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12-26-2011, 06:02 PM   #1
Margo
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Night Scene Photos

I am having some trouble with night photos being blurry and double exposed even when using the night scene setting.
Any suggestions?

12-26-2011, 06:48 PM   #2
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There are many things going on. It the ISO setting suitable for hand held shooting? What lens is being used? Many zoom lenses lack the speed for effective low light picture taking. The use of a tripod will make a big different in these conditions. I have read posts of turning off the SR system although I have not done this myself. Usng a fast prime lens like a 50mm f1.4 to f2.0 will help increase the shutter speed in low light conditions. Try posting some examples of your work along with exposure data for other to see where your problems are.

Try getting out of the scene modes and start using the AV mode or at least Program mode to gain greater control your exposures. You can at least use the EV override to increase or decrease the exposure in night time lighting conditions. There are times when the lighting can be very wide ranging affecting how the final look of the picture will be. Bright lights will fool the light meter into setting higher shutter speeds while other scenes will overexposure due to dark lighting. The light meter will want to make the black areas 18% grey. That is why the use of the EV override is needed to correct the meters settings at times.

Last edited by stevbike; 12-26-2011 at 07:05 PM.
12-26-2011, 07:02 PM   #3
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Evening and Welcome to the Forum,

Could you tell us a bit more about what you were doing (what type of night scene) and your camera/lens? I am guessing that you are using the Kr or Kx with probably the kit lens?

Just because you put the camera in to night scene mode, magic does not automatically occur each and every time. The night scene mode does help, however it is also dependent on a lot of other things (the amount of available light, the amount of time the shutter is open, etc.).

I am going to assume a couple of things.
  1. Outside at night?
  2. Some sort of dim lighting source?
  3. You are hand holding the camera?
If this is somewhat right - its a recipe for a disaster - essentially just what you wound up with. The night scene will make some adjustments to your camera body, however it will not work miracles.

For something like this to work - you are going to have to 1) leave the shutter open for a long time (1, 5, 10, or 30 seconds perhaps), and while its open collecting light, the camera needs to be very stable (tripod, sitting on a block wall, or something solid). You also need to be able to push the shutter and hold it down without moving the camera.

I am guessing your blurry shot was from some camera movement, and the double exposure was probably you made a large movement while the shutter was open.

If you posted the photo here and gave some additional information (what you were doing), folks would then be able to help you..... Also, there is a program called photome (free) available at PhotoME - Exif, IPTC & ICC Metadata Editor that would easily show you the information the camera recorded along with the image. We need the shutter speed, ISO, aperture (f stop), lens would help a bit, and your camera model.

Here are some sites that can help....

Last edited by interested_observer; 12-26-2011 at 07:09 PM.
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