How to take night shots with....

[blurboiboi]

hihi.. need advise on taking night scenes with humans as foreground objects...
went out last night to snap a couple of shots... but did not turn out well... back ground is alright but foreground human tends to be blur or soft... most probably due to the slow shutter speed i have set... and the slightest movements causes the human objects to blurred or softened...
is there any way to take good night shots with humans as foreground objects??

 

[coke21]

hihi.. need advise on taking night scenes with humans as foreground objects...
went out last night to snap a couple of shots... but did not turn out well... back ground is alright but foreground human tends to be blur or soft... most probably due to the slow shutter speed i have set... and the slightest movements causes the human objects to blurred or softened...
is there any way to take good night shots with humans as foreground objects??

You can either try using a tripod to capture the shot or try using a rear sync flash. That might help to make the foreground more prominent.

But think the best solution is to take with a tripod

 

[blurboiboi]

hihi.. thanx for the reply... forgotten to add... the cam is being mounted on a tripod.. background is alright only the foreground.. pic taken with a self timer... could it be the focusing pt is wrong??...
i wonder...
btw wats a rear sync flash?

 

[linse]

Try using slow sync flash and place the foreground subjects in a dark spot (eg away from streetlamps etc). The flash will freeze the subjects and the slow shutter speed will capture the background.

 

[coke21]

hihi.. thanx for the reply... forgotten to add... the cam is being mounted on a tripod.. background is alright only the foreground.. pic taken with a self timer... could it be the focusing pt is wrong??...
i wonder...
btw wats a rear sync flash?

You might also want to remind the people not to move until you tell them too.
Sometimes the blur could be due to their movement. Also if you do a slow sync, ask them not to move till you tell them. Tendency is that after they see the flash they will start to move....

 

[Astin]

Not sure anyone still do it this way nowadays, but you can try.
You need a external flash and a black card (or black cloth).
Set your camera to B mode, cover the lens with the black card, ask your friend to pose, then take away the black card and manually trigger the external flash (you must calculate the flash distance.) then cover the lens with the black card and ask your friend to move away, then take away the black card again and continue the B mode exposure. For a typical night scene eg near Clark Quay, most likely you need about 1s or 2s for the B mode.
Need some try-and-error.

 

[kst]

Since you are using a tripod, why don't use flash with long exposure duration (Tv mode).

The flash will freeze your friend - i.e. no blur due to motion and the long exposure will ensure you have a bright enough background.

Hope it helps.

 

[kst]

Since you are using a tripod, why don't use flash with long exposure duration (Tv mode).

The flash will freeze your friend - i.e. no blur due to motion and the long exposure will ensure you have a bright enough background.

Hope it helps.

Sorry - just realize what I described is actually the rear sync flash mentioned above - sorry for the repeated info.

 

[blurboiboi]

Since you are using a tripod, why don't use flash with long exposure duration (Tv mode).

The flash will freeze your friend - i.e. no blur due to motion and the long exposure will ensure you have a bright enough background.

Hope it helps.

flash with long exposure duration??.. in built flashes do not have such functions right??..

so to conclude... is it very tough to take the above mentioned type of pics??

 

[kst]

flash with long exposure duration??.. in built flashes do not have such functions right??..

so to conclude... is it very tough to take the above mentioned type of pics??

No no - long exposure not referring to flash.

Just set to Tv mode and set to maybe like 0.5 s exposure and maybe sure flash is turn on and snap.

Flash will still fire as usual just that after flash fire, shutter will continue to be open for a total duration of 0.5 s.

0.5 s - just an example hor - u can experiment with diff settings.

Can be done with internal flash - I have done it with G2 - I believe as long as
your camera got Tv mode and internal flash - can as well.

 

[TME]

Just make sure the subject dun move lor...... sure won't be blur one..... cos u already mounted the camera on the tripod, so it can't be the camera shake... if u feel that the shake was introduced when u triggered the shutter, then use self-timer mode lor.....

Rear Sync Flash will still have the blur motions, so it does not help!! Our bro here wants to freeze all movement so long exposure flash, rear sync flash, etc will not help since the movement comes from the subject and not from camera shake....

 

[kst]

Just make sure the subject dun move lor...... sure won't be blur one..... cos u already mounted the camera on the tripod, so it can't be the camera shake... if u feel that the shake was introduced when u triggered the shutter, then use self-timer mode lor.....

Rear Sync Flash will still have the blur motions, so it does not help!! Our bro here wants to freeze all movement so long exposure flash, rear sync flash, etc will not help since the movement comes from the subject and not from camera shake....

I still think rear sync flash will help since our bro mentioned that it's his
foreground object (human) which is blur. The flash is meant to freeze the
human object movement and the long exposure will ensure bright enough
background.

 

[Zerstorer]

Not sure anyone still do it this way nowadays, but you can try.
You need a external flash and a black card (or black cloth).
Set your camera to B mode, cover the lens with the black card, ask your friend to pose, then take away the black card and manually trigger the external flash (you must calculate the flash distance.) then cover the lens with the black card and ask your friend to move away, then take away the black card again and continue the B mode exposure. For a typical night scene eg near Clark Quay, most likely you need about 1s or 2s for the B mode.
Need some try-and-error.

This procedure will not work. The background will "burn" through the exposure of the foreground if the subjects are not present to block the light.

 

[Zerstorer]

Anyway, in this case it both normal sync flash and rear-sync will work equally well as the subject is not supposed to be moving a lot.

 

[kst]

Anyway, in this case it both normal sync flash and rear-sync will work equally well as the subject is not supposed to be moving a lot.

Normal sync flash might cause a dim background since faster shutter speed will
be chosen with flash on.

Hence, rear-sync flash still required if bright background is required.

 

[Zerstorer]

Normal sync flash might cause a dim background since faster shutter speed will
be chosen with flash on.

Hence, rear-sync flash still required if bright background is required.

What I meant was normal front curtain slow-sync.

Slow sync is not necessarily rear-sync although rear-sync is always slow sync.

 

[TME]

What I meant was normal front curtain slow-sync.

Slow sync is not necessarily rear-sync although rear-sync is always slow sync.

Is that a trick answer or what? Hahaha...... so "cheemly" put.....

 

[Zerstorer]

It's not meant to be cheem.

For slow-sync flash, you can choose to have the flash fire the moment the front curtain clears(normal slow-sync) or just before the 2nd curtain passes(rear-sync). i.e rear-sync is a subset of slow-sync.

The difference affects slow exposure of moving subjects. Front curtain will freeze the subject at the initial stage of exposure, while rear curtain will freeze the subject at the end of exposure.

Its just a matter of having the motion blur in towards the direction of movement or against the direction of movement.

If you have a stationary or relatively static subject like in this case, it doesn't matter which mode you use.

 

[TME]

It's not meant to be cheem.

For slow-sync flash, you can choose to have the flash fire the moment the front curtain clears(normal slow-sync) or just before the 2nd curtain passes(rear-sync). i.e rear-sync is a subset of slow-sync.

The difference affects slow exposure of moving subjects. Front curtain will freeze the subject at the initial stage of exposure, while rear curtain will freeze the subject at the end of exposure.

Its just a matter of having the motion blur in towards the direction of movement or against the direction of movement.

If you have a stationary or relatively static subject like in this case, it doesn't matter which mode you use.

Question here is if u want both the background and the subject... then isn't it better to tell your subject to stay still??? Cos even with slow sync flash any movement by the subject will be picked up, especially if the exposure is quite long like 1-2 sec kind...