Help?

[HMDH3]

so my bro in law and sister in law let me take this infront of their tree, but I didn't get the "look" I was hoping for....I wanted to be able to see the lights. (let me also say that I only have the on camera flash until hubby starts new job and things get a little eaiser with $ then I will vest into a off camera) I was pretty limited in my range as it's a small living room and I know the dark door in the background isn't good. I mostly wanted to figure out how to get the tree so you can see the lights on. any advise would be great. thank you all in advance. http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh223/tara4574/EJM%20family/Picture331.jpgExposure Time: 0.0100 s (1/100)Aperture: f/4.5ISO Equiv.: 100

[paytonphoto]

Put your camera on a tripod raise your ISO to 800-1600 and lower shutter speed to about 1/30. Fire a shot with no flash at first to see what you get with just ambient light/christmas lights. Adjust iso if under or over exsposed to get your look on the abient light like u want. Then add in your flash at maybe 1/2 stop under and then if need be adjust the power of the flash up or down to desired look. Your f-stop should be fine where u have it.

Please post your results.(I'd like to see what you get) Practice with a subject first before you bring the family in for the shoot.

[Biffbradford]

I need the practice, so I hope you don't mind: brought up the shadows a bit, upped the saturation a tad, and cropped.

http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc54/biffbradford/MISC/Picture331redo.jpg

[Robert_Lay]

For some unknown reason I am not seeing the flash usage in the EXIF data. Nonetheless, I'm pretty sure you used the flash, because the image looks like a flash shot (the shadows under the chin). That right there is all you have to do to kill the lighting from the tree.

What you need is an excuse to expose long enough to make the tree lights come on strong, which indirectly means that you also, at the same time, need to give a lot less light to the people, which would otherwise be way too bright.

Let's assume that you bring the tree lights up by increasing the exposure time by 2 f-stops (1/25")

So you then need to back off on the flash by probably 2 f-stops. Now, you need a tripod, as someone has already suggested.

[HMDH3]

Thank you everyone, I appreciate the help. this was very spur of the moment, so I didn't have the tripod...just went over for supper and I had the camera in my truck and didn't want to leave it in the cold.

I am digging the crop! this is pretty much straight off the camera. can't play with it now cause home computer died the other night. :(

Thanks for the crop!! that helps a lot from the dark distracting door. I "tried" to practice with my daughter when I got home but she's less than cooperative, maybe I'll borrow the neighbor's kid. LOL.

Ok, Sorry, I'm still on a learning curve....how exactly would I change the the flash stop and flash power on a built in flash? shooting with older rebel EOS (8.1 mp)
thanks, sorry, I'm really trying to learn!!! I just have to ask a lot of questions.

[the phelp]

If you have a fairly wide aperture lens (f/2.8), you might be able to emphasize the lights by moving the people away from the tree and shooting with the lights out of focus. the lights should get bigger due to being out of focus, and you can get a really nice "bokeh" effect especially at full-open. this will change your subject framing, but you might be able to get a nice closeup with all three, and just the suggestion of the tree over their shoulders. You can try this with whatever lens you have, but smaller apertures will give you more dramatic out-of-focus enhancement of the lights.

[paytonphoto]

Look at your camera manual it will tell how to modify your camera flash exspore up or down

[HMDH3]

:confused: hate reading that thing. it's like reading a foreign language sometimes. I never would have figured out what I have with out this forum!!! But I will step up and read to see how I can adjust. :)

Thanks!

[paytonphoto]

Sometimes you just have to eat your spinach ;)

[HMDH3]

back to the drawing board tonight. (after I read some greek) he he couldn't resist.

[paytonphoto]

This is what I got in about 10 minutes using the exact same process I explained earlier. ( Oh but I did do it hand held the flash freezes the subject... if there is a little movement it only would effect the ambient (background) which really shouldn't matter unless its really bad shake) It took about 7-8 test shots and is SOC. 1/25 f/4.0 ISO 3200 CTO gel on the flash and White balance on camera set to tungsten. Its my little boy Gavin.

[Robert_Lay]

Thank you everyone, I appreciate the help. this was very spur of the moment, so I didn't have the tripod...just went over for supper and I had the camera in my truck and didn't want to leave it in the cold.

I am digging the crop! this is pretty much straight off the camera. can't play with it now cause home computer died the other night. :(

Thanks for the crop!! that helps a lot from the dark distracting door. I "tried" to practice with my daughter when I got home but she's less than cooperative, maybe I'll borrow the neighbor's kid. LOL.

Ok, Sorry, I'm still on a learning curve....how exactly would I change the the flash stop and flash power on a built in flash? shooting with older rebel EOS (8.1 mp)
thanks, sorry, I'm really trying to learn!!! I just have to ask a lot of questions.

Pages 99 and 100 of your manual are relevant to your problem.

Flash auto-exposure has a mind of its own. The first part of taking control over the flash is to set it up to do the pre-flash where you want it to (page 99). The next step is to try it out on the real scene, and if it is too much or too little, then compensate by injecting some amount of flash correction per page 100.

[Flo]

Pages 99 and 100 of your manual are relevant to your problem.

Flash auto-exposure has a mind of its own. The first part of taking control over the flash is to set it up to do the pre-flash where you want it to (page 99). The next step is to try it out on the real scene, and if it is too much or too little, then compensate by injecting some amount of flash correction per page 100.

I adore you Bob....:D

[the phelp]

here's a sample of moving subject further from the tree and opening aperture...

not the same subject, exactly, but you get the idea. taken with 100mm at f/2.8

[HMDH3]

ahhhh!! I love you guys!!! thank you everyone for your help. I didn't get a chance to play last night, had to bake 2 dozen cookies for the kiddo's Christmas Presentation at pre-school. :( but I brought the dreaded manual to work with me, so I can read at lunch and get confused, but I know what page to look on!!! And hopefully I can figure something out, I'd really like to have some good pictures from tonight. the church is dreadfully dark...ironic...
Anyway, thank you all and great pictures! Hopefully I can start to add a little to my sad collection of camera equipment. Hopefully I will have some pictures from tonight for everyone to check out!!!!
Did I say THANK YOU!!!! Flo~I love your little pic! :)

[Robert_Lay]

I adore you Bob....:D
Anything I say now will get me in trouble:D

[Flo]

Anything I say now will get me in trouble:D

LOL...I learn more from you than most anyone here Robert, Don't think your comments and sage advice go unnoticed.;)

Hm.its true!:lol:

[HMDH3]

I appreciate your help all of you! I did locate the FE* in my manual......so while eating lunch I read some and think I can manage to figure it out.....hopefully back up computer will be up tonight, and I'll have some BA pic's from the Christmas program, kiddo was selected to be a donkey....and she's got cute little ears to go with her costume!!!