Sleepy eyes...

[EdOkH]

Hi guys,
Happy New Year... got a query here. I take pictures of people giving presentations. Many times my shutter speed is too slow to compensate for the low light and it always seems to capture at the time when the speaker blinks. How to do I overcome that?
I'm using a constant aperture F2.8 lens, shutter speed is abt 1/60. At times it went down to 1/30 due to very low light.
As I'm using D70, I'm sure you all know that the pictures tend to be a little underexposed...

Any tips?

Thanks in advance...

[yyD70S]

The cheap way out... if flash is forbidden and tripod is inappropriate, you have to sacrifice a little by increasing the ISO from 200 upwards so that you can take the pics at a higher shutter speed.

[sammy888]

Originally Posted by EdOkH Hi guys, Happy New Year... got a query here. I take pictures of people giving presentations. Many times my shutter speed is too slow to compensate for the low light and it always seems to capture at the time when the speaker blinks. How to do I overcome that? I'm using a constant aperture F2.8 lens, shutter speed is abt 1/60. At times it went down to 1/30 due to very low light. As I'm using D70, I'm sure you all know that the pictures tend to be a little underexposed... Any tips? Thanks in advance...

On the matter of caputring eyes that blink shut the moment you shot the picture. It has nothing to do with the slow speed of your shutter. You just need to be more careful to watch the person's body language. Just one of the many things you have to think about when taking pictures of people. Think this is bad, it gets more tricky when you are shooting a group!

The eyes does not blink that often to the point where you keep capturing your subject with their eyes close. 1/30 is not slow enough to "wait around" for the eyes to close. You have to just anticipate that part along side with watching the entire scene to compose the shot. Some people do blink at little more then usual due to the air being too dry in the room so their eyes need to wipe as it gets irritated...etc. But not so bad till he/she has to stop presenting. Thus the blink is not that bad or hard to anticipate. With your D70 which is what I still am proubly of owning, there is hardly any lapse in the time you press the shutter and what the camera captures.... so it is a matter of timing and staying observance.

As for not using a flash. I see no problem in doing the entire session with the camera set at 640 or 800. It still looks good and with no flash, the picture looks more natural with existing light....and mind you, I am pretty fussy such stuff but I would still find it acceptable. Unless of course you want to nitpick and compare your shots to those shot by expert, using other equipment or listen too much to yak yak critics who thinks abit of grain in your shots will spoilt it all. Some minor noise can be "cured" by filtering them through a plug in like Ninja using Photoshop for example. So it is not that bad an issue. In fact, if you print them out on 4R you will hardly see the grain. And I doubt your non photographic peers will notice them at all unless they are as anal retentive as the yak yak photographic critics in CS or where ever they lurk. If anything your peers might notice you shot a lot of sleeping eyes shots! heheh....Wait for moments when the speaker is emphasising a point or gesturing to an object or something they are focus on. Usually they don't blink too much at these points. Photography is not just about learning to use all your camera's feature at the blink of a fast second but you also have to put some time into understanding and anticipating your subject. How do you think some of the top shots taken by very competence photographers look so nicely time like they posed the shots? Anticipation plays a big part. And yes...abit of luck too.

[d7t3]

even 1/30 is ok for a "talking head" shot. just press the shutter *after* the person blinks...

for proper exposure, just use spot metering and lock exposure on the speaker's face. should be real easy.

[EdOkH]

Originally Posted by yyD70S The cheap way out... if flash is forbidden and tripod is inappropriate, you have to sacrifice a little by increasing the ISO from 200 upwards so that you can take the pics at a higher shutter speed.

the ISO is actually abt 400 i believe...yes, flash is forbidden. i wonder if it has gotta do with my settings...

thanks..

[EdOkH]

Originally Posted by sammy888 On the matter of caputring eyes that blink shut the moment you shot the picture. It has nothing to do with the slow speed of your shutter. You just need to be more careful to watch the person's body language. Just one of the many things you have to think about when taking pictures of people. Think this is bad, it gets more tricky when you are shooting a group! The eyes does not blink that often to the point where you keep capturing your subject with their eyes close. 1/30 is not slow enough to "wait around" for the eyes to close. You have to just anticipate that part along side with watching the entire scene to compose the shot. Some people do blink at little more then usual due to the air being too dry in the room so their eyes need to wipe as it gets irritated...etc. But not so bad till he/she has to stop presenting. Thus the blink is not that bad or hard to anticipate. With your D70 which is what I still am proubly of owning, there is hardly any lapse in the time you press the shutter and what the camera captures.... so it is a matter of timing and staying observance. As for not using a flash. I see no problem in doing the entire session with the camera set at 640 or 800. It still looks good and with no flash, the picture looks more natural with existing light....and mind you, I am pretty fussy such stuff but I would still find it acceptable. Unless of course you want to nitpick and compare your shots to those shot by expert, using other equipment or listen too much to yak yak critics who thinks abit of grain in your shots will spoilt it all. Some minor noise can be "cured" by filtering them through a plug in like Ninja using Photoshop for example. So it is not that bad an issue. In fact, if you print them out on 4R you will hardly see the grain. And I doubt your non photographic peers will notice them at all unless they are as anal retentive as the yak yak photographic critics in CS or where ever they lurk. If anything your peers might notice you shot a lot of sleeping eyes shots! heheh....Wait for moments when the speaker is emphasising a point or gesturing to an object or something they are focus on. Usually they don't blink too much at these points. Photography is not just about learning to use all your camera's feature at the blink of a fast second but you also have to put some time into understanding and anticipating your subject. How do you think some of the top shots taken by very competence photographers look so nicely time like they posed the shots? Anticipation plays a big part. And yes...abit of luck too.

thanks for the tip...will take note of that..

[EdOkH]

Originally Posted by d7t3 even 1/30 is ok for a "talking head" shot. just press the shutter *after* the person blinks... for proper exposure, just use spot metering and lock exposure on the speaker's face. should be real easy.

yes, I've been using center priority mode all the way...

thanks....