Recently bought a GM1. Went through the book that came with it which was pretty useless. I want to take some night time pictures where I can leave the shutter open for a set time. Would anyone know how I can do this? Is there a website where I can learn some more features of Panasonic cameras?
Panasonic GM1. How to do take night time pictures.
- Thread starter axil23
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I assume you know the basics of exposure and are just struggling with settings and features as reading the manual doesn't help much... ? ?
As far as I know the max length of time you can leave the shutter open is 60 seconds. If you have a specific time in mind to have the shutter open you could put the camera in Manual mode and dial in the time you want and then set the ISO and aperture to suit and get the correct exposure?
Or, if you don't have a specific length of time in mind you could just go on the exposure meter or if you disagree with the meter you can guess and chimp until you get the result you want...
As far as I know the max length of time you can leave the shutter open is 60 seconds. If you have a specific time in mind to have the shutter open you could put the camera in Manual mode and dial in the time you want and then set the ISO and aperture to suit and get the correct exposure?
Or, if you don't have a specific length of time in mind you could just go on the exposure meter or if you disagree with the meter you can guess and chimp until you get the result you want...
srhmoto
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Yeah I know what to do but just can't find the settings for the shutter. Would anyone know where I would set the timing for it?
Thanks Simon. Will go through this.
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Does selecting S mode on the top dial not access Shutter Priority mode?
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Not sure if this will work on the Panny but it does on most compacts I've used. On the back of the camera is the 4 way switch. The bottom switch turns on the self timer (or accesses it). Does that give you options for the delay time? On the compacts I have, there are a couple of delay times available, 2s or 10s. If you mean you want the camera to take a shot (or several) at a pre set time at night, you might need an intervalometer.
abdoujaparov
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Put it into shutter priority mode (S) and rotate the control dial on the back until you get the speed you want. (Or manual mode, and press the control dial to switch between setting shutter and aperture) You'll have a maximum of 60s (you'll need to dig into the options and set the shutter mode to EFC (electronic front curtain) to get slower than 1s.). There's no bulb mode, apparently, so a remote trigger won't gain you any finer control.
Perfect putting it into (S) and rotating the control worked. But it goes from 15 to 16000. What exactly is that? milliseconds?
So now if I want to take a night time picture say on a busy road I would need to set the exposure and the ISO at the lowest right?
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abdoujaparov
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The numbers are fractions of a second - 1/15th, 1/1600th, etc.
I'm no expert - but try putting the camera on a tripod, put ISO to lowest, stick it in manual (M) mode, the aperture to something that suits the scene (f11, say),and then adjust the shutter speed to whatever gives a proper exposure according to the meter (ie, there aren't any + or - bars on the meter on the screen.) Take a photo, check it out on the screen, and adjust the shutter speed until you get the effect you like.
Perfect. Thank you very much.
pwhysall
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Assuming for a moment that starscapes are what is being attempted...
I would suggest that unless your camera has a "bulb" mode (i.e. hold the shutter open until you let go of the button; a remote release is invaluable for this) you may find that, at the maximum exposure time (60 seconds, in the case of the GM1), your image comes out a bit dark at the lowest ISO.
Don't be afraid to push the ISO up to 400, 800 or even 1600 if you're feeling brave (or have some good NR software; Adobe Lightroom does very well at removing chromatic noise, which is more visually offensive than luminance noise)
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Axil, if you search the forum for Light Trails, you'll probably find a tutorial that'll tell you the best way to go about them. Personally, I would start with the camera in M (manual) mode, with the shutter speed set as slow as it'll go. If the display says 15, that probably means 1/15th of second but if it says 15", that'll mean 15 seconds. Now set the aperture to as wide as it'll go. The lower the number, the bigger the hole. Now experiment with ISO settings. I would start at 400 as being a middle of the range setting. If the results are too bright, you can either set a smaller aperture or a lower ISO and conversely, if the results are too dark, you'll need to set a higher ISO.
Not sure where you are but there might be a member who lives local to you who could offer some face to face advice, or maybe even an evening class at a local college.
Not sure where you are but there might be a member who lives local to you who could offer some face to face advice, or maybe even an evening class at a local college.
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If it's light trails (car lights) that you're trying to capture, this is quite a handy link for converting MPH to metres per second. Once you know that a car travelling at 50 MPH will cover 222.352 metres in one second, you can work out how long it'll take traffic to get from one place to another.
http://www.kylesconverter.com/speed-or-velocity/miles-per-hour-to-meters-per-second
http://www.kylesconverter.com/speed-or-velocity/miles-per-hour-to-meters-per-second