How to improve this shot?

[Guest]

IMG_0063 by Roy Widdowson, on Flickr

Inside St.Mary de Castro church.I'm generally happy with the composition,but,is there a way of using a smaller aperture to give better DoF, so things are sharper towards the back,and still maintaining a decent shutter speed?

Keeping the ISO at 400 so not too much noise is introduced and still using my flash?My 550D doesn't handle very high ISOs too well,I think 800 is the probable maximum that I can use before LR can't do enough to lose the noise.

Perhaps using more exposure bias?I want to try and keep the atmosphere in that part of the church if possible.

I can go back to retake the shot.Ideas and suggestions welcomed please

[John Liddle]

Re: How to improve this shot?

Roy - this is already a nice image. You did well with the exposure - the internals of the church and the stained glass windows both show well.

Using the settings you did (f4.5 and 10mm focal length on the lens), if you focus on an item 2 metres away from you, everything from around 1.25 metres to infinity should be in acceptable focus.

If you again focus at 2m but stop down to f8 (and have the camera on a tripod, preferably with remote release, 'cos the exposure time will increase considerably, particularly if you also set ISO to 100 for best quality), everything from around 0.5 metres to infinity should be in acceptable focus.

You might want to get one of the apps for your phone which allow you to calculate your hyperfocal distance and DOF - some are free.

A further possibility would be to have a go at a focus stack, but that would be contingent on you having a suitable program on your 'puter.

Hope this helps.

[Guest]

Re: How to improve this shot?

Great advice thanks John,Ill try your first idea,I don't have a tripod,and it probably wouldn't be allowed in there if I did,but the Steward was ok with me using flash,which helped greatly with many of my shots.

[Brian Sugden]

Re: How to improve this shot?

If you could find something to support the camera (a chair or table) you could use the 2 second self timer rather than a cable release.

Brian

[Guest]

Re: How to improve this shot?

Good thinking Brian,I'll have to give it a try.

Thanks

[ST-EOS]

How to improve this shot?

As you don’t have a tripod and some venues don’t allow them. It may be worthwhile considering a piece of string fastened to the tripod mount on the base of the camera. On the other end of the string you have a weight ( a big washer would work) the length of the string needs to be sufficient to allow you to bring the camera to your eye height.
The method of use is to place the weighted end of the string under your foot, pulling the string tight by bringing the camera to your eye so you are looking through the viewfinder. The camera is kept steady by the tensioning of the string with upward tension of the camera.
It may sound like a strange arrangement but this method was used by one of the members of the forum who used it when shooting brilliant 360 degree panoramic images in London.
I would have to find a post on here that (Dr Jon from memory) the member described how he used the string camera support.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Guest]

Re: How to improve this shot?

Thanks Peter I'd never have thought of that,but with me at 6ft 4,it would take a lot of string