Sorry if this is in the wrong forum..but I can't get my camera to take good or decent beam shots!
Olympus C-3030
Olympus C-3030
How do you take your beam shots?
- Thread starter Joshatdot
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Coop
Flashlight Enthusiast
Does your camera have a manual setting for shutter & aperture?
WadeF
Flashlight Enthusiast
I think that Olympus has manual exposure. Just put it in manual exposure (M) and set the apeture to something around f2.8 and the shutter speed to 1/20th of a second. You can play around with longer or shorter shutter speeds. I'd set the ISO to 100, and put the camera on a tripod for sure. Also set the white balance to Daylight, although some people prefer to set to cloudy for LED's, and tungsten for incans.
Coop
Flashlight Enthusiast
Also when using a tripod, if you dont have a remote, use the timer. otherwise the vibrations of pressing the button will still affect the picture.
HAHA! I like mine on the rocks with a splash of Coke.
I found the PDF manual, and it showed me how to do Manual settings. Once I find a decent place to beamshot some of my lights, I'll post em!
woodrow
Flashlight Enthusiast
We look forward to seeing them!
TOOCOOL
Enlightened
I do have to try this with my Cannon 
EV_007
Enlightened
Great advice dispensed above.
Remember that beamshots, or any shot for that matter, will NEVER equal what the human eye sees. The human eye perceives a lot more levels of brightness as well as various shades and nuances in color and gradation.
For example, someone standing in front of a setting sun will come out as a silhouette on film or digital if you expose for the bright sun. If you expose for the face of the person, the background including the setting sun will get blown out. However when viewing this scene with the naked eye, the sun does not get blown out and facial details can be seen as well.
With that in mind, definitely a tripod mounted camera with some type of manual override will due. The self timer trick is also a good idea in minimizing the camera shake from pressing the shutter button.
Having a reference shot or the distance to the "target" indicated and a known light or two as reference will go a long way.
Good luck. Oh, and "white wall" shots are okay for a basic overall impression of the beam profile, but should be included with outdoor beamshots to truly illustrate a light's potential.
For example: An LED on a white wall will look a lot brighter than an incan against the white wall, especially if the white balance is set to auto or daylight. The incan looks much oranger than appears to the naked eye. Now you take that same set of lights and repeat the shots outdoors, all of a sudden that LED does not look as bright as it did from the 5 feet white wall demonstration.
Another tip would be to bracket your exposures until you are able to represent a neutral balance of the hotspot and sipll beam, or better yet include both. Bracketing is the technique of taking at least two more shots of the same scene but at slightly higher and lower exposure values by either opening up or closing down the aperture or increasing or decresing the shutter time.
I love beamshots, especially real world outdoor ones, so keep em coming.
Remember that beamshots, or any shot for that matter, will NEVER equal what the human eye sees. The human eye perceives a lot more levels of brightness as well as various shades and nuances in color and gradation.
For example, someone standing in front of a setting sun will come out as a silhouette on film or digital if you expose for the bright sun. If you expose for the face of the person, the background including the setting sun will get blown out. However when viewing this scene with the naked eye, the sun does not get blown out and facial details can be seen as well.
With that in mind, definitely a tripod mounted camera with some type of manual override will due. The self timer trick is also a good idea in minimizing the camera shake from pressing the shutter button.
Having a reference shot or the distance to the "target" indicated and a known light or two as reference will go a long way.
Good luck. Oh, and "white wall" shots are okay for a basic overall impression of the beam profile, but should be included with outdoor beamshots to truly illustrate a light's potential.
For example: An LED on a white wall will look a lot brighter than an incan against the white wall, especially if the white balance is set to auto or daylight. The incan looks much oranger than appears to the naked eye. Now you take that same set of lights and repeat the shots outdoors, all of a sudden that LED does not look as bright as it did from the 5 feet white wall demonstration.
Another tip would be to bracket your exposures until you are able to represent a neutral balance of the hotspot and sipll beam, or better yet include both. Bracketing is the technique of taking at least two more shots of the same scene but at slightly higher and lower exposure values by either opening up or closing down the aperture or increasing or decresing the shutter time.
I love beamshots, especially real world outdoor ones, so keep em coming.
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