Shutter Fun Shutter tricks ?

[make believe 0]

I have an old friend whom i rarely get to speak to and she got some great pictures she has taken with a person who has used a sparkler and wrote their name out, The picture shows her friend standing there with his hands on his hips and in front of him is his name writtin out with the sparkler. She said she did somethin with the shutter . My question is how can i do somethin like that? Im new to photography and i know this might be somethin that might be ahead of my game but id like to try somethin like this. I got a Sony Cyber Shot DSC-S60 with a Vario - Tessar 2,8 - 5,2/6 - 18 lens / digital camera. I found the features where i can slow the shutter time down or speed it up. I just dont know where to go from there. Can anyone give me any pointers or show me a site where i can learn how to do this type of stuff? Or maybe you know a couple more tricks you can share with me, if so it would be greatly appreciated Im new to this forum and im also lookin to make and meet new friends , Peace Todd =P

[miCRoSCoPiC^eaRthLinG 0]

What you seek can be achieved extremely easily with a Normal SLR camera - as also with a DigiCam if it has the Bulb or B - shutter mode. With B as shutter speed, your camera shutter remains open as long as the shutter button is kept pressed.

When you want to do this kind of photography, you've to take help of a tripod - otherwise you'll get very bad camerashake causing the whole picture to appear very fuzzy.

Once on a stand, all you've to do is make you friend stand in front of it with a sparkler and then open the shutter and let him paint away to glory in thin air.. With a little practise you can come up with some amazing designs.. Check out some of my pictures in another post titled Full Moon Rave Pics - in this same forum. You'll find plenty of Fire-Poi (Fire Chains) spinning pictures with similar effects as that you're seeking to do. Here's the link: http://forums.xisto.com/topic/83172-topic/?findpost=1064298373

I had tried out something similar once - but in a slightly different manner. Instead of using Sparklers, I relied on a FULL MOON in the sky to do the painting. Of course, with this method - it required a lot more practise and expertise, coz, the whole idea was like holding your pen straight in one place and moving the paper below it to come up with the desired pattern - which goes contrary to our conventional sense of writing/drawing something. But the end result was nevertheless quite striking

Regards,
m^e

[make believe 0]

No way , i never thought of that ! That is such a great idea with the moon. Im gonna go look at your pics now Thanks for the info and takin the time to respond. Ill reply somemore after i take a look at yopur photo's . Thanks again ~todd~Very Nice!!! I like them alot , When ever i get started and take some pictures of my own and if your interested in takin a look , ill be more than happy to share them with you and hope to get your comments . Do you like to take pictures in color or black and white?

[miCRoSCoPiC^eaRthLinG 0]

Glad you liked them. I'm an avid amateur photographer and have dabbled in the art of photography and all it's accessories quite a lot. Interesting discussions on the various aspects of photgraphy are always welcome - anytime Another hobbyist like me is the member named chiiyo. We have yet a third pro. photographer ( I forgot his nick ) - but his work is hosted at http://www.samuelphotos.com/ on Xisto - Web Hosting. Be sure to check 'em out. He's got some excellently executed shots on his site. Very color rich (saturated) and well-framed. In fact, that's how I got started on photography - by studying such pictures for long hours. That gradually helped me develope a sense of framing and probable subjects - which is of prime importance when it comes to taking pictures.

 

Regards,

m^e

[make believe 0]

Yeah i know exactly what your talkin about. You look at things a diffeent way and you sorta get an idea what looks good and what doesnt look good in a picture. Sometimes i'll look out the window and something will just jump out at me what would be a good picture.

[Soleq 0]

One important thing to note is to set the aperature so that it is very small (e.g. a large f/stop number). This will increase the overall depth of field, which will ensure that your picture is in focus (provided that your subject stands still ). You might also want to disable autofocus on AF SLR cameras, or seeing that you have a digicam, switch over to manual focus if possible. I just hate it when I spend 30 seconds trying to get the focus down right when it's pitch black and I know that it's a useless cause.

[chiiyo 0]

It always amuses me when my name pops up somewhere without me knowing. Hi M^E. Yeah, but I want to reemphasize Soleq's point on using the small aperture (big number = small aperture = slow aperture), not just to increase the overall depth of field, but also because if you're using the Bulb function or just normal long exposure, you would need to compensate for the extra light but reducing the aperture through which the light goes through.Basically (mini-photography lesson here), there are two things that control the amount of light that hits the film/digital back. One is your shutter speed, which is basically how long your shutter stays open, and the other is your aperture, which is how big the "hole" in your lens is. One common rule of photography, if you're playing around in manual mode on your digicam, is that if you increase the shutter speed (making the shutter open for a longer period of time), you should likewise decrease the size of your aperture, so that the amount of light entering your camera at any time is roughly the same. You would want this or you risk having over-exposed pictures. I'm emphasizing this point because you would be using the bulb function. Normally on a digicam if you select the manual mode and select a shutter speed, the camera would calculate the appropriate aperture for you and use it. But if you use the bulb function, you might have to figure out the aperture yourself. My suggestion would be to use the smallest aperture you have on your camera (the largest number, 16 or 32 probably) and then try out a few shots. Since you're using a digital camera it should be easy to see whether it works out or not. If you're at the smallest aperture but things are still too bright/overexposed, you should probably see how you can speed up the process, or fiddle with the ASA/ISO rating if you have it on your camera (try setting the ISO rating to something smaller, like 100 or 50).Hope this helps! (Hope it's not too technical...)

[make believe 0]

Yeah i know what your gettin at ill have to try that out tonite or maybe go into a dark room and try it out a few times to get the basic idea. Thanks for the info that really helps me out alot heres a picture of wha i recently tried, maybe let me know if i had the settings right or not.

[chiiyo 0]

Yup, looks like you got the idea already. You might want to ask your friend to stand a bit more still so as to make sure he's not too blur. You are using a tripod or something similar right? Also, what's the white thing at the bottom of the photo? Looks like paper of glass or something... *puzzled*

[miCRoSCoPiC^eaRthLinG 0]

Whoaa.. damned good job - and real quick too You're a good learner man !! Yea, as chiiyo said, try removing that paper at the bottom - it's kinda distracting, although you could try place it in a different way and see if it add's to the dramatization in some way. But surely try and use a Tripod - that'll reduce the shake and yor friend will come out a little clearer. If no tripod, simply put the camera on some high stool or table - will work all the same.

 

Also one more recommendation: If you're using a little old SLR, get yourself a Cable Release - you know, the foot-longish metal cable, which you can screw on over the shutter button and make it click from far off ?? That'll also reduce the vibrations transmitted through your finger (which might have considerable effect even with the camera on a tripod, when the shutter is being kept pressed for a long time) - or else, in the more recent SLR's you get a small one-button remote control that does the same job (mine does - Nikon F75D)..

 

Rest all looks fine You can still try experiementing with this shot - try out bracketing, i.e. take the same shot with 4-5 different apperture settings. Make sure you note 'em all down, as to what setting for which frame. In the end when you sit back and study the pictures along with this data - it'll be quite self evident, which setting's the best for your light condition and film speed. While in this case, you might not get that much of difference - other than slightly sharper/blurred picture - bracketing has extremely distinct advantages in daylight as well as sunrise/sunset photography.

 

Regards,

m^e

[make believe 0]

Well thanks so much yeah im a really fast learner, long as i can get hands on expirience than i can pick stuff up pretty easily and fast lol. The more i learn the funer it gets , i think im gonna go take a class or two in my spare time. I was also wondering , when i take these to get developed i want to get the what is it 5 by 7 glossy with the white border. Im not sure , i seen my friends when she gets hers developed and they come that way. What do you recomend for a good print ? size? Thanks again Todd

[miCRoSCoPiC^eaRthLinG 0]

6"x4" is your standard "Post Card Size" print - I'd recommend getting one size bigger than that (8"x5" if I remember correctly). It turns out quite cost-effective that way, as the price difference between postcard and this size is hardly a few cents - while the details come out really well.

 

Infact the larger you go the better it is - it is then that you start discovering all the hidden aspects of your snaps - which ellude you in smaller prints. Whichever picture I deemed was a "little good" - I'd get large prints (8" x 10" sometimes) done - so I could sit back and study how to improve on the shot, framing and apperture/shutter-speed in general... That really helped me develope a much better sense of framing as well as gave me a thorough understanding of light conditions and subject placement.

 

Personally - I don't like bordered prints. I always go for full-frame ones.. but then again this is a matter of personal choice. Also I'd rather go for matte prints rather than glossy. Matte prints are really colour saturated and more often will render a different enhanced look to even bad shots (under or overexposed). Also they are a (just a little) triffle bit more grease(fingerprint) resistant than the glossy prints - which start showing ugly fingerprint marks immediately, if you don't handle the prints by the corners. On the other hand glossy prints are highly reflective, giving rise to an illusion of greater details and contrast. Glossy prints handle over/under-exposed shots really BAD.

 

Wait up and see what feedback you get from the other members - everybody will have different opinion about the paper+print sizes.. Even I'm interested to know (you've brought up a very good point here)...

 

All the best

m^e

 

P.S. Here's a good site that discusses a whole lot about the different print papers and sizes. Take a look: http://www.ehow.com/info_8113322_types-photo-paper.html

[xandervin 0]

Yeah i know what your gettin at ill have to try that out tonite or maybe go into a dark room and try it out a few times to get the basic idea. Thanks for the info that really helps me out  alot heres a picture of wha i recently tried, maybe let me know if i had the settings right or not.

Damn, nice job man!! I need to learn that stuff too!

[remy 0]

one neat shutter trick is setting the shutter delay to about 3 seconds, and jerking the camera [while still having the object of focus in focus] before the second picture takes. if you do it right it comes out really cool.

[miCRoSCoPiC^eaRthLinG 0]

Since we're all talking about long exposures here, why don't we exchange all the cool long exposure tricks we all know. Try that 3 second exposure thing while keeping your hand steady (better yet on a tripod) - focussing on a flowing water body, like a stream or a waterfall. Next reduce the timing to about 1 second and then again to around 1/2 second. It's fun watching flowing water at these different rates - every picture comes out different... experiment with progressively higher shutter speeds.