fuzzy friendship

[amhuirnin]

hello!

still trying to figure out the manual functions of my cam (imagine 1st grade level of comprehension on ISO, apertures etc lol), i love taking nighttime BnWs but i tend to end up with grainy pics to compensate for reduce lighting.

just like this one, i like the composition (how about you?) but it's fuzzy and grainy. mind giving tips on how to avoid getting such? i dont have special gears or anythin, just a run of the mill PnS cam :P

Exposure: 0.3
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 6 mm
ISO Speed: 800
Exposure Bias: 0 EV




all comments are of course, welcome and much appreciated (",)

Thank You!

[Aleix]

Image looks blurry; with this shutter speed you would better use a tripod, or at least place the camera on any surface available so it stands still. Second curtain flash would also have been an option, to freeze movement.

ISO is quite high, not every camera performs well at such ISO, but some can do a magnificent job. You must know your camera, and which ISO is the threshold where noise is unacceptable for you. Use of software like Noiseninja or Noiseware can also help dealing with noise, however they smoothen the overall image.

To increase a bit the shutter speed, you could slightly underexpose the image; to a certain point, slightly underexposed images can be brought back to correct exposure when postprocessing. You might however not be able to if you underexpose more than 1 stop or so.

By the way, what metering mode did you use? In such an image I'd have used spot metering, and taken as metering point the people standing left.

[amhuirnin]

Aleix,

pardon for being so late in thanking you. i havent been able to log in here. but really, thanks for the great suggestions.

you're right; i need to get to know my camera more, dslr or no :P its so telling that i wasn't even aware what metering mode i used in taking that picture.

bout the tripod, seeing that we were just killing time by taking pics while waiting for a friend, using a tripod was not an option; that and i dont have even have a tripod yet.

again, my thanks Aleix!