Carnival shots: suggestions please...

[Kevan_G9]

The town next to me has a small carnival setup in a schoolyard and I purposefully went there last night to catch the blitz of colored lights and speed. I'm typing this post from the office so I can't yet share with you some of my photos from last night, but I'm thinking of going back and trying again.

Knowing what you do about the G9, how would you approach this subject? This time I think I'll return at dusk, while there is still some ambient light to support capturing the scenes. What I found particularly frustrating was trying to track the kids riding in those suspended swings being spun around and around, faster and faster. I wasn't using the onboard flash, and I wasn't capturing the kids either (Wait...that doesn't sound proper.)

Maybe I'm expecting too much, but in some cases the camera did terrific, like the pinwheeled ferris wheel, and, well, other times I was left a squiggle of lights.

[inthedeck]

I'd say you need a tripod...first off...and if you are trying to freeze motion...bump up the ISO and make sure the shutter speed is 'fast' enough. I'm not sure how the G9 works, but, from what I hear it can go pretty much to ISO 1600?

To capture the lights of say, the top of a carousel, make sure the shutter speed is slow (maybe .25 seconds, to 1 second...or more) and you have about f/8 or 11 for you aperture.

Other than that, just try different things, with different settings...you'll get the hang of it after a 'few' shots.

[Larry Weinman]

You might want to try putting the camera on a tripod, select Manual, select a shutter speed of about f 8, and then experiment with some slow shutter speeds. You can get some very interesting shots of the ride lights this way. As far as capturing stopped motion of the kids on the rides all I can say is good luck. The delay on the G9 short as it is makes thes shots very hard to get. All I can say is take allot of them and maybe you will get lucky and have a few.

[Kevan_G9]

So what can a G9 do at a carni, aside from getting sticky from cotton candy? Here just a few examples. I'm not sure you'll like them. I have to say the "success" rate in photo taking was like 1:10 maybe 1:20. I made two visits, one time at night, the other at dusk, success remained mixed both visits. Nice that my son loaned out my tripod to one of his pals. I'm not so sure it would was entirely needed.

Let me know what you think. Which one's worked or didn't?

[Kevan_G9]

some more...

[Kevan_G9]

almost done...

[Larry Weinman]

I like them. This is the type of shot I had in mind.

[inthedeck]

^^Umm....wrong thread peharps? :oops:

[MarKap77]

Kevan, I think you are/were expecting too much from a point and shoot camera.

While the G9 does have ISO speed selections up to 1600, in my opinion anything over ISO 400 is pretty much unusable.

And night shots at a carnival are very difficult. A rock band in a dark venue is probably the only thing worse.

As to getting a 1:10 or even 1:20 usable image ratio, that's actually pretty good. Most photographers will tell you it is more like 1 in 50 or 1 in 100, but pros tend to be more critical.

Enjoy the images you got, and study some on exposures and the like so when the carnival comes back to town next year, you'll be prepared.

Good luck

[Kevan_G9]

Mark,

Yeah...I should of revised those ratio numbers. It was more like 1:50. I know I'm working on or beyond the boundaries of this camera and to be perfectly honest, the carnival isn't high on my list of preferred subjects. Still, it was fun trying to work with the camera in manual mode, to see what the outcome might be. All part of the learning curve.

[MarKap77]

and that's what it's all about, Kevan. you learned a valuable lesson. what the camera can and can't do, and about your capabilities as well. keep at it, it only gets better.

Regards

[denncald]

You might also consider using the ISO 3200 capability in the Scene mode. It is lower resolution, but it is another option to play with. I used it recently at an evening graduation ceremony, and got some good images using available light, and handheld, that I would not have gotten otherwise. Yes, there was some noise, but it cleaned up fairly well in Noiseware.

Dennis

[Kevan_G9]

An example would be neat to see. Thanks Dennis.

[Flagpole]

G'day!

I am not sure what you were trying to capture but at least in the dusk you should have a much better success. Here is the picture I took from Nikon D60 at ISO400 and 1/10sec hand held.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3122/2407723154_bb39fc256b_o.jpg

You should be be able to shoot similar with G9 with major differences really apparent at ISO over 400. I cannot see the EXIF of your shots but it seems like you were trying to do too much instead of working with your camera. Here are some tips for the future:

1. The "rule-of-thumb" the slowest shutter you can hand hold is 1/focal length. That will tell you that your best option is to shoot wide. The other reason to shoot wide is that the aperture on variable lens like G9 has its largest aperture at wider end ( F2.8-4.8 ). So at wide end you may be able to get away with 1/30 sec without IS and ISO.
2. Switch your IS on as it will give you probably 3-stop or so shooting hand held.
3. Set your camera to lowest possible aperture i.e. let the most light in. Set your ISO at 100. Meter the scene. If it below usable shutter speed then bump your ISO up to get to some sort of usable shutter speeds. It is better to have lots of noise but sharp image to blurry image without any noise.
4. Use tripod or monopod for extra stability. You would be surprised how much more shots you can get this way.
5. Shoot a lot to increase the chance of getting one image to be sharp enough to keep.
6. Shoot RAW as you may be able to recover another 1 stop or so in the shadows using a RAW converter.

Flagpole