Carp fishing capture pics at night, Help plz

shae

Hi all, im very new to this camera. Im struggling to get a good clear photos at night with my d3100 18/55mm lens also afs55/300 dx lens..
Now i would be very greatfull if anyone could give me some idea on settings. Its portrait really just holding a fish but Very dark outside and no light at all on the subject ty all :)

bruto

You're going to have difficulty getting good pictures in darkness even with faster lenses. But one thing you can try is simply to crank up the ISO, and try to find the lowest shutter speed at which you can keep steady. Unless you're very close, the depth of field should be sufficient even with the lens wide open. This would be using shutter priority mode. Make sure if you've been using automatic mode to set your auto focus to some mode other than Auto area, so that you can focus on the subject's face.

In dark shots, high ISO will be pretty noisy, and you will have to make a personal decision on how much noise (grain, stray pixels, etc.) you can tolerate in order to make steady holding easier.

And of course the other option would be to use flash. If you are using one of the P,S,A and M modes, when you manually pop up the flash, it will act as a fill flash, and usually get a pretty decent exposure. In a dark place, such as a person holding a fish in a boat in the dark, the subject will be illuminated, but little else in the background will be. This can work pretty well for a portrait, but you won't get much environment in the shot.

If it's really dark, the AF may not even focus correctly. You can get some help here by setting AF to "S" single servo mode, which will work fine with a subject standing still, and making sure that the focus assist light is enabled. This will use a little light on the subject to help the AF find it. It won't work with AFC.

It may or may not be possible, but if you can put some light even temporarily on your subject, with a flashlight or the like while you focus, it can help. Once focused you can turn it off.

When using AFS, make sure that your focus point is centered, or at least where you want it. It's easy accidentally to move it with the rear control. Push the "OK" button to re-center it, and get in the habit of doing this often just to avoid accidental attempts to focus on the sky or the shadows under the trees.

I'd probably try using the 18-55 lens first, at a medium range and a medium focal length. At something around 35 mm. length, the perspective will be pretty normal, the depth of field good enough for a portrait, and the flash should cover the subject all right. Longer tele shots may tax the flash, and may be harder to focus.