nikon d50 help

[t1mmaay]

let me start by saying im new and this is my first post so thank you for having me.

so i shoot mostly low light enviroment and everyone told me to get the 50mm 1.8 so i did. i dont see how everyone loves this lense i shot tons of shots last night changing all settings but the low light pictures of band member in a dark room with red blue and green lights its still shaky blurry not sharp.


this is what i want to acomplish . i want to take pictures of people in my recording studio its dark and i cant use flash cause its distracting often the light is eighter soft flourecent or par cans with gels so its colorfull however whichever lense i use its blurry the color melts all over the capture and i can just capture what i see with my naked eye. months of driving me nuts.

i dont see the advantage of the 50mm i cant zoom and im stuck with one size and moveing around sucks when there is equipment around. the standard lenses seem better cause i can actually zoom.


NONE OF MY LENSES ARE VR is that why the pictures suck.

please help me with settings. also how come i cant turn the flash off in most modes on the d50 mostly on the auto mode works well in this low light wich dosnt let me change the iso.


this is the studio with no movement no flash this is the only one im close to happy with other than the massive shadows
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this is a picture of a person playing why is is so blurry and not sharp she looks like a smurff


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same thing here blurry not sharp
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and this is just the room but i cant get the picture right no matter what why is it so blurry

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any suggestions would be awesome


thanks

tim

 

[blash]

Nikon D50? That's a digital SLR, and this is the film section. This post needs to be moved --------> thataway. (Photography Beginners' Forum & Photo Gallery - The Photo Forum - Photography Discussion Forum)

In response to your question though (since I'm not a complete jerk), you need to understand the triangle of ISO, shutter speed, and aperture and how they affect your camera and the images you take. Exposure can be thought of as filling a bottle with water - once the bottle is half-full, you're done exposing. For any particular shot, you're going to need a set amount of light (water) coming into the camera (bottle) - too much light and the picture is too bright/white (over exposed, the bottle is too heavy and 3/4 full), too little light and the picture will be too dark/black (underexposed, the bottle is very light and only 1/4 full). (see further elaborations below).

For ISO - increasing the ISO will give you more sensitivity to light, i.e. use more ISO in darker environments. However, the more ISO you use, the grainier your pictures will become. Increasing the ISO is like using a smaller bottle, like an 8 oz. bottle instead of a 16 oz. bottle, so you need less light to fill it half-way.

For shutter speed - increasing the shutter speed (i.e. from 1/250 of a second to 1 second) will increase the amount of light coming into the camera, but it will make the pictures blurrier. This is deciding how long to let the bottle under the faucet - longer and you have more water.

For aperture - increasing the aperture (i.e. from f/8 to f/1.8) will increase the amount of light coming into the camera, but it will increase something called bokeh (see: Bokeh - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia), which is when the backgrounds are out of focus but the subject (i.e. the people) are in perfect focus - so this is a good thing for portraiture (i.e. what you are doing) but maybe not for landscapes. This is increasing the size of the bottleneck of the bottle - bigger and more light can come in at once, smaller and the bottleneck will require you to hold it under the faucet for longer.

What's probably happening is that you're letting your D50 run in complete automatic mode, which isn't using your lens to the best of it's abilities. Take the ISO, set it nice and high, then use aperture priority mode to manually set the aperture to f/1.8 and then try taking the pictures again. If they still come out blurry because the camera needs to still set the shutter speed higher in order to achieve the correct exposure (remember: light vs. dark images), then you might need the 50mm f/1.4 lens variant, which can let even more light come into the camera at once. See your camera manual for how to set all of this stuff.

 

[t1mmaay]

thanks for your response im so new at this i dont really know what im doing.

i know that when i put the camera a p or m it wont let me turn the internal flash off so i try not to shooot in those modes . maybe there is put when i use the wheel selector it dosnt have no flash

 

[DavidElliot]

thanks for your response im so new at this i dont really know what im doing.

i know that when i put the camera a p or m it wont let me turn the internal flash off so i try not to shooot in those modes . maybe there is put when i use the wheel selector it dosnt have no flash

I don't seem to have that issue when I shoot with my D40. Maybe they changed it with the newer model. I know I can control whether the flash is used when I shoot in Manual, Aperture and Program mode. I'm not sure why it's not working for you.

 

[djacobox372]

thanks for your response im so new at this i dont really know what im doing.

i know that when i put the camera a p or m it wont let me turn the internal flash off so i try not to shooot in those modes . maybe there is put when i use the wheel selector it dosnt have no flash

Shoot in "M" mode and set your aperture to 1.8 and your shutter speed to 1/30th... then adjust your iso until your shot is properly exposed.

For the life of me I have no idea why nikon doesn't include a "SA" mode where you set the aperture and shutter speed and the camera sets the iso for exposure.

 

[bdavison]

Shoot in "M" mode and set your aperture to 1.8 and your shutter speed to 1/30th... then adjust your iso until your shot is properly exposed.

For the life of me I have no idea why nikon doesn't include a "SA" mode where you set the aperture and shutter speed and the camera sets the iso for exposure.

They do...its called manual mode...and Auto ISO.

 

[blash]

Shoot in "M" mode and set your aperture to 1.8 and your shutter speed to 1/30th... then adjust your iso until your shot is properly exposed.

For the life of me I have no idea why nikon doesn't include a "SA" mode where you set the aperture and shutter speed and the camera sets the iso for exposure.

No, 1/30th is too slow. When hand-holding, the slowest shutter speed you want to use with any lens is 1 over the focal length, so for a 50mm lens, you should not be shooting slower than 1/50th hand-held.

 

[DScience]

Nikon D50? That's a digital SLR, and this is the film section. This post needs to be moved --------> thataway. (Photography Beginners' Forum & Photo Gallery - The Photo Forum - Photography Discussion Forum)

In response to your question though (since I'm not a complete jerk), you need to understand the triangle of ISO, shutter speed, and aperture and how they affect your camera and the images you take. Exposure can be thought of as filling a bottle with water - once the bottle is half-full, you're done exposing. For any particular shot, you're going to need a set amount of light (water) coming into the camera (bottle) - too much light and the picture is too bright/white (over exposed, the bottle is too heavy and 3/4 full), too little light and the picture will be too dark/black (underexposed, the bottle is very light and only 1/4 full). (see further elaborations below).

For ISO - increasing the ISO will give you more sensitivity to light, i.e. use more ISO in darker environments. However, the more ISO you use, the grainier your pictures will become. Increasing the ISO is like using a smaller bottle, like an 8 oz. bottle instead of a 16 oz. bottle, so you need less light to fill it half-way.

For shutter speed - increasing the shutter speed (i.e. from 1/250 of a second to 1 second) will increase the amount of light coming into the camera, but it will make the pictures blurrier. This is deciding how long to let the bottle under the faucet - longer and you have more water.

For aperture - increasing the aperture (i.e. from f/8 to f/1.8) will increase the amount of light coming into the camera, but it will increase something called bokeh (see: Bokeh - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia), which is when the backgrounds are out of focus but the subject (i.e. the people) are in perfect focus - so this is a good thing for portraiture (i.e. what you are doing) but maybe not for landscapes. This is increasing the size of the bottleneck of the bottle - bigger and more light can come in at once, smaller and the bottleneck will require you to hold it under the faucet for longer.

What's probably happening is that you're letting your D50 run in complete automatic mode, which isn't using your lens to the best of it's abilities. Take the ISO, set it nice and high, then use aperture priority mode to manually set the aperture to f/1.8 and then try taking the pictures again. If they still come out blurry because the camera needs to still set the shutter speed higher in order to achieve the correct exposure (remember: light vs. dark images), then you might need the 50mm f/1.4 lens variant, which can let even more light come into the camera at once. See your camera manual for how to set all of this stuff.

That was a very nice response!! I have been doing a lot of research on the very basics of photography, and your metaphor was very intuitive! Thank you for taking the time...!

 

[t1mmaay]

well thanks everyone. after using the 50 mm i learned that i dont like it very much its not helpful to not be able to zoom ALOT when it comes to following a band member who is jumping all around. im just wondering if maybe i should invest in the vr lense instead so it will help with the shaking factore of being hand held. ive played with all those combinations and its still not a true representation of what i see with my eye im wondering if it would just be easier to shoot a hd video of the band then grab screenshots of the perfect picture.

 

[Katier]

No, 1/30th is too slow. When hand-holding, the slowest shutter speed you want to use with any lens is 1 over the focal length, so for a 50mm lens, you should not be shooting slower than 1/50th hand-held.

To be honest 1/30th ought to be fine, I've hand held down to 1/15th without a problem and if the lens had VR you could probably go below that.

That said 1/60th is considered the 'default' hand holdable speed.

 

[tsaraleksi]

If someone is jumping around then neither 1/30 or 1/50th is going to freeze the action. In a studio as dark as the one you're showing, you're not going to be able to get decent results with any zoom lens. The reason everyone is suggesting the prime is that it lets in a lot more light, although it looks like even that may not be enough. When you say that you can't shut off the flash in manual mode, what do you mean? In my experience the flash has to be put up to be used, and if you want to turn it off you just push it down.

VR would be essentially useless if people are moving around a lot.

 

[gsgary]

As others have said you need to use a prime, i use a Canon 50mmF1.4, but you need a camera that can shoot at ISO3200 with low noise, Also you were only shooting at ISO800

Here's one i shot some weeks ago for a band, there wasn't much room but you have to do the best you can with the lighting and space ISO3200 F2.5 1/50

 

[EhJsNe]

crank your ISO up as much as you can, set the aperture f 1.4, and get the shutter speed as high as you can get it while still beeing properly exposed, 1/60 beeing the ABSOLUTE SLOWEST you should go, Im assuming the people are moving, and your hands are shaking a bit....so you dont want to go any slower than that.

 

[Joves]

Well you also need support for the camera when the shutter speeds are low. A monopod would be best in a crowded area. Also I dont remember the flash coming up in Manual Mode, I know it did in the Auto modes. You can actually dial the flashes intensity down in the menu options. If I remember right it goes down to 1/8 power at its lowest. Also you could go to Nikons site for the manual if you dont have one.

 

[LarryD]

You say that this is your recording studio...

Get some quality spotlights and mount them on rails so you get more light on your subject..

With direct spots on the subject, you can lower other lights around if you are looking for ambience........

If it's a Studio, you shouldn't be saddled with the problems you have when shooting on stage or in a club.... you should be able to tailor your lighting just like you would in a photo studio..