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12/12/2005 12:34:45 AM · #1 |
We visited the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Science today. I was trying to get decent pictures of the various exhibits, unfortunatly the lighting was very dim and using a flash was nearly impossible since everything is behind glass. I'm wondering what suggestions more experianced photographers might have for taking pictures in this type of environment.
I finally gave up and decided to accept somewhat grainy pictures and set my camera to use an ISO of 800, 1600, or 3200 depending on how dim everything was.
Here are a few, ok several, of my best shots from today. Most of these took "several" attempts to get a half decent picture. In all I probably shot over 500 pictures, many suffer from poor lighting and are very blurry pictures or have horrible exposures.
Link to my photo album >> //www.n8vhf.com/gallery/index.php?level=album&id=10 |
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12/12/2005 12:37:29 AM · #2 |
Ahh, yes. The dead animal museum. I went there when I was 12.
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12/12/2005 12:42:43 AM · #3 |
Originally posted by nsbca7:
Ahh, yes. The dead animal museum. I went there when I was 12. |
Yes that is the one. Although this time at least some of the animals (the frogs) were alive. Overall, it wasn't a bad trip. My daughter's Girl Scout troop went there so I brought along the camera and entertained myself while they were doing scout stuff. |
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12/12/2005 02:18:49 AM · #4 |
Were you able to press the camera against the glass of the display?
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12/12/2005 02:26:15 AM · #5 |
a fast lens - 1.8 or 2.8 aperture, kick up the ISO. The reflections - try a polarizer filter, but that will cut light some, not what you need i a low light room! Press it against the glass, but then your angle of view is limited.
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12/12/2005 02:27:16 AM · #6 |
Or you can ask permission to use a rubber footed tripod.
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12/13/2005 12:34:06 AM · #7 |
Hi,
Took a quick look at your site with the museum pics.
Overall I thought they looked ok, but I'll share my techniques.
First I use the fastest lens possible, Usually, it ends up being my Tamron 17-35. At the widest end it's a f2.8. Another one that I sometimes use is the 50mm f1.8. But this lens often is too long to use for such environment. Remember at f2.8 the lens allows twice as much light as f4 (if memory serves me right). So getting a fast lens allows for faster shutter speed. This allows you to decrease ISO for lower noise and/or use faster shutter speed to prevent blurs. If your aperature gets really wide, then the DOF gets shallow so it's a trade off.
Next, I use the lowest shutter speed possible. You can use stable stance with your legs and use proper techniques. You stand shoulder width apart with the front left leg a little bit forward, tuck your arms in to your chest, hold the camera firmly by the grip and the bottom of the lens barrel. Now shutter release technique is very important with slow shutter speeds. You take a breath in and as you exhale, you slowly squeeze down on the shutter release button. It's very similar to techniques used to shoot firearms. I've gotten decent shots ut about 1/3 sec shutter release time with wideangles. Next confirm sharp focus and no blur on your LCD and repeat if necessary.
With post processing, using RAW allows you to bring out more details from underexposed area vs. shooting JPEG and you can also use noise redu tuion and sharpening as well. If there is too much noise, going to b/w helps the noise look more "artsy."
If I remember, the KM 5D has image stabilization, so I'd definately would use that. Most museums don't allow any tripods so I don't think that's an option. They also don't allow flash photography either for the most part and flash leaves a very harsh unflattering light, I don't use them anyway. I've several museum shots in my webpage, feel free to look through, there is also a link below the picture for the EXIF data as well so you can see the parameters I shot under.
Good luck
Message edited by author 2005-12-13 00:36:40.
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