Saber Forum

Hello my fellow forumers. One of the more recent hobbies I've become interested in has been Photography, and as such, I've learned quite a bit about how cameras work and how to achieve different effects with them. Here I wanted to take my knowledge and show you all how to photograph lightsabers the way you want to. I've seen a lot of pictures on the forums of sabers with that white core in the middle of the blade and very few of how the blade actually looks. In this topic I'm going to give you all tips on how to capture different effects of a lightsaber blade and the camera settings used to create those effects. Mostly this is going to be a comparison of pictures so you can see what settings are causing what effects. To create the effects you want, it is best to have a camera that has a Manual Mode, which allows you to adjust ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speed settings. A camera with such functionality will give you the most control over your images and, in turn, the best results. These pictures were taken with a Nikon D7000. Let's get started.

Note: All shots were shot in a dark room where the only light source was the blade itself.





The most standard photo I see is a picture in which the saber looks almost white with a bit of color coming off the edges, kind of like this:
(https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/735057_674881001440_1428314299_n.jpg)

Settings used for this shot: Aperture 3.5, Shutter Speed 10 seconds, ISO 800

Now note, the saber in this pic is supposed to be blood red (as it looks in person), but the camera is taking that color and turning it a very bright orange color because of the intensity and the sensitivity of the camera sensor. Now granted, this image is still better than most in terms of capturing the true color, because most cameras take that orange and make it completely white. At least here there is some color left, even though it is the wrong color. Also, you'll notice that this picture is not sharp at all. That is because a Shutter Speed of 10 seconds was used, which captures even the slightest bit of motion, either from the camera or from the subject. As I can't remain completely still when breathing, this image turned out very blurry. This is something we can use to our advantage, which I will show a little later.


What happens when we don't want that white core, or in this case orange core to the lightsaber? Obviously we have to adjust our camera settings. I have found that by reducing the Shutter Speed, one is able to get a bit closer to the actual color of a lightsaber, because light is not hitting the camera sensor as long and therefore not exposing the shot as much.

Here is a pic with a slightly reduced Shutter Speed:
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/246573_674880597250_770759103_n.jpg)

Settings used for this shot: Aperture 3.5, Shutter Speed 5 seconds, ISO 800

You will notice that this pic has almost the same blade effect as the previous shot, however if you look to the edges of the blade, there is a bit more red creeping in, as well as a hint of red near the top of the saber. You'll also notice that the image is a bit sharper. This is because the Shutter Speed has been reduced from 10 seconds to 5 seconds, which means the camera sensor is being exposed to light in a shorter amount of time. This causes the image to be sharper because there is less time to introduce motion blur to the image, as well as providing more of the true color of the blade.

If we drop the Shutter Speed even more, you will see this effect happening again:
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/150447_674880537370_978405990_n.jpg)

Settings used for this shot: Aperture 3.5, Shutter Speed 1/8 seconds, ISO 800

Notice in this shot that there is significantly more red appearing in the blade and the overall shot is much darker. Again, this is because light is not being exposed to the camera sensor as long, which makes the image darker and does not allow the same amount of light to be exposed for the blade, giving us a truer color for it.

If we take this effect even further, we can now achieve the true color of the blade without that inner core of light:
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/483801_674880507430_1349342333_n.jpg)

Settings used for this shot: Aperture 3.5, Shutter Speed 1/10 seconds, ISO 800

As you can see, all we are doing is decreasing the Shutter Speed of these shots, which in turn reduces the amount of light exposed to the camera and gives us more of the true color of the blade each time. In this last shot, you can see the blade as I see it with my eyes, without that inner core effect that is usually present from a camera, be it white or orange. You will also see that only the blade is visible in this shot. Again, this is because the Shutter Speed is fast enough to allow only the light from the blade to be shown and does not show the light hitting the background or myself, which was right next to the blade.

What we've learned: The slower the Shutter Speed of the camera is, the more of that inner core will be visible and the more motion blur will appear in your images. If you do not want either one, making the Shutter Speed faster will both reduce the amount of blur and give you sharper images, as well as give you an image with a more accurate blade color.

Now, if we take this concept the other direction, we can them experiment with creating what is known on the forums as "light paintings". Light paintings are when the Shutter Speed is increased to allow light to hit the camera sensor for a longer amount of time while moving with the saber. So in essence, we are taking that evil motion blur from before and making it work to our advantage now.

Here is a basic light painting shot:
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/484153_674880482480_868267173_n.jpg)

Settings used for this shot: Aperture 8, Shutter Speed 3 seconds, ISO 800

As you can see, with a Shutter Speed of 3 seconds, any motion created during the shot will create this effect in which the saber blurs. The more you move during the shot, the more motion will be captured.

Here is a second shot using this technique:
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/484174_674881041360_1999558233_n.jpg)

Settings used for this shot: Aperture 3.5, Shutter Speed 10, ISO 800

In this shot, I increased the Shutter Speed by 7 seconds, which allowed more time for motion to be captured. As such, you can see that there is a great deal more motion in the shot and the effect is much brighter. This is an important point to remember. With a longer exposure time, any motion REPEATED in the same area will appear brighter than if that motion is repeated only once. This means that if I spin a saber once through the air in a specific area during a 10 second exposure, you're only going to see the motion created from that one swing, which will probably be quite dark. However, if I were to repeat that spin in the same area over the course of those 10 seconds, the final image will appear much brighter because more motion has been captured from each swing. This means that you pretty much have total control over what areas are brighter than others when doing a light painting using this technique.

Finally, here is an image in which a saber staff is being swung REPEATEDLY in the same pattern over the course of the shot:
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/601466_674178419420_85510587_n.jpg)

Settings used for this shot: Aperture 22, Shutter Speed 10, ISO 2500

Now for this shot, the settings I used were different because this was shot on a different day. However, the same concept is still at work because the settings balance out to give roughly the same effect. A Shutter Speed of 10 seconds is still being used in this shot and it is capturing every motion I introduce during the exposure. I was using a saber staff and doing a series of two spins repeatedly during the course of the shot, which gives the overall shot a very bright and artistic look to it. The saber seems to be dancing around me because the camera sensor is capturing each motion as it moves around my body. This is the concept for creating light paintings.


I hope you have enjoyed this little lesson in Saber Photography and I look forward to seeing how you all use it. Perhaps we will start to see pictures with more of the true colors of the sabers with less of that white core, even though that is still a nice effect in and of itself. Cheers! :)

Thanks for the tips!

I wish the sabers actually had the "white core" effect.  Looks awesome like that on camera, but to each their own.

I wish they did too because I like that look, but there are many people on the forums who want to see the true color of the blade before buying in a specific color. Using these techniques, you can also achieve that white core effect by using a longer shutter speed if that is the effect you're looking for.

I am so incredibly glad and thankful you posted something like this.

I never could understand shutters and intensities and ISO's and what not so I'm glad you gave us an example with photos and what settings you shot them at.

I've been trying to get an affect like the last image for literally years, but to no avail.

I shot trains at night with 30 second exposures at f2.8 or f5.6, and sadly, since I've wanted to try some light painting with the saber, the tripod broke! Curse the luck. Here's what trains look like in the dark with 30 second exposures. :)

http://s1234.photobucket.com/user/EeRocKK/library/RFH%20Photos/Nighttime%20Railroad%20Long%20Exposure%20Photography (http://s1234.photobucket.com/user/EeRocKK/library/RFH%20Photos/Nighttime%20Railroad%20Long%20Exposure%20Photography)

Great tips, man! Can't wait to see the ensuing saberpr0n that comes from this!

Nice. Thanks for the tips. I will be using the first setting you gave. 800 iso and 10 second shutter speed. I really like the effects. I shall try this tonight. I got a digital camera with all the goodie settings. Lol.

One thing I will say is to keep in mind that all my shots were done in a completely dark room with no other light source. If you are shooting outside with more lights, your settings might be different to achieve the same effect. Whenever possible, try to use a smaller ISO to avoid camera noise that creeps in at higher ISO settings. Also I encourage everyone to experiment with their settings, because that is where the fun comes from and different settings will lead to slightly different effects.

Also I don't think my camera has an aperture of 3.5 or 22. Unless you used a different setting? I usually use manual for everything. I'll look around though. I have the Fujifilm 24x zoom camera you can get basically at walmart. Lol. Its a good camera though.

When it comes to photographing lightsabers, your Shutter Speed is the most important setting to consider. ISO and Aperture are mostly there to balance out the lighting for any given shot. So for instance if you are trying to get a shot of the blade's true color without the white core effect (say you're using a Shutter Speed of 1/10 seconds) and your image is coming out brighter than you'd like, you can either drop your ISO setting or raise your Aperture setting to allow less light into the camera. If it's coming out too dark, you would do the reverse (raising your ISO or dropping your Aperture) in order to allow more light into the camera. Sometimes both are required in order to balance the shot properly, especially with cheaper cameras that don't have high setting ranges. So really you must learn to work within the limits of your camera's settings. If your camera doesn't have an Aperture of 3.5 or 22, then you may have to do a combination of raising or lowering your Aperture value along with your ISO setting to balance for the lighting condition. Always make Shutter Speed your first priority though, since it is the controlling factor when photographing lightsabers and controls the effect you get from them. There are two ways of doing this which are mentioned below:

Shutter Priority Setting
You can use your camera's Shutter Priority setting (if it has it) in order to dial in a specific Shutter Speed and allow the camera to automatically set the Aperture and ISO values in order to balance the shot for the given lighting condition. This is not my preferred way however, because you can't really make small lighting adjustments (making the shot slightly darker or slightly brighter) without the camera automatically adjusting to it. This method is the next best thing if your camera doesn't have Manual Mode, but does not allow full control over your shots.

Full Manual Mode with Shutter Speed as Priority
The difference here is putting your camera into full Manual Mode and setting your Shutter Speed first. Once set, you then make adjustments to your Aperture and/or ISO until the camera's light meter tells you the shot is balanced in terms of light. From there, you can then make small adjustments (if you need to) in order to brighten or darken the image without the camera changing any other settings to compensate. Whenever possible, try to get your ISO as low as possible, because a high ISO will give your image a grainy look and will start to introduce noise into the image.


In terms of the camera's light meter, mine is always set to reading the light from the entire image. This setting is called Evaluative on Nikon I think and Matrix on Canon cameras, although that could be reversed. I'm not sure what it's called or if you can even change it on other camera models. Basically what it does is takes an overall light reading from the entire image you're wanting to shoot and bases your camera settings off of it. So for example, if you are in a completely black room and try to focus, the camera's light meter will see nothing but black and will probably adjust your settings to allow the most light into the camera as possible. This will result in a very long Shutter Speed, and very wide Aperture (3.5 or a smaller number), and a high ISO setting. If you're on a beach on a sunny day, the reverse will happen. The camera will read a lot of light and will give you settings to darken the image. It's important to know how your camera is reading the lighting condition in order to know how to adjust your settings.

I like to use the manual setting at 5 seconds and ISO 800. Makes the color edge pop out more I think. My camera doesn't really allow me to raise my aperture unfortunately. u.u It only does 1.5 and 8.0.  And I guess I had my shutter speed at 10. Should I try doing the 8.0 for aperture?

Hey if your camera has it you should use f-mode. Pictures turn out way more clearer with that on. Try it out sometime just for fun.

Thanks for the photography tips! I have an old Fujifilm bridge cam, its pretty decent though- at least its good at high speed shots (got an awesome one of a rally car with three wheels in the air lol), but never had much need to take slower shots so this will help I'm sure!
dad in law has a digi slr, so I might have to take my light saber when we visit them and break that out :D

I'm not sure what f-mode is. I assume you mean Aperture mode, since Aperture is based in terms of f-stops. I've never heard it called f-mode before though. If that is what it is, then the pictures are coming out clearer because you're using a small f-stop number (something around 8+ I would imagine), which translates to a larger depth of field and images where more is in focus. Using a large f-stop number (4 or less) results in a shallower depth of field, which means there is a very small portion in the image where things can be in focus and appear sharp. I have used Aperture mode to take pics of sabers, but I find I have much more control and variability with effects when using Manual mode. But if you like using Aperture mode, then by all means use it. In the end the only thing that matters is that you capture the shots you like.

One thing I noticed when I had a camera similar to yours was that when I backed up and zoomed in on a image, it gave me different Aperture values. For instance, you say your Aperture is either 1.5 or 8.0. On my previous camera, I was able to back up and zoom in to achieve the same framing, but achieved different Aperture values because of the zoom. I'm not sure that all cameras like yours do that, but it's worth a shot. If it's not possible with yours, then I would say leave the Aperture at 8.0 and work your settings around from there. An Aperture of 1.5 will give you a VERY small depth of field to work with, which will translate to a lot of your image being out of focus or blurry if not on a flat surface. An Aperture of 8.0 however will mean you have a larger depth of field and more of the image will be in focus. However, the 8.0 setting will reduce the amount of light the camera gathers for the shot, so you'll either have to lengthen your Shutter Speed or raise your ISO to compensate for the amount of lost light.

Glad I could help. Maybe you could post some pics of the shots you get from it if you ever are able to capture them. Photos of Ultrasabers are always welcome. :)

Don't worry, I will be!
just as soon as my saber arrives that is! Its so painful knowing its in the same city as I am but its not here yet!

My profile pic was shot at f2.8 at 1.3s. Man, I need a tripod again...

no tripod, and only a cheaper camera- what can be done if you keep playing around with the settings! (couldnt resist taking some pics with my brand new saber!)
i have a Fujifilm finepix s1500. these pics were taken using the 'custom' setting where i played around with the shutter speed- cant remember what it was though but it was pretty long
i really do need to get a tripod however! i was also tired and hungry so we didnt play round much more to get the background better (and with a bright moon and streetlight it was pretty bright still)

(http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp195/b1ondeange1/DSCF0613_zps9d4bf925.jpg) (http://s411.photobucket.com/user/b1ondeange1/media/DSCF0613_zps9d4bf925.jpg.html)

(http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp195/b1ondeange1/DSCF0610_zps9879a7c3.jpg) (http://s411.photobucket.com/user/b1ondeange1/media/DSCF0610_zps9879a7c3.jpg.html)

you can see the silver clash on flash working here :)

Very nice shots for not having a tripod. I like the flash on clash one a lot. A tripod does help keep the background sharp and focuses all the movement on you and the saber, which makes the shots look more natural. Either way, what really counts is that you have fun taking the shots and you enjoy the experience of swinging your glow stick around like a Jedi. :P

Hey I have a Fujifilm S4250, I think its an older model, but it has the custom settings and all the other goodies. Still can't get a decent shutter speed for saber pics. I'll play around with it though. Whats a good one for like if you're just posing?

Well it all depends on if you have a tripod. If you do, then a good Shutter Speed to use is something around 1/10 to 1/6. If you don't have a steady surface to set the camera on, then you'll have to use a faster Shutter Speed, which would be something around 1/60 or 1/30. Keep in mind all cameras are ddifferent and you may have to change those values slightly to get the shot you want. Also keep in mind that you may have to play around with your other settings (Aperture  and ISO) to balance the lighting for the Shutter Speed you use. 

My camera doesn't do half shutter speeds. Heh. Couldn't get that fancy of a camera. Lol. But I found some good settings to use though as you've recently seen.

Great shots, both Venturous and B1ondange1! I love what the different shutter speeds can help to create.  :)

It truly is an art  :D

Yeah my camera doesn't do like 1/30 etc. Any info would also help for like, night time and moon photography. My shutter speeds only go up to 2000 same with ISO. Would an ISO of 800 and shutter speed of 2000 help, maybe 1600 or 800 even?

Usually with night photography, you want the lowest ISO setting you can get, which is typically 100 for most cameras. You also want a smaller Aperture, which would be something like f/11 or f/16 (smaller Aperture = bigger number) to give you a good depth of field. By using the lowest ISO possible and a fairly small Aperture size, you are greatly limiting the amount of light the camera sees and in night photography, one would think that this would result in a completely dark picture. This is where your Shutter Speed comes in. By using the lowest possible ISO setting and a fairly small Aperture (around f/11 or f/16), you are then able to use VERY long Shutter Speeds, which could be anything from 15 to 45 seconds. Some cameras also have a "BULB" feature which lets you leave the Shutter open for as long as you want, giving you any length of exposure you want. The reason for doing all of this is to get the lowest amount of noise possible in the image (lowest ISO setting), give a good depth of field and therefore a lot in focus (small Aperture), and to allow the use of very long Shutter Speeds. By using long Shutter Speeds like 30 seconds, light is being captured or exposed to the camera sensor for that entire time and is basically "painting" the image onto the camera sensor. Here is an example:


The image below is not one of mine, but I'm using it to exemplify the kind of images you can create with those settings. The settings one could use to get a shot similar to this would be ISO 100 or 200, an Aperture of anything from f/8 to f/16, and a Shutter Speed somewhere in the range of 5 to 15 seconds.

(http://media.digitalcameraworld.com/files/2012/10/Night_photography_settings_camera_tips_DCM112.shoot_core.tower_skywalk_08.jpg)



Here is one of my shots of the moon on a cloudy night. This was shot with a camera similar to the quality of yours with the settings of ISO 200, f/13 Aperture, and 0.8 second Shutter Speed.

(https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/317139_648300329320_874617241_n.jpg)


As you can see, the moon looks very bright, so I could have dropped my ISO to 100, taken my Aperture up to f/16 or higher if possible, or both to darker the picture down a bit. Another thing to note is that with such long Shutter Speeds used for night photography, you will get a LOT of motion blur. This can be used to your advantage if you want to take light trail shots of traffic or light paintings of a saber, but for things like clouds moving across the sky or anything else you don't want to move, it should be something to consider.


Here is one more image of something called a "star trail" shot. Again this image isn't mine, but the kind of settings one might use for a shot like this would be ISO 100, Aperture around f/4 or f/5.6, and a 30 second Shutter Speed.

(http://www.photosbykev.com/wordpress/wp-content/gallery/star_trails/startrail_dxo_2.jpg)




All in all, you do not want to use any Shutter Speed faster than around 1/2 seconds for night photography. Anything up towards 800 or more will just give you a black image because the camera Shutters will only be open for 1/800th of a second or 1/2000th of a second, which is almost no time for the camera sensor to expose the shot. In terms of Shutter Speeds, the brighter the lighting condition, the faster you want the Shutter to be (something like 1/800th) and the darker the lighting condition (like night photography), the longer you want the Shutter to stay open (something like 10 seconds). You would only want to use faster Shutter Speeds like 1/1000th+ if you were in very bright conditions, such as on a beach on a sunny day. 

Another thing to note is that if you don't have a sturdy tripod, don't even attempt night photography with long Shutter Speeds, because wind can still move your camera just enough to cause motion blur. The shot of the moon I did above is still a bit blurry because I didn't use a sturdy tripod and it was slightly windy out that night, so there was some motion blur that crept in as I was exposing the shot.

Hopefully that has served to answer your question.

I actually found for my camera in manual mode, ISO at 100 like you said, shutter speed at 10, and F 20.0. That worked out for me. I'm posting my result here in a sec. Or I'll just link my result here. Lol. Took me a few times to get it just right. But as you can clearly see the detail is amazing. The sky was actually still somewhat blue. Hope this is good enough for moon photography. =]

My moon result. ISO 100, shutter speed 10, F20.0:
(http://i622.photobucket.com/albums/tt310/weird_kid_syndrome_josh87/Moon4_zps1b44a4bd.jpg) (http://s622.photobucket.com/user/weird_kid_syndrome_josh87/media/Moon4_zps1b44a4bd.jpg.html)

Looks better than anything I have ever shot of the moon. Great pic! Looks like that general settings setup worked out well for you.

It'll be even better once the full moon hits. =] I'll post the pictures when I do them. I just hope its not cloudy out. Lol.

Awesome looking moon pic zren! I have a feeling you must have a newer and possibly slightly higher model fujicam than me :P

I'm gonna need to get a tripod, mostly I've used my cam for higher speed shots during daylight so it wasn't as important
 On the other end of the scale zren, if it is a similar cam to mine and you are taking photos of high speed things, they should come out pretty good once you get the settings right. I've done a lot of sequence shots with my cam of my sisters dance performances and sometimes they come out amazing. My cam has also taken some sweet panoramic shots.

not to try and thread jack, but venturous, what would be the best settings to use for high speed at night/ when darker? Sometimes my sis does stage performances, which means a dark room with stage lighting. Sometimes I can fluke a decent pic, but if she's spinning or moving fast my photos usually come out pretty crummy.

As my info says. Shutter speed at 10, ISO at 100, and F20.0. What number is yours from the S series?

Fujifilm finepix s1500. its about 4 years old now I think. still keeps going fine :)

I know its not a lightsaber pic or impressive moon pic, but heres a panorama I took with my cam- its not seamless, but I think it came out quite well. definitely not too bad for a camera that was a couple hundred dollars :) one day im gonna get it printed out and put on the wall

(http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp195/b1ondeange1/albany%20holiday%202012/DSCF0262_zpsb152a770.jpg) (http://s411.photobucket.com/user/b1ondeange1/media/albany%20holiday%202012/DSCF0262_zpsb152a770.jpg.html)

beautiful bay we camped at last year, we looked out the window of our camper and that's the amazing view we saw :D definitely going back there again! pity it was so windy though.

Nice. I'm going to have to try that setting when the full moon hits.

Well I have never done any shots like what you are suggesting, but I can offer you some tips of course. The best way to achieve faster Shutter Speeds in order to capture movement at night is to use an external flash gun, which would give you plenty of light to use if you were close enough to your sister on stage. That would give you the advantages of being able to use a low ISO and a narrower Aperture, which means you'd get little to no noise and lots of the image in focus. However, that probably isn't the best option considering it would be a big distraction for her and everyone else watching. Therefore, since you can't really use flash as an external light source, you would have to use a higher ISO setting to increase the camera's sensitivity to light. Depending on how dark the lighting situation is you'd be shooting in, I would say an ISO of anywhere from 800 to 2000 would work. Just keep in mind that the higher ISO setting you use, the more noise you'll get in the image, so try to keep it as low as possible if you can.

The next thing to consider is your Aperture setting, which I would keep as wide as possible (wider Aperture = smaller number). The thing to consider here is the more you open up your Aperture (use a smaller number), the less depth of field you will have and the more likely you'll get an out-of-focus shot. Therefore, I would suggest starting with a generic Aperture of around f/4 or f/5.6 and see how that works for you. If you need more things in focus, you can close your Aperture some (f/9 or f/11). If you don't need as much in focus, then you can widen it some (f/3 or f/2). By closing your Aperture, you will be letting in less light to the camera sensor, which would make the image darker, whereas opening the Aperture would allow more light in and give you a brighter image, so just keep that in mind.

Then there is your Shutter Speed to consider. This setting really depends on what effect you want to capture. If you want to capture your sister's motion, then you'd want a longer Shutter Speed, something like 1/5th or 1/3th of a second might do the trick. However, you said you wanted to capture the action using faster Shutter Speeds. The problem here is that if you use a faster Shutter Speed in a dark theater setting, you'll get quite a dark image. You can somewhat offset this by adjusting your other settings, but it may still end up rather dark. You can either do one of two things here. You can try to find a Shutter Speed setting that allows you to capture movement or use a Continuous shooting mode. If you want to go the first route, then I might suggest trying a Shutter Speed somewhere in the middle of not too fast and not too slow, which might be something like 1/60th of a second. Usually anything slower than 1/60th of a second will introduce camera shake if you are shooting handheld. This camera shake is also amplified when using high zoom ranges, so if you are sitting near the back of the audience, you would have to use a slightly faster Shutter Speed to compensate for that camera shake, unless your camera has an Image Stabilization feature. The other way of doing it is to use the Continuous shooting mode, which almost all cameras have. The way I would use that is to dial in a relatively fast Shutter Speed (something around 1/60th or 1/30th) and just keep the shutter button held down during periods where you are trying to capture a shot. By doing it this way, you might take 20 photos at a time, most of which might come out blurry, but you will also probably get a few that come out sharp. Again, this depends on your Shutter Speed.

Here are the settings I would use for taking pics of someone on stage in a dark theater setting:

ISO 800 to start (raise incrementally if needed)
Aperture f/5.6 (raise or lower depending on whether shots come out too dark or too bright and depending on focus)
Shutter Speed 1/60th to start (adjust depending on blurriness)
Continuous Shooting mode turned on

Now here is how I would go about taking the shots:

With the camera in Manual Mode, I would make Shutter Speed my top priority. Therefore, I would dial in a Shutter Speed of 1/60th to start with. From there, I would adjust for the lighting condition with my other two settings. ISO would be my second priority setting, which I would set to 800 to start. Finally I would choose an Aperture depending on what the metering system is telling me (whether the shot will come out too dark or too light). If your camera doesn't tell you that, then I'd pick a generic Aperture of around f/5.6 to start with. I would then take a test shot and see how it comes out, focusing on certain things like whether the shot was in focus, how much was in focus or not in focus, if the image was too dark or too light, if there was motion blur captured, etc. From the analysis of my test shot, I would then change either my ISO, my Aperture, or both to adjust for the shot. I would not change my Shutter Speed unless I had to (if the shot needed to be taken faster for example). Once I had settings I thought would work well enough, I would turn on Continuous Shooting mode and fire away. Hopefully some of the images taken during Continuous mode would come out sharp and be exposed well.


P.S. Very nice panoramic shot of the beach.

I think im going to have to read that a few times over before it sinks in- photography isn't my strong point! :P but thankyou very muchly for your help! I usually just stick my cam on continuous mode, its the easiest way to get a few pictures in focus, though I can end up with several hundred photos as a result- my sister also finds it very helpful as it basicly freezes all her movements into a pile of photos, and lets her check her technique- things like hand movements, balance, are movements in sync etc. she finds these things are easier to see in photos than by watching a video and trying to freeze it, esp if the recording is low quality. shes trying to go more pro with her belly dancing, so little things like hand and feet movements and expression are important to work on and are her current focus

and thanks re beach panoramic, its the best ive ever taken, and it took a lot of stuffing around trying to get it right. it just cant capture the absolute beauty of that beach though, it was superb, this amazing little bay with beautiful white sand and clear as water, with almost pristine costal bushland around it in places. I thought it was funny when I checked it and realised I got a picture of a car going down the beach in it hehe
okies, sorry to thread jack pplz :)

Didn't think to try shutter speed. And again my camera doesn't do halves. Only regular shutter speeds. Heh.

Fantastic shot! Nice job, Zren!  :)

Thanks. I might do more tonight just for fun. What would be a good setting to do for to show the day time sky? I was thinking of doing one later while its still day light out. Shutter speed like said?

You'd have to adjust your settings for a brighter condition. In terms of Shutter Speed, it would need to be a bit faster, something like 1/100 or more.

Ugh. Again. My camera DOESN'T do half second shutter speeds. .-. I wish it did though. But I'm sure the same settings will work for the shutter speed option.

I don't know what you mean by half shutter speeds. All cameras like yours are capable of doing faster shutter speeds like 1/100th or something like that, so I'm not sure what you mean. Sometimes for cameras like yours the zoom has an affect on the settings. You might get different settings at different zooms than what you thought possible.

Tried shutter speed tonight and the moon still came out like a light bulb so I just stick with manual and original settings. 100 ISO and 10 second shutter speed. I did zoom in all the way again though so I could get a good picture. The camera does 24X zoom.

Finally got this one down. Lol. Shutter speed at 10 and ISO 800. I like my result. =]

(http://i622.photobucket.com/albums/tt310/weird_kid_syndrome_josh87/BloodRed9_zps90cf2bac.jpg) (http://s622.photobucket.com/user/weird_kid_syndrome_josh87/media/BloodRed9_zps90cf2bac.jpg.html)

Nice pic man! Now if only you had a black hood covering part of your face. It'd make it just that much more sithy.

Wow. Good thread!

I'll do my home made Sith outfit next time for you then. Its not top quality stuff though, just store bought stuff but still looks good either way. =]  I have my own pair of shoes that I like to use that still look Sithy.

Hey just wondering, the aperture, I know its the little slots on the side. For 3.5, is it right in the middle of the left side or did you use the right side for brightness?

Never mind. My camera has just gotten so used to blues and greens that its hard to pick up other colors like cyan. So I will be keeping my SRD Dominix that cool green color then. I just find that weird. I do have some sick lightsaber pictures in mind though that I'd like to try out. =]

Will look forward to seeing them then.