Newcomer with Sony A6400 and few questions

[Katbel]

Hello to the AlphaShooters community!

I'm new not only to Sony but to the mirrorless world.
I always had Bridge cameras before, so I don't know too much .
I love it so far but have few questions.

The lenses that came with the camera A6400 are
a 210 mm and a 50mm

I would like to be able to take "soft flowing" shots of water. I only know I need long exposures
What else would be required? How to set it up correctly?

 

[FowlersFreeTime]

Welcome Katbell!
I hope you will be as happy with the A6400 as I have been, it is my first "serious" camera too haha!
So you got the 16-50 and 55-210 with your camera; that's a good start. I strongly suggest you get a tripod next, especially if you want to do landscape and long exposure photography.
Next, I encourage you to start learning about the "Exposure Triangle" that is ISO, Aperture, and Exposure. This will allow you to understand your options in manual mode. To make this relevant, lets take the example you gave us of the "soft flowing shots of water."

• You always want your ISO as low as possible for best quality photo, so we start there.
• You will want motion blur of the water flowing, so a longer exposure time.
• Longer exposure means more light hits the sensor so lets close the aperture to limit some of that light, stopping down to f8 or smaller.
  • BTW smaller aperture is sometimes confusingly represented as a larger number, so f16 is a smaller aperture than f8. This is kind of short-hand because the actual settings are fractions expressed like f/4, f/8, f/16 and so on. Thinking of it this way will help you remember aperture because 1/16th is smaller than 1/4.

So when you put that all together, you get something like this:

• ILCE-6400
• E 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 OSS
• 18.0 mm
• ƒ/16
• 4/10 sec
• ISO 100

 

[FowlersFreeTime]

Note in the example above that the meta data (camera settings) appear below the picture. These aren't magical settings that will work in every scenario, but give you an idea of the balance between ISO, Aperture, and Exposure.
Also I didn't have any special equipment that day, not even a tripod! I just propped the camera up on a mossy rock, made my settings, and put on a 5 second timer so my hand wouldn't shake the camera as I pressed the shutter.

 

[Katbel]

Note in the example above that the meta data (camera settings) appear below the picture. These aren't magical settings that will work in every scenario, but give you an idea of the balance between ISO, Aperture, and Exposure.
Also I didn't have any special equipment that day, not even a tripod! I just propped the camera up on a mossy rock, made my settings, and put on a 5 second timer so my hand wouldn't shake the camera as I pressed the shutter.

Thanks a lot for all the infos you gave me!
Waiting for this first message to be approved I studied a little(or a lot...) and found the bulb mode and did some experiments with lights.
To put the 5 second timer did you use an external app (just found Sony Shutter app) or do you have a remote
or
How do you set the 5 second timer without any extra app /remote directly on the camera?

 

[Katbel]

Welcome Katbell!
I hope you will be as happy with the A6400 as I have been, it is my first "serious" camera too haha!
So you got the 16-50 and 55-210 with your camera; that's a good start. I strongly suggest you get a tripod next, especially if you want to do landscape and long exposure photography.
Next, I encourage you to start learning about the "Exposure Triangle" that is ISO, Aperture, and Exposure. This will allow you to understand your options in manual mode. To make this relevant, lets take the example you gave us of the "soft flowing shots of water."

• You always want your ISO as low as possible for best quality photo, so we start there.
• You will want motion blur of the water flowing, so a longer exposure time.
• Longer exposure means more light hits the sensor so lets close the aperture to limit some of that light, stopping down to f8 or smaller.
  • BTW smaller aperture is sometimes confusingly represented as a larger number, so f16 is a smaller aperture than f8. This is kind of short-hand because the actual settings are fractions expressed like f/4, f/8, f/16 and so on. Thinking of it this way will help you remember aperture because 1/16th is smaller than 1/4.

So when you put that all together, you get something like this:

Beautiful photo! And lesson:
I just got an amazing gift of a super tripod and 3 filters : it was my birthday and I got really spoiled
I met the "Exposure Triangle" and I'm learning but with your tips it's more understandable .

A special thanks to Clix Pix for introducing me to this forum

 

[FowlersFreeTime]

Well Happy belated Birthday @Katbel !
OK, so you've got tripod and some filters, that's excellent. Not knowing what filters you got, I guess the basic 3-filter combo of UV, CPL, and ND? I say try the steps above without the filters to begin with.

• ND (Neutral Density) filter acts like sunglasses for your lens and therefore allows you to either keep the aperture wider or exposure longer
  • You want to learn the basics before you modify the exposure triangle with an ND filter.
• UV filter doesn't really do much for you except protect your lens from dirt and other elements.
• CPL filter is a Circular Polarizer filter which can cut down glare in your shot (like light reflected off water) when adjusted properly.

Regarding your question on the timer:

1. On your a6400, when you are in any photo mode (MR/M/S/A/P/Auto), click the left side of scroll wheel (the one to the right of the large LCD).
2. This allows you to select Drive mode. Then click down to self-timer and click left or right til the 5 second timer is shown.
3. Press center button to select this mode.
4. When you want to go back to normal, repeat steps 1-3 above, but select Single Shooting instead.

Drive mode is a very useful tool as you can see!

 

[Katbel]

Well Happy belated Birthday @Katbel !
OK, so you've got tripod and some filters, that's excellent. Not knowing what filters you got, I guess the basic 3-filter combo of UV, CPL, and ND? I say try the steps above without the filters to begin with.

• ND (Neutral Density) filter acts like sunglasses for your lens and therefore allows you to either keep the aperture wider or exposure longer
  • You want to learn the basics before you modify the exposure triangle with an ND filter.
• UV filter doesn't really do much for you except protect your lens from dirt and other elements.
• CPL filter is a Circular Polarizer filter which can cut down glare in your shot (like light reflected off water) when adjusted properly.

Regarding your question on the timer:

1. On your a6400, when you are in any photo mode (MR/M/S/A/P/Auto), click the left side of scroll wheel (the one to the right of the large LCD).
2. This allows you to select Drive mode. Then click down to self-timer and click left or right til the 5 second timer is shown.
3. Press center button to select this mode.
4. When you want to go back to normal, repeat steps 1-3 above, but select Single Shooting instead.

Drive mode is a very useful tool as you can see!

Thanks!
You got the 3 filters, magic

About the timer: I didn't know you could change the amount , I used already the 10 secs and thought I would have liked a shorter one.
Now I know how to change it, thanks!

But it's only a waiting time that doesn't affect the shutter time for the exposure.
If I still need to keep my finger on the shutter to determine the long exposure it will blur the photo
Maybe my question wasn't clear in or am I still missing a step?

 

[FowlersFreeTime]

But it's only a waiting time that doesn't affect the shutter time for the exposure.
If I still need to keep my finger on the shutter to determine the long exposure it will blur the photo
Maybe my question wasn't clear in or am I still missing a step?

Apologies, I thought you were misunderstanding the shutter and exposure settings. I missed the part where you said you were experimenting with "bulb mode".

Don't use bulb mode. Bulb mode means you have to keep your finger on the shutter to keep the shutter open. That's both imprecise and can introduce vibration to your camera when you want to minimize vibration for best quality photos.

When you're in manual mode or shutter priority mode, rotating the selection wheel changes your exposure setting: clockwise selects faster shutter speeds (shorter exposure time) and rotating counterclockwise selects slower shutter speeds (longer exposure times). Select an exposure time you think might work, keeping an eye on the screen to make sure you're not over or under exposed. Then when you press the shutter, those are the settings that the camera will use. If you have the timer on, clicking the shutter starts the countdown and then takes the pictures with the settings you have selected.

"Long exposure" is relative to your subject. I used 4/10ths of a second for that waterfall picture, not every long exposure needs to be as dramatic as 30 seconds.

Hope this was helpful. There is a lot of trial and error involved with learning the exposure triangle and special cases like long exposure, so keep taking pics and learn as you go along!

 

[Katbel]

Apologies, I thought you were misunderstanding the shutter and exposure settings. I missed the part where you said you were experimenting with "bulb mode".

Don't use bulb mode. Bulb mode means you have to keep your finger on the shutter to keep the shutter open. That's both imprecise and can introduce vibration to your camera when you want to minimize vibration for best quality photos.

When you're in manual mode or shutter priority mode, rotating the selection wheel changes your exposure setting: clockwise selects faster shutter speeds (shorter exposure time) and rotating counterclockwise selects slower shutter speeds (longer exposure times). Select an exposure time you think might work, keeping an eye on the screen to make sure you're not over or under exposed. Then when you press the shutter, those are the settings that the camera will use. If you have the timer on, clicking the shutter starts the countdown and then takes the pictures with the settings you have selected.

"Long exposure" is relative to your subject. I used 4/10ths of a second for that waterfall picture, not every long exposure needs to be as dramatic as 30 seconds.

Hope this was helpful. There is a lot of trial and error involved with learning the exposure triangle and special cases like long exposure, so keep taking pics and learn as you go along!

Thanks a lot for the further explanations, very precious!