What standard camera setting should we have for Inside and outside shoots?
Don and brted, please stand up! They both take some really sweet indoor and outdoor shots.
At 15 metres I now use
ISO 80
2.5 seconds
Aperture wide open.
Locked white balance where possible
For the more powerful lights this allows some idea of the behaviour of the hotspot.
If the distance is longer, the exposure will need to be longer. At 30 metres you'd probably want 4x the exposure (Inverse square law). Better to boost the ISO rating than lengthen the exposure. Most cameras give awful results with the ISO set above 800.
I think Ted takes better pictures than I do, hopefully he'll chime in.
My ceiling beamshots are done with exposure set to auto and the flash turned off.
I've been doing some traveling lately, so I haven't been checking in, but I'm glad I saw this one. Also I got a new iPod touch, so I have a new gadget to play with.
Outside I take a 4-second exposure at ISO 100. Indoor, I usually do a few at different settings because if it is underexposed you can't see the spill and if it is overexposed you can't compare one hotspot to another. So I do 1/25th 1/200th and 1/1600th which is as short as my camera goes. That's kind of what Selfbuilt at CPF does and he does really nice reviews.
Cool, thanks guys.
I have tried the setting that Don and Ted have recommended but it seems too bright.
My garden is small. Where i was standing, the shed is only 5m.
Can someone recommend setting please.
At five metres and ISO 100, I'd start experimenting around half or quarter of a second, or less if you have a particularly large aperture lens. Don't rely on the camera's screen though, get them into your computer for a proper look to judge brightness.
I'll do than Don, I do not want to stay outside that long. cold!!!!!!!!
Know what you mean - I had to scrape snow and ice off the car windows yesterday morning. Bad start to the day that is...
How do i insert a photo I'm on flicker.?
Click on "share this" in the flickr image.
Click on "Grab the HTML/BBCode"
Select all of the link
copy to clipboard
Click on the HTML button in the toolbar above
Paste in the HTML from Flickr.
Click on update in the HTML edit box. Optionally, select the image you've just pasted and click on the photo properties box and resize it. Just to prove this actually works here's the picture of Patch the collie with an extra helping of ears.
Next try 
Here are some pic 1/4sec and AF4.0
The brightest first.
Ultrafire M10(R2) High
Smallsun M10(Q5) High
Ultrafire MCU C7(Q5) High
Smallsun ZY-C81(Q3) High
Smallsun M10(Q5) Medium
Ultrafire MCU C7(Q5) Medium
Smallsun M10(Q5) Low
Ultrafire MCU C7(Q5) Low
Smallsun ZY-C81(Q3) Low
The high beams shots look to be saturating the sensor which makes them hard to compare.
What do i need to do?
Reduce the exposure. If you are using 1 second, go to half a second.
Or if you have manual control over the aperture move it to the next stop (bigger number).
My Ultrafire M10 has low battery warning Blinking.
When it happened the the Panasonic rechargeable AA was at 0.962Volts.
Not to sure if this is good or bad.