first time DSLR owner going to the arctic

[wasteoid]

HI All,

I am a first time DSLR owner (couple of weeks now) and I am off to sweden. Other than preparing for the cold (batteries and damp) can anyone help me out with some settings for my Nikon D60 (18-55mm lens)

I have looked through the manual, and have worked out the basic functions and have been playing with it in its A, S and P modes, but I think I am going to have to use the bulb mode to photograph the night skies. And to use this, I need to use manual mode.

So a question about that and then a question about focus.

1 Can someone please suggest some settings I can use in manual mode to shoot the night skies no real ambient light.

2 On some lenses (maybe from my past) there appeared to be a window type thing that showed what sort of focus you have set, it had the logo for infinity (set for infinity).the lenses I have, have no window, so how would i know where it is set for infinity?

Would be very grateful for any assistance you have.

Chris

P.S I'm taking my dodgy compact as well just in case!!!

 

[scanker]

I'm a fairly recent D60 owner. I'm certainly no expert - still on a steep learning curve.

I can't offer any suggestions for specific settings. You're going to need a tripod, small aperture and long exposure for night skies. DealExtreme in HK sell a remote controll for the D60 for less than £3 iirc - absolutely superb bit of kit for tripod work.

It's going to be trial and error for settings and once you've taken a photo, have a good look at the histogram and highlight screens to see if you've captured everything correctly. Google camera histogram, if that's unfamilar to you. You may have to set the lens to manual focus and use the camera's function to check focus if it's too dark for auto focus.

The only other tip I can offer is to play with the custom white balance settings. I was using these when photographing the snow the other day - you basically take a picture with the frame full of white or light grey and the camera uses this for the white balance.

Hope I'm not teaching you to suck eggs and that's of some use. I'll look forward to the photos - is there much Northern Light activity at the moment?

 

[ArkAngel]

So i would say:

Keep spare batteries and the camera as close to you as possible. Body heat will help preserve their life.

When taking the camera back indoors be carefull of it going from very cold to warm in a short space of time, there was a chap in the camera shop when i bought mine a few weeks back. He had been to Northern Canada and his Nikon DSLR now had a fault code on it due to condensation.

Be carefull with long exposures, you will get more 'noise' on them the longer you have the shutter open. Exposures could be anything from 5seconds to 5 minutes so a cable realease is useful and a tripod essential. I have alos heard of sensors been damaged by overheating on excessive long exposures but that seems to be a point of controversy.

Set your white balance for the conditions of the day (sunny, cloudy etc). Exposure wise snow (assuming there is any!) can be tricky to get right. You camera is trying to expose for what is called 18% grey (or a neutral tone). On normal pictures this is Ok. On snow it can make the snow look grey or dull. Read up on your "Exposure compensation" in the camera handbook. Some of the time (and it is only practise) you will need to overexpose the scene by a third of a stop in extremes maybe even half or two thirds.

you may also have "snow" setting!!!

All lenses somewhere will have marking on them for focusing. Any lens that can be used in a manual mode should have calibrated markings on them. If not point the lens at something distant and focus on it, you will then know the lens is at the distance end of the focusing ring.

Hope that helps a bit, and had not scared you too much

anything else you want help with just shout up

 

[BigShot]

The main difficulty with taking shots on snow (and also sand) is exposure.

As ArkAngel has said, your camera will try to average out the whole scene to "18% grey" - but snow scenes are almost invariably much brighter than that, as such, left to its own devices the camera will underexpose the shots.
On a digital, underexposure is definitely preferable to overexposure, but getting it bang on is always preferable.

I'd probably suggest buying an 18% grey card from a camera shop (jessops used to stock them until recently, they may still do but i've not been in for a while) and using that to figure out the correct exposures.
Alternatively - "average" caucasian skin just so happens to be roughly equivalent to 18% grey too. - which is useful - just hold your hand up, get your exposure off that and then frame and shoot the shot.

Last winter I was shooting on a 35mmSLR and used the "Ultimate Exposure Calculator" system as detailed here:
http://www.fredparker.com/ultexp1.htm

I was impressed. I used exposure bracketing to go 1 stop above and below the suggested settings on that page and almost every time the settings suggested by that page were spot on.
I wrote down a part of the table on masking tape and stuck it to my camera for reference.


For night shots - have a look at this page, you might find it interesting.
http://www.lostamerica.com/
Particuarly the "technique" page which now focuses on digital work as the photographer who made that site has pretty much abandoned film for his night work now.
http://www.lostamerica.com/technique.html


Have an ace time.

 

[Sainty]

For long exposure tripod work, instead of using a remote control or cable release, use the self timer on the camera. This will reduce/eliminate any camera shake caused by pressing the shutter button.

Martin

 

[inthewids]

I love that Lost America site, wish the snow had lasted longer, i wanted to get some snowy night shots

 

[ArkAngel]

For long exposure tripod work, instead of using a remote control or cable release, use the self timer on the camera. This will reduce/eliminate any camera shake caused by pressing the shutter button.

Martin

Good idea and it will save you a bit of money (the standard remote for my D300 was £50 )

This does limit you to max exposures of 30secs as that is the maximum that most cameras will do on manual.

 

[BigShot]

I love that Lost America site, wish the snow had lasted longer, i wanted to get some snowy night shots

'tis a good site innit.

I'll be doing some similar stuff when I get my act together and find all my kit (it's strewn asunder at the minute - not even sure where my tripod is!)