Any photographers out there?

[tripperfunster]

Today I made a lightbox via instructions on the interwebs. We've had some adorable baby chicks and ducks lately, and I wanted to photograph them.

The problem is, my camera is WAY beyond my skill set of point and click. I generally keep it on the 'auto' setting, and shut the flash off, but the light box proved to be tricky and I tried a million settings and wasn't really happy with any of them. (and didn't understand any of them either.)

I have the options of (I assume) shutter speed, from 80 up to 1600. I also have the option of C1, C2, M, AV, TV, P (the afore mentioned) auto, scn and movie.

The camera seemed to have trouble focusing, so I moved it physically back and then zoomed in. Any hints or tips would be welcome. Any hints on getting a chick to sit the fuck still and look at the camera would also be appreciated. ;)




These were tweaked quite a bit in ps, to get rid of the overtly yellow colour and give them more contrast.

Comments

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I know absolutely nothing about photography, but... OH, BABY CHICKENS! They look so adorably pensive! And fluffy! OMG, their orange little feet!!

[akatnamedeaster.livejournal.com]

I have nothing practical to say other than "OMG baby chicken people!!" So f**king cute!

[pomma-penses.livejournal.com]

Ove of those camera settings will be "control over shutter speed, auto everything else" and another will be "control over aperature, auto everything else." I tend to use the latter, and make sure I don't have a shutter speed under 60 as that causes shake/blur. A low aperature is good in lower lighting situations and can give a pleasingly blurred background with an in-focus subject.

Light balance should be able to be controlled in camera but just as easy to do in post-processing as you have done.

Sorry totally babbling here!

[kath-ballantyne.livejournal.com]

Okay I think the 80-1600 is ISO. That's the digital equivalent of film speed. Basically the lower numbers are less grainy and will take sharper pictures BUT you need a lot of light. 100-200 is a great film speed for outside with decent light. 800 up is good for lower light conditions but you will get more grain. 200-400 is probably good.

I don't know what C1 and C2 are. They're probably camera specific. M is total manual control and I wouldn't bother with that for what you need.

AV is aperture priority. Basically you set the aperture and it does the rest. TV is, I'm guessing, the shutter speed priority where you set the shutter speed and it does the rest. P will probably have a bunch of settings like night mode and back lit, sunset and fireworks etc. It depends on your camera.

I tend to go with AV. It means you can control your depth of field, what's in focus in each picture. I really don't know enough about it to explain properly but for things in a light box I'd generally turn the aperture settings wheel all the way to the left.

Given that you're wanting fast pictures to capture the chicks before they move it may be worth checking the P settings to see if you can find a Sport mode. That would probably work. Just make sure there is plenty of light getting through the light box sides.

Otherwise you need to set a fast shutter speed yourself. It's probably the TV setting. The smaller numbers 1/500 of a second etc give you sharp pictures and the higher numbers 1/2 a second, 1 second etc give you motion blur or night time shots, they let more light in but the shutter is open longer so you get the blur. Basically you want to set it to the smallest number you can that still ends up with a bright enough photo. Start on the smallest number and take a photo and then go up one setting and take another photo until you find one that works well with your amount of light in the light box then stick with that.

The pictures are coming out yellow because the white balance setting is wrong. Do you have a manual for the camera? You could do with finding out how to change the white balance to what ever kind of lights you're using outside the light box. If they are flourescent or tungsten ect. If you can't figure this out then adjust the colour temperature settings in Photoshop Warmer/cooler etc or use colour balance.

Also eeeee chicks!

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Re: the focussing - check of your camera has a manual focus setting, probably marked AF/MF. If you use that with the P that might be better and mean that you don't have to worry too much about the shutter speeds etc as they would still be done automatically by the camera.

[facecat.livejournal.com]

I think these are adorable. I love the 2nd one - he looks so pensive.

[tripperfunster.livejournal.com]

They are way too cute! *squishes them*

[tripperfunster.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they're pretty damn adorable. We have baby ducklings too, for the first time ever. I'll see if I can steal one from Mama and take some pics.

[tripperfunster.livejournal.com]

No prob, thanks!

I probably should have sat down with the camera first, but I AM 12 YEARS OLD AND VERY IMPATIENT! *sigh*

I should probably find (or googlefu) the manual and find out what these things mean.

[tripperfunster.livejournal.com]

I am SHIT for hanging onto manuals. :D I suppose I'll have to find it online and go through all the settings to learn what they do.

And yes, I was having a lot of trouble focusing. God forbid I PREP before deciding I need to be a professional camera person! It was literally 9 at night, and I said .. I'M GOING TO MAKE A LIGHTBOX! :D

thanks for the advice, I will have to play around.

[tripperfunster.livejournal.com]

I don't have a lens that I can focus, so I assume it's all automatic. *sigh*
I guess I have to sit down with the manual (or online version thereof) and figure out what it can do. It's sort of like my phone. I could probably bring down the space station with it, but I mostly use it for angry birds. ;)

[tripperfunster.livejournal.com]

Thanks! We made a little top hat for him, but it wouldn't stay on. I'll have to find something sticky but not TOO sticky. ;)

[kath-ballantyne.livejournal.com]

I decided to make a light box once to take pics of stuff I'd made. I managed to sit on the cat, tear the box I was using, knock over one of the lamps and broke the light bulb. By that point I gave up.
I don't have the room for it. It was only small but we don't have any surfaces clear so I was on the floor and there's not much of that.

Good luck.

[kath-ballantyne.livejournal.com]

Does pressing the shutter halfway down get it to focus on what's in the centre of your screen?

[sra-danvers.livejournal.com]

I don't know a thing XD But I like the photos!!

[demicus.livejournal.com]

Your chick pics came out really good! I too made a light box & it would've been fabulous if I'd had a good camera. LOL! Sadly, I do not.