scoobymax

Holiday lights are a very fun way to goof around with your camera when it's too cold to play outside

 

I may be tempted though will only be able get my ticket closer to the time. Once a date has been sorted for you lot I'll try and agree and pop along too. Work dependant of course.

Date I have purchased my ticket for is Saturday 1st March, it would be great if you could make it. However, I reckon that any one day is not going to fit in with everyone and there will probably be folk from this forum attending on all of the days. Suggest that if nearer the time you decide you are going to go, but not on the Saturday, send out a quick blast to the forum and hopefully you will meet up with someone from forum - putting face to name.

Okay, a quick how to that will hopefully get you started, don't forget to post some pictures so we can have a look.

I don't know the D5100, so I'll have to be a bit generic, but I use the Sigma 70-300 weekly.

As you are looking for sports shots, we had better get your shutter speed up, although this will make the pictures darker (a faster shutter will be open for less time, thus less light will get in). A good rule of thumb is to not let the shutter speed number go below your lens focal length, so if the lens is set to 70mm, the wide angle, the shutter speed must not go below 1/70. I think your camera is a DX, so there is a multiplication factor of 1.5. this means that your 70mm lens is effectively 105mm, so don't let the shutter go below 1/100. at the telephoto end of your zoom, the lens is effectively 450mm, so a shutter speed of 1/500 should suffice. This rule of thumb avoids camera shake blurring the picture.

Because we are letting less light in, we need to either open up the lens aperture, a lower number lets in more light, or we need to increase the sensitivity of the "film". Years ago, we just bought a more sensitive film, these days we can set the ISO. Set your ISO to 400. This is done in the menu system. You probably have an option for Auto ISO, I'm not a fan, but it might be a good idea to set yours to a maximum of 800, with a shutter threshold of 1//100. basically, if the camera thinks the shutter speed will get too slow, it increases the sensitivity. Higher ISO is a bit noisy, but you should be ok with 800.

Set the camera to the S mode. this allows you to select a shutter speed and the camera will try to adjust the aperture for correct exposure.

PLAY WITH IT, it's not an exact science. Try something, if it doesn't work, try something else until you understand.

I take a lot of aircraft pictures, I normally use manual exposure, and sometimes manual focus if the lens is struggling with fast subjects. On a sunny day, I will start with ISO 400, 1/500 F8, take a few shots and look at them, changing settings until it looks about right. Other than a quick aperture change if the light noticably changes, or I have to shoot into the sun, my settings don't change much.

Shoot in RAW format, it's a lot more tolerant to exposure errors.

Hope that helps.

I think I could find ViewBug just as addictive as this place. I've already uploaded 12 photos and entered 2 comps. I think I've also received a positive response from existing members as well.

Tally Ho!

Thanks for the link and the pictures.

Some really nice pictures guys you have there

Thanks Scoobymax, working everyday to get better.

PS. You've got some great shots in there yourself.

I learned most of what I know from Royce Bair, a master of night sky photography. He is very generous with his knowledge and shares good instruction on his blog:

 

intothenightphoto.blogspot.com

 

I took this photo with my D600 and 14-24mm lens--ISO 6400 (!!!), f2.8, 15 secs, 14mm:

 

 

Hope the resolution isn't too bad--I resized it pretty small...

 

Had a look at these on Tuesday......got one. for that price, it's in the boot of my car as a spare. Also got one for my father. he's well chuffed with it.

Visited Aldi this morning and purchased one of the £12.99 tripods. I think I will use it as a falsh stand in the future. Also purchased rolls of Christmas wrapping paper at the same time!

Some of you on this side of the pond may have seen that Aldi have a tripod in the specials today.

I could do with another tripod, so headed out this morning to a gridlocked town (accident on the motorway and Cheltenham races). When I finally got there, I must have been the first person to look, because they were all still in boxes!

Quite a lightweight tripod with three section legs and wobbly feet rather than spikes. There is a carrying handle clipped to the centre stem, as well as a cloth shoulder bag. At the bottom of the centre stem, there is a stop to prevent it all falling apart. There is also a plastic hook on the bottom to hang a weight. My Hama backpack fitted perfectly.

The centre stem is locked into place with a twist lock, as is the extending stem, which has a fold out rotary handle for up/down movement.

The head has two spirit levels (bubbles included) & a quick release plate. The plate has a locating spigot as well as the camera screw, but this spigot doesn't spring down like the Hama one, so it would fit onto the D80 or D40. Ten seconds with a pair of pliers soon had that sorted :-)

A knurled knob tightens the horizontal axis while a nicely sized pan handle controls the vertical. This handle is quite thick and much nicer than the Slik, Velbon & Hama offerings.

The camera plate tilts through ninety degrees, but this is where the main problem lies. Because the head is moulded plastic, it has a noticeable wobble when the camera is touched. Fine if using a remote or self timer, but useless for shutter pressing.

Cons - it wobbles, don't know how long it will last.

Pros - lightweight, high ( saves bending down so far when doing astro).

A useful lightweight spare tripod, would probably take it on holiday with me, useful as a reflector / flash stand.

It's only £13 !

I'm going to use the "C" word....I hope I don't get banned... 

 

Canon printers are really awesome. I scored a Pixma ip6600 eight years ago at Target for $40. I still use it all the time.

I have a D3100 with a kit lens and it does an awesome job. Pretty light yet sufficient enough for newbie like me

It appears that if there any professional photographers on site, they are keeping a low profile or too busy counting money..

Here is one from a few weeks ago.