All night during our Amber game, I was off and on fidgeting with the settings and picking on poor Nick. I was trying how to use the passive light (rather than the flash) to take pictures in a lower light situation, like a house with lighting in the evening. This does create a yellowish-tint to the picture, but my real issue is the blur!
Anyway at the bus station, I was able to take great low-light pictures of the static, surrounding background as below.
But when it came time to try and frame up Ghen-ki, I hit a wall. He is quite blurry! Yet the background is pretty sharp. As seen below...
I suspected I might have been off on what I was trying to focus on (the D-90 seems to have focus points in the viewfinder, though as of yet I do not understand precisely how they work). We were having a shutter speed issue at first with how I was pressing the shutter button (Ghen-ki was doing it correctly). But I think we resolved that.In the end, my best result was as follows:
And while I deem this a good first run, Ghen-ki is still clearly blurry and lacking in detail.Well, hopefully I can figure out what I am doing wrong. :-/
My last frustration is an ancient one. I can't seem to keep a steady enough hand at night for those so-coveted night skyline shots. Here is my attempt with the Space Needle...
The best advice I can give to you when you're learning how to use your DSLR: turn off all automatic stuff until the automatic feature is *taking over from you* not *doing something you don't get*. Seriously. Turn off autofocus, set shutter and aperture by hand. See what works and what doesn't. You've got a huge bonus compared to a film SLR in that if something doesn't work, you're only out a few seconds of your time.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I highly recommend Ansel Adam's books on photography. _The_Negative_ and _The_Print_ aren't as applicable anymore, but _The_Camera_ is. You can borrow my copy if you'd like.