Twilight help PLEASE ??? Camera question??

[GilbertsGrape]

Twilight,
You seem to have a wealth of knowledge about photography. I have a Digital Camera, a Kodak DC4800. I like it a lot it takes Great our door Photos, but it leave a lot to de desired for taking indoor photos. My indoor photos turn out really dark ( is use it in auto mode) cause I don’t know how to use all of the fancy settings. Could you give me some pointers to taking better indoor photos. My cam has this dial you can turn I think it is for F stop it had numbers like 2.8 5.6 and 8 is also has ISO settings ISO 100, ISO200, ISO400.

I can also change the shutter speed from
1/1000 , 1/700 , 1/500 , 1/350 , 1/250 , 1/180 , 1/125 , 1/90 , 1/60 , 1/45 , 1/30 , 1/20 , 1/15 , 1/10 , 1/8 , 1/6 , 1/4 , 1/3 , 1/2.
I also have a setting for “Long Time Exposure”


I have just been using my camera in automatic mode because I’m not sure what all those settings are for and when it is best to use them. Would my pictures improve if I changed the settings from auto to something else? Thank you in advance for your help. Any other photo buffs out there are welcome to help too.
Thanks
GilbertsGrape :-)

[eSDee]

Please tell me youre not going to use this information to take pictures of your feet again.

[GilbertsGrape]

Originally posted by EsDeeLoco
Please tell me youre not going to use this information to take pictures of your feet again.

EsDeeLoco,

So are you telling me that you don't want to see follow-up pix? awah come on ????

Seriously i would like to know how to take good indoor pix with my cam. (It hasn’t been the same since i took that tow pix ... maybe i broke something) J/K I think the cam is fine it is just it has a bad operator

L8R,
GilbertsGrape

[Twilight]

I get paid to teach this stuff to high school kids during the summer :-) Here's a BRIEF overview:

Just like film, the higher the ISO, the higher the film's sensitivity to light. So if you're shooting indoors, 400 or 800 would be best. If you're shooting in snow 100 is good. Usually on bright sunny days I'll use 200.

With F-stop numbers, the smaller the number, the MORE light is let in, because the lens aperature is larger. If you're shooting somewhere that's dark (indoors) you want to let more light in, so 2.8 would be good. However, the smaller the F-stop number, the smaller the "Depth of field". Depth of field is the "range in focus". I can't tell you how much distance is in focus, because it depends on how close you are to your subject. Depth of field can be used to your advantage, to blur backgrounds that may be distracting. Likewise, if you're shooting a portrait of someone standing in front of the grand canyon and you want to see the background in focus with the people, use F8 or larger.

Shutter speed: The longer the exposure, the more time your film is exposed to light. 1/1000 or 1/25 or 1/2 refers to seconds. 1/1000 is 1/1000 of 1 second. Any time you shoot below 1/60th of a second you risk getting blur because you cannot hold the camera still enough during the exposure. You can train yourself to handhold and lower speeds. I can hold at 1/15th sometimes. Along with letting light hit the film for a certain period of time, you also have to take into consideration your subject. If they are walking at a normal pace, you need about 1/125th to "freeze" the action. If you use under 1/125th (1/90, 1/60, 1/45, etc.) you will probably see some blur in the image. If the person is running you probably want a minimum of 1/350 or 1/500, preferably higher. Long time exposure probably lets you hold open the shutter, and expose the film to light, for as long as you are holding the button down.

Do you have a flash with this camera? A flash can "freeze" action as well, because it only gives light to the situation for a very brief instant, so only a brief instant gets enough light to be exposed properly. You can create some neat effects with a moving subject in a dark situation using a flash, if you set the flash to go off at the end of the exposure. That way there will be a slight, ghosting, trailer behind the image.

You are probably much better off to avoid to program modes. What program mode options are you given? If you have to pick one, and you have "A" mode, that means aperature-priority. So that means you pick the f-stop, and the camera picks the right shutter speed. You have to make sure the shutter speed isn't too low, so you don't get motion blur, but this is the way that many photojournalists shoot much of the time, including myself. Other than aperature-priority, your best bet is to shoot on manual exposure mode, where you chose the f-stop and the shutter speed using the camera's meter. It may be that there is no meter, or not a very good meter, in your camera - I'm not familiar with it. If you see a + and - in your viewfinder, that is your meter. You want to set the f-stop and shutter speed so that the meter registers close to the middle between the + and -. Unless of course you want your photo to be under or over exposed. You want to under expose to get a darker picture (like if you're shooting a silohette or shadow, or shooting in a place that naturally is dark and you want it to appear that way in your photo). You want to over expose if you're shooting in snow and you want the snow to be pure white. This is because the camera's meter is set to expose at 20% grey. Now of course you don't want GREY, but we're talking about a tone range.

I hope I haven't confused you too much. If you're really interested, there are a lot of beginner books when it comes to 35mm photography. A book on black and white photography will teach you everything about exposure, and that's all you really need to know for now. Also, many community colleges offer beginner photography classes at night. They will probably want you to use a 35mm film camera, and that would be a good way for you to learn, but a digital operates very much the same as a film camera as far as exposure goes.

Good luck!

[GilbertsGrape]

Twilight,
YOU ARE AWSOME! Thank you very much that is exactly what I needed a crash Course in Photography.

If you are ever near Morehead, KY I’ll take you to lunch and buy you a Hamburger or a salad if you are a vegetarian.

“I get paid to teach this stuff to high school kids during the summer :-)”
It sounds like you earn your money) and sometimes my GF accuse of acting childish, but where’s the fun if you cant act childish :-)

[eSDee]

You should start a web biz twilight.

[Twilight]

Originally posted by EsDeeLoco
You should start a web biz twilight.

Whatcha mean?

[eSDee]

You've obviously got some bigtime Knowledge in this field. I was just thinking that you could probably start your own website where others could benefit from it. Maybe even review newest technology and point people towards deals...

I AM THE ALMIGHTY APEX. NO ONE SHALL HAVE A WEBSITE BESIDES ME.

-Apex

[Hopper1]

Originally posted by EsDeeLoco
You've obviously got some bigtime Knowledge in this field. I was just thinking that you could probably start your own website where others could benefit from it. Maybe even review newest technology and point people towards deals...

I AM THE ALMIGHTY APEX. NO ONE SHALL HAVE A WEBSITE BESIDES ME.

-Apex

And all those other websites that have coupons that the G|A community abuses...but no one else

[eSDee]

My post was joke by the way.

[Hopper1]

yeah i figured i would just add to it