Camera Settings, Getting them right?

massahwahl

VIP Member
I have the Canon Rebel XT Digital SLR and have been reading through the manual trying to figure out what settings I need to have set to avoid some issues I ran into Thursday while shooting pictures during a court hearing.

(I will try to apply the limited knowledge I am gaining to what the resolution may be to these problems, please correct me as I go along)

I took LOTS of pictures and only got about 9 that were acceptable or useable later on. Lots of them ended up very blurry especially if the subject moved even slightly while I was focusing and firing the shot. This was especially noticeable at higher zoom settings. (Faster Shutter Speed/ISO?) Also, there were occasions where my focused subject would move and completely ruin the focus I had before snapping the shot. (Changed focus mode to AI Focus). Lastly, subjects skin was a pukish yellow or orange color I assume this is a white balance issue though which I already knew but didnt figure out until just now how to correct WB settings.

Basically what I really need to know is what are the best settings when your shooting in a court room setting with very high ceilings and not very pronounced lighting? I didnt use a flash as I dont think they would appreciate that, but what ISO and Shutter speeds do I need to maintain? I want to try to have these things sort of locked down before Monday when I go back for another trial so Im not snapping shots and trying to correct them as I go.
 

massahwahl

VIP Member
Also, as a tag on to the above, How do you do pictures where the subject appears in focua and the background appears blurred? Is this an aperture setting?
 

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
Basically what I really need to know is what are the best settings when your shooting in a court room setting with very high ceilings and not very pronounced lighting? I didnt use a flash as I dont think they would appreciate that, but what ISO and Shutter speeds do I need to maintain? I want to try to have these things sort of locked down before Monday when I go back for another trial so Im not snapping shots and trying to correct them as I go.
GET A TRIPOD. Thats rule #1.

Depeding on lighting you can try as low an aperture as your lens supports with ISO 400. People arent gonna be blitzing in a courtroom so 1/20 should be sufficient (test of course).


The white balance thing, see page88 of manual. You can also cheat if u dont have a white/grey card handy by using an offwhite picture as the source for whitebalancing. It's a surprisingly not wellknown trick :)


Also, as a tag on to the above, How do you do pictures where the subject appears in focua and the background appears blurred? Is this an aperture setting?
Increase the aperture (higher f/number, try f/14 through f/24)
 
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