How to take a good Full Tank Shot with DSLR?
- Thread starter Gooli
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DetectiveTofu
New member
Use a tripod, and fiddle with the white balance until you find something that comes close to life. Every camera, and lens will handle different lighting situations differently. If needed use a PP program to alter the image so everything looks spiffy.
My advice is to just try, and play with it.
My advice is to just try, and play with it.
wetWolger
New member
Trial and error. I don't know that camera at all, but shooting in RAW will allow you to adjust white balance later on the computer (which for photos like these make it a ton easier)
Other than that, there is no global settings you can just set your camera too, you just have to learn and the best way to learn is by trying.
Other than that, there is no global settings you can just set your camera too, you just have to learn and the best way to learn is by trying.
TitusvileSurfer
New member
Mmm not so much. any 50mm lens should behave similarly on a 1.5x crop sensor DSLR when compared to another 50mm lens using an equal or narrower aperture. That said the widest possible aperture is pretty narrow to begin with on an Nikon (or Canon) 18-55mm kit lens.
I suggest you set your camera to full manual mode (M as opposed to P,S, or A). This puts you in the drivers seat of 3 very important controls which combine to dictate how much light the camera sees. Understanding what these 3 numbers mean and how they effect each other will allow you to take consistent and predictable photographs.
I am going to make up a unit for light. This is imaginary and only serves to illustrate. The light in our imaginary room is constant and under our control. We have 10 units of light in the room.
With 10 units of light, your 18-55 @ 50mm will correctly expose for the following settings:
Aperture f/5.6
Shutter Speed 1/60
ISO 800
Aperture, shutter speed, and ISO are the three primary settings under your complete control with manual mode:
*Aperture measures how big around your lens is at a given focal length. As a fraction, f/5.6 is a SMALLER VALUE than f/4, which is smaller than f/2.8, ect.
2.8 multiplied by the square root of 2 is 4, multiplied by the square root of 2 is 5.6, ect.
*Shutter speed measures how long the picture is taken. 1 second, 1/2 of a second, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500, ect.
*ISO measures how sensitive the camera's image sensor (digital film) is to light. 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, ect.
When I displayed the units for shutter speed and ISO, each number doubled the one before it. Shutter speed isn't always an exact double, but doubleing the speed is the general idea. When I displayed aperture, the number itself didn't double but over time they aren't hard to memorize. Each of these UNITS is called a stop. We aren't using imaginary units here, this is for real. Measuring the light itself isn't so easy without specialized equipment, but understanding you will have a different set of options depending on how much light is reflecting from your subject is paramount.
So our settings in the imaginary room are f/5.6, 1/60, 800
Aperture, Shutter speed, ISO.
If I want more of one, I can take away from either of the opposite two. Shutter speed controls how long the picture is taken. At 1/60, any movement that happens within 1/60 of a second will be captured a blur. If 1/60 makes a photograph which is too blurry, 1/125 (the next STOP) will make the photograph less blurry.
1/60 to 1/125 is one stop. The photograph will be taken for half the time, which will reduce blur but also cause the image to be darker. A stop of shutter speed is the same amount of light as a stop of ISO, so if I take away a stop of shutter speed and add a stop of ISO, my picture's brightness will not change. ISO was 800, 1 more stop is double that: 1600
My new settings are f/5.6, 1/125, 1600
I am still getting blur. So lets add another stop of shutter speed and take away a stop of aperture.
My new settings are f/4, 1/250, 1600
All three of these settings will have the exact same amount of brightness in the image, but less blur because of the faster shutter speed:
f/5.6, 1/60, 800
f/5.6, 1/125, 1600
f/4, 1/250, 1600
The smaller the aperture (f/4), the smaller the area of focus in the image. This means what is behind the red focus box that flashes in your viewfinder will be blurred more compared to a narrower aperture. The more light you let in with aperture, the less focus room you will have.
The greater the ISO sensitivity, the more digital noise will be present in your image. Think of the snow on your TV during a show that doesn't come in will.
The faster the shutter speed, the less blur. Sometimes you want blur, sometimes you don't.
ReefiusMaxiumus
New member
getting familiar with the editing software never hurts. It's amazing how a picture can go from dark and blue to looking exactly like your tank.
ir0n_ma1den
New member
Wow TS great demonstration. thanks
