How do you make...

[LSRC]

How do you make a night shot longer? All of the "exposure" shots were taken at the default 15 seconds, but as the picture below shows, its still too dark. I tried "fiddling" with the camera, consulting the manual, and googling it without any success.


Also, how do you determine how long of a shot you'll need?

Thanks,

LSRC

[SousaKerry]

practice practice and lots of fustration, look for a setting called bulb it lets the shutter stay open as long as you hold the button.

hope that helps

[jcnightangel]

yeah. Knowning how long to leave a shutter open is really hard. Try to do multiply shots where one is the 15 you did, another is 20 and last do 25. That way when they come back you can see what you took and will start to learn about it. Also how much the lens opens can matter too. That starts with an A.... but I can't remember what it is called. Most of the time you just change the setting on the shutter.

Terra

[CAT345C]

Aperture I believe or Arpature

[conrailmike]

Mike, it's all hit and miss. You also need the right amount of flash. Be careful or you'll end up over-exposing your film and the photos will be dark. You need to find the right combination of f-stop (aperture) and shutter speed and that takes patience. If you're shooting black and white, you can always fool with developing times to make up for the over-exposure (to a point). But I'd start with picking a aperture, the largest one your lens will open up to, remember, the smaller the number (2.0, 1.8, 1.4), the bigger the hole, the more light hitting the film (or sensor if it's digital). The bigger the number (8, 11, 16, 22), the smaller the hole, the less light hitting the film (or sensor). This of course is all in manual mode on your camera. I went through a lot of film in my photography classes..... Hope this helps...

[J T]

How do you make a night shot longer? All of the "exposure" shots were taken at the default 15 seconds, but as the picture below shows, its still too dark. I tried "fiddling" with the camera, consulting the manual, and googling it without any success.

Well, that depends entirely on the camera you have. Until I know what you're using, I can't accurately answer that question.

Also, how do you determine how long of a shot you'll need?

Well, normally your camera will indicate the proper exposure as you set the shutter speed. The max I've seen is 30 seconds on a manual camera and if that's not enough for a properly exposed photo, then you have to go into "bulb" setting (don't let the name fool you, it has nothing to do with using the flash bulb on your camera). Bulb setting allows you to have the shutter open for as long as you want. However, it is imperative that you use a shutter release cable for this (and tripod, of course), as any movement from holding down the shutter release button will result in an unsharp photograph.

If your camera's max shutter release time doesn't indicate a proper metering exposure, then you'll just have to experiment with the times BEYOND the max (as I said, using bulb setting and shutter release cable). If your camera doesn't have that feature, nor does it allow for a shutter release cable, you may be out of luck.

[CAT345C]

J T, heres a link http://www.railroadfan.com/gallery/disp ... =366&pos=3
Isn't that the same camera that Scooterb uses?

[LSRC]

Yup Canon Powershot S2IS, like Scooter. I looked for "Bulb" earlier and couldn't find it.

[J T]

Yup Canon Powershot S2IS, like Scooter. I looked for "Bulb" earlier and couldn't find it.

Well, it looks like you're SOL with that camera. I read two spec sheets and both listed:

• 15 - 1/3200 sec

No where was any mention of bulb setting, and since the longest exposure time is 15 seconds, I doubt they'd jump from 15 sec to bulb without offering 20, 25 and 30 first.

Only way to get more light would be to stop up your aperture (but you will minimize depth of field) or increase your ISO (which will add more "noise" to the photo...which is NOT recommended for night time shots, because you will see a lot of noise in dark areas of the picture).

In this type of shooting situation, you are definitely limited by your equipment.