Turning off the flash

[cruisinbuddy]

Pierces I need your help.

I have a Canon, Rebel XT EOS. I want to take a couple of night pics with no flash. It's to get pictures of lights on objects. Now I know a tripod is needed. I went through the manual and couldn't find anything about it. Any help you could give me would be great Thanks in advance.

[pierces]

I'm pretty sure that if you set the camera to Av mode, the flash will not pop up automatically. If it does, you simply push it closed and that will disable it until you return to auto mode or press the flash button on the side of the prism housing.

 

In Av mode, just set your aperture and the camera will determine the shutter speed for you.

 

Dave

[ikirumata]

You need to shoot with a lower shutter speed. Unfortunately, shooting with a slow shutter speed can cause any vibration to mess up the shot...this is why you need a tripod.

 

Im not sure that Av mode is the best for that. Since you are shooting nightime lights, depth of field is not that important. If you don't want to do full manual, then Tv mode may work better. This allows you to adjust your shutter speed and the camera will auto adjust the aperture.

 

Good luck!

[dileep]

What is wrong with using Av mode, setting your aperture and letting the camera pick the shutter speed?

[Band1Mom]

FWIW, don't forget when using a tripod, you'll want to turn off the IS on the lens if it has it :)

[cruisinbuddy]

Thanks for the help. I just played with the camera for a bit and in TV mode, & AI servo selected, I took 5 pics of same object changing the iso each time from 100 up to 1600. 1600 was deffinately the best. I'll keep playing with it.

[Rusty2192]

Thanks for the help. I just played with the camera for a bit and in TV mode, & AI servo selected, I took 5 pics of same object changing the iso each time from 100 up to 1600. 1600 was deffinately the best. I'll keep playing with it.

 

Speaking from experience as a former owner of a Rebel XT, ISO 1600 is going to produce a ton of noise. What kind of nighttime shots are you going for? Will it be moving objects or something that will stay in one place for 30 seconds or more? If it's the former, you are forced to either boost the ISO or get a larger aperture. Depending on your equipment, either of these may not be possible.

 

If your subject is going to be stationary (landscapes, buildings, signs, etc) you will be much better off setting up your tripod and setting the ISO to 100 and using a slow shutter speed. The XT only goes up to 30 seconds, so you may need to get a cheap cable release to use the bulb setting past 30 seconds. You can get a cheap generic one from Amazon or ebay for a few bucks. Definitely worth the small investment.

 

Also, turn off the AI Servo in low light shots, especially if stuff isn't moving. In most dark situations manual focus actually works the best as the camera has a hard time autofocusing unless you put a speedlite on it and use its focus assist beam.

[ikirumata]

What is wrong with using Av mode, setting your aperture and letting the camera pick the shutter speed?

 

After reading the comments on this board, I was inspired to explore more of this Av mode (I mostly shoot manual). In the OPs situation, Av would work great! In fact, on my T2i, it works better than Tv mode.

 

So, to answer your question, nothing is wrong with using Av mode. :)

 

One thing I find frustrating about Av mode, however, is that I don't know what the shutter speed is going to be. I dont usually have a tripod handy (and maybe I have really shaky hands), but I like to keep my shutter speed above the reciprocal of the focal length (i.e. if Im shooting at 200mm, then my shutter speed should be around 1/200). Sometimes in Av mode, I won't be paying attention and the shutter speed drops lower than that in order to get the proper exposure (resulting in a properly exposed shot, but blurry). Most of the time, its more desireable for me to have a sharp underexposed shot, than a blurry, properly exposed shot. With my minimal post processing skills, I can fix underexposure easier than I can blur.

 

Great thread!

[chipmaster]

Never free lunch :p

 

Aperture prioirty than got to pay attention to shutter speed

Shutterpiroirty than got to watch DOF

Manual than you got to just pay attention.

Auto can be surpised if the camera picks wrong

 

Than of course there is AutoISO on another brand which lets you pick the minimum shutterspeed and maximum ISO you will allow than in any of the settings float them within the guidlines. Thus in most cases on my camera Auto ISO set at the beginning for minimum shutter speed and often between 10,000 or 128000 ISO and pick aperture for DOF with almost no impunity.

 

After reading the comments on this board, I was inspired to explore more of this Av mode (I mostly shoot manual). In the OPs situation, Av would work great! In fact, on my T2i, it works better than Tv mode.

 

So, to answer your question, nothing is wrong with using Av mode. :)

 

One thing I find frustrating about Av mode, however, is that I don't know what the shutter speed is going to be. I dont usually have a tripod handy (and maybe I have really shaky hands), but I like to keep my shutter speed above the reciprocal of the focal length (i.e. if Im shooting at 200mm, then my shutter speed should be around 1/200). Sometimes in Av mode, I won't be paying attention and the shutter speed drops lower than that in order to get the proper exposure (resulting in a properly exposed shot, but blurry). Most of the time, its more desireable for me to have a sharp underexposed shot, than a blurry, properly exposed shot. With my minimal post processing skills, I can fix underexposure easier than I can blur.

 

Great thread!

[ikirumata]

Never free lunch :p

 

Aperture prioirty than got to pay attention to shutter speed

Shutterpiroirty than got to watch DOF

Manual than you got to just pay attention.

Auto can be surpised if the camera picks wrong

 

For some reason, shooting in manual forces me to pay attention, where as shooting in Aperture Priority, I forget to watch the shutter speed :(

 

The one thing that really surprises me in auto is when the flash pops up. Im like, what the heck? :)

 

Not sure what brand you shoot, but my Canon T2i has AutoISO. I use it a lot in Manual.