Photography

[midnightterror]

I have a Nikon D90 digital slr camera. I want to take some pictures of my Haunt but at night in actual lighting. Does anyone have any tips about aperture and shutter speed settings? Any info will help.

[poison]

Get a tripod.
Open the iso to let the most amount of light as you can.
adjust your shutter to a low #. (Basically you need to shoot with a longer shutter speed).
I'm no pro but this works for me.

[Monster-Tronics]

If you don’t already have one, get a remote also. Any movement even being on a tripod will mess up your shot. Pre focus then snap the pic with the remote. I just got a wireless remote for my D-5000 off eBay for $6 and it works great!

[scream1973]

You want to let in as much available light as possible.
A nice wide aperture low F stops (f2.8 or so) and as low an ISO (50 or 100 ) if the camera allows.
Like the others said use a tripod and remote release to avoid any undue movement.


Also shoot as RAW if you can so you have a little more leaway in post processing.

[beardedbil]

Sorry to correct you scream1973 but you actually want to shoot with a very open aperture which is a LOW numbered f-stop, like a 2.8, this has the aperture opened wide allowing lots of light in while an f-22 keeps the opening very small. You want to purchase the FASTEST lens you can comfortably afford. When purchasing lenses you will notice they are marked like: 28-100mm f/4-5.6 or 50mm f/2.8. The first lens is known as a zoom lens and will go from 28mm to 100mm, however you can only shoot at f-4. While the latter one is known as a prime lens and can shoot as low as f-2.8. This will let in more light then the first.

Also it is important to know you double your exposure every time you up your f stop. So for example if your camera needs 60 seconds at an f-4 for a properly exposed image, you would need 120 seconds at f-5.6, thus the need for a tripod. If you can't afford to buy a lens there are great websites that let you rent very expensive lenses that you couldn't normally get your hands on...
www.lensrentals.com
www.borrowlenses.com

I have used both services and they are great. I can usually find a lens that may cost $400 for a weekly rental at $30. Hope this helps and clears things up a bit...

[IHAUNT]

Check out the current issue of HauntWorld magazine for a great article about haunt photography by Artifact Images entitled 'Creating Killer shots'.
Dan & Sue have been capturing the essence of Haunted Overload for years.

Tom

www.HauntedOverload.com

[Jim Warfield]

I heard someone outside of my house...

..there was a young girl (woman) with a camera in her hand.
"Err, do you care if I take some pictures of your house?"
(She was very nervous)
"I have one rule concerning picture taking...
..always use a camera."
She was so nervous and now she was really confused!!
"You mean a video camera?" She asked.
"No, just "A" camera."
She still was confused.
Yes, this is the one thing I know about taking pictures:
Always use a camera.

[midnightterror]

Thanks all for the help. It is greatly appreciated!

[imax]

I typically do the following:

1) Set the exposure time to something long. Depending how dark it is, you may need just a few hundred milliseconds, or a very, very long time. I often find myself at 15 seconds. A lot of digital cams don't do more than 16 seconds, which sucks. Hopefully your DSLR is awesome.

2) Make sure you have the shot framed up on a tripod, and use the viewfinder as your LCD display most likely won't show much!

3) Use the timer function of your camera. It takes longer to do a shot, but you won't get the vibrations from touching the shutter button. That can be disasterous. A remote is also handy if your cam supports it.

4) If you want to caputre detail of things in the foreground, fire the flash. The long exposure time will still capture the set lighting, and the flash will bring out the details.

5) Don't be afraid to play with the photo in post. Use programs like Picasa, Photoshop, whatever you have at your disposal to crop, adjust color, etc.

6) Finally, HAVE FUN. There's no penatly other than time for bad shots on a digital camera. Practice makes perfect ;-)