Digital Camera - Night Pictures

[MaizieMarley]

Help!!! I own a Kodak DX7590 camera and I have been having trouble taking pictures at night. My son plays football on Friday nights under the lights and all my pictures are coming out blurry and/or too dark. I am a beginner at using digital cameras and right now I have been using the camera in Auto mode which is easier to me since I know little to none about the other settings. When I receive the message to "open flash" I will open the flash but the picture is way too dark - I can't even see it. I find I am better off if I do not open the flash. I have found this to be true when I change the camera to Scene mode and put it on outside or sports. Nothing seems to be working for me. I have many more football games to go to and since it is my son's last year playing and he is the captain I really would like to get some good shots of him for a scrapbook. When I zoom in the slightest movement will cause the picture to blur. Which there is always some sort of movement when you are in the bleachers watching a game - it is unavoidable. Could someone help me? Please keep in mind that I am a beginner. My outside shots during the day come out perfect - very crisp! Any help would be much appreciated.

HELP!!!! Lisa

[Deblynn]

Hi, Im a little dumb about these things myself although i do own a digital camera. My sister has used hers at several concerts and she leaves the flash open or on and then puts tape over it. Pictures turn out great. Im afraid i cant tell you why tho. Maybe you could google that idea and it mite explain why? Good luck.

[MaizieMarley]

Thanks - at this point in time I am willing to try anything. I was so excited when I first used it (of course outside during daylight) because the pictures were perfect! I'll try it tonight and see what happens. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

[yemenitegreen]

The problem with the flash is, in compact cameras the flash will only light an area very close to you. So in order to have a sharp image of your son you would need to be in the range of the flash. The idea with taping the flash might work - the lighting sensor reacts to darkness and says "hey it's too dark you need a flash" and then of course the flash in front is too bright and the rest won't focus properly.

It is a well known problem with all types of cameras, professional photographers carry some additional lighting equipment when shooting at night (concerts, sports). While your eye knows when to adjust, teh camera doesn't. Our biological image processing is far more advanced than a small camera chip

Good luck. Go out and try making a few different pictures the nights before .. maybe cathcing on cars, buses, pedestrians in your area, or in a park, watching other sports events?

yemenitegreen

[MaizieMarley]

I think I can work around the darkness but every time I try to zoom in and take the picture -it comes out blurry. This is one of the reason I chose to purchase the DX7590 because it was bigger than most digital cameras and had a large zoom lens. When I try to take pictures, and there is a slight movement next to me the whole picture is blurred. Good advice about practicing with other events, I am going to have to do that along with experimenting with the camera's other settings (but have no idea what settings to fool with). I will look through the manual one more time and also surf the net (which i have done to no avail). Thanks so much for all the input!

[yemenitegreen]

I don't know about your DX7590 but my Fuji has several autofocus settings (additional to just putting the thingon auto mode). One of them would do what you describe, it is a constant focusing which catches any change in motion. Oh, and it has a feature which makes 5 pix in a row (over a second or so), which is quite useful when capturing sports events. Probably your cam will do something similar.

yemenitegreen

[MaizieMarley]

yup mine does that too - I have actually used that feature believe it or not. What about the exposure setting on the camera? I have been reading about that and the EPV(?). Not sure about these - I will just have to experiment. Wish me luck! I'll let you know how it turned out. Hopefully I will have at least a couple of pictures for my son's ongoing scrapbook.

[Deblynn]

Hi agian, I thought i would share the link to some pics my sister just took Wednesday at a cancert using the tape over the flash i was telling you about,they turn out great everytime. Hers is a fuji finepix 3800 camera.

thats me at the bottom with my neice LOL it was cold outside so we are both holding onto the "girls" not really that busty!

http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/...79&uid=2952876