Help with Low light

Hi I am hoping someone with some knowledge can help me. We are going on a cruise out of San Juan and before hand we are taking an excursion to the BioBay where the little plankton glow when disturbed.... I would like to try to get some pictures of it. I have a Canon EOS T3i DSLR and a Canon D10 waterproof. How can I best try to get night shots while not being able to leave the shutter open for too long (we will be in a boat).

Hi I am hoping someone with some knowledge can help me. We are going on a cruise out of San Juan and before hand we are taking an excursion to the BioBay where the little plankton glow when disturbed.... I would like to try to get some pictures of it. I have a Canon EOS T3i DSLR and a Canon D10 waterproof. How can I best try to get night shots while not being able to leave the shutter open for too long (we will be in a boat).

Put it in A mode, set the lens to max, up your ISO, and hope. Some sort of a support such as a beanbag if you so not want to bring a tripod might help.

DON

Throw some glow sticks or bracelets in a kiddie pool and try and shoot them at night without a flash. Try to dial it in that might get you close

Put it in A mode, set the lens to max, up your ISO, and hope. Some sort of a support such as a beanbag if you so not want to bring a tripod might help.

 

DON

Throw some glow sticks or bracelets in a kiddie pool and try and shoot them at night without a flash. Try to dial it in that might get you close

Great ideas... both. Thank you so much. I love the Camera but don't know all the adjustments etc.

digital shots are free, so experiment.

if you've got HDR, you might try that. Otherwise, do as suggested above. Run up the ISO and open the F-stop and slow the camera's shutter as slow as your dare.

If you're on a boat, HDR might be your best bet. If a land trip, you should nestle the camera on a jacket or hat on a rock.

Since the light is brightest when the organisms are disturbed, if people get in the water and churn it up, that might give off more light.

I wrote an article on low light shooting to answer a lot of board questions that came up over the years. It has basic exposure theory explained in non-techie terms and some suggestions for shooting under poor lighting conditions.

http://www.pptphoto.com/articles/lowlight.html

The suggestions for experimentation before actually being out there are absolutely correct. Otherwise it's like skydiving without lessons! Ok...maybe failing to get the shot wouldn't hurt as much, but you get the idea. :)

Enjoy your trip!

Dave

digital shots are free, so experiment.

 

if you've got HDR, you might try that. Otherwise, do as suggested above. Run up the ISO and open the F-stop and slow the camera's shutter as slow as your dare.

 

If you're on a boat, HDR might be your best bet. If a land trip, you should nestle the camera on a jacket or hat on a rock.

 

Since the light is brightest when the organisms are disturbed, if people get in the water and churn it up, that might give off more light.

I am not sure what you mean by HDR.....? Is that a setting or a mode?

I wrote an article on low light shooting to answer a lot of board questions that came up over the years. It has basic exposure theory explained in non-techie terms and some suggestions for shooting under poor lighting conditions.

 

http://www.pptphoto.com/articles/lowlight.html

 

The suggestions for experimentation before actually being out there are absolutely correct. Otherwise it's like skydiving without lessons! Ok...maybe failing to get the shot wouldn't hurt as much, but you get the idea. :)

 

Enjoy your trip!

 

Dave

Thank you, I will definitely read your article it looks helpful.

I am not sure what you mean by HDR.....? Is that a setting or a mode?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-dynamic-range_imaging

DON

I am not sure what you mean by HDR.....? Is that a setting or a mode?

My om-d em-1 has an hdr setting, but you can achieve it manually my taking five to seven shots, -2, -1 ,0 1, 2 then using a program like Photo shop to merge them. For hdr, you really need a tripod.

Sent from my KFJWA using Tapatalk HD

HDR - High Dynamic Range - it's a setting on some cameras. Shots 3 or more shots one over exposed, one under, and one at the meter's best setting and combine them into one JPG. I used a setting on my canon 70d called "handheld night" which took 4 shots, and combined them. Quite useful for pulling out detail in the Vatican Museum and in the houses in Pompeii.

but my point was to explore your rigs settings and practice before you go. If you're going to the Fajardo site, the effects are pretty dim, about half what you'd see with a glow stick. If it's a full moon night, the effect will be even dimmer to your eye. The Veaque Island lakes have winked out, I've read. Some years are better than others.

When we were stationed at NS Roosevelt Roads we did a paddle trip back into the Fajardo lakes, quite impressive. Worth experiencing.

The t3i does not have in camera HDR. You will have to bracket your shot and then process them afterwards using an HDR program (Use google to learn how to bracket and some HDR programs). If you use Magic Lantern, you can get around the 3 shot bracket limit that the t3i has.

Another option is to just shoot video.

HDR probably won't help in super-low light, especially in this scenario - if the challenge is to get a non-shaky non-blurry shot, there's no hope that the subject material will be still long enough for three or more shots, especially if one is to be overexposed. Just put the camera in Av, crank up the ISO, open up the lens, and hope. Perhaps shoot wider than you want, as you'll have less blur and better hope of cropping later.

My om-d em-1 has an hdr setting, but you can achieve it manually my taking five to seven shots, -2, -1 ,0 1, 2 then using a program like Photo shop to merge them. For hdr, you really need a tripod.

 

Sent from my KFJWA using Tapatalk HD

Simulating the aperture settings is the right thing to do but simulating the stabilization of the camera on a floating boat is impossible. Camera and lens stabilization systems might help with the actual shots. Take a number of shots on the boat, cross your fingers, tweak the shots with Lightroom and Photoshop, and post your results on this thread.

I too use an Olympus OM-D EM-1 for traveling photographs.

Along with the wide open aperture setting (the F number is your lens' aperture, and the LOWER the number, the BIGGER the aperture...so if you have a kit lens, then it's probably got an aperture range of something like F3.5 to F24...you want to use the F3.5. If you happen to have a 'fast prime', which is a lens that has a larger aperture of something like F1.8 or F1.4, that would be better) and using a much higher ISO setting (you may want to go into your ISO setting, and need to choose something like ISO6400...it will be grainy, but your best chance at getting less blur)...one other suggestion would be to take a LOT of photos, quickly in a row. When shooting in conditions where the shutter speed is probably not fast enough, and you are dealing with a moving stance, moving boat, etc and trying to get a stable shot, sometimes playing the numbers game can help - if you only have, say, a 1 in 20 chance of holding steady enough to get a shot without blur, and you only take 2 shots, you're not likely going to see a good one. But if you took 40 shots...you have a much greater likelihood of finding 1 or 2 in the bunch that were just steady enough to use.

Low f stop large aperture.

I acutally dont like the too high of an iso idea as previous poster mentions about the grain. The soft glow of plankton is not something you want grainy (in my opinion of course) but rather something that has that ghostly feel to it.

If you're taking action shots like with splashes, then the high iso may be the way to go.

Tho parroting what everyone else says is to just practice and try it out beforehand.

Also note that you might end up with an issue where your lens just refuses to autofocus in the dark. You might want to practice manual focusing in that case.

an external flash may help too. direct the flash so that it's above the water as to not reflect off too much light but not towards the sky as it's an open bay and you'll just waste battery life. this'll help if you want to get people pictures too without them looking too grainy

Just a note: The conditions necessary to see the bioluminescence are by nature, very dark. Be prepared to accept that "normal" photos simply may not be possible and explore other options like clamping the camera to something so it renders part of the boat clearly with the glow visible, but softened by movement.

Good luck!

Dave

Just a note: The conditions necessary to see the bioluminescence are by nature, very dark. Be prepared to accept that "normal" photos simply may not be possible and explore other options like clamping the camera to something so it renders part of the boat clearly with the glow visible, but softened by movement.

 

Good luck!

 

Dave

that's not a bad idea

get an external flash and flash the siding of the boat so you get at least some indirect light

that's not a bad idea

 

get an external flash and flash the siding of the boat so you get at least some indirect light

At that level, a small LED flashlight reflected off of a light colored shirt would be enough.

I think HDR will exacerbate some of the issues with shooting in low light, on a moving boat, with a crop body camera.

Best bet, as Pierces pointed out is perhaps try to lock the camera down to get the boat to be solid/focused and take a slightly longer exposure to blend the movement of the water and light. The result should look pretty good. And take lots of pics. There's no penalty for taking 10 shots of the same thing with digital. SD cards are cheap.

If you don't mind spending money, a faster lens (50/1.8, 40/2.8, 17-55/2.8, Tokina 11-16/2.8, etc) will help somewhat....but won't full solve the challenges.

At that level, a small LED flashlight reflected off of a light colored shirt would be enough.

not a bad idea either ;-)

camera pack always has a small led flashlight =)

Thanks to all for their help, Love Cruise Critic for all the helpful people. I have been busy lately but I will try these techniques here at home and then see what I can come up with.

It's simple. Hand held low light photography benefits from a fast lens and higher ISO. The faster the lens, F2 or F1.4 for example, the more light let in. Higher ISO is how much more "sensitive" the sensor Is. The higher the ISO the more grain will be introduced.

HDR is best on a tripod. I wouldn't recommend HDR handheld even on a bright day.

The best advice given was to experiment before going. Know what your gear can do before bobbing around on a boat in the dark. Oddly enough, in darkness, you may get a better memory of it if your camera can do video. I think that 1/60 shutter may be as slow as acceptably possible. Low light can take some practice.

Thanks to all for their help, Love Cruise Critic for all the helpful people. I have been busy lately but I will try these techniques here at home and then see what I can come up with.

OK well we got home and I was able to get the glow pictures in the Bio Bay I wanted.... I did buy a 50mm 1.8 canon lens but did not use it. Turns out the guides on our boat knew how to best capture it. They made the flash strobe a few times then the picture took and it did capture the glow.... I had seen pictures like this before but assumed it was enhanced or something... but these have not been touched at all... first the guide took one of me then I took one of my wife.

Thanks for all the help