Christmas Tree's 2.0

I've tinkered more this low light Christmas Tree's.

ISO: 100

SS: 4/5

F/ 5

Tripod used and remote shutter. It kept shaking when I pressed the camera.

I also edited it to haze the sides since my house is ugly and cluttered. 

You can find the previous tree photo here

I would just load the photo but my internet is being a slow poke tonight and just refusing. 

The previous one is definitely brighter, but even with having the ISO lower to create less noise I was able to get brighter exposures by adjusting the aperture and shutter speed. So really it's whatever you're going for!  Dark moody one for when you want to hide what your apartment looks like, or bright one to capture the silhouettes of loved ones by the tree. 

The world is my oyster!

Black and White Vs Color

I promise this won't turn into just a cat blog. I swear. 

Sick family means I'm stuck at home. Being a apartment with not too many great photo opportunities I take what I can get.

I thought about doing a long exposure of water, but after the Christmas tree learning experience I knew if I had the shutter open for a while it would get too over exposed. So I turned to google, and the best way to get a longer exposure is with filters, which I don't have. I looked at amazon and some come at $13 for a pack, I just don't have the budget for them yet. Sad, right?

So I looked around the room for inspiration and cat. 

I looked at pinterest for a few ideas, I saw one with a close up on just the nose, but he wasn't cooperating with it. So I went with what I had.

Settings:

ISO: 400

SS: 1/125

F/ 5.6

External flash...I can't remember if I bounced it off the ceiling or right at him....I had several shots I did.

And I did change it slightly up with some editing. Not too much though.

And also converted to black and white with a preset.

I prefer the black and white myself. 

Low Light Christmas Tree

Christmas time= billions of photos of kids in front of the Christmas tree.

Not this girl. Not this year. This year it was the cat. 

The cat was awake when I decided to try it.

Oddly the cat was more poseable(is this even a word? The red line is telling me no.) than my kids are at this point.

This has very little retouching.
I cropped it, warmed it up a little and did a noise reduction.

The settings were
ISO: 1600
SS: 1/8sec
Aperture: 3.5
I zoomed in at 18mm
I also used a tripod. With that low of a shutter speed I needed something more stable than my hands.

I was on pinterest and they suggested this link for me.
I did not have the lens they wanted me to have. It's on the wish list. I hear great things about it.
Of course I played around too

This one I had the shutter open for 6 seconds. Everything else was the same as before. I didn't edit this one at all. I'm thinking that it's a no go on the longer shutter.

Obviously for better photos clean up your space first. I did not.

Equpiment

I am working with a Nikon 3200. 

The package deal we got at the very beginning of the year came with the body and two lens. A 18-55mm and a 55-200mm. 

Since then we have gotten a Bower external flash, tripod, and a remote clicker.  Also can't forget the flash diffuser we picked up. 

The majority of what I'm going to be doing is trying as many shots as I can with what I got. 

This one was captured using the 55-200mm lens, tripod and remote clicker. I also had to google getting the right settings. I forgot that the moon was indeed moving.  

Google is the best teacher ever.

SD Cards

Life Hack lesson 1

If you want to better utilize your time practicing outdoor low lighting.

REMEMBER YOUR SD CARD.

Or better yet, keep a spare in the camera bag when you forget. Don't kid yourself, you will.

Otherwise you'll just be practicing some sweet shots with your cell phone.

I'm a idiot.

Second time I have done this. 

I'm a idiot.

Introduction

Introduction

I'm a crappy photographer. 

I have hopes of improving my skill level.

So why not create a place that's easy to look up and easy to write in about learning it's ins and outs.

Right on.