What would you do?

[teotsi]

Hello everyone! First topic on this forum, hopefully more will come [emoji3] excuse my poor English!

I developed an interest in photography last summer, when I found out how to use the manual focus on our family camera(Panasonic lumix dmc fz18) . Since then, I am trying to self teach myself. I have understood how aperture and shutter speed work, and exposure too.


So here's the thing.

Last week I was with my school at a vacation. While in a bumpy bus going at 100 km/h, being just out of Vienna, we met this epic sunset. It was cloudy until the very end of the sky, where its blue part was still apparent. It was as if the sky was on fire. At the same time we were passing in front of many of those rotating wind thingies for electricity (can't find the word). It was perfect. So, I pulled out the camera, maxed out the optical zoom, and started playing. I had to set the shutter speed to 1/50 or 1/60 to get a non shaky result, causing the image to be dark. So I lowered the f number of the aperture to its minimum, brightening it up somewhat. However, I still needed to bump up the iso. This gave me a great shot after like 50 tries, but the noise is apparent, especially on my pc.



Where did I go wrong?

 

[tirediron]

You didn't. You came up against the limit of your equipment. Any camera can take a great picture on a nice, bright sunny afternoon in open shade, but dealing with higher ISOs, the ability to shoot toward/into the sun, and other things like that are where the money you spend on higher-end gear start to show themselves. I'm not familiar with your camera, but I suspect when you get to ISO 800 and above, you're starting to develop sensor noise, whereas if you spend $7000 for a Nikon D4s, you can shoot perfectly clean shots at ISO 12,500 and above. Don't let it bother you - no matter how good your equipment is, there's always someone with something better, and at the end of the day that Lumix you have now is a thousand times more advanced than the 4x5 view camera that Ansel Adams used to create 'Half Dome' and that worked out pretty well for him. Keep learning, keep shooting, and maybe, eventually, upgrade your gear, but don't let it bother you.

 

[sashbar]

You are not going to get good pictures shooting from a bus that is driving down a bumpy road at 100 km/h . A good image takes a bit more effort.

This Panadonic is a good camera, but not really a low light champion. The noise starts getting visible at ISO 400 and really bad at ISO 800. That is simply not good compared to modern cameras with a working ISO 6400.

So I am afraid with this camera you will need a tripod to shoot sunsets.

 

[teotsi]

Thanks for the reply! The sun wasn't actually in the picture, it was impossible to capture it with this camera. It is something between a compact and an slr. Checking some reviews, the iso noise after 400 is mentioned quite heavily unfortunately. Hopefully I'll be able to reduce the effect in PS(been using it for much longer than the camera).

Anyway, thanks for letting me know. I know the camera is low end, so I hope that during the next summer I'll get my first dslr.

 

[teotsi]

You are not going to get good pictures shooting from a bus that is driving down a bumpy road at 100 km/h [emoji3]. A good image takes a bit more effort.

This Panadonic is a good camera, but not really a low light champion. The noise starts getting visible at ISO 400 and really bad at ISO 800. That is simply not good compared to modern cameras with a working ISO 6400.

So I am afraid with this camera you will need a tripod to shoot sunsets.

Thanks for your reply [emoji4] I don't really think it would be impossible. This camera is really cheap nowadays, I think a professional one would have given better results. The hard part was focusing manually on these generators... Zooming in made them fly in and out of the screen in zero time.

 

[sashbar]

You are not going to get good pictures shooting from a bus that is driving down a bumpy road at 100 km/h [emoji3]. A good image takes a bit more effort.

This Panadonic is a good camera, but not really a low light champion. The noise starts getting visible at ISO 400 and really bad at ISO 800. That is simply not good compared to modern cameras with a working ISO 6400.

So I am afraid with this camera you will need a tripod to shoot sunsets.

Thanks for your reply [emoji4] I don't really think it would be impossible. This camera is really cheap nowadays, I think a professional one would have given better results. The hard part was focusing manually on these generators... Zooming in made them fly in and out of the screen in zero time.

It is a nice camera with lots of features that is good for learning photography, but it has a 1/2.5 in sensor that is simply too small for some low light shots. So you need to live within its limits. Each camera, however good, has its limits, so take it philosophically. It is capable of great shots in better light, and smaller sensors have it's advantages too. But when/if you or your parents will be buying a new one bear in mind the sensor size. You can read a lot about it on the net. Good luck.

 

[Designer]

You probably couldn't get the driver to stop the bus, so maybe you can go back there sometime on your own or with family. Find a safe place to stop the car, (not near the highway) and use something to hold the camera steady, such as rest it on the car, or something.

 

[teotsi]

You probably couldn't get the driver to stop the bus, so maybe you can go back there sometime on your own or with family. Find a safe place to stop the car, (not near the highway) and use something to hold the camera steady, such as rest it on the car, or something.

Yeah, stopping a bus with 70 teens for a pic didn't sound good I live in Greece so I don't think I will be visiting austria soon, but I will keep your advice in mind in similar conditions. I also have a tripod I made from an old telescope one, so using it that way wouldn't be hard.

You are not going to get good pictures shooting from a bus that is driving down a bumpy road at 100 km/h [emoji3]. A good image takes a bit more effort.

This Panadonic is a good camera, but not really a low light champion. The noise starts getting visible at ISO 400 and really bad at ISO 800. That is simply not good compared to modern cameras with a working ISO 6400.

So I am afraid with this camera you will need a tripod to shoot sunsets.

Thanks for your reply [emoji4] I don't really think it would be impossible. This camera is really cheap nowadays, I think a professional one would have given better results. The hard part was focusing manually on these generators... Zooming in made them fly in and out of the screen in zero time.

It is a nice camera with lots of features that is good for learning photography, but it has a 1/2.5 in sensor that is simply too small for some low light shots. So you need to live within its limits. Each camera, however good, has its limits, so take it philosophically. It is capable of great shots in better light, and smaller sensors have it's advantages too. But when/if you or your parents will be buying a new one bear in mind the sensor size. You can read a lot about it on the net. Good luck.

Thanks for the advice! It is indeed great for daytime, but it needs the shutter to be slow at night.

 

[sashbar]

Thanks for your reply [emoji4] I don't really think it would be impossible. This camera is really cheap nowadays, I think a professional one would have given better results. The hard part was focusing manually on these generators... Zooming in made them fly in and out of the screen in zero time.

No, no, this is a completely wrong approach my friend
Of course you can catch a wind turbine blade, but this way you will end up in a circus, not being a great photographer. A professional camera probably would allow to take a better shot from inside the driving bus, but this is not what should bother you. It is not important. The important is what a PROFESSIONAL would do in your place. And I can tell you what he would do. He would stop the bus, get off it and will take time to find the perfect shooting spot for his tripod, wait for the best sunset moment and will consider a lot of other things. Good photography takes time and effort, and that is more important than your sensor size. Do I sound like your teacher? Anyway, good luck.

 

[teotsi]

Thanks for your reply [emoji4] I don't really think it would be impossible. This camera is really cheap nowadays, I think a professional one would have given better results. The hard part was focusing manually on these generators... Zooming in made them fly in and out of the screen in zero time.

[emoji3] No, no, this is a completely wrong approach my friend [emoji3]
Of course you can catch a wind turbine blade, but this way you will end up in a circus, not being a great photographer. A professional camera probably would allow to take a better shot from inside the driving bus, but this is not what should bother you. It is not important. The important is what a PROFESSIONAL would do in your place. And I can tell you what he would do. He would stop the bus, get off it and will take time to find the perfect shooting spot for his tripod, wait for the best sunset moment and will consider a lot of other things. Good photography takes time and effort, and that is more important than your sensor size. Do I sound like your teacher? Anyway, good luck.

That does sound a bit more orthodox I will admit. Hopefully next time there's a chance for a great shot I will give it the time it deserves [emoji4]. I will upload 3 pics from the scene tomorrow, so you can see the whole picture.

 

[teotsi]

these are the 3 pics I talked about. The noise is obvious unfortunately.