I'm new to digital photography, and I tried a few night shots the other day. I used a Minolta S414 on a cheap tripod. All shots were with the automatic setting, and I used a remote to trigger the shutter. Can anyone offer advice on how I can improve these pictures? Has anyone with a digital camera tried to take shots like these using the manual settings? Every shot I took using manual were terrible.
Milne, your pictures are the best the camera can give you in automatic mode. In fact, they are darn good pictures. Your problem is that the engine headlight is "burning" a hole in your images. There is nothing you can do about that, manually or otherwise, as long as there is a strong light source staring you in the face. My advice would be to take your night and available light photos as far off-angle as possible so headlights and other strong light sources are not focused directly at the lens. An alternative would be to allow (or force) the flash to fire with each shot. That would give you good and bad results..... Good - the camera would have a much faster shutter speed which would lessen the effect of the headlight and other bright light sources. Bad - having a faster shutter would not show any of the features (details) out of flash range. In other words, you would lose everything that made these photos great, with the exception of the overexposed headlight. All I can advise is to play with your camera in every possible lighting condition. Hey, you're not wasting any film...think positive. You can "delete" every lousy exposure before anyone else sees them. Just show people the one or two great shots that you are really proud of..... Now for my personal opinion....The headlight in the first photo actually adds to the strength of the image. The image shows power and action. It's not just some dull still life. I LIKE it!!! [ 13. February 2005, 00:25: Message edited by: Hytec ]
Hank, Thank you for your comments. When the locos ditch lights are off, it seems to eliminate the burning. I'll have to try a wider angle shot for the ditch light shots. I'm not wasting film, but the delete button may wear out from constant use. Thanks again Hank.
Milne .. that last one is great! I also agree with Hank's suggestions. At least you get to immediately see exactly what your camera is registering when you trip the shutter. Have fun with it!
Is there an automatic mode that will let you use a smaller aperture and a longer shutter speed? That would greatly reduce the appearance of the light blobs.
Brian, The only adjustments I can make in auto mode are for flash, exposure compensation and "subject-program" options. The "subject-program option" that I use is the landscape setting. It does not explain specifics in the manual, but only says this setting "...optimized to produce sharp, colourful landscapes." It may be time to re read the owners manual and try a few manual shots again.
It's an easy fix and your camera has enough adjustments in auto mode. Do everything you did like last time but change the exposure compensation to +1 EV. You may have to experiment what the actual value is. What is happening, as others have suggested, your camera's meter is being fooled by the bright light of the headlight. By increasing your exposure by +1 EV (or more), you are making the underexposed areas exposed properly. Don't worry about the headlight being over exposed, it already it. The situation you are in is typical of back lit subjects, e.g., vacation pictures where the sun is behind the subjects shining at the camera.
