If i give you this picture,tell me how will you shoot it

[extricate]

Pls advise me on your suggestions;if you were given this photo, how will you shoot it with your desired settings?

I'm really bad at taking night pictures.. Pls help. I've seen LX3 performing at its best when taking dark pictures w/o flash.



Thanks!

[catchlights]

don't want to use flash, you can.......

• use night mode and ask all of them to hold still for couple of seconds
• install more lights at the hawker center
• go to a brighter place to drink or only drink at day time
• get a Canon 1D or Nikon D3 shoot with ultra high ISO

hope this help.

[huggable]

M mode, biggest aperture, maybe ISO 800, 1/25 or so. Ask everyone to stay still.

The picture is underexposed.

[extricate]

Originally Posted by catchlights don't want to use flash, you can....... use night mode and ask all of them to hold still for couple of seconds install more lights at the hawker center go to a brighter place to drink or only drink at day time get a Canon 1D or Nikon D3 shoot with ultra high ISO hope this help.

I see. Is there a way where, yes the surrounding may be dark but i can tune the settings in my LX3 to complement the dark surroundings? like ISO,Fv,S ?

[extricate]

Originally Posted by huggable M mode, biggest aperture, maybe ISO 800, 1/25 or so. Ask everyone to stay still. The picture is underexposed.

correct me if im wrong

biggest aperture to allow maximum light coming in?

why ISO 800 and 1/25? Can explain your rationale?

Thanks!

[night86mare]

Originally Posted by extricate Pls advise me on your suggestions;if you were given this photo, how will you shoot it with your desired settings? Thanks!

since you do not want flash,

i would ask everyone to move to a brighter location, end of story.

you aren't going to be able to avoid blur with this, exif says ISO 400, f/2, 1/10 seconds. huggable probably didn't look at the exif.. because given his settings, you would get a roughly equivalently dark picture..

or you can just happily pump up the iso to 1600 or 3200, and bear with the resultant noise in the shadow areas.

the lx3 can take good ngiht pictures , yes, but not even in this type of condition, for this type of condition, you need superb noise handling like that on the nikon d3 or d700 to be able to take this without flash.

[joe]

Originally Posted by extricate Pls advise me on your suggestions;if you were given this photo, how will you shoot it with your desired settings? I'm really bad at taking night pictures.. Pls help. I've seen LX3 performing at its best when taking dark pictures w/o flash. Thanks!

What kind of picture is this,So dark,can't see a single person there.

[extricate]

Originally Posted by night86mare since you do not want flash, i would ask everyone to move to a brighter location, end of story. you aren't going to be able to avoid blur with this, exif says ISO 400, f/2, 1/10 seconds. huggable probably didn't look at the exif.. because given his settings, you would get a roughly equivalently dark picture.. or you can just happily pump up the iso to 1600 or 3200, and bear with the resultant noise in the shadow areas. the lx3 can take good ngiht pictures , yes, but not even in this type of condition, for this type of condition, you need superb noise handling like that on the nikon d3 or d700 to be able to take this without flash.

I see. but usually,if flash comes into the picture, the whole picture will be brightly lit and very white. How do i avoid this since i want the ambience light to come into the picture as well?

[night86mare]

Originally Posted by extricate I see. but usually,if flash comes into the picture, the whole picture will be brightly lit and very white. How do i avoid this since i want the ambience light to come into the picture as well?

use manual settings

think of how the light works, if you leave it up to auto, the flash will just blast away, and light it up such that the background is dark, the background has not been exposed properly and thus this is the end result. in such a scenario, the shutter speed will be usually quite fast, with wide open aperture and moderate iso.

i'm not sure if your lx3 can adjust flash settings, but you can dial down the flash strength, still get the people exposed relatively well, while getting the background properly done close to something like here.

portrait photographers have all sorts of funny names for this, but it is just simply put - all about the light. your flash can only cover a certain distance and closer = covered better.. so play around, i am not there, i cannot give you some magic setting.

understanding the light, knowing how to employ your tool is far more important than asking for "magic settings" on the internet. it will allow you to do far more than just that scenario. so go and experiment when you are free, even self portraits in backlit conditions, just to test how to play with your incam settings.. these can go a long way to help you understand how the light works, how to control it, rather than be controlled by it.

what you are essentially looking for would be called "fill flash", i am quite sure lx3 can adjust flash settings to lower the power, if you are getting white, blown out pictures, you should dial it down accordingly. you can also google "fill flash" to read up more yourself, there will be loads of articles on the internet.

i do not really have any flash examples for you for human subjects, but here is a cat captured using fill flash, while it is not at night, similar conditions - the background is brighter than the cat, because it was in the shade:



just a touch of a wee bit of flash, and it is exposed fine, and the background is exposed fine. hope this helps.

[ortega]

Originally Posted by extricate I see. but usually,if flash comes into the picture, the whole picture will be brightly lit and very white. How do i avoid this since i want the ambience light to come into the picture as well?

ambient light? i only see the background has ambient light
your foreground does not have enough light

1. increase the light on the foreground
2. increase your exposure for the foreground
3. learn how to control the flash

not wanting to shoot with flash because you don't know how to control it, is a very lame excuse

[Simon_84]

the background is simply too dark, don't expect miracles to happen even with lx3.
with this scenario that dark, you really must flash.

[CYRN]

Originally Posted by extricate Pls advise me on your suggestions;if you were given this photo, how will you shoot it with your desired settings? I'm really bad at taking night pictures.. Pls help. I've seen LX3 performing at its best when taking dark pictures w/o flash. Thanks!

Post processed in Picasa.... (Just for example, will delete tomorrow)



*OT: I'm surprised that the LX-3 can even AF lock in such condition.

[extricate]

ah,ok.

thanks