New amiture photographer needs help.

Hello,

I just started taking my wish of being a photographer seriously so I bought a Canon EOS Rebel T5 DSLR Digital Camera  with a EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens. So far I have been getting some beautiful shots during the daylight hours. It does have flash with it as well. I live in Hawaii just south of the active lava flow which glows so bright most nights when the wind pushes the clouds up the mountain.  Last night was an amazing opportunity to take photos of the Pua o'o. (fire hole glow) I don't quite understand why my camera didn't want to take photos, but it just made flashes and lens adjustments and then nothing.

When it did take a photo, below is what I got. I tried to take a picture of the moon which was behind me, and even those didn't come out well.

Is there a certain setting and set up I should have my camera on? Do I need a different lens? Can anyone suggest what I can change to get pictures of this natural wonder? Please help.

Welcome to DP Review and congrats on your recent purchase. The best advice I can give you is to watch a few videos on YouTube on how to take photos and the different modes. You can also visit my blog prakticalphotography shown in the link below for some additional pointers.

Scott

For such complicated situations, the focus system and the metering system both get fooled. It is best to switch to full manual, which may seem scary, but it isn’t. When the camera flashes and doesn’t take a picture, that is a sure sign that it couldn’t achieve focus (it really can’t focus in the dark so we must manually focus). It is also necessary to use a tripod if you want to shoot such long exposures (slow shutter speeds), but I don’t think you really wanted such long exposures, especially with the moon shot. The moon is extremely bright and can typically be photographed handheld with fast shutter speeds, small apertures, and moderate ISO settings. When you leave it up to the camera, it sees all that darkness in the sky and decides to horribly overexpose the moon.

Switching to manual requires a reasonable understanding of ISO, shutter speed, and aperture. If you aren’t there yet, those three technical matters require your attention. There are lots of explanations available and if you don’t understand something specific, ask questions here. The photos imply that you are missing this fundamental foundation for all of photography. These are not complicated topics, but the first few times we study them, everyone’s eyes glaze over and everyone starts to think, “I just want to take pictures”. Make no mistake, the eye for a good image is far more important than all this technical stuff, but the technical stuff will keep you out of trouble, especially when you move into difficult situations like night photography. If this is where you chose to start out, you have embraced a big challenge, but one that will put you in touch with some very practical learning.

1st off,

welcome to this forum, and dpreview ! There are many helpful and knowledgeable people here, and most are friendly.

You have all ready received some great advice.

In addition to other's tips, I would point out that someone who goes by the name of Wilba who has been around a long time here, and frequently offers help. Here is a link to his in-depth help for people who are newbies, and other skill levels, also.

http://www.dpreview.com/articles/1905744226/rebel-forum-faq

Please don't blame me if you spend too much time there.

Mike

LeilaniK wrote:

Hello,

Hello, The Famous Wilba here.

You already have some good answers but not a lot of technical explanations for the questions you asked, so let's have a go...

So far I have been getting some beautiful shots during the daylight hours.

That makes sense, 'cos in daylight there is enough light that the camera can make easy decisions that give good results. We'd like to see your beautiful shots as well.

I don't quite understand why my camera didn't want to take photos, but it just made flashes and lens adjustments and then nothing.

In the auto (green box) mode, the camera will use the flash if it thinks it needs to, including to illuminate the subject to be able to focus on it - the flashes you saw. But the subject was too far away so the camera wasn't able to focus. You could focus manually to avoid that.

When it did take a photo, below is what I got.

There's not a lot of light so the camera had to open the shutter for 2.5 seconds to get enough to make an image. You can't hold a camera for that long and get a steady image. You could get that shot if you mounted the camera on a tripod, or put it on something solid and used the self-timer.

I tried to take a picture of the moon which was behind me, and even those didn't come out well.

It's a very difficult scene, with a small bright subject surrounded by darkness. I'd advise coming back to this one when you have a better grasp of the fundamentals.

Do I need a different lens?

No, your lens is fine.

Can anyone suggest what I can change to get pictures of this natural wonder? Please help.

I would use a tripod and manual mode and manual focus for shots like that, but just telling you that won't mean you get the shot tonight. I really think the best thing you can do is sign up for a class with a good teacher (rather than with a good photographer, if you know what I mean).

The answers to all the how-do-I-do-that questions you asked as you were reading this (manual focus? self-timer? manual mode?), are in the instruction manual for your camera, but they are not very accessible to a beginner.

You've got lots of great "photographically correct" answers here. I'm going to get a little pragmatic, and build on what the "famous Wilba" said.

Rather than jump with both feet into full-on manual control, I'm going to give you a good "baby step". Move your top dial one position from the "Green Box" to the "P" position. The main difference here is that on the green box the camera pretty much controls everything. On "P", you get to second-guess it, and take some of that control back, without having to set everything yourself.

Once you are on "P", if it is dark, you will need to press the button on your camera labeled "ISO", then spin the dial to increase the number, probably to at least 1600, or maybe even 3200. What this does is make the camera's sensor more sensitive to incoming light, and therefore able to shoot with a faster shutter speed. This helps get rid of the fuzziness that comes from all kinds of movement, whether it is the subject, or the camera. The down side of this is that it introduces "noise", which essentially means "static" or little dots all over your picture. The higher the ISO, the more noise is introduced.

Once that is done, you can take pictures under pretty dark conditions. However, the camera will probably still have trouble focusing. As noted above, it uses the flash to help it do so. In this case, you probably need to do it yourself. You probably also don't want the flash used (it will messs up the atmosphere you are trying to get), so push it down. (In P mode, you decide whether to use it or not.) There are two little switches on your lens. Set one to MF, and the other to IS ON. This allows you to set the focus with the thin ring at the end of the lens. The fat ring is the zoom, which controls how much of the scene you take in. You probably want that ring set to 18 (the "widest" setting).

Now you should be ready to get as good a picture as possible of this scene.

Don't forget to turn the switch to AF, and drop the ISO back down to 100 when you are done with the dark!

Enjoy!

You're most welcome.

AKRover wrote:

For such complicated situations, the focus system and the metering system both get fooled. It is best to switch to full manual, which may seem scary, but it isn’t. When the camera flashes and doesn’t take a picture, that is a sure sign that it couldn’t achieve focus (it really can’t focus in the dark so we must manually focus). It is also necessary to use a tripod if you want to shoot such long exposures (slow shutter speeds), but I don’t think you really wanted such long exposures, especially with the moon shot. The moon is extremely bright and can typically be photographed handheld with fast shutter speeds, small apertures, and moderate ISO settings. When you leave it up to the camera, it sees all that darkness in the sky and decides to horribly overexpose the moon.

Switching to manual requires a reasonable understanding of ISO, shutter speed, and aperture. If you aren’t there yet, those three technical matters require your attention. There are lots of explanations available and if you don’t understand something specific, ask questions here. The photos imply that you are missing this fundamental foundation for all of photography. These are not complicated topics, but the first few times we study them, everyone’s eyes glaze over and everyone starts to think, “I just want to take pictures”. Make no mistake, the eye for a good image is far more important than all this technical stuff, but the technical stuff will keep you out of trouble, especially when you move into difficult situations like night photography. If this is where you chose to start out, you have embraced a big challenge, but one that will put you in touch with some very practical learning.

+1 simply outstanding advice.

R2