Really Newbie - How to take photographs during the night/snowy place?

[Geline]

I know nothing about photography, i have a canon EOS Digital - always and only switched to auto, but always fail to take good quality photos
under this circumstances

- Sunny day where light from the sun make my photos dark - i.e. taking a person at a beach during sunset
- Christmas lighting - standing at christmas trees, photos will have lots of twilight becos of the lighting from christmas tree
- During snowy season, where there are lot of snow

I will be going for a winter holiday in dec, is there any tips for photography in the harsh and cold weather?
where can we go for a short course on photography that are not expensive?

 

[SkyStrike]

Hi and welcome to CS...

As part of the culture that I try to promote is try to read up the stickies. These info are "specially" put together by many forumers for beginners like us to learn more about photography.

Anyway, since the qst is here, I'll ans as best as I can...

1) Sunny Day/Sunset, your pics look dark when taking a person.
My guess is because you are shooting at the person against the sun (sun is the background). In this scenario, it's the metering problem. Your camera is metering against a bright source. When this happens, your camera will try to make the bright source looks "OK" (OK as in no or little overblown parts we called it as overexposed). One way I can think of to counter this scenario is to turn on the flash (you may need to down the ev of the flash)...but to understand some of these terms, you need to read up more in the forum stickies or in websites like dps (Digital Photography Tips: Digital Photography School). Another technique is used when shooting Sunset landscape, but I guess you can read up on this one too.

2) Twilight??? flare you mean? Try to remove the filter on the lens. (I assume you are using one...)

3) Snow, Never shot in a snowy country, but once read that the snow will tend to underexpose your shots making it dull. In cases where you find your shots underexposed due to the snow's "reflection" or glare, try to +ev

For any of the stuffs to be adjusted, you may need to turn to the P/Av/Tv/M mode. Auto does not allow you to adjust these +-ev stuffs.


Read up the stickies, you have alot to read about. To start off, I think try to understand your camera functions first, then learn metering and composition

Enjoy your journey in this photography world!

 

[Rashkae]

Please do note that pretty much everything you asked about can be easily found online. For example, do a google search for "how to expose subject backlit by sunset", or "how to expose photo for snow" etc.

And if you go for a course, they will not teach you about your specific challenges, but it will be a basic course.

Do take the time to read your manual, show initiative by reading online, and go through the newbies stickies here.

 

[seezhijie]

All these information can be easily found online. As for winter countries, do read up on it coz you don't wanna have your camera damaged from the cold. And one side note. If you're gonna stick to auto mode with a DSLR, then you probably only bought the larger sensor and body. It's a DSLR. Make good use of the manual functions you don't get in digital cameras

 

[daredevil123]

TS, you should start reading this. Good place to start learning.

http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/newbies-corner/309544-photography-notes-newbies.html

 

[Octarine]

The answers to question #1 and 3# can be found in all camera manuals, these are typical examples for Exposure Compensation. But that would require TS to leave the Green Mode.

 

[chillicutter]

I think Auto mode cannot be that bad...

Perhaps it's the angle or the your camera moved too much when you are taking the shot..

Nonetheless, I would recommend you to read up the stickies first or if you find reading is boring, you can join a CS outing and ask the seniors to guide you.

 

[edutilos-]

- Sunny day where light from the sun make my photos dark - i.e. taking a person at a beach during sunset
The sun is much brighter than the person, so you have to find some way to light up the person. Either you place the person THE OTHER WAY, i.e. so that the light hits the person, or you use fill flash. It is possible to try to use a GND, but if the person merges with the horizon this will not work.

- Christmas lighting - standing at christmas trees, photos will have lots of twilight becos of the lighting from christmas tree
You mean a color cast? Twilight is the short period of time after sundown or before sunrise, I don't see how you can have twilight from a Christmas tree. This has to do with White Balance issues. You can try to read up more on this. If there is mixed lighting, you will not be able to get rid of all color casts without careful post processing.

- During snowy season, where there are lot of snow
Not sure what your issue is here.

I will be going for a winter holiday in dec, is there any tips for photography in the harsh and cold weather?
Some things I can remember: Snow tends to lead to underexposure due to the huge amount of whites, but be careful not to overexpose as well. Batteries tend to die faster, but you can warm them up to revive them. Be careful of condensation when entering a warmer place from the outdoors.

where can we go for a short course on photography that are not expensive?
You can look up the Services Section, I think. My personal preference is to read up though. There are loads of good books available in the National Library. Michael Freeman's DSLR Handbook is what I started with, and it helped me a lot.

See inputs in red above.

 

[shelomoh]

Snow does affect metering. So if you search for metering snow in google, you can find lots of information. The rest, others have already answered.

I do understand that TS might not be so technical and hence he/she might not know what to search for. It's alright. Just ask and there will be people kind enough to answer.