Need HelpTaking Beam Shots - Tips And Tricks

I've been taking beam shots and want help making them come as close to what my eyes see. I'm using my daughter's Nikon D5000 DSLR with 55-200mm zoom lens and tripod. I've done comparisons at 60, 80, 275, and 300 meters. The further the distance, the harder to focus zoomed in and also to get the tint correct.

I see some people using the flashlights on tripods. I know some have tripod adapters but how do you get the others to attach to the tripod?

At longer distances how do you focus? Are there any particular settings or does it always vary?

Feel free to add any tips or tricks for photographing your favorite lights beams.

BigWilly

To focus in the dark, find a light source at the distance (or close to the distance) you want in focus. A house, a street light or just someone holding a light/lantern. If this light source is in the oposite direction from the target doesn't matter, you only need to know the distance. Use manual focus, and turn on the live view on the camera. And here is the trick: Zoom in that light source all the way digitally with the + button (not the lens zoom) adjust the focus ring slowly til the light source appears sharp in the red square on the screen. Lock the focus ring and done.

Hey, I even found a video of it, with that camera: https://youtu.be/wfTpCch-FnQ?t=81

The other trick for night photo or long exposure with a tripod, is to use shutter delay (a meny setting) or the 2 sec self timer, or a remote. This is to avoid vibration. Also, when using a tripod, turn off image stabilization. (the VR button on Nikon lenses)

Edit, one more thing, be sure to check focus again if you change focal length/zoom!

Well you can switch the lens to manual focus.

And switch the settings for shutter and aperature for manual.

Experiment with white balance presets. And adjust ev to -0.7 at least for the closer shots as Nikon tend to be over bright. (Also quickens shutter speed)

I start by taking a couple of auto setting pix. Then evaluate what the camera saw vs what I want.
I usually start with the ev to get the brightness I seek.
Then dial in the shutter speed with an aperature set as large (smallest number) possible. (Quickens shutter speed)

Set iso as high as practical. The 5000 might add noise above say...400. (quickens shutter speed)

A tripod is a must. Now if you don't have a rock solid type, use the delayed shutter setting so when you push the shutter it fires a couple of seconds after you lift your finger off the shutter button. Helps reduce blurry photos from camera movement.
Hanging the camera bag from the hook also helps absorb vibrations on lightweight tripods.

Live view? Eh, tasters choice there. I don't use it. But I do use the aperature preview button to get an idea how brightly the size of the hole looks to the sensor. Old film camera trick. (Don't know if the 5000 has that feature, but my 700 and 7000 do.)

Shoot in RAW and JPEG combined. I use a software called faststone. It's a no cost (as in legally free) download thumbnail viewer and photo editor for changing your RAW photos to JPEG. It doesn't add barbies head to kens body or other photo shop tricks. But tailors photos to your liking.

I use my celphone and edit with an app called Photo Editor by McGeyver. Photoshop on your android...absolutely incredible white balance tweaker.

Adapter that I use is a Manfroto quick release. You screw a plate to whichever tripod you use, and the other block to your camera.

Or the next best thing...somewhere sturdy to set the camera down like a deck rail or a car roof...

Thanks guys. I do have an app for my tablet that let's me control the camera. Couldn't use it last night as it is wired and I'm on crutches. But will definitely in the future.

What is ev?

I did take pics with different mixes of the aperture, shutter speeds and ISO. I kinda just played around. Is there a proper way to adjust them or should I say a proper order? I know all 3 play a role and as you adjust one, you may have to adjust the others.

At more than 100 meters, a lens that has a 200 meter focal length is going to be maxed out for focus. Just set the lens for infinity.

An aperture of 4.5-5.6 which would be a stop from fully open is going to give you the best compromise between sharpness and speed. You need either a cable release (electronic or mechanical). A Bogen superclamp http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?N=10546356&InitialSearch=yes&sts=pi attached to a second tripod for the light and weight down the tripod for maximum stability.

Setting the ISO to 100 is going to reduce the "noise" in the image, but don't expect to get the same quality as you would while shooting daytime.

You can adjust the overall color using the supplied software if you are attempting to equate to daylight film.

NoNotAgain said:

At more than 100 meters, a lens that has a 200 meter focal length is going to be maxed out for focus. Just set the lens for infinity.

An aperture of 4.5-5.6 which would be a stop from fully open is going to give you the best compromise between sharpness and speed. You need either a cable release (electronic or mechanical). A Bogen superclamp http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?N=10546356&InitialSearch=yes&sts=pi attached to a second tripod for the light and weight down the tripod for maximum stability.

Setting the ISO to 100 is going to reduce the "noise" in the image, but don't expect to get the same quality as you would while shooting daytime.

You can adjust the overall color using the supplied software if you are attempting to equate to daylight film.

Click to expand...

Using 400 ISO, F5.6, and 3 second shutter speed, the image was way to dark. So far the best settings are 1600 ISO, F7.0 and 2 second shutter speed.

Bigwilly said:

Using 400 ISO, F5.6, and 3 second shutter speed, the image was way to dark. So far the best settings are 1600 ISO, F7.0 and 2 second shutter speed.

Click to expand...

ISO 1600 is going to contain a fair amount to noise.

ISO 800 is one stop slower, so if you went to F5.6 and 2 seconds you'd get the same exposure. Won't be as much noise in the image.

Are you using spot, center weighted or Matrix metering?

I know you're all gimped up right now, but if I were shooting this scene, I'd use a hand held meter and meter the direct light from the flashlights.

If you're image is too dark, try 5.6 @ 4 seconds, that's two stops more light.

NoNotAgain said:

ISO 1600 is going to contain a fair amount to noise.

ISO 800 is one stop slower, so if you went to F5.6 and 2 seconds you'd get the same exposure. Won't be as much noise in the image.

Are you using spot, center weighted or Matrix metering?

I know you're all gimped up right now, but if I were shooting this scene, I'd use a hand held meter and meter the direct light from the flashlights.

If you're image is too dark, try 5.6 @ 4 seconds, that's two stops more light.

Click to expand...

Thank you for the advice as I will try them.
What is spot, matrix, or center weighted metering?

Bigwilly said:

Thank you for the advice as I will try them.
What is spot, matrix, or center weighted metering?

Click to expand...

That's the metering system that the camera uses to determine what the correct exposure is supposed to be.

Spot covers an area, right in the middle of the scene. Center weighted measures the light middle but carries out to a 10 or so degree from the center. Matrix measures the entire scene and balances to a correct exposure based on an overall average.

If you hit the menu button on the back of the camera, there will be a way to adjust the ISO and what metering pattern you want to use.

By your statement, you are using all manual controls. Is that correct? Or are you using aperture priority? Aperture priority, you select the aperture and the camera selects the shutter speed.

If you look at this image, https://www.dropbox.com/s/2orjvz9sdq7kcpd/P20 800.jpg?dl=0
open and right click and look at the properties. The distance to the fence is 75 meters. The lens was set to 55mm, ISO of 800, shutter speed and aperture are listed as well as the camera, a D3200 shooting 24mp.

You are taking a series of comparison shots. For that to work best, you need to use the same settings for each shot. This suggests setting exposure for your brightest flashlight, and then letting the others be as dark as they may be.

Set everything to manual. Otherwise, each photo will have a different automatic setting applied. So use a manual aperture and shutter speed. Also, do not use auto white balance, auto ISO, or auto flash. (Turn off your flash.)

Use tripods (or other support mechanisms) for both flashlight and camera. Turn off vibration reduction (VR). Use a cable release or timer to eliminate shake. If you have to, you can tie everything down with bungee cords, paracord, or zip ties. As long as you do not move your flashlight after setting up your shot, it can be resting on top of something. It does not necessarily require a tripod.

Use spot metering. Do not use the default matrix metering which examines the entire frame. Spot metering will allow you to set exposure based on what your flashlight is targeting. Most SLRs have an option for spot metering. With luck you won't have to use a separate, handheld meter. Actually, if you use the method described below to set exposure, the metering method does not matter. The spot meter just gets you close to right setting on the first try. The histogram tells you what you need to know.

The key will be to take test shots using your brightest flashlight (i.e., the one with the most throw = largest candela), and then make adjustments until you have what you want. I would start with a "daylight" white balance setting (somewhere between 5000K and 5600K), aperture open wide, ISO 400, shutter speed set as necessary for exposure. I would try maximum optical zoom, zero digital zoom. Start with manual focus set to infinity.

In your test shot, examine the brightest part of the picture. Is it washed out? Then dial down the exposure (probably by using a faster shutter speed). Is the picture too dark? Increase the exposure (using a slower shutter speed). For this brightest flashlight, you want the brightest picture you can get without blowing out the highlights.

Better yet, check the histogram for your shot. Adjust exposure so that the brightest part is not blowing out, but also so that it as bright as possible (without clipping). Don't worry if there is no content at the dark end of the histogram. When you switch to flashlights that are not as bright, the exposure you set here will give more dynamic range at the low end. That way, your dimmer flashlights won't clip on the lower end of the histogram.

If you have trouble getting good exposures, it's okay to use a higher ISO. A bit of noise in these shots is not a disaster.

Once you have a good shot for your brightest flashlight, you can quickly shoot pictures for all your others. If you position each flashlight so that it targets the exact same place as your original shot, you will not need to touch the camera (except to make the shots).

Any adjustments you make in post-processing (i.e., after you shoot) must be identical for all your shots. As was mentioned above, shooting in raw format makes these adjustments easier.

Good luck!

NoNotAgain said:

ISO 1600 is going to contain a fair amount to noise.

ISO 800 is one stop slower, so if you went to F5.6 and 2 seconds you'd get the same exposure. Won't be as much noise in the image.

Are you using spot, center weighted or Matrix metering?

I know you're all gimped up right now, but if I were shooting this scene, I'd use a hand held meter and meter the direct light from the flashlights.

If you're image is too dark, try 5.6 @ 4 seconds, that's two stops more light.

Click to expand...

Forgive my ignorance but what and how is metering the light?

After many test shots, the best settings I found for this location is ISO 400, F5.6 and 5 second shutter. That seemed to give the most realistic photos using the LCD.

Until I'm off my crutches, I can't use the remote app on my tablet to control the camera. However using the 2 second delay worked perfectly.

So using the digital zoom to focus as recommended worked well when I tried earlier today. When I tried tonight, the LCD was black with only a fainest hint of light. That was with using the TM36vn and X60vn. The faint light was with the X60vn. Now the light was targeted at 300 meters. So I just zoomed in on the X60vn and adjusted the focus and took a photo and repeated until focused? Any other ideas for focusing?

The lens kept getting dew on it and o had to use a microfiber cloth to remove it. Any tips on keeping the dew off the lens or this a fact of life?

I think I got better pics than last night, I'm downloading them now so I'll see.

Thanks for the help and keep it coming.

Bigwilly said:

Forgive my ignorance but what and how is metering the light?

Click to expand...

When you press the shutter-release button halfway down, your camera will use its built-in light meter to determine the proper exposure for your picture. You can read the aperture and shutter speed it has selected at the bottom of the viewfinder and also on the display on the back of the camera. In manual mode, the display will show the settings you have selected, and also display an indication whether your exposure is correct, high, or low.

Bigwilly said:

After many test shots, the best settings I found for this location is ISO 400, F5.6 and 5 second shutter. That seemed to give the most realistic photos using the LCD.

Click to expand...

Regardless which you select, manual mode or aperture priority mode, I recommend starting out with the aperture set to the widest opening possible. The f-stop number, therefore, should the be the smallest possible. Wide aperture = small f-stop number. A wide aperture means more light enters the camera, and you can use shorter exposures. More light also means less noise. The only disadvantage to using a wide aperture is that focusing is more sensitive. "Depth of field" is reduced when you use a large aperture, so focus must be precise. At 300 meters, however, your depth of field will be pretty deep. Focusing should not be hard.

Alternatively, you could set the smallest possible aperture, and live with super long exposure times. I'm talking about 30-60 seconds or more, whatever it takes to get the histogram right (described below). I do not recommend this. The only reason I mention it is in case you cannot get the focus right. With a small aperture, focusing at 300 meters, depth of field is huge. Focusing at any distance halfway close to 300m will get you a sharp image. Setting the focus to infinity is what I would try first. On a windy night, however, long exposures can be a problem. If the trees sway in the breeze, you will get blurry pictures. That's another reason why using the widest aperture is probably best. That will give you the shortest exposure times.

Instead of fully manual mode, you could use aperture-priority mode. In aperture-priority mode, you select the aperture, and the camera sets the shutter speed. If you did that, then any adjustments you make to exposure have to be done via exposure compensation, yet another setting on your camera. It might be easier to keep everything manual.

The method I recommend for setting exposure was given above. Take a test shot using your brightest, longest throwing, highest candela flashlight. Display the image on your camera back. Switch to histogram view. Check that the vertical bars on the histogram taper off near the edges of the histogram. If a tall bar is touching the side of the histogram, then your image is being "clipped." You want the final bar on the right side to be height zero. Don't worry too much about the left side.

If clipping occurs on the right side, then your image is overexposed. In that case, reduce the shutter speed, and take another test shot. If your image is clipped on the left side of the histogram, then your image is underexposed. When that happens, increase the shutter speed, and try again.

Increase camera exposure as much as possible without clipping on the right side of the histogram. Do not worry about the left side of the histogram. Do not worry if the camera says your exposure is incorrect. The brightest flashlight should use the bright part of the histogram. That's the right side. That leaves room for the dim flashlights on the left side of the histogram.

This technique may produce a slight overexposure for your brightest flashlight. That's okay. When the images taken with dimmer flashlights are compared, the overexposure will show which light is brighter.

If you want to refine this technique, take a test shot with your dimmest flashlight. Do this after setting exposure as describe above. Check the resulting histogram. Does the dimmest flashlight clip on the left side of the histogram? If so, keep everything as is. If not, you can lower exposure a bit, if you judge that to be more realistic.

Once you have the exposure nailed down, use the same settings for every shot.

Bigwilly said:

Until I'm off my crutches, I can't use the remote app on my tablet to control the camera. However using the 2 second delay worked perfectly.

Click to expand...

Excellent.

Bigwilly said:

So using the digital zoom to focus as recommended worked well when I tried earlier today. When I tried tonight, the LCD was black with only a fainest hint of light. That was with using the TM36vn and X60vn. The faint light was with the X60vn. Now the light was targeted at 300 meters. So I just zoomed in on the X60vn and adjusted the focus and took a photo and repeated until focused? Any other ideas for focusing?

Click to expand...

Are you using manual focus? If not, I am not surprised your camera has trouble focusing.

With manual focus, start by setting the focus to infinity. If you need to focus a bit closer than that, it won't be by much. 300m ~ infinity for most camera lenses.

Does your camera have a viewfinder? If it is an optical viewfinder, that will often be the best place to check focus. If your viewfinder is an electronic viewfinder, essentially a small LCD screen, focusing can be difficult. In that case, experiment to see whether you can assess focus better through the viewfinder or the display on the back of the camera. As was mentioned, zooming in on the electronic display may be the best way to check focus there. Your display may have a special "focus zoom" or "magnifier" that is separate from the real zoom. That way, you can check focus without changing the zoom chosen for the image.

Once you have the focus set, you do not have to touch or check it again unless you jostle the camera or start messing with other camera settings.

Bigwilly said:

The lens kept getting dew on it and o had to use a microfiber cloth to remove it. Any tips on keeping the dew off the lens or this a fact of life?

Click to expand...

Many photographers put a UV filter over the lens unless some other filter is in use. That won't stop the dew, but at least it protects the lens. Obviously, you could put the lens cap on in between shots, but be careful not to nudge the camera if you do. Might be easier to drape your microfiber cloth over the camera barrel and lens.

Bigwilly said:

I think I got better pics than last night, I'm downloading them now so I'll see.

Thanks for the help and keep it coming.

Click to expand...

Glad to hear the pics are getting better!

One final note: don't be afraid to try an ISO setting higher than 400. These are not "art" shots. A little noise will not ruin them. Higher ISO mean shorter exposures. On a windy night, that could be worth a lot. Once again, a few test shots will allow you to judge what you think is best. You may not see the noise on your camera display unless you zoom in, so you may prefer to wait until you get back to your PC to check.

EV is exposure value.

It's the first thing I dial in as it sets the stage for the rest.

Here's why:
Light is bright. Dark is not. Your camera wants to give you both.
This leads to over exposed light and under exposed darks in beam shots as the sensor tries to pick what to do at both extremes.

Nikons try real hard to get the shadows correct. They tend to over expose the brights in the process. Especially the models from a few years ago.

In your case the dark don't matter because it's a picture of a light against night..pitch black, under exposed shadows...who cares?

So you dial in the ev so that the light you see matches your screen. But a few trial shots are required.

If the 5000 has playback screen called 'highlights' the over exposed areas will flash. Some call it the blinky setting.

Once you get the blinkys to stop, then you dial in noise with your iso selections. 400 is a good place to start.
May be able to use 650, even 800 for tolerable noise if you are cropping out most of the dark places later. May have to go back to 200/250, 125 or 100, but I doubt the 5000 will require all the way back to 100.

I use aperature priority for day shots as I want to choose background blur.
For nights if shutter priority won't do I go with full on manual.
Shoot a few shots, get the settings I want then dial in the blinkys using the ev.
When I say settings I want I mean screen matches or is close to what I see in real life. Sometimes ya just can't get it to match perfect.

So EV the first thing I set, and then the last thing I tweak.

But for forums, emails etc, I just use my celphone and tweak as needed, then compress to 800 resolution. It aint like we're taking once in a lifetime photo for the cover of Sports Illustrated....

bykfixer said:

EV is exposure value.

It's the first thing I dial in as it sets the stage for the rest.

Here's why:
Light is bright. Dark is not. Your camera wants to give you both.
This leads to over exposed light and under exposed darks in beam shots as the sensor tries to pick what to do at both extremes.

Nikons try real hard to get the shadows correct. They tend to over expose the brights in the process. Especially the models from a few years ago.

In your case the dark don't matter because it's a picture of a light against night..pitch black, under exposed shadows...who cares?

So you dial in the ev so that the light you see matches your screen. But a few trial shots are required.

If the 5000 has playback screen called 'highlights' the over exposed areas will flash. Some call it the blinky setting.

Once you get the blinkys to stop, then you dial in noise with your iso selections. 400 is a good place to start.
May be able to use 650, even 800 for tolerable noise if you are cropping out most of the dark places later. May have to go back to 200/250, 125 or 100, but I doubt the 5000 will require all the way back to 100.

I use aperature priority for day shots as I want to choose background blur.
For nights if shutter priority won't do I go with full on manual.
Shoot a few shots, get the settings I want then dial in the blinkys using the ev.
When I say settings I want I mean screen matches or is close to what I see in real life. Sometimes ya just can't get it to match perfect.

So EV the first thing I set, and then the last thing I tweak.

But for forums, emails etc, I just use my celphone and tweak as needed, then compress to 800 resolution. It aint like we're taking once in a lifetime photo for the cover of Sports Illustrated....

Click to expand...

I haven't seen the highlights pn playback so I'll have to research that. Any tips for focusing on a dim very distant target?
Thanks for your help

Bigwilly said:

Any tips for focusing on a dim very distant target?

Click to expand...

As I said in my first post, use a actual light source (not just a beam bounce) Have someone walk over to the target with a lantern, and focus on that using the live view or whatever method you prefer. Or you can do it the other way if you are shooting from your car or your house. Turn on some lights, walk over to the target with the camera and focus the other way. Camera/lens don't care what direction you are pointing at, you just need to know the distance. And for very long distances like several hundred meters away, set to infinity or just find a distant street light. If that light is 500 meters away or 5000 meters away really doesn't matter.

PolarLi said:

As I said in my first post, use a actual light source (not just a beam bounce) Have someone walk over to the target with a lantern, and focus on that using the live view or whatever method you prefer. Or you can do it the other way if you are shooting from your car or your house. Turn on some lights, walk over to the target with the camera and focus the other way. Camera/lens don't care what direction you are pointing at, you just need to know the distance. And for very long distances like several hundred meters away, set to infinity or just find a distant street light. If that light is 500 meters away or 5000 meters away really doesn't matter.

Click to expand...

I see. Unfortunately I was by myself the last 2 nights. But I like your idea to walk to the target and focus on my car highbeams, I just don't know that they will show up at that distance but possibly because I'm looking at the source not the reflected light.

How do I set the focus to infinity?

Thanks again for your advice.

On my rigs when in playback you twist front or rear knob (I think rear) to change what you see from say regular picture say picture/histogram to say settings and one is blinkys. It looks like the regular picture one but over blown white things blink.

Take a photo of a street light at night on auto, then change settings on the playback...chances are if the 5000 has that feature the street light will be blinking.

I use whatever flashlight I'm using to light whatever I'm trying to focus on. And manually focus the lens. It involves setting the light onto something while you focus the camera. Or attempting to cigar hold while if I'm using a tripod.

Before becoming a flashaholic/light hoarder I had a low power (read $3 multi LED) in each of my camera bags. I'm forever dropping stuff....

Actually haven't used my slr cameras in a year or two...'cept to take those special photos like kids graduating etc. So all I say is from memory. As in I may leave out a step or two.

bykfixer said:

On my rigs when in playback you twist front or rear knob (I think rear) to change what you see from say regular picture say picture/histogram to say settings and one is blinkys. It looks like the regular picture one but over blown white things blink.

Take a photo of a street light at night on auto, then change settings on the playback...chances are if the 5000 has that feature the street light will be blinking.

I use whatever flashlight I'm using to light whatever I'm trying to focus on. And manually focus the lens. It involves setting the light onto something while you focus the camera. Or attempting to cigar hold while if I'm using a tripod.

Before becoming a flashaholic/light hoarder I had a low power (read $3 multi LED) in each of my camera bags. I'm forever dropping stuff....

Actually haven't used my slr cameras in a year or two...'cept to take those special photos like kids graduating etc. So all I say is from memory. As in I may leave out a step or two.

Click to expand...

I'm sorry I still don't understand what you mean by changing the playback for the blinky.

Bigwilly said:

How do I set the focus to infinity?

Click to expand...

Oh, I just realised your lens may not have a distance scale and a infinity symbol ∞ ? Well, then you just have to do the light method. Any distant light will work, OR you can actually pre-focus the target in daylight, then do not touch the focus ring, or lock it, if it has that feature, or you can actually lock it with a piece of tape, and wait for darkness. However, be aware you may get a slight focus shift due to temperature differences, so this is not a optimal solution. Also, if you forget to remove the tape when you switch over to AF, you may ruin something...

Bigwilly said:

How do I set the focus to infinity?

Click to expand...

Focusing is a lost art!

From your questions, I gather that you have been using auto-focus. Don't do that!

On the side of your lens, there should be a switch marked MA/M. Set it to M. This article about the Nikon D5000 explains that you select manual focus by doing that. After you are finished shooting, do not forget to set it back to MA. According to the article, there is another setting for manual focus on the "Info" screen, but the author recommends against using it.

With manual focus selected, twist the lens barrel to focus. Read the focus distance in your viewfinder or from the camera display. If you can find the focus distance in the display, you may be able to simply dial-up 300m.

You will laugh when you see how easy this is. Twist all the way to select "infinity." (I'm not sure which way, but you will find out soon enough.)

You may not need a bright light on the target in order to focus. That's because setting the focus to infinity may work fine. Take a test shot, and then magnify it on your camera display. That way you can check focus. If infinity does not work, twist the camera barrel a tiny bit, and take another test shot. This simple trial-and-error method should allow you to quickly find the focus.

Probably you do not need trial and error. The D5000 has an optical viewfinder. That may be adequate for checking focus. If you want to use an auxiliary light when focusing, see if you can get a helper to sit close to the target, and illuminate it while you focus.