Blackpool Lights

[poddy1889]

Hi

Taking my daughter to Blackpool to see the lights and was woundering if anyone can help i have a canon 550d with a Canon 18 - 55 Lens.
can any one advise some rough settings to try out to take photos of the illuminations.

Regards
Stewart

[Troy]

Hi Stewart,

and welcome to the forum.

It really depends on a whole bunch of things. It is obviously going to be dark, so you're going to have to take control of the settings to get usabel shots. Leaving it on auto won't be ideal.

Raising your ISO will help for the lower light, but be careful as noise will show up a lot with the lights. If it were me i'd make sure i was shooting in RAW, and would shoot at a decent speed in shutter priority, probably around 1/60sec at least. Then if your shots come out too dark you can simply brighten them up with some post processing.

What settings do you usually use? Aperture priority, shutter, manual? Would help to know your level of competency before we sprout too much technical jargon.

[Chris Humphreys]

A tripod / gorillapod / bean bag is probably the best way to go here. For your camera you aren't going to be able to crank up the ISO sufficiently to achieve good results with hand holding.

I'd opt for resting the camera on something or preferably use a tripod, low iso, small aperture (say f/14), and a shutter speed to suit. This will allow you to get some interesting light patterns in both the illuminations and passing traffic.

[Troy]

Ah yes, Chris is probably right with using a support or something to rest on.

I assum you don't have a tripod because you didn't list it in your kit, but a wall of sorts is a good place to start. Also simply resting the lens on a jumper or similar would help to stabilise the shot.

[poddy1889]

Thanks for the good advise Guys.
Yes i have a tripod that i could use, Would a Monopod be anygood or tripod better.


Regards
Stewart

[Troy]

Obviously a tripod will provide more stability, and you'd be able to leave the camera on there while you do some longer exposures. However, a monopod is more transportable and less hassle to use, so you have to weigh up the pros and cons

[Chris Humphreys]

A monopod can be clamped against a post to give good support. Otherwise they aren't really suitable for any shutter speeds over 1/2 a second by themselves. You'll have more fun experimenting with a tripod, shutter speeds of around 4-5 seconds will work really well for some nice light patterns and movement.

[poddy1889]

Thanks guys for your help


Regards
Stewart

[Troy]

Yea if it was me i'd take a tripod. More creativity and its nice to have something and not need it, rather than need something but not have it.

Oh make sure you chuck some of your shots up here for all to see.

[BrianMDoucette]

I would highly recommend a gorillapod(with ballhead)... nice and small, portable and very useful.
I carry one with me when I don't bother dragging my tripod along, very useful!
regards, B...

[Troy]

I'll echo that too. I have a gorillapod, the largest one. Capable of holding a DSLR and a huge zoom camera very well.

[BrianMDoucette]

I'll echo that too. I have a gorillapod, the largest one. Capable of holding a DSLR and a huge zoom camera very well.

Yep, they are quite sturdy (slr zoom model) I have no problems with mounting and positioning my Canon 60D plus a 70-200F4L, as long as I am wise about how to position the legs. Great contraption, I don't know how I ever went without one.

B...