New Camera - Asking Advise on Low Light Photos

Ok, I finally took the plunge and bought a new camera yesterday. I have been using an old Sharp VL-H520U video camera to take beam shots and such. It worked, but not real well. It lacked enough contrast range to capture what the beam really looked like.

The new camera is nothing real fancy, it's a FinePix 5100 by Fuji. Sam's had them for $315.00 with all the accessories; NiMh batteries, case, wall and 12V charge cords, etc.

It was my son's 21st birthday so I figured I'd break it in taking some normal type snap shots first. I'm happy with the results, especially for the first time out using it the day I purchased it.

My question is, for taking good low light level pictures, is it just a matter of longer shutter exposure, or are there other things to adjust? I've seen some nice beam shots that showed a lot of the true beam detail and want to be able to capture the same details.

This camera has more adjustments than I know a use for, so I'd like some advise about a methodical method to tweek which camera adjustments to get good beam shots, and capture my outdoor Luxeon lighting so looks in the photo like what the eye sees.

Thanks in advance.

There are 3 main things that you will want to adjust.
Shutter Speed - how long the shutter is open.
F Stop - the apeture, how large it opens up - smaller the # the LARGER the opening
ISO - you cam may or may not have this, mine (Canon A95) has 50, 100, 200, 400 - the larger the # the more light is cant take in, but, it may get grainy on you.

Typically, put the camera on Manual mode, and play around, you will get a feel for what you can do with what setting.
If you are not using a nice steady rest or tripod, try to keep your shutter sheeps short (fast) this way the cam is getting the pic real fast, not giving you time to move around. This also helps stop moving objects alot better.

Typically, for beamshots, I set the camera to 200 ISO, the lowested F stop it will allow, and then adjust the shutter speed to what is needed. Especially with bright lights, like mag mods, try not to get it tooo bright, it will over expose, and you will not see any detail to the hotspot/carona change as well.

You may want to see if it has any preset indoor, snow, night, etc settings also, mine has these, and they work really well.
Yours should at least have a sports setting. Good for taking pics of the kids running around. Though this reguires good light usually.
Dont try to use a flash outside, unless its dark, it wont reach far in the daytime, and will actually make your pics DARKER,,, cuz the camera is expecting it to be bright, from the flash, and it will tone down its settings.

Take the time to read all the settings info, you will want to learn these in order to get the best photos possible, auto modes are pretty damn good nowadays, but not as good as knowing the settings well.

Let me know if you have any other specific questions.

~John

Ok, it's starting to come back a little now.

The F Stop is like the iris on Star Gate. And the ISO is like night vision, the larger the number the more sensitive, but grainy from noise it will be.

Thanks for your time to post the explainations, I think I know what I'm adjusting now. I'll do some experimenting and see what I can do.

A very useful trick of professional film photographers is to take multiple pictures, each with a slightly different exposure. You bracket the correct exposure with overexposed, under and right on. Some cameras even have a 'bracket' function built in. With a digital you aren't wasting film so the idea is even more affordable.

The idea is to take into account the need to over expose to reveal details in shadows, and to under expose to reveal details that get washed out.

To get good photos of the spill, you may need to over expose. To get good photos of the hotspot you may need to under expose. Look for the "backlit" setting on your camera and play with it.

Good luck

Daniel

Here's a nice review of your new camera. It's a very informative website.

DPReview Link

Paul

i second the double exposure idea for beamshots since there is huge difference between spill and main beam. however, once you combine them, the visual difference won't be quite as real, but you will capture both details in brighter and dimmer areas well.

Also, snag a stand for it, with the shutter open for long times, it will make things blur if you wiggle a little. Even those 5 dollar tiny stands are useful.

The camera should have a night mode my Fuji does, play with that and the manual settings..all I can tell you is take lots of pictures at various settings till you get the hang of it...

Thanks eveyone, lots of good tips. I've got a good sense now (I think) of how to proceed. I'll work up a note table for each of the setting and work my way through the settings and see what I capture.

chimo - Thanks for the link. I read some reviews before purchasing, but nothing that indepth. A lot of good info on that web site!

Many good advices were made, but no one mentioned about the "whaite balance".

Most digital camera has "auto" white balance and it can really turn the tint to something quite different from what you perceive. How many times do we see the photos of "cyan" led putting out Tokyo blue in the picture while the real beam is closer to the green.

If your camera support manual overiding, try to set to "Daylight" so that the color of the beam in the picture taken is closer to the real thing. Or you can provide a real white reference paper and let camera measure it.

But frankly, I never succeeded to get the real tint on the picture even after all the tricks.

-- dj

Tip:
If you are comparing beam shots not on the same frame, keep the same shutter speed, F-stop, ISO setting (instead of Auto) so there is a basis for comparison.

Ah yes, I forgot to mention the white balance...

Make sure that you have it set to something thats not auto.
I seen a few cameras that even when in Manual mode, you can have the white balance set to auto, so make sure its either on a setting that looks true to the eye, or, your camera may have an option to set the white balance to what you are taking a picture of.
For example, mine, I can set to a certain mode, point the camera at what I am about to take a pic of, and press set, and it will act like its taking a pic, settng that scene to nice white balance.

Its always hard to get lights to look like they do in person, but I find it works fairly well, if you are using a white backdrop, which you should be for beamshots anyway, and set the camera to that backdrop.