Olympus E-410 - Manual (Page 25)

EN
25
Im
provi
ng your
shooting skil
ls – Shooting guides
2
Taking night scene pictures
There are different types of night scenes, ranging from the afterglow of a sunset to city lights at
night. Sunset and fireworks sceneries are also a type of night scene.
Using a tripod
A tripod is a must when shooting night scenes as the shutter
speed is slow due to the darkness. Even when a tripod is not
available, you should also place the camera on a stable
ground such that it does not shake. Even when the camera is
secured, you may also move the camera when pressing the
shutter button. Hence, use the remote control or self timer to
activate the shutter as far as possible.
Changing shooting mode
When taking night scenes, the balance of the brightness in the composition is not uniform due
to the intensity of brightness. As there are many dark areas, using P (program shooting) mode
will take a whitish picture that is overexposed. First of all, use A (aperture priority shooting)
mode to take the picture. Set the aperture to the medium setting (about F8 or F11) and leave
the shutter speed to the camera. As it is common for the picture to turn out too bright, adjust the
exposure compensation to –1 or –1.5. Check the aperture and exposure compensation in the
[REC VIEW] image and change it if necessary. Noise may occur easily when shooting at slow
shutter speeds. Set [NOISE REDUCT.] to [ON] to reduce the occurrence of noise.
Using manual focus
For cases when the subject is dark and you cannot focus using AF
(auto focus) or when you cannot focus in time for pictures such as
fireworks, set the focus mode to MF (manual focus) and focus
manually. For night scenes, turn the focus ring of the lens and check
whether you can see the street lights clearly. For fireworks, as long as
the long focus lens is not used, it is okay to adjust to infinite. If you
know the approximate distance, you can also focus on something that
is found at the same distance in advance.
g “P: Program shooting” (P. 26), “A: Aperture priority
shooting” (P. 27), “Sequential shooting / Self-timer / Remote
control” (P. 39), “Focus mode” (P. 43), “Noise reduction” (P. 53), “Rec
view – Checking the picture immediately after shooting” (P. 68)