Taking camera to work today. Advice needed.

Droolinggimp · 13 Jul 2007 at 08:41

As title. I work in Morrisons on the Fish bar, im the manager.

I am looking to get some good pics of the fish and the displays I do with them. One shot I am looking to do in perticular is a close up (not macro or that sort of close) of a few fish with the customers in the back ground blurred due to moving. Pretty much like the pics you see of one person standing in the middle of Times Square (in focus) and all the people walking around him all blurred.

Im sure you know what I mean.

How do I go about making this happen. Is it something to do with the Exp time?

I have Kodak Easyshare LS633 (cheap one from many years ago) It produces some good quality pics as you can see from my other thread.

robertgilbert86 · 13 Jul 2007 at 09:13

I think you're going to find it difficult to get good results from the camera unless it has manual controls.

For the blurred people you'd need a tiny aperture (high f number eg f16) and a longish shutter speed (1/2 second maybe-experiment). You'd need a tripod or something to rest the camera on for this shot otherwise everything will be blurred.

MrSix · 13 Jul 2007 at 09:31

robertgilbert86 said:
For the blurred people you'd need a tiny aperture (high f number eg f16) OR a longish shutter speed (1/2 second maybe-experiment). You'd need a tripod or something to rest the camera on for this shot otherwise everything will be blurred.

The smaller aperature would induce a slower shutter speed due to the reduction in light, therefore the motion blur would be a by product of the longer exposure time to compensate for this. However simply stopping down the lens wont necessarily give you a blurry shot (in bright daylight for example).

Droolinggimp · 13 Jul 2007 at 09:37

Not sure about shutter speed. Not seem anthing on my camera to tell me this. All I have on my Camera are these options.

Exposure compensation: (+2 to -2 in .5 increments)
White balance: (Auto, Daylight, Tungsten and Fluorescent)
Exposure metering: (Multi-pattern, Center-weight and Center-spot)
Focus zone: (Multi-zone and Center-zone)
ISO speed: (Auto, 100, 200 and 400)
Long time exposure: (None, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 and 4.0)

Like I said its an old compact type camera. Still pretty good.

I really need to invest in a camera that allows me to fine tune everything and manual focus.

robertgilbert86 · 13 Jul 2007 at 09:54

Go for the long exposure option, make sure flash is off. If the shot gets too bright or dark you could try the exposure compensation options. If the shot is too blown out (white) use '-2 exposure' and vice versa.

MrSix said:
The smaller aperature would induce a slower shutter speed due to the reduction in light, therefore the motion blur would be a by product of the longer exposure time to compensate for this. However simply stopping down the lens wont necessarily give you a blurry shot (in bright daylight for example).

True, but indoors in a supermarket it should work as I said.

Droolinggimp · 13 Jul 2007 at 10:05

Ok lads. Thank you for your quick advice. I will be heading to work soon so it wont be until tomorrow when I shall have some pics up..

I am on till 10pm tonight and after 7-8 its dead inside the store so I will be taking pics then when I wont get bothered too much. Might even submit some photos to the "M" magazine for all stores to have a look at. It could get me on the track to something other than a fish manager..

Droolinggimp · 13 Jul 2007 at 22:59

Just got back from work. it was too busy to get some good photos so I only had chance to take a couple. Here are a couple I have managed to PP slightly.

Bolerus · 14 Jul 2007 at 15:30

put camera on a tripod, and set the shutter speed to be slow (over a second at least)
Or if your camera doesent have manual mode, try a normal speed shot and then blur everythign you dont want in focus in PS,
if your camera isnt up to it itself, this can be a good second best if you have the Ps skills