to get the atospheric shots. From about ISO 1000 it starts to get really noisy. at 1600 ist really grainy.

marlof

What flash did you use? If it's the built in flash: you shot this with at 141mm, meaning a 282mm equivalent FOV on your Olympus. That's covering a long distance. I'd assume that distance would have meant the light from the flash will hardly have had an impact on the subject. In the same time, your camera will respond to the use of the flash, although I'm not familiar enough with the built in flash of the E-500 to know what it'll do (my E-1 doesn't have a built in flash). You might want to check your E-500 manual to see what you can do to control the built in flash.

Upgrading to the FL-36 (which I have, and which is limited but good enough for the occasional use I as a flash hater have for it) or even the FL-50 (which is more powerful, recharges a lot faster (uses four in stead of two batteries) but is more expensive and bulky) might help in that case. The external flashes have the ability to dial in flash settings on the flash and have a FP setting meaning you can sync at high shutter speeds (at the cost of range though).