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91X Fest was just a couple days ago and I got the chance to go along with
some friends. Naturally I decided to take my point and shoot digital camera
with me, to record the event. I love the little point and shoot, it's a
great camera, but I often miss the creative license afforded me with my
digital SLR. On this occasion, the point and shoot is the only way to go.
It's so compact it fits in my pocket, and it takes really good pictures.
One of the cool things about this concert is that it's held in the downtown
area of San Diego. So you get to walk around in the streets of downtown
San Diego, taking in music from a bunch of different bands set up on several
stages. One of the stage designs actually used the wall of building near
it. Projected onto the wall were all kinds of lights and designs that changed
with the music.
Needless to say, I really liked what they were doing with the wall and I
wanted to get a picture of my friends with it in the background. I knew
how to get my SLR camera to do what I wanted, but I wasn't quite sure if
my little point and shoot would be able to achieve the effect I was going
for. Turns out, most point and shoot cameras have a cool mode that does
exactly what I wanted. Here's the same shot taken without night mode (left)
and with it (right):
Just about every point and shoot digital camera has it. But almost no one
I know uses it. Yes, it's that little icon that looks like a person with
a star behind him. Some call it Slow Synchro, or Night Portrait Mode, or
Super Night Mode, and others just call it Night Mode. The idea for this
mode came up when people complained that when they took photos of their
friends and family at night, the background behind subject of the photo
turned up completely black.
A normal flash picture at night will use a fast shutter speed and a bright
flash to illuminate the subject. The problem is that the fast shutter speed
doesn't allow enough ambient light in. So you get a black background. The
night mode still uses the flash to illuminate the subject, but it slows
down the shutter speed to allow the ambient light a chance to show itself.
The results can be really cool!
So, next time you find yourself taking pictures of friends at night or in
a dim place, give the night mode a try.
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