The impossible picture?

[napolar]

Picture this if you may. You are on a cruise, it's at night, you are returning to New Orleans. Off of the balcony you see several oil platforms all lit up in the night sky - just beautiful. The ship you are on is gently swaying, but you grab your Digital Rebel, with an old 70-300 Canon lens,and try it, it's just memory anyway. The pictures are miserable:cry:. You wish you had brought your tripod, but you do not think that would have made too much difference since the ship is swaying to the waves, the shutter speed is too slow, and the platforms are stationary.

Any ideas for the next time would be appreciated.

[digitalmono]

How about the settings you did for the shots? Have you tried to set a higher ISO?

[napolar]

I set he ISO at 1600 - I knew it would be grainy, but I was hoping to just capture the shot. I let the camera, perhaps mistakenly, choose both the shutter and the aperature. As a newbie I was just messing around and trying to learn.

[Jon]

Tv as slow as you think you can manage to hand-hold, ISO to the max, bend your knees to help dampen the sway, and track the subject until you've got the feel for the ship's rolling, then squeeze off a couple or more shots. Best bet would be to use a faster lens, even if it means you'd need to blow it up more. Whether a tripod would have helped can be argued either way. If you left the head fairly free so you could be shifting the camera as needed to accomodate the ship's motion it might have helped. If the shutter speed was fast enough, the waves normally have a 3-5 sec. period, so the ship movement wouldn't have been too bad, but that depends on the wave period and the shutter speed.

[PacAce]

In addition to all the above good tips, you might also want to consider an IS lens. All the little bits help when you add them all together. :)

[cmM]

you could walk to the captain's cabin, tell him to drop the anchor so that it doesn't sway that much and also provide the cruise ship with a big gyroscopic stabilizer you could stand on to reduce "boat shake" :D

[steven]

Gyroscopic stabalizer. They are only a couple of thousands.

[Jon]

Upgrade to the QM2. She's got gyro stabilizers that friends of ours tell us are really good (and a bridge that looks like a flight simulator - no more big wheels, just joysticks!).

[lost]

Where did you go on the cruise? I work for a Drilling company that operates in the Gulf. As a matter of fact we are located SW of New Orleans. You are right, the Oil Platforms are beautiful all light up at night. I went on a cruise to Cozumel in November and remember the platforms as we approached the Mississippi river. Next time I go offshore I will bring my camera and try some settings for you. And post the results. Dont think I will be able to swing a tripod though, but maybe.

[napolar]

Thanks everyone for some great tips and quite a few good laughs. I was wondering if the IS lens was going to be one of the answers.

Lost - I went from New Orleans to Cozumel to Grand Cayman to Costa de Playa. It was a great time and I have been kicking myself for not bringing my tripod, there are really some wonderful long exposure shots to be had on the ship. Oh well I took over 500 shots of everything else.

[lost]

I went on the 4 day cruise, my sister got married on the cruise and my parents paid for the whole trip. (Except the liquor which was not cheap!) So I REALLY enjoyed it.

[robertwgross]

If I were going to be in position for the same shot, I would use some or all of the following:

A tripod
A Wimberly head
An I.S. lens
A bean bag placed on the ship railing

Shoot a burst. Some will be with the ship going up on a wave, and some will be with the ship going down. One might turn out.

---Bob Gross---

[Panza]

Usa a wide angle lens if you're something remotely to close enough.

[intechpcx]

Well in the spirit of the question, assuming you're right there and don't have the ability to add new equipment to your kit right then and there, here are my thoughts. Obviously, jack the ISO all the way up as you did. Go to Manual and set it for the very lowest shutter speed that your experience tells you that you can handle for hand holding shots and go wide open on the aperture. Shoot raw, don't be afraid to underexpose a bit, you'd be surprised how much detail you can still draw out of a seemingly missed shot. Finally, do as was mentioned earlier about bending your knees and trying to compensate for the sway of the boat. Get a feel for the pattern of the sway and then take a series of shots.

[Volatile]

To upgrade the difficulty some, try the same thing from an airplane in light turbulence.

[Monito]

Catch the trough or peak moment of the wave when the ship reverses motion. There will be a slight pause or moment of minimal motion.