Best setting for hand held night photography for Panasonic G7 camera

I want to take photos (and some video) at a night event of neon and laser lights.
I don't want the camera to auto reduce to a very slow shutter speed when I'm holding the camera. What are the best setting for this event using a Panasonic G7 camera with 25-250mm F3.5 - f5.6 lens?

Brian

Brisn5757 wrote:

I want to take photos (and some video) at a night event of neon and laser lights.
I don't want the camera to auto reduce to a very slow shutter speed when I'm holding the camera. What are the best setting for this event using a Panasonic G7 camera with 25-250mm F3.5 - f5.6 lens?

Brian

Would it be actually the 14~140 f/3.5~5.6?

I shoot the local lantern carnival every year which displays lanterns lighted by LED lights in a nearly dark open venue (a park). I use A and Auto ISO has a ceiling of 3200 (for GX85) and 1600 (GX7, should be the same for G7).

A general rule of Pany, it first to have SS down to 1/60", then starts to bump up the ISO. When ceiling of ISO be reached, the cam will go to use slower SS.

Unless I wish to expose to the background to show the surrounding, 12~35 or 14~140 @ f/4 might be good enough to captured good detail of the lanterns (very often use -ev), plus the dim lighting environment there.

My 2 cents.

No way with zoom lens. I do night street photo a lot and best settings for GX80 and GX9 are - M mode; aperture 1.8-2; SS 80-120, ISO 2000-2500.

Don't shoot at wide opened - stop it down, minimum at one click, lenses characteristics are very bad at maximum aperture.  Don't photo people with SS less than 60 - it will blurred, 100 is better. And ISO 3200 is acceptable only in FF cameras.

alcelc wrote:

Brisn5757 wrote:

I want to take photos (and some video) at a night event of neon and laser lights.
I don't want the camera to auto reduce to a very slow shutter speed when I'm holding the camera. What are the best setting for this event using a Panasonic G7 camera with 25-250mm F3.5 - f5.6 lens?

Brian

Would it be actually the 14~140 f/3.5~5.6?

I shoot the local lantern carnival every year which displays lanterns lighted by LED lights in a nearly dark open venue (a park). I use A and Auto ISO has a ceiling of 3200 (for GX85) and 1600 (GX7, should be the same for G7).

A general rule of Pany, it first to have SS down to 1/60", then starts to bump up the ISO. When ceiling of ISO be reached, the cam will go to use slower SS.

Unless I wish to expose to the background to show the surrounding, 12~35 or 14~140 @ f/4 might be good enough to captured good detail of the lanterns (very often use -ev), plus the dim lighting environment there.

My 2 cents.

Thanks Albert.

Exposure can be difficult as the camera tends to over expose the neon light, it sees more black in the scene so it will over expose. I could reduce the exposure with the exposure compensation but then I would lose the light around the object.

Yes my error they were 14-140mm lens.

The other problem is finding the camera controls in the dark.

Brian

Max Polonski wrote:

No way with zoom lens. I do night street photo a lot and best settings for GX80 and GX9 are - M mode; aperture 1.8-2; SS 80-120, ISO 2000-2500.

Don't shoot at wide opened - stop it down, minimum at one click, lenses characteristics are very bad at maximum aperture. Don't photo people with SS less than 60 - it will blurred, 100 is better. And ISO 3200 is acceptable only in FF cameras.

My aim was to photograph a light event called Dlights which has neon lights.

Brian

Badwater wrote:

Brisn5757 wrote:

I want to take photos (and some video) at a night event of neon and laser lights.
I don't want the camera to auto reduce to a very slow shutter speed when I'm holding the camera. What are the best setting for this event using a Panasonic G7 camera with 25-250mm F3.5 - f5.6 lens?

Brian

If you're seeking a fast shutter in night conditions at f/5.6, you'll need to up your ISO to 6400 or more. I can say from experience shooting 4K that even with a f/2.8 lens in a night sky ISO 3200 at 1/30 shutter will be under exposed with black sky and only the light for detail. Also, you'll need to nail the WB, for best colors when shooting night sky. Set Kelvin to 3900 to 4100. And set the iDynamic to High to avoid huge contrast and loss of detail in the shadow areas.

If you're shooting at twilight with blue sky, and no sun, you can get by at f/5.6 with 3200 ISO and 1/30 shutter. Keep in mind for video you can't shoot slower than 1/30 sec shutter without messed up blur and stutter in the video. The ideal low light shutter speed for video is 1/40 with human movement. 1/30 sec is pushing the limit but will work if the action is not too fast.

Because you're shooting at high ISOs use a natural or standard Photo Style, and don't dumb down the settings. Leave them un changed. When using high ISOs there is not much data to work with, and dumbing down photo style settings screws up the video.

Nevertheless, the lens you have may not be the optimal lens, but it will work for night video. Before you go out and shoot the event. give it a test run at home. So you'll be prepared.

Thanks for the info.

In this case I wanted to photograph (and video record) an light event that mainly had flashing neon lights.

Brian

Brian, for seeing the controls in the dark try a LED headlamp that offers a red light.  I use a Black Diamond Storm model which I like but there are others.  It can be dimmed easily and also has a very bright white light when you need it.

Ranlee wrote:

Brian, for seeing the controls in the dark try a LED headlamp that offers a red light. I use a Black Diamond Storm model which I like but there are others. It can be dimmed easily and also has a very bright white light when you need it.

Good idea Randy. I might find a very small LED lamp that will fit in my small camera bag.

Brian

Aberaeron wrote:

Brisn5757 wrote:

I want to take photos (and some video) at a night event of neon and laser lights.
I don't want the camera to auto reduce to a very slow shutter speed when I'm holding the camera. What are the best setting for this event using a Panasonic G7 camera with 25-250mm F3.5 - f5.6 lens?

Brian

Use ‘handheld night shot’ scene mode.

That would work if I had a still subject but in this case the lights are continuously changing make multi-shots not possible.

Brian

Alternatively a flashlight with a nightlight/moonlight mode will do something similar and can last the full night without needing to be recharged. A right angle light like the Skilhunt H03 (which I have) doubles as a headlight quite easily and is around $45. Go with neutral white.

The Moonlight by Black Diamond is only this mode and is much cheaper at around $22.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vStk8-8Co-k

OpenandShutterCase wrote:

Alternatively a flashlight with a nightlight/moonlight mode will do something similar and can last the full night without needing to be recharged. A right angle light like the Skilhunt H03 (which I have) doubles as a headlight quite easily and is around $45. Go with neutral white.

The Moonlight by Black Diamond is only this mode and is much cheaper at around $22.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vStk8-8Co-k

Thanks but I still don't know the need for a certain type of flashlight when I could use a small led light to view the camera controls.

Brian

Suggesting something more versatile, that's all. It's its own hobby finding good lights with accurate color renditions, features, and decent endurance. The light from your smartphone also should suffice.

OpenandShutterCase wrote:

Suggesting something more versatile, that's all. It's its own hobby finding good lights with accurate color renditions, features, and decent endurance. The light from your smartphone also should suffice.

"It's interesting that you should recommend a smartphone as I was trying to photograph a object in the darker park of a museum that was behind glass so I could not use my flash and I found that my cell phone was the only way I could get a brighter photo of the object. Mist be due to the cell phone taking sever shots and joining the photos together in its software.

Brian

Dear friend, it is just the HDR you ruled out earlier 🤗.

alcelc wrote:

Dear friend, it is just the HDR you ruled out earlier 🤗.

an you please go into more detail to what you mean.

Brian

Brisn5757 wrote:

alcelc wrote:

Dear friend, it is just the HDR you ruled out earlier 🤗.

an you please go into more detail to what you mean.

Brian

Taking several shots to merge into one by cell phone indeed is a form of image stacking that HDR is building on.

When there is moving elements involved, those handheld shooting mode might not be the best tool, like using HDR, to catch the running LED lighting in your scenario.