how to take night time surveillance shots

andyt72

andyt72

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andrew
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ok heres my question been asked to take some night time surveillance photos
of someone believed to be having an affair ...anyway what im asking is how do i take these shots and close up at night without a tripod
my equipment is a canon eos 450d with 18-250mm zoom lens ive tried taking the shots with flash off but the shot takes about 5 seconds to do and is all blurred without the tripod..
any help would be appreciated thanks
 
you need a faster lens, an f/2.8 might be a place to start. I'm not sure how long a lens you can get at f/1.8

As its for a job, you could hire one from lenses for hire for a week instead of purchasing. Using it wide open and at high iso should allow you to use faster shutter speeds.
 
You can play with an exposure calculator, find out the correct expsosure at 5 seconds, then you can change the ISO and f speed to see the shutter speed required.
 
last I heard, most PI's have dropped stills almost entirely and now just shoot video.

Crank the iso, as long as it's recognisable who cares about the noise, it's not art you're shooting.
 
Andrew, can you give us the full exposure details for the 5 second shot:

Aperture = f/??
ISO = ??
SHutter = 5 seconds

With the unknowns known we can calculate an equivilent exposure with a faster lens.. and get an idea just how bad the light is.
 
Alastair said:
Andrew, can you give us the full exposure details for the 5 second shot:

Aperture = f/??
ISO = ??
SHutter = 5 seconds

With the unknowns known we can calculate an equivilent exposure with a faster lens.. and get an idea just how bad the light is.
Click to expand...

i have the camera in flash off mode then the info on the eye piece display screen is f/6.3 - iso 800 - shot takes 5 seconds
 
andyt72 said:
i have the camera in flash off mode then the info on the eye piece display screen is f/6.3 - iso 800 - shot takes 5 seconds
Click to expand...

iso should be min 1600 or 3200 if your camera can manage... the fstop should be the smallest number your lens will manage.. whats left is the shutter speed and depends on what light you have ..
 
thanks guys im slowly getting there iso is whacked right high fstop is lowest and ive managed to get the shutter speed to 2 seconds .
think its deffinatly a faster lens i need now looking on warehouse express they range from a grand to 2 grand lol
 
andyt72 said:
thanks guys im slowly getting there iso is whacked right high fstop is lowest and ive managed to get the shutter speed to 2 seconds .
think its deffinatly a faster lens i need now looking on warehouse express they range from a grand to 2 grand lol
Click to expand...

thats it..once you max the iso and the lens.. its either a camera wiht more iso or a lens with faster aperture.. my 400mm lens was around 6k .. my 70-200mm was just under 2k .. two cameras nearly 4k each... once you leave the norm of daytime photogrpahy you ahve to start spending money.... I know to my cost :(
 
andyt72 said:
thanks guys im slowly getting there iso is whacked right high fstop is lowest and ive managed to get the shutter speed to 2 seconds .
think its deffinatly a faster lens i need now looking on warehouse express they range from a grand to 2 grand lol
Click to expand...

Why not go for a S/H 50D much higher ISO than the 450D 12800 compared to 1600 I think :thinking:
 
iso 800, F/6.3 and 5 second shutter speed

is the same exposure as

iso 3200, f/2.8 and 1/4 second shutter speed

If you can only get to 1600 iso, its 1/2 second shutter speed.
 
For proper night time surveillance you need an IR setup unless the subject is likely to pass under pools of light.

You dont really stand a chance with your current setup.
 
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If it's only for surveillance then I think you can afford to drop the exposure levels down 2 stops or so aswell. Sacrifice a bit of exposure for shutter speed. As long as there's some detail in the face etc.
 
Maximum ISO your camera can do widest aperture possible probably 1/25 (keep it steady) shoot RAW and push it another couple of stops in PP, after all it isn't ultimate IQ you are after, that should get you an image
 
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You don't say where you are taking the photos from. A car? A bush? the street?

If in a car you can also use a tripod, gorillapod or a sandbag to help stabilise the shot. It will at least eliminate any camera shake.
 
Ask some of the New of the World guys. Seems they are expert at "surveillance" shots! :exit::naughty:
 
andyt72 said:
...how do i take these shots and close up at night...
Click to expand...

Sorry - surveillance shots close up? My first thoughts weren't about what kit but for your safety. Plus I'm not sure I'd accept something like that, especially in the current Leveson environment.

Close up you'd get one, possibly two shots? I think in that case a compact camera in film mode may be more useful and discrete?

But, if you need an image/images. Know anyone with a 5D mk2? ISO upto 25,600, so 12,800 should be usable for this sort of occasion which would give you another 4 stops.
Your 18-200 is f3.5 to 5.6, so a faster lens would be better. If you want to shoot close then a nifty 50 at f1.8 would give you another 3 stops, so that's a possible 7 stops quicker which probably still wouldn't get to to a decent shutter speed from 5 secs
 
I'm not sure of the reasons for taking the photos but it's my understanding most courts won't accept digital images as evidence unless taken under certain conditions as they are so easily tampered with, thats why video is prefered (harder to tamper with) without leaving a trace.
 
i'd be tempted for spot metering too, you might as well expose for the thing you want, not neccessarily the narrative around it, it might give you the extra stops you need. Unless thats needed for evidence etc?
 
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