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Camera setting for a Shuttle Launch
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Hello all, I’m a new member and I’ve a question for you. I’m off to Florida next week and I’ve booked tickets to see a Shuttle launch, the launch is at 12.30 (night time) and I’m not sure what setting to set my camera to. I have a Nikon D40, and I’ll be using the 55-200mm Nikon Lens. As most of you probably know there is a “Night ” setting on the camera, but I fear the shutter speed will be too slow and if I use the “Sport” setting I’m afraid that I won’t get the right exposure levels because of the night sky and the flames from the engines. Should I go manual or use one of the programmes?????
Also I’m thinking of buying one of those 2x converters that screws onto your lens and doubles the focal length, are they any good????
Much appreciate any advice or help,
Thanks, ChrisA380
First off, welcome to the site Chris.
Lucky you getting to see a shuttle launch :)
Anyhow, tough question. :)
Shooting in Manual might be the way to go combined with spot metering from the scene to get an accurate Shutter speed.
Of course as you know, you’ll have to have a fast enough shutter allow you to hand hold.Try having the lens wide open initially and keep an eye on the Shutter. If its still to slow you could increase ISO (make sure its not set to ‘auto’ initially) to make the sensor effectively more sensitive and therefore the shutter speed. Of course the downsize of too high an ISO is digital noise.
If you find that the Shutter speed is fine, then I’d suggest reducing the Aperture some more so that you’ll get a bit more of the scene sharp.I’d imagine that the place will be fairly well lit up in general so hopefully that should help a bit.
To be honest, there are many ways of attempting the shot. You might be well advised to go out and take some evening/night shots
with various settings/lighting conditions and see what works for you. On the night of the shoot you’re not going to have time to practice :)You might also consider bringing a tripod along.
Not sure if thats any help :)
Yip a difficult subject to shoot at night time, but Mark just about summed it up.
You may need a zoom lens, depending on the distance from the launch. What lenses do you have??
That aside I’d imagine you’d need a tripod with a ISO of 800 or 1600 (take some test shots to get a feel for the noise/grain), and whatever you do, don’t use a flash as it will give to fast a shutter speed and the image will be too dark. I’d imagine you’d need the widest aperature setting on your lens, so that will be something like f2.8, f4 or f5.6 depending on lens.
As the shuttle will be moving pretty slow at first I think a 1/4sec shutter speed should be what you aim for. Any slower and you’ll get some movement blur. If you can shoot quicker with that ISO and aperature even better. I’d probably shoot in Shutter Priority, select your shutter speed and ISO and let the camera do the rest.Oh and welcome to the forum. BTW: I’d love to see the results of this amazing experience.
Thanks Brian, I’ll be using a Nikon 55-200mm zoom and it’s only a f 5.6 (can’t afford a 2.8 just yet). We won’t see the launch pad from the viewing area, we’ve been told that the shuttle will be visible about 2-3 seconds after take off. If the results are any way decent I’ll post them.
I was asking Mark about those 2x converters( readily available on ebay) , do you know anything about them, are they any good ??
I haven’t used a 2x convertor but I’ve seen the results from them. If it’s a good quality make then you’ll be fine. Don’t forget thou you’ll be losing a full stop or stop and a half when using a convertor, resulting in a slowing your lens even further. So your f5.6 will turn into a f8.
I think the 200mm would be fine. you don’t wanna fill the frame with the shuttle, it would be nice getting the exhaust smoke billowing around below. And you can always crop to suit.I searched for “shuttle launch” on flickr and found this image for example… if you click on “More Properties in the lower right corner, you can have a look at the settings the person used… this one is a relatively long exposure, you would need a tripod to achieve it.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/barnette/2328866985Here’s the meta data:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/barnette/2328866985/metaDon’t bother getting a 2x converter, get a really cheap tripod or beanbag instead, and use the timer to release the shutter.
I hope you do not have the same misfortune as this Leica M8 user.
Good luck.
John
That’s why you always need a back up body… a cheap and small film camera if nothing else.
I have a 1.4x Kenko teleconvertor and it works great. 2x should work (might be a problem on a VR lens)
but as already pointed out, you’re going to loose some of the speed.
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