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Photography Question 

Kelly
 

How to Shoot Night Pictures With a Digital


I recently purchased a Canon Digital Rebel.. and I have misplaced the handbook >.< Lately, our sky here in Maine has had Aurora Borealis occurances. I would absolutly love to get a shot of one! But how can I shoot night pictures with a digital camera?


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November 08, 2004

 

Nancy Grace Chen
  Hi Kelly. Lucky you... I'd love to be shooting that right now. Do you have much film experience? Shooting digital is pretty much the same as using film. For night shots, here are the basics. You need a tripod for long exposures (the camera's shutter will be open longer to let in enough light at night). Put the camera on the tripod, turn off the flash, and use timer to eliminate any camera shake. Let me know if you have any specific questions... hope that helps.

Nancy


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November 08, 2004

 

Kelly
  Yes, I have take a semester in Photography 1 (film basics) I am a senior in high school so I am still really new to all of this. I know I need to set a long exposure and keep the camera on something steady (I only have a monopod right now so I was just going to put it on my car.. :-p) But I don't know exactly how to set my camera's settings to accomplish this, since I have misplaced the handbook.


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November 09, 2004

 

Nancy Grace Chen
  You have the option of switching the camera to Program (P), Aperture Priority (Av), or Shutter Priority (Tv) mode, which you can do using the dial at the top of your camera. I'd personally use Aperture Priority since you'll probably be doing landscape type shots so that your full frame will be sharp.

Nancy


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November 10, 2004

 

James C. Mirabella
  I used to mess around shooting sunsets over the Sandy Hook bay in NJ a few years back (using film and an old Minolta SLR). I found the best way to do it was a bit of experimentation. Here is what I did that yeilded some good results. I first used an AV setting and set my aperature to a fairly high number (8+) and saw what the auto-program would set the shutter speed to. Then I switched to manual and slowed down the shutter speed incrementally. With film, it is a bit costly to experiment like this, but digital makes it much nicer (or at least cheaper).

Since you misplaced your Digital Rebel manual...

To set shutter speed in the M mode, use dial just to the back of the shutter button. To adjust your aperature, you use the same dial but there is an Av button on the back of the camera (opposite side of the LCD display from the MENU button). You use the same dial as you use to set shutter speed but hold the Av button to change aperature.

You also can download the manual from Canon's web site.

Hope this helps


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November 10, 2004

 

Kelly
  Thank you all soo much!


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November 14, 2004

 
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