Help with shutter speed?

[JessN]

This is a self portrait sans a remote taken in a completely dark room. Obviously sitting completely still for a 30sec shutter is very difficult! Do you have any tips for capturing the string light glow but not blurring everywhere?



Camera: Nikon D90
Exposure: 30
Aperture: f/7.1
Focal Length: 18 mm
Focal Length: 18.3 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: No Flash

[smc1377]

Curious as to why you went with such a long exposure? Cause those lights end up way overexposed. I think if you went with a much faster shutter speed, a bit higher ISO, a larger aperture, you can eliminate the motion blur. Even if it's a little dark, it'll be an easy fix to bring up the brightness in post processing.

[Daytonj6]

Hey, if you have Photoshop.

open this image, press crtl or command J. (or just copy the layer)
and then add a gaussian blur. you will have to get a different picuture.

try shooting f/8, and a shutter around 15-20 seconds, possibly even SLOWER.

then after the blurr has been added, look at it. is it what you want?
if not, do not focus the lens on your camera. keep it out of focus a bit and it should give you a bit of glow...

[jdepould]

Wider aperture +higher ISO = faster shutter speed. At 7.1/200, you've got plenty of room to play.

[jdepould]

Originally Posted by Daytonj6

in my last post i meant faster. closer to 10 seconds

Try f/5.6 and ISO400