Night pictures with extreme low lighting...

[RJaswal]

First off, just wanted to say hello. First post here.

I am pretty new to the world of picture taking with a camera that you don't just point and shoot.

While I'm getting better at taking decent pictures outside of the auto mode during day light hours, my pictures when it's dark are very lacking.

I have a Cannon EOS Rebel T3i and I was reading through the instruction manual on how set up the settings to take night time pictures. Most of the instructions were geared toward night time pictures with some background lighting.

I've tried to do searches through this site and other google sites about how to take good night time pictures, but I seem to be struggling on trying to get things set up properly. I can figure out how to change the ISO setting, but am struggling with the appature settings on my camera.

Can anybody give me any assistance on where I need to be looking for my type of camera?

Thanks

[RichardTaylor]

This two part tutorial on DPS may help.

Night Photography:1 - Cityscapes.

[autofocus]

Obviously, all photographs need light in order to produce a decent image. It could be natural light, artificial light, or flash. By understanding the exposure triangle, (ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed) and how they are all inter-connected, you will have some degree of control over the light available to create a correctly exposed image. For night photography, or very low light photography, you may require a tripod or someway to brace your camera. Fast lenses with wide apertures will also help, along with image stabilized lenses. Learning to shoot in manual mode will also give you more control of the end results.

[RJaswal]

Thanks for the replies. I will definitely keep this information in mind in the future.

However, I was curious, with my camera how do you set it in manual mode to make it take a picture? I bumped up the ISO to 3200 but was having problems with the aperature setting and then when I pressed the shutter button half way, it focused, but then wouldn't let me take the picture because it was too dark.

I then went back to the auto mode and used the flash and was able to get a picture but obviously most of the picture was not able to be seen.

Thanks again.

[Hill Country Hack]

Not trying to sound flippant, that information is in your manual. All makes of cameras are a bit different as to how to do what you are asking.

[autofocus]

However, I was curious, with my camera how do you set it in manual mode to make it take a picture?

See that little "M" on your dial? That's manual mode where you can use your internal meter scale to set both, your aperture and your shutter speed for a correct exposure.

I bumped up the ISO to 3200 but was having problems with the aperature setting and then when I pressed the shutter button half way, it focused, but then wouldn't let me take the picture because it was too dark.

You can switch the lens to manual focus and focus it yourself. Auto focus is looking in the image for contrast or sharp edges for it to focus on..if too dark, it can't see what it needs to auto focus.

I then went back to the auto mode and used the flash and was able to get a picture but obviously most of the picture was not able to be seen.

Once again, you can learn to shoot in manual mode and use a slower shutter speed to allow more ambient light in. However, depending on what you are shooting (like moving subjects) or if you don't have an image stabilized lens, slow shutter speeds can cause blurred images.

[RJaswal]

Thanks again.

Like I mentioned earlier, I was looking in my manual on how to try to change the aperature settings, but I wasn't able to get it to work properly, so I was asking if anybody else has a similar camera and could maybe help explain better than the manual.

[autofocus]

Originally Posted by RJaswal

Thanks again.

Like I mentioned earlier, I was looking in my manual on how to try to change the aperture settings, but I wasn't able to get it to work properly, so I was asking if anybody else has a similar camera and could maybe help explain better than the manual.

First off, you have to select AV, or M on your main dial...can you find that? When you find that, you will turn an adjustment wheel that controls the aperture. (read your manual, it will be in there) As you turn this wheel new aperture values will show up on your LCD display and also while looking through the viewfinder. Understand, you can only change the f/stop (aperture) to what is available on a given lens. So you can't get f/1.8 on a lens that will only open up to f/4. Also, on kit zoom lenses, not all aperture values are available throughout the zoom range. So F/3.5 may only be available to set at the wider end of the zoom range with f/5.6 being the widest aperture setting at the full zoom range. I can't make it any clearer than that..hope it helps