DSLR Shots and Discussions

Huck

And let me ask you guys a question. During night shots, if I'm looking through the viewfinder, the camera has no problem focusing. But after it focuses it won't shoot, and it blinks the flash symbol at me. Then without moving or anything, I'll switch to live view and it has a lot of trouble focusing. Once I get it focused (or almost, as you can see in the first pic above) it will take the pic no problems, no flash. What I resorted to doing was looking through the viewfinder, focusing, then turning off the auto focus and switching to live view to take the pics. It was kind of a pain. What am I doing wrong? For reference, I'm shooting with a D5100, stock lens, and the settings were 100 ISO, 5.6 aperture, shutter speeds between 15 and 25 seconds depending on the shot, and an auto white balance. Suggestions?

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Cmike2780

If you're in "M" (manual), it shouldn't be asking you to use the flash at all.

If you're in "A" or "S", the camera is basically saying it can't get a proper exposure without the flash. I'm not sure why switching to live view makes a difference though.



You can always set the focus manually. That dot in the left hand corner indicates focus (#2). Just aim the center on focus node on the object you want to target. It will light up once the target is in focus. Metering and autofocus will not work as well in the dark, even with the high end professional gear. This is basically why it's best to go manual everything for night photography. Your results will be more predictable from shot to shot. If you look at the exposure metering bar (#11), that too may shed some light on why it's telling you to use the flash.

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[09][MB][6-Spd MT][Touring][Stillen Gen III][K&N][Borla CBE][Evo-R]

NickTurnon

This happens to me all the time!

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2009 Brilliant Silver BASE 7AT | TEIN S-Tech Springs | K&N Drop Ins & z1 Maf Tubes | AAM S-Line Short Tails | 5% Tint | 20MM Spacers | Sport Spoiler NickTurnon's 370z Build

Titan1080

Can't really add to what was already posted in reply, but from an astrophotography perspective, night shots can be tricky, especially in metropolitan areas. I had all sorts of trouble trying to get a good shot of Comet Pan-Starrs a couple weeks ago from my deck and truely dark skies are a long drive away from me. Definitely pick up a remote trigger if you don't already have one and use the bulb setting for exposure length.

I used this shot to establish where the comet was since it was still fairly light out and the thing was already low in the sky, it's roughly centered above the trees: 28mm lens f/4.5 ISO 800 4-ish seconds.


Once I knew where it was, I switched to my 70-300mm and zoomed in: ISO 800, f/5.6, 2 seconds. I would have liked to have gone longer but at that level of zoom I would need a tracking mount....someday!


This one is a good illustration for getting out to the sticks. Car is a little out of focus but I was mainly wanting the stars in focus and the aperture setting I wanted couldn't get both. I was in a fairly dark rural area outside town and the nearby city lights still ruined the sky on exposures as short as 7 seconds like this one. I used an amber filter on my speed light and fired it manually a couple times to light up the car and foreground, the rest is light pollution. Also, I didn't see the powerlines at all until after I parked and my eyes adapted, definitely invest in a red flashlight so you can somewhat see in the dark without ruining your night vision: 28mm lens, ISO400, f/2.8, 7.5 seconds

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2009 370Z w/ Sport

Huck

Yeah, I can't figure it out. I'm in Manual for all the shots. Oh well, I'll keep playing with it.

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Knio

I've been trying some large panoramas

IMG_5267
IMG_5428

~20 shots with a 50mm on a T3i

cgust

Spring is finally arriving to Minnesota! And with it comes the waterfowl. Now that I'm done with school it will be a challenge to get the time to scout and take photos but here are some from the past two springs. Thanks for looking!

Common Merganser (female)


Greater Scaup


Blue-winged Teal skimming water


American Black Duck


Green-winged Teal

Boost_lee

Nice shots, #4 is great

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My TT Z

6spd

Great stuff!

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-Jay- jonathanjamesphotographer.com

blackcherry20

Amazing! Thx for sharing

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Grand Sport Corvette Arctic White

Huck

I have to agree, the American black duck is a great shot, I love how you can see every detail in his feathers. What speed were you shooting at?


Sent from my iPizzle using magic and new-fangled science stuff

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cgust

Thanks for the kind words! This was shot with my D300 and a Nikon 300mm f2.8 VRI plus a 1.4x teleconverter. ISO400 ~ f5.6 ~ 1/4000 ~ EV-0.67

Cmike2780

You guys should also look at the focusing modes. The D5100 has three servo modes.

AF-A (automatic)
AF-S (single)
AF-C (continuous) for action shots

You then also have the AF area modes:
-Auto
-Single point
-Dynamic
-3D

I'm not 100% sure but the Live View has a few different focus settings on it's own like facial recognition that may mess with what you're doing. If you're not able to fire the shutter, it might still be searching for a focus point.

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[09][MB][6-Spd MT][Touring][Stillen Gen III][K&N][Borla CBE][Evo-R]

RandyD

a couple from my road trip

6spd

RandyD, the white balance of your shots is great! That dish is f'ing awesome too!

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-Jay- jonathanjamesphotographer.com