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#1
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What best way to take Christmas light photos with Kodak EasyShare camera?
What is the best way to take Christmas light decoration photos using a simple
Kodak EasyShare digital camera? I do not have a tripod. For many years I have taken many such photos with my film slr camera where I knew the the exact exposer. For iso 400 film I could get good shots with 1/60 or 1/125 shutter speed where I could hold steady hand. I am glad that the Kodak EasyShare cameras have simplified lot of stuff, I just need to know a "mode" to select that will tell the camera to use shutter speed priority while computing the exposure. I thought the "action" mode would do the trick, but here I can not specify a iso - the auto iso selection is limited between 80 and 125 where even the fastest shutter speed selected seems too slow and introduces blur due to shake (without tripod). I would appreciate any tip or trick to work around this problem. |
#2
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What best way to take Christmas light photos with Kodak EasyShare camera?
Dolu wrote: What is the best way to take Christmas light decoration photos using a simple Kodak EasyShare digital camera? I do not have a tripod. For many years I have taken many such photos with my film slr camera where I knew the the exact exposer. For iso 400 film I could get good shots with 1/60 or 1/125 shutter speed where I could hold steady hand. I am glad that the Kodak EasyShare cameras have simplified lot of stuff, I just need to know a "mode" to select that will tell the camera to use shutter speed priority while computing the exposure. I thought the "action" mode would do the trick, but here I can not specify a iso - the auto iso selection is limited between 80 and 125 where even the fastest shutter speed selected seems too slow and introduces blur due to shake (without tripod). I would appreciate any tip or trick to work around this problem. "Starry night" or "night fireworks" ?? |
#3
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What best way to take Christmas light photos with Kodak EasyShare camera?
On Sat, 16 Dec 2006 22:51:36 GMT, Dolu wrote:
What is the best way to take Christmas light decoration photos using a simple Kodak EasyShare digital camera? I do not have a tripod. For many years I have taken many such photos with my film slr camera where I knew the the exact exposer. For iso 400 film I could get good shots with 1/60 or 1/125 shutter speed where I could hold steady hand. I am glad that the Kodak EasyShare cameras have simplified lot of stuff, I just need to know a "mode" to select that will tell the camera to use shutter speed priority while computing the exposure. I thought the "action" mode would do the trick, but here I can not specify a iso - the auto iso selection is limited between 80 and 125 where even the fastest shutter speed selected seems too slow and introduces blur due to shake (without tripod). I would appreciate any tip or trick to work around this problem. You'll need to tell us which Kodak camera you're using, as not all of their EasyShare cameras are alike. Or you could try to figure it out by reading your camera's manual, comparing it with one of these: On the low end there's the Easyshare C300, which for still photography has only an Automatic mode, a Night Scene mode, and exposure compensation. The specifications provide no information about the shutter speed range. I hope that your camera is more advanced than this one. The Easyshare C503/C553 has Landscape mode, ten additional SCN (scene) modes, and exposure compensation. The shutter speed ranges from 4 to 1/1400 seconds. The Easyshare C603/C643 adds exposure bracketing to the C503/C553's feature set. Even with all of the scene modes, the C503/C553 & C603/C643 wouldn't appear to provide any useful way to specify faster shutter speeds. The ones described as modifying the shutter speed all lengthen it, which is the opposite of the effect that you want. Using a higher ISO might cause the camera to choose a faster shutter speed, but you'd have to try it to see if it the reduced image quality would be acceptable, but this still wouldn't guarantee that a faster shutter speed would be used. The Easyshare C663 differs by having 14 scene modes (none appearing useful for your purpose), has a wider shutter speed range of 8 to 1/1600 seconds, but adds the very useful P(rogram) and M(anual) modes, which will allow you to specify different shutter speeds. If your Easyshare model doesn't allow you to choose a faster shutter speed, your only recourse would be to brace the camera or to use a tripod, which would allow you to get away with using slow shutter speeds without ruining the shots due to excessive camera movement. While a large, heavy, expensive, rock-solid tripod would be nice to have, even a cheap, tiny, $10 tabletop tripod would help considerably. But if you don't want to get a tripod, try putting the camera on a beanbag or a sack filled with grits or rice, and take some shots using the shutter or the camera's self timer. If possible, try using different exposures (use exposure compensation), since with normal exposures all of the different colored bulbs might produce "blown highlights", giving them all the same bright white appearance. Reducing the exposure, while darkening the rest of the picture, might allow you to see the actual colors of the lights. |
#4
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What best way to take Christmas light photos with Kodak EasySharecamera?
Dolu wrote:
What is the best way to take Christmas light decoration photos using a simple Kodak EasyShare digital camera? I do not have a tripod. For many years I have taken many such photos with my film slr camera where I knew the the exact exposer. For iso 400 film I could get good shots with 1/60 or 1/125 shutter speed where I could hold steady hand. I am glad that the Kodak EasyShare cameras have simplified lot of stuff, I just need to know a "mode" to select that will tell the camera to use shutter speed priority while computing the exposure. I thought the "action" mode would do the trick, but here I can not specify a iso - the auto iso selection is limited between 80 and 125 where even the fastest shutter speed selected seems too slow and introduces blur due to shake (without tripod). I would appreciate any tip or trick to work around this problem. For taking pictures of Christmas lights. Try setting your camera to 'night'. Most current Kodak cameras have this mode setting. Then find something to brace the camera against, as the exposure WILL be rather longer than most people can hand-hold. Obviously, a tripod is best, but you can find a wall, fence, tree, or even your car (motor OFF), to brace against. |
#5
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What best way to take Christmas light photos with Kodak EasyShare camera?
Thanks ASAAR and everyone for responding promptly. You are right, it is very
difficult without a tripod or other forms of support. I experimented a bit and discovered that instead of using any of the pre-programmed modes, the easisiest and best way to photograph Christmas lights is actually to use the "auto" mode with the following adjustments: 1) Set camera to "auto" mode. 2) Turn flash "off". 3) Select iso 400. By default the "auto" mode selects an iso between 80 and 125. My camera allowes a override to select iso, so I chose iso 400. 4) I think this is the most important part. By default the "auto exposure" no matter what camera, or what mode one uses, it trys to adjust for non- important large dark areas of the image that results in way over exposing with large aperture and slow shutter speed values. Realizing this, I chose to bias the exposure by -2 stops. This gave me a much lower exposure including higher shutter speed, which in turn allowed me to control the shake - I am accustomed to steady hand up to 1/30 shutter speed. I have posted a sample at my gallery "Dolu's Gallery". Soon I hope to post some more. BTW, my camera is a low end digital, Kodak CD33 with optical zoom and it has the following modes: Auto Action Portrait Close-up Landscape SCENE MODE with following options: Children playing in the park day time Party at night: indoor lights Night scene portrait: people foregrand with flash, and night lighted background Fireworks at night Scenery on sand day light Scenery on snow day light Other features include: Timed exposures Burst mode - takes 3 quick frames to capture the moment. I am really impressed with all the stuff this little thing can do; but I really miss the full manual control. ASAAR wrote: What is the best way to take Christmas light decoration photos using a simple Kodak EasyShare digital camera? I do not have a tripod. For many years I have [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] due to shake (without tripod). I would appreciate any tip or trick to work around this problem. You'll need to tell us which Kodak camera you're using, as not all of their EasyShare cameras are alike. Or you could try to figure it out by reading your camera's manual, comparing it with one of these: On the low end there's the Easyshare C300, which for still photography has only an Automatic mode, a Night Scene mode, and exposure compensation. The specifications provide no information about the shutter speed range. I hope that your camera is more advanced than this one. The Easyshare C503/C553 has Landscape mode, ten additional SCN (scene) modes, and exposure compensation. The shutter speed ranges from 4 to 1/1400 seconds. The Easyshare C603/C643 adds exposure bracketing to the C503/C553's feature set. Even with all of the scene modes, the C503/C553 & C603/C643 wouldn't appear to provide any useful way to specify faster shutter speeds. The ones described as modifying the shutter speed all lengthen it, which is the opposite of the effect that you want. Using a higher ISO might cause the camera to choose a faster shutter speed, but you'd have to try it to see if it the reduced image quality would be acceptable, but this still wouldn't guarantee that a faster shutter speed would be used. The Easyshare C663 differs by having 14 scene modes (none appearing useful for your purpose), has a wider shutter speed range of 8 to 1/1600 seconds, but adds the very useful P(rogram) and M(anual) modes, which will allow you to specify different shutter speeds. If your Easyshare model doesn't allow you to choose a faster shutter speed, your only recourse would be to brace the camera or to use a tripod, which would allow you to get away with using slow shutter speeds without ruining the shots due to excessive camera movement. While a large, heavy, expensive, rock-solid tripod would be nice to have, even a cheap, tiny, $10 tabletop tripod would help considerably. But if you don't want to get a tripod, try putting the camera on a beanbag or a sack filled with grits or rice, and take some shots using the shutter or the camera's self timer. If possible, try using different exposures (use exposure compensation), since with normal exposures all of the different colored bulbs might produce "blown highlights", giving them all the same bright white appearance. Reducing the exposure, while darkening the rest of the picture, might allow you to see the actual colors of the lights. -- Message posted via http://www.photokb.com |
#6
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What best way to take Christmas light photos with Kodak EasyShare camera?
On Mon, 18 Dec 2006 02:10:06 GMT, Dolu via PhotoKB.com wrote:
Thanks ASAAR and everyone for responding promptly. You are right, it is very difficult without a tripod or other forms of support. I experimented a bit and discovered that instead of using any of the pre-programmed modes, the easisiest and best way to photograph Christmas lights is actually to use the "auto" mode with the following adjustments: 1) Set camera to "auto" mode. 2) Turn flash "off". 3) Select iso 400. By default the "auto" mode selects an iso between 80 and 125. My camera allowes a override to select iso, so I chose iso 400. 4) I think this is the most important part. By default the "auto exposure" no matter what camera, or what mode one uses, it trys to adjust for non- important large dark areas of the image that results in way over exposing with large aperture and slow shutter speed values. Realizing this, I chose to bias the exposure by -2 stops. This gave me a much lower exposure including higher shutter speed, which in turn allowed me to control the shake - I am accustomed to steady hand up to 1/30 shutter speed. You're welcome, and congratulations for figuring out a way to make your Kodak smarter than its designers intended. I'm surprised that you were able to override the ISO, since the cameras I've seen only allow Auto ISO when Auto mode is used. Maybe Kodak allowed the override because their camera has no P mode? I have posted a sample at my gallery "Dolu's Gallery". Soon I hope to post some more. I looked around PhotoKB.com and saw no links to access any existing photo galleries. I did see that PhotoKB would allow me to create a gallery if I registered, but did not say anywhere that registering would add the ability to access any other galleries. Do you have to provide gallery links to those that would see your photos, or is your gallery not part of PhotoKB? PhotoKB has enough ads on all of their web pages that I don't feel that I owe them my email address. |
#7
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What best way to take Christmas light photos with Kodak EasyShare camera?
ASAAR, I am a brand new member at photokb and find the interface quiet
confusing. As far as I can tell photokb is part of Advenet.Com , in fact photokb is a "discussion group" under Advenet.Com . Once you registered at photokb you are automatically registered at Advenet with same login/password , and it is there that the "galleries" are hosted. 1) Go to Advenet.Com 2) On the "top" navigation bar click on "photos". This will take you to a "public" area - no login needed - where you will see the galleries of other members. Since my upload is most recent upload, you will see my "thumbnail" first on the list. The direct URL to my gallery - Dolu's Gallery - is http://advenet.com/photos/dolu/picture238.aspx ASAAR wrote: Thanks ASAAR and everyone for responding promptly. You are right, it is very difficult without a tripod or other forms of support. I experimented a bit [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] higher shutter speed, which in turn allowed me to control the shake - I am accustomed to steady hand up to 1/30 shutter speed. You're welcome, and congratulations for figuring out a way to make your Kodak smarter than its designers intended. I'm surprised that you were able to override the ISO, since the cameras I've seen only allow Auto ISO when Auto mode is used. Maybe Kodak allowed the override because their camera has no P mode? I have posted a sample at my gallery "Dolu's Gallery". Soon I hope to post some more. I looked around PhotoKB.com and saw no links to access any existing photo galleries. I did see that PhotoKB would allow me to create a gallery if I registered, but did not say anywhere that registering would add the ability to access any other galleries. Do you have to provide gallery links to those that would see your photos, or is your gallery not part of PhotoKB? PhotoKB has enough ads on all of their web pages that I don't feel that I owe them my email address. -- Message posted via http://www.photokb.com |
#8
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What best way to take Christmas light photos with Kodak EasyShare camera?
On Mon, 18 Dec 2006 09:05:46 GMT, Dolu via PhotoKB.com wrote:
ASAAR, I am a brand new member at photokb and find the interface quiet confusing. As far as I can tell photokb is part of Advenet.Com , in fact photokb is a "discussion group" under Advenet.Com . Once you registered at photokb you are automatically registered at Advenet with same login/password , and it is there that the "galleries" are hosted. 1) Go to Advenet.Com 2) On the "top" navigation bar click on "photos". This will take you to a "public" area - no login needed - where you will see the galleries of other members. Since my upload is most recent upload, you will see my "thumbnail" first on the list. The direct URL to my gallery - Dolu's Gallery - is http://advenet.com/photos/dolu/picture238.aspx Yep, it was very easy to find your picture, both ways. It's a good shot and the colors came out very nicely. I don't know if you played around with the jpg file, but I downloaded the largest version, and using Irfanview (a very nice, free, small, picture viewer/editor) boosted the gamma, which made several nearly invisible objects appear. One being the wires or supports behind the lights. I was also able to now clearly see "Christmas Eve" below the lights. A bit harder to see may be a street address just above this, which appears to be "5828". |
#9
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What best way to take Christmas light photos with Kodak EasyShare camera?
Hi ASAAR, Kool you played with gamma and discovered objects hiding in the
dark. I do have Photoshop/ImageReady software. I think a big advantage of digital photography is the ability to easily fix defects and/or make enhancements for creative effects. Also the ability to check results on camera LCD immediately after shoot is a huge convenience. I posted few more photos at Dolu's Gallery, all taken without tripod, flash was used on one of them only to light the foreground while leaving the background in natural light. One other note I would like to add to my earlier observations regarding my success in not requiring tripod while shooting night scene is that I can only do this as long as I do not use tele-zoom; that would require more exposure (slower shutter) which would put me in the shaky hand zone. ASAAR wrote: ASAAR, I am a brand new member at photokb and find the interface quiet confusing. As far as I can tell photokb is part of Advenet.Com , in fact [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] The direct URL to my gallery - Dolu's Gallery - is http://advenet.com/photos/dolu/picture238.aspx Yep, it was very easy to find your picture, both ways. It's a good shot and the colors came out very nicely. I don't know if you played around with the jpg file, but I downloaded the largest version, and using Irfanview (a very nice, free, small, picture viewer/editor) boosted the gamma, which made several nearly invisible objects appear. One being the wires or supports behind the lights. I was also able to now clearly see "Christmas Eve" below the lights. A bit harder to see may be a street address just above this, which appears to be "5828". -- Message posted via PhotoKB.com http://www.photokb.com/Uwe/Forums.as...photo/200612/1 |
#10
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What best way to take Christmas light photos with Kodak EasySharecamera?
ASAAR wrote:
On Mon, 18 Dec 2006 09:05:46 GMT, Dolu via PhotoKB.com wrote: edited, for brevity The direct URL to my gallery - Dolu's Gallery - is http://advenet.com/photos/dolu/picture238.aspx Yep, it was very easy to find your picture, both ways. It's a good shot and the colors came out very nicely. I don't know if you played around with the jpg file, but I downloaded the largest version, and using Irfanview (a very nice, free, small, picture viewer/editor) boosted the gamma, which made several nearly invisible objects appear. One being the wires or supports behind the lights. I was also able to now clearly see "Christmas Eve" below the lights. A bit harder to see may be a street address just above this, which appears to be "5828". Hello, ASAAR: I tried what you did, and got the same results. Even without affecting the gamma, though, I spied a white dot, within the top-left quarter of the picture. (You'll need to "zoom in" slightly, to see it.) Presumably, it's a bad pixel, in the original poster's ("Dolu") Kodak CD33's image sensor. My own P850 (also a Kodak) is plagued by this very defect, sad to say. Cordially, John Turco |
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