Hi,

I am a fairly new to digital Photography and I am using a Kodak Z712 IS digicam. I love the camera and slowly getting used to the various manual settings available.

The trouble I am facing is that when I attempt to take a snap of a withered tree with the background of a evening sky (post sunset) when the sky has a orangish tinge with clouds, my pictures are underexposed, in auto and apeture priority mode. though in manual mode the results are better but not as expected. I need some help in understanding which aperture+shutter+ISO setting would provide the best results in low-light conditions without a flash in which the foreground subject creates a sharp shadow in the brighter background.

Attached is a picture to better illustrate my point.

Thanks and Regards,

Rahul Dev.

RDee wrote: Number one use a tripod...You will need a tripod as the exposures will be of too long a duration for a "snapshot". No. 2 USE VA TRIPOD!!!!! No. 3 Set the ISO at no more than ISO 200 as any higher will start to put some noise into the photo. Don't use the IS as it can induce some resonance with the tripod and cause some blur in the photo. No. 4 Set the PASM to manual mode. No. 5 Set the Aperture (f/stop) to around 3.8 or so. Too low and F/stop will cause the photo to have too shallow a depth of field. This will cause one feature to be in sharp focus but the rest will be out of focus. No. 6 Use the timer to trigger the shutter after getting a focus. A broad focus is better than a center spot focus here.No. 7 Then start moving the shutter speed to a progressively slower speed as you take your photos. Start with 1/60 th of a second and shoot a photo. Review it. If it is too dark move the shutter speed to a slower setting. Shoot another photo. Review it. If it is too dark move the shutter speed again to one stop slower. Shoot another photo. If it is too dark then move the shutter speed setting again to a slower speed...And on and on till you have what you are looking for. You also can try higher f/stops such as f/5.0 or so and do the same with the shutter speed as above. Just work your way to the exposure you want by adjusting the shutter speed and the aperture. Below is a couple of examples of doing this technique. Remember there is NO GROUP OF SETTINGS THAT CAN BE USED EVERY TIME. It will change even on the same night as the moon rises higher or you include more foliage in the photo or you just move the camera a little! When you do these things just re-adjust the shutter speed or aperture to let more or less light in. And have patience...This type of photography demands you have patience as the exposures take time!! And above all have fun...This is my favorite type of photography!!

Dawg

And another of the same subject.

Dawg

Aperture, shutter sapeed, and ISO all do the same thing to exposure: increase it or decrease it. A bigger hole (aperture) lets in more light, a slower shutter speed lets more light in during the time period, and ISO changes how much your camera's sensor is amplifying the light. ISO also increases noise while it increases exposure, so let's eliminate it by leaving it at its lowest setting. Changing apertures changes depth of field (the range of distance from the camera where things are in focus), so to preserve the presentation between different shots of the same thing, you shoudl also leave the aperture setting in one place. That leaves shutter speed. Put your camera in manual mode, set the ISO to the lowest number, set the aperture to its lowest number, and see what kind of shutter speed it suggests. Thsi is your starting point. Now, with the camera on a tripod, take another frame with a slower shutter speed, leaving everything else the same. Then, increase the shutter speed again. Keep doing this until you get the exposure you want.

Ha! Nice cross-post we came up with Dawg! Well, it's good to see that we said the same basic thing...

RDee wrote:

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"...I am using a Kodak Z712 IS digicam. ....slowly getting used to the various manual settings available...help in understanding which aperture+shutter+ISO setting would provide the best results in low-light conditions without a flash in which the foreground subject creates a sharp shadow in the brighter background."

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I also have a Z712is and love it.

I generally use it in aperture priority mode (A), setting the aperture according to desired depth of field, unless low light or other reasons dictate otherwise.

To get the exposure right, I use the viewfinder (or, very occasionally, the LCD screen), with most settings displayed. On part-pressing the shutter release to focus, and then letting it go, a reasonable preview of the image you're about to take appears, with the tonal range about as it will be seen in the shot. If parts of the image are too dark or too light, alter the EV +/- (exposure compensation) setting using the thumbwheel control, until it looks right (after part-pressing & releasing the button, remember).Ignore what the image tone looks like while the release is part-pressed.

All this can be done without taking the camera from your eye.

If the EV correction won't correct far enough, set the camera to 'fully manual' (M) and once again set the exposure by eye in the viewfinder. You may even see huge EV error values displayed on the screen, but if looks right as a preview, take no notice and try the shot anyway. With difficult shots exposure meters are easily fooled, and they can't read your mind over which bits you want over or under exposed.Just take lots of shots, and throw most of them away later.

If you can't decide on exactly which exposure is right, take many shots with different exposures, either manually or automatically using the bracketing facility, several times with different steps if necessary.

It may well be, with difficult subjects such as you describe, that none of the shots will be exactly what you want, due to limitations of dynamic range (only 255 levels of brightness). In that case, you just have to choose the best, or do clever things in Photoshop or similar.

Using a good tripod makes these things a lot easier, but carrying one defeats one important purpose ofsuch of a beautifully light & compact yet fully-featured and cheap camera. I carry a tiny minitripod (which cost me a whole 1.0 ukpounds!), or rest the camera on something. I find the image stabilisation to be very good, provided I can concentrate and keep calm! But I'll often repeat the shots at higher ISO settings, for faster shutter speed or smaller stop, in case they turn out better.

The excellent electronic viewfinder with its full information and very reasonable preview is an absolute breakthrough in my photography, allowing me to use some of the judgement I used to use later in the darkroom or on the computer, but at the instant of taking the shot instead.

Good luck, and have fun with your great little camera!

Your Z712 can be set to auto bracket, that take one shot at less than the indicated exposure value, one at the value and with more exposure than the metered value. You set the steps from as little as 1/3 stop up to 2 stops. Tripod mounting the camera while auto bracketing is recommended and would additionally allow all three images to be combined in post-proccessing if one exposure cannot capture the range you need.

Fundamentally, if you want the foreground to be a shadow you'll want to set your exposure based on the sky.

David French wrote: Ha-Ha-Ha!! Yes...we must have been typing at the same time...LOL



Dawg

Hi All,

Thanks for such a detailed response to my query. Special thanks to bigdawg and AlanT for sharing your knowledge with me. I am sorry for the delay in replying as I was out of town.

I have been regularly watching posts in the kodak forum before I bought my camera. I really apreciate the extensive research done by Alan T on Z712 batteries. following his advice I have bought the 1600Mah Klic-8000 and a 1800Mah Sakar replacable Li-ion, I also use 2700Mah NiMh batteries.

Thanks to your excellent advice and kind help,

RahulDev.

I am posting a pic... let me know what you feel.

The main prob may be the shutter speed was limited to 0.5 sec in auto P mode, you have to manually increase it beyond that time to get more light in, try 2/4/8 seconds for sunset. or 16 sec in pitch black ;)