I am a newbie to DSLR photographyI have been trying to take some portraits of my 4 month old son in the dark with only the very soft glow of a nightlight lighting his face as he looks at it or as he sleeps.! I am using a Canon EOS 550D with 18-55 lens!My problem is the camera wont take the shot for some reason it focuses but doesnt take the shot!I have also tried to take some moon shots with the same results the camera focuses etc but doesnt let me take the shot. Can anyone helpme with what settings to use for these shots? As much info as you can give would be great. Thanks in advance

In autofocus, if the camera does not achieve focus confirmation it will not shoot.Put the camera in manual focus. If it allows you to shoot then, it is the focus confirmation. You will either need more light, a faster aperture lens, or a flash with IR focus assist. Or you could try and manually focus to get the shot.Thats my guess.

Try using the Center Focus Point only and point it at a good contrasting edge. For example with the moon shot, point your focus at the edge of the moon rather than the centre.As Citylights said, if the camera fails to find focus it won't shoot and you should notice the Focus Confirmation light flash in the lower right corner of the viewfinder. Try pointing at another object with good contrasting edges or lines. When the focus confirmation lights up, the camera will allow you to shoot.

I agree - using AF in dark conditions, my T2i will sometimes not let me shoot. This is the only reason I've had where the camera will not take the photo, even if it looks in focus through the camera - if it doesn't get that confirmation, it won't let you shoot. I usually switch to MF and all is well.-JohnCityLightswrote:In autofocus, if the camera does not achieve focus confirmation it will not shoot.Put the camera in manual focus. If it allows you to shoot then, it is the focus confirmation. You will either need more light, a faster aperture lens, or a flash with IR focus assist. Or you could try and manually focus to get the shot.Thats my guess.

Hello and thanks for the reply,Although switching the cam to manual focus did the trick it did not have the desired effect i am looking for!Overall the photo was too bright and light! I am looking to catch the soft glow of the nightlight on my sons face only with everything else round him in darkness!(Only seeing my sons face in the warm glow of the light) If it is possible to create this any info would be great.Thanks again Paul

Although switching the cam to manual focus did the trick it did not have the desired effect i am looking for!Overall the photo was too bright and light! I am looking to catch the soft glow of the nightlight on my sons face only with everything else round him in darkness!(Only seeing my sons face in the warm glow of the light) If it is possible to create this any info would be great.It sounds like the camera flash fired. You don't want that if you want to see the soft glow light.What you describe is entirely possible, but you are going to need to learn some more about your camera and photography in general. This book would help:http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Exposure-3rd-Photographs-Camera/dp/0817439390/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1300627510&sr=8-1Other than that... Put the camera in aperture priority, set the wides aperture available probably f/4 or maybe f/5.6, set the ISO to 1600, and give it a shot.

Also turn on "Spot metering" So the camera will underexpose the dark parts, then point to the night light, hold down your exposure lock button, then refocus on your baby and shoot. While holding the lock button of course.

You may want to try the "P" mode (on the dial), and fix the ISO to 400. The auto exposure in camera will try get a good exposure but still take the picture anyway, as long as you can get good focus. If your camera's ISO setting is set to Auto, the camera will try and get good exposure and set it to higher setting, which I think what happened to you.If this doesn't work, shutter mode "T" or aperture mode "A" should do the trick too, depending on what you want to achieve. In all cases, set ISO to fix lower value.

+1 for spot metering.Also try using Automatic Exposure Bracketing. If the camera is routinely over-exposing compared to your wishes, then start with the centre of the bracket at -1EV and the bracket points 0.5EV or 1EV either side of this.