can anyone help

[peebee]

Hi there
This is my first post, new to this and I would like your help. I have the opportunity to take some shots of a crocodile jumping up out of the water to take its food from its owner, however the lighting is poor and I can only get a shutter speed of 1/6, how do I increase the shutter speed enough to capture shots that are not blurry. I will be standing on a walkway behind the crocs large tank, any advice will be gratefully apppreciated

[candleman]

1. increase your ISO (that can degrade image quality depending on how far you take it)
2. open aperture up to its widest

and/or
3. use a flashgun
you can get away with 1/6th if you have a good flash and are close enough

[Sime]

If your camera will only give you 1/6th on Auto, try popping it into manual for a little bit and play around... [m] try setting your shutter based on your lens, so, if you have a 50mm lens - go for 1/50th and open your aperture [f number] right up - this means selecting the smallest number... so, [f.3.5 etc] Also, like candleman said, try bumping your iso number up - iso is the digital "film speed" higher number, higher light sensitivity.

Let's see some results!

Sime

oh, and don't get bitten - it hurts!

[peebee]

I can get close enough, too close for comfort really, but can't waste the opportunity, is a tripod essential or can I get away with a monopod, not a great deal of room on the walkway. I have a canon speedlite will that o the trick?

[Sime]

A speedlight will work fine. A mono pod will work fine, too...

If you're not comfortable with manual settings, pop the speedlight on and make sure it's using ettl - few practice shots on something about the same distance away.

[peebee]

If i'm still alive after and I can get some shots I'll post them (if I can work out how). I have a 50mm lens, also an 28-105mm, and an 18-55, the 50 has the largest aperture, which do you recommend

[Sime]

well, that depends on how far you are from the beast - the 50 may be a bit narrow if you're close and the 28-105 could work - if it's the Canon one, it's f3.5 at 28mm which, with a speedlight should work just fine... maybe even without in the manual settings that I described at the top of this thread... try it out - best to practice :-)

[peebee]

yes it is a canon, i'll have a play around and see what works best, thanks for your help, oh and if you read in the paper about a lady being eaten by a croc i'd like it known that you were a great help

[Sime]

haa! You'll do just fine, and even if you don't get the shot that you want, it will give you much more confidence to get THAT shot next time...

I shall keep my eye on the papers :-)

[RexK_Cozumel]

The settings that you will need to use really depends on the effect that you are going for.

If you want some motion blur in the photo to show motion of the croc then use a slower shutter speed 1/10-1/50 of a second will do depending on how much blur you want.

If you want the blur with a core sharpeness to the image then set it into manual mode and choose the shutter speed to taste and then use the flash in rear sync flash mode to freeze the motion.

If you want to freeze the motion completely then you will need to use a fast shutter speed. Something like 1/200 or faster depending on how fast the subject is moving. And crocs move pretty fast when eating.