Anderson Family Photography: Lights at Temple Square

After getting some help from some fellow photographers about some low light shooting, I was able to put the theory of photography into practice. First off the suggestions that Michelle and I got were to keep the camera on the "P" with an shutter speed at 1/200 with an ISO around 1000. The other opinion said shutter speed at 1/30, play with the ISO around 1000 and use a rear flash when needed (I found that using any flash flushed out the lights a little, but it helped in very dark settings to shed some light on the subject...(now pause for laughter...okay continue)), and the last opinion said to keep the f-stop at 9. Now I understand what aperture is, the size of the of opening of lens of the camera (the bigger the aperture the more light let into the shot, thus low light needs a larger aperture to take in more light). Shutter speed I totally get, it is the length of time that lens is open (low light will need a slower shutter speed). ISO and F-stop I have no idea, the only thing I know is that higher ISO gives better low light pictures but with entry level DSLRs they have a lot of noise (fuzzy lines, blurry subjects up close). That said, I played with a lot of settings and can't quite remember the settings that I used but I think I could go off to take some nice low light shots without reviewing these tips again (though I most likely will). Anyways without further ado here are some low light shots at Temple Square and at the City Creek Center. I have to say I had a hard time capturing the moment for my sister's family when they wanted a nice family picture at The Square.

P.S. All the pictures can be found on my G+ account. These pictures will be my favorite of the night, our successes and my failures

P.P.S. The most frustrating thing of the night was when the camera was changing the shutter speed on me. I guess I would like to be in a little more control of what's going on sometimes. Not all the time mind you, but for these shots, I would prefer having a bit more control. I guess that comes with time getting to know the camera better and figuring out how it works

No flash, we had to use team work to get these self portraits of us. We rested the camera on my knee and I held it in place while Michelle took the picture

With flash

Notice the differences in color?

Pretty girl to take pretty nice pictures.

We saw this bunch leaving the Disney store

I think I either had the aperture too high or the Shutter speed set too long. This is one instance when I think the Camera changed the shutter speed on me.

It's amazing how much a few setting changes can change what image you capture

You see?

I can't tell which one is better or which one I like more.

More pretty pictures of this pretty girl I found

After getting the settings right. A nice man in an overcoat asked to take our picture. He made a HILARIOUS joke about running off with our camera, he was probably a GA or something, but he got some good shots of us

I had to flash this guy to get his attention

Pretty sister

Michelle thought I was crazy for getting this shot but I thought that this would be the view point of those at the manger. All those coming to adore the Christ with the Christus Statue looking over everyone.

No flash. I really like that I got this shot

With flash. See how it flushes out the light and captures some of the dust and dirt in the air.

What Michelle had to resort to since she didn't have a scarf

Product of low light photography. Objects that move or camera people move cause blurry images. In this case it was a plus

In this case it was a plus. Kate wanted to be the one that took our picture with her parent's iphone

Nice picture taken by Brian

In this case it wasn't so great.

Nice red glow

It's like daylight, nice flash with nice flood lights lighting the scene

Here are the Family Pictures of the ANDERSENS. Here is a little example of high ISO meaning more noise. And that if the camera man moves then the picture isn't too great. I hope they like these.