learning to use the manual camera settings

[cellio]

When I've taken pictures of the chanukiyah in the past, I've usually been disappointed by how blurry the flames look. Photographing flames in a darkened room is apparently challenging -- it's not just me. I asked a question about it a while back on the Codidact photography community and got some interesting advice.

I've been experimenting this season. Here's one from tonight that came out decently well:

The camera settings were:

• Shutter speed: 1/90
• ISO: 1600
• Exposure: 0 (I don't know what this means; it's a scale from -2 to +2)

The other settings I have available are named:

• White balance: (scale of pictograms of sun, light bulbs, etc)
• Interval(s): scale from 0 to 60
• Focus: picture of flower, 25/50/75%, picture of mountain

I left those set to "auto".

I can make guesses (based on the scales) about white balance and focus, but "interval(s)" has me stumped.

Comments

[cellio]

I think I still have an ancient digital camera (somewhere), but I've been using my cell phone for years. Only more recently have I gone beyond the baked-in "modes" (like "night" and "portrait") to the individual manual settings. I don't really know what I'm doing, but I'm learning. Learning is good. :-)

[goljerp]

Yeah, I have a "prosumer" Canon Powershot S95 (sold from 2010-2011), I guess that counts as ancient now. I got it just after its replacement (the S100) came out, so it was much less expensive. It probably takes slghtly better pictures than my phone... but of course the camera you have with you is always better than the camera sitting on a shelf at home. So nowadays I mostly use it when I'm on vacations.

And, yes, learning is good!