I am currently a photography II student in high school. I recently began experimenting with using the B setting of my camera and holding my shutter open. I am creating pictures with the same person in various places of one picture. However, I am having some trouble with the quality of my pictures. I was wondering if you had any suggestions on how to improve the quality of my work? thank you- yours truely, tim dean

-- Timothy Dean (TJDean18@aol.com), October 20, 1999

Answers

Not sure what problems you are having exactly. There are several things you can try. One is to set up outside a friend's house after dark. Put the camera on a tripod and open the shutter on B at about f/8 or so. Using a handheld flash gun, have your friend (and/or yourself) stand in various places around the building. Hold the flash over your head and point it down at yourselves and flash. Repeat as many times as you like, just be careful not to point the flash into the camera.

If you set up during the day on a busy downtown street, using a small f/stop like f/16 or f/22, anything fast moving will not record on the film. Only things that stay in one place for a minute or so will record an image. You will pick up some ghosts from things that come and go slowly. One way to make a street look deserted even though it is full of traffic.

Next time you have a thunderstorm set up and try to catch some lightning flashes using f/8 to f/11. Once one or two strikes have gone off, close the shutter and wind to the next frame. Try including some buildings or other structures.

-- Tony Brent (ajbrent@mich.com), October 20, 1999.

Are you using a tripod???

-- Craig Brown (csbrown@tastybuzz.com), October 25, 1999.