Shooting in M mode

[Solarflare]

Honestly how you have to arrange the shutter speed depends upon the camera model.

Just today I read reports that the new Sony A7r has problems with vibrations from the (infamous loud) shutter. Which means you have to actually set 3x focal length on this camera.

While others, like the Olympus OM-D, have a good builtin sensor-side vibration reduction and will allow you much better shutter speeds much below focal length, easily.

I would love to make a link to a YouTube video of Matt Granger explaining how to get really slow shutter speeds, but this Z§Z§)("&/!!!!!! forum doesnt allow to set links to youtube without making them into inlay videos.

Just search "HOW TO Get sharp images at slow shutter speeds " on YouTube.

 

[minicoop1985]

One of the key things I've found in getting sharp (ish, as close as my Olympus will allow) low shutter speeds is this trio: Sturdy tripod (mine isn't when extended, but I'll be upgrading soon), mirror lock up (My Oly does this for live view, as much as I hate using live view), and a remote/2 second timer. This is from experience, and if other, more experienced people have better methods, I'd try those first, though I've found this works for me.

 

[Solarflare]

One of the key things I've found in getting sharp (ish, as close as my Olympus will allow) low shutter speeds is this trio: Sturdy tripod (mine isn't when extended, but I'll be upgrading soon), mirror lock up (My Oly does this for live view, as much as I hate using live view), and a remote/2 second timer. This is from experience, and if other, more experienced people have better methods, I'd try those first, though I've found this works for me.

Well OK thats the "perfect" method.

Only needed for things like Macro, though. Or if you (a) have the time and (b) have the ability to transport all that gear (tripods are heavy and bulky).

 

[minicoop1985]

Or are shooting things that don't move in a dedicated area. I do agree it's not practical for a great deal of shoots, but environmental things can be used to steady a camera. I've used benches, the ground, rocks, dams, my car, other cameras, all sorts of things to steady a camera, though there isn't always an easy environmental solution.

 

[weepete]

I didn't see anything posted about this yet, but there's a trick to figuring out how slow you can set your shutter speed without getting shake/blur. On a full frame camera, the shutter speed shouldn't be any higher than the number of the lens focal length. Everything from the Canon T3 to the 7D are crop sensor (sorry if you know this already). On a crop sensor, the sensor is smaller, so it basically crops the image coming into the camera, like this.



Because of this crop, it makes the lenses effectively longer than they actually are (i.e. it looks zoomed in). The basic math for this is x1.5. So, if you have a 50mm lens, it would look like the full image above on a full frame, and the crop sensor image would actually end up looking like about a 75mm lens.

Anyway, on full frame, to not get camera shake, they say the shutter speed shouldn't be any slower than the lens length. So with a 50mm lens, you shouldn't go any slower than 1/50th of a second. On a crop, since it's 1.5, you'd go 50x1.5=75, and the closest shutter speed would be 1/80th. Do that for whatever focal length you're at.

Another trick for manual, if you're shooting handheld in low light, is to max out the aperture, set the slowest shutter speed you can without getting shake, and set the ISO to auto (so if the lighting changes and you don't have a lot of time, you don't have to worry about figuring out a new ISO setting). If it's really dark, the shot might come out underexposed, but an underexposed image is better than a blurry one from camera shake.

Hope that made sense. I'm pretty bad at explaining things haha.

1.6 for canon mate, 1.5 for Nikon

 

[robbins.photo]

Quick rule of thumb, shutter speed should be equivalent or faster than the focal length you are shooting at.

So if you are shooting at 150mm zoom or prime, then you need a shutter speed of 1/150s or faster.

You can shoot slower, but you need to keep the camera ROCK STEADY, wedge your elbows in, use a tripod, rest against a wall or whatever.

Indoors shooting of any sort is always much, much darker than you think. Our brain/eyes are so good at compensating for light levels.

Probably you want to think about fixing your aperture first - since that's your main artistic choice, then adjust shutter and ISO to get it right.

Don't worry about shooting high ISO, modern cameras are very good and a noisy shot is better than a blurry shot.

So, flip your camera to aperture priority, set your aperture as required, use the camera as a light meter then see what shutter speed it recommends. If shutter is very slow, bump up the ISO until shutter speed is acceptable.

Just a footnote, I don't believe this "shoot in manual" stuff - I think a lot of is macho posing - set your camera in aperture mode and let the camera do the work of figuring out the shutter speed. It's only doing what you would do with a light meter anyway and it will do it faster and better than you can. You can always tune the result with exposure compensation (or in post processing)

Macho posing? You say that like it's a bad thing.. lol.

Ok, well with VR/IS or some other form of image stabilization you can actually shoot at slower shutter speeds, but I prefer not to - in fact if I can I prefer higher shutter speeds because you get sharper photos that way. I do use aperture priority mode, but I have found in some situations manual mode is actually the better option as it gives me a little more control. The thing about Aperture priority is that the camera is going to choose the shutter speed based on the ISO for proper exposure, so while I can change the shutter speed by increasing or decreasing the ISO it will always be based on an end result that will give me the correct exposure. I don't always want the correct exposure, and even if I do there are times when I would rather have a specific ISO/Shutter speed/Aperture that will give me an under or overexposed shot knowing that I can fix the exposure in post - but I chose that combination on purpose.

Generally this is when I'm in pretty poor lighting conditions, I need a higher shutter speed and a specific aperture setting to get the DOF I want. Granted I wouldn't call this a "common" situation but it does happen so knowing how to use manual mode can be a handy thing. There are also those times when for artistic reasons I don't necessarily want the shot to be perfectly exposed, though these again are not common and generally if I need to underexpose or overexpose a shot for artistic reasons this is normally something I can do easily enough in post.

 

[xj0hnx]

Don't be afraid of experimenting with higher ISOs than you're currently comfortable with. I mean, it's digital - what is really going to happen if you just go crazy testing every setting you have in Manual mode and taking a crap ton of pictures?

This.

Practice, practice, practice, experiment with all the settings. I got my camera a little over a two years ago and have well over 60,000 shutter actuations. I used to set up scenes in my office and just shoot, trying out different combinations of aperture, ISO, and shutter speeds. Inside the house I am usually shooting around 400-600 ISO, 1/20-1/60 at 3.5-4.5.

 

[Imasphere]

Well OK thats the "perfect" method.

Only needed for things like Macro, though. Or if you (a) have the time and (b) have the ability to transport all that gear (tripods are heavy and bulky).

One of the ways I found to get a steady shot but to cut down on the bulk is to carry one of those miniature tripods with an attachment which allows it to be strapped to an object like a pole or tree branch. I have a small mirrorless camera with a small frame but my daughter has used it with her dslr and her rather light kit lens and it sometimes does miracles. It's one of these things that can easily always be kept in a small camera bag.
I use this model which I really like.:

UCO Ultrapod II Large Tripod

 

[SwampDude]

Most folks here know far more about fundamentals than me, but I'll share my learning process from many years ago with a simple 35mm SLR.

Whatever film was loaded into the camera determined the light sensitivity; using 100 ASA (equivalent to 100 ISO) film fixed that adjustment component, leaving only aperture and shutter speed to be determined by the photographer. For a hand-held shot in daylight, 1/60th second or faster was considered safe for a beginner to avoid blurring from camera movement. Aperture setting then became the only variable to be decided by the novice.

With the film speed and shutter speed pre-set, f-stop was determined by moving the aperature ring until a needle in the viewfinder meter lined up with a circle that moved with different aperature settings. When the needle was centered in the circle, the shot could be taken. One quickly learned that different combinations of shutter speed and f-stop produced acceptable photos with 100ASA film.

My early experience has served me well over the years, and much of what I learned with 35mm is transferable to digital. Thus, my advice is to set ISO to 100 or 200 and leave it there for a while. Experiment with trying different shutter speed and aperature combinations to learn about image differences that result from varying these settings. Your camera's meter will show you how aperature setting changes when different shutter speeds are selected and how shutter speed varies with different aperature settings. Fixing one variable (ISO) will greatly simplify learning about shutter speed and aperature dynamics; once you have a good understanding of these two variables, experimenting with ISO can begin.

 

[glun]

I'm currently using the lens that came with my Canon T3i with ISO around 1600-3200 (That's pretty high right?) Aperture at 3.5 (The lowest my lens goes) and shutter speed at 1/100 (Is that a low setting? I'm worried about motion blur, what's a low setting that does well in avoiding motion blur?)

A lot of questions I know. Also, I'm brand new to this forum so if there's a better place to post this thread let me know!

Thanks!

The ISO you are using is pretty high and even with adequate light a f3.5 lens should be able to take decent picture. With the shutter speed of 1/100 that's pretty much the average range for a shot and if you don't want motion blur, you would want this to be even faster like 1/200. Hope this helps!

 

[jewleeanne]

It seems you know most about manual mode, but you should check out this blog post, it really helped me, and what setting to use: How to Shoot in Manual Mode-The Basics - Click it Up a Notch

Also, your photos may under-exposed/dark because of poor indoor lighting. Try to shoot in your brightest room. You can make a chart showing which rooms are brightest at different times, the brightest rooms still may not give the best lighting, because it's fake, but it will improve the quality of the image.