EOS Rebel T7i Mirror Lockup for Long Exposures?

[Charbear]

Fairly experienced In DSLR. Mostly waterfall pictures. Love exposures from one quarter second to 2 seconds plus. Looking for the best recommendations to get the clearest pictures I can. One Step shy of full manual. I usually dial in shutter speed I want and stop up or down to play with depth of field. Typically use manual focus. 

Have been using mirror lockup recently as I understand it will help reduce shake when taking these long exposures. All on a tripod, of course. I usually always bracket my exposures as well. I used to just use the timer to take the three shots but I'm assuming that kind of defeated mirror lockup as the 2nd and 3rd shots might get camera shake? So lately I have been using the cabled remote shutter release. That way I can take a shot wait a second, take the underexposed shot, wait a second take the overexposed shot. Does the mirror lock back up between each shot, I would think so. Bottom line, is this the best way to use mirror lockup when I'm taking pictures with long exposures. If I'm way off base, someone please give some suggestions on the right way to do this. Thanks!

[Waddizzle]

Welcome to the Canon forums!

Even though I have a wired shutter release, I stopped using once they introduced Bluetooth in the cameras and the Canon Connect App.  What shooting mode on the top dial are you using?

Instead of using Mirror Lockup, have you considered using Live View mode.  When shooting in LC mode, the default behavior is for the camera to momentarily drop the mirror, meter the scene and:or adjust the autofocus, raise the mirror, and fire the shutter.

There is a shutter mode that causes the camera to not drop the mirror to use the metering sensor. Instead, the camera will meter and focus the scene using the image sensor.  This is less accurate on both counts.  But you are shooting a static scene from a tripod.

Once you lock the focus, I suggest that you switch the lens to MF.  Once you know what exposure setting your want, you’re home free.  Set the remote aside, and use the built-in shutter delay timer, which will automatically fire your entire bracketed sequence for you.

Hope this helps.

[Charbear]

Awesome reply Waddizzle. Thank you. I use TV mode and I've been using full manual focus for more control over the areas I want. I also predominantly use life view mode. Pribe able to zoom in on parts of the screen to dial in my manual focus.

In mirror lock, the mirror is locked up, correct? My concern with using the internal timer is the mirror would be locked up before the first shot so I would not have the potential vibration but during that fraction of a second where the plus and minor shot on the aeb is taken, doesn't that opening and closing of the mirror cause vibration or am I not following in the mirror just stays up for all three shots. Sorry that was probably a dumb question but it is what it is.

Keep the info and advice coming. I greatly appreciate it!

[Charbear]

One more dumb question to ask. This one about focus. I always had difficulty figure out which auto focus mode works best for shooting waterfalls so I just went to manual. The way I do it is I use live view, zoom in on an area of the screen that is around the middle of the waterfall and then look for a rock to the side with sharp edges that I can then dial the focus in on. That is all I do. Any suggestions on changing that methodology or improving? Thanks again group!

[stevet1]

Charbear,

I'm pretty sure that putting your camera in Live View locks the mirror up until such time as you take it out of Live View..

Set your AEB (auto exposure bracketing) up, put your camera in Live View, put your camera in Low speed continuous (3 shots taken in succession), and you should be good to go.You won't have to press the shutter three times, the camera will do that for you.

If you are physically touching the camera to do the shutter release, you can set up a 2 second or a 10 second  time delay and step away from the camera. If you are doing a remote shutter release or using a remote cable shutter release, you won't even have to do that.

Steve Thomas

[ebiggs1]

... or Photoshop!

[FloridaDrafter]

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@Charbear wrote:

Fairly experienced In DSLR. Mostly waterfall pictures. Love exposures from one quarter second to 2 seconds plus. Looking for the best recommendations to get the clearest pictures I can.

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Sounds like you would like using a Neutral-density Filter.

Newton