I hope it worked out for you! Cheers :)

You are very welcome!

PIXELFLUX i dont have manual focus.. is that a problem?

CrazyRaven If you are on an SLR I'd be puzzled by the lack of manual focus as all of them have it. But in case you have a high-end point-and-shoot or something like that - you can always pre-focus in the light and turn the light off while still holding the shutter half-way down. That would most likely mean you'd need someone's help doing that. OR you can use a flashlight to pre-focus. In any case - it is possible to get by :)

PIXELFLUX i have finepix 2980 but i tried to focus my object in the light and it worked just perfect thank you anyway because i struggled a lot with it before:)

CrazyRaven You're welcome! Anytime :)

Sarah Forde For that you will need to either raise the ISO (which adds more nasty noise to your shots) or grab a very fast lens (f/1.8 or faster). Basically you need to let in more light (wide aperture) or amplify is (hiher ISO) enough so that you can keep the shutter speed short. A kit lens isn't good at low light, they generally begin at f/3.5 and end up at like f/5.6 at 55mm - terrible! That camera won't be amazing with a high ISO either, but definitely try it! If you are not afraid to invest some money into gear I would recommend getting a 50mm f/1.8 lens from Canon - they're only about £60/$80 but you will see a leap in image quality just because you will be able to pull shalower depth of field, you will be able to shoot wide-open in low light (needing a lower ISO = less noise) and the sharpness will generally be better than a zoom kit offers as well. I personally use a 5D Mark III with fast primes and expensive zooms, but I won't recommend any of that for a non-working photographer.

Sarah Forde Having said all that I will also warn you that extra noise will come from single primary colors (that's due to sensor design). So just be warned that when photographing solid reds/greens/blues they will appear noisier than, say, a yellow or a gray of the same luminance.

PIXELFLUX haha I actually already have the 1.8/50mm canon lens (i said in my original post that it's 55, but it's 50. oops), but i've been using the kit lens instead of that one. i'd love to get a nicer/faster camera, but for now i'm sticking with my t2i. i'll give it a shot with the 50mm though, thank you for the advice!!

Sarah Forde It will definitely work, it's just going to be noisier than it would be on mine is all :) You can always try and denoise in post using something like Lightroom, Photoshop, DxO Optics or a free RAW editing package, such as the very powerful RawTherapee. If you don't already shoot RAW format I suggest having a look at these crazy examples of what it can do for your photography: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/nNaaaZZ6s66tg3U.html If you have any other questions - always feel free to ask! :)

It's not about the aperture, it's about the exposure time. If you can manually set the exposure to long values (several seconds or more) then you're in luck!

Hey there! Honest TL;DR answer from me as a photographer - really doesn't matter! But if you're into the specifics and tips - read on :) These days you can do this stuff on a phone. Granted, you'd need to lock it onto a tripod and have access to manual controls and raw image files, which most modern phones nowdays allow you to do, even through third-party apps if the phone does not have native support. Realistically there's not much difference between modern DSLRs, especially in the budget range. Cameras are much more diverse at the top end, but even then it mostly matters to those who make a living shooting specific subjects, where a different specialized camera can give the photographer an edge. I suggest you take a stroll to a local camera store and try out different models and see which one feels nicer in the hand and which brand's controls and menus you prefer. In terms of image quality - you'd be hard-pressed to tell the difference even comparing top-end vs entry-level cameras, provided things like the lens and light are equal - so there's really no point sweating over that issue, regardless what anyone else might lead you to believe. I actively shoot with a Canon 5D Mark IV and the original Canon 5D, which is 13 years old by now, and if I do my job right - there's no obvious telling which pictures are taken with which camera when posted online. The only *real* difference between the two major brands (Canon and Nikon) is that a Canon camera will be able to use a much broader range of lenses, including Nikon lenses (no autofocus!), vintage lenses, specialty glass, etc because the sensor is closer to the lens mount. So if you think you'll be interested in trying some interesting vintage glass (it is cheap!) - go with a Canon. If you'll only be buying branded lenses - pick whatever. There's also a third category nowdays - mirrorless cameras. The likes of Fuji, Sony, even Canon and Nikon have some. The advantages are smaller size, exposure preview in the viewfinder (useful for beginners - the viewfinder is a screen that shows you what the sensor sees, similar to using live-view on DSLRs) and even MORE lens options (no mirror = you can adapt ANY lens of your chooring from any DSLR system, past or present). Downsides include that same electronic viewfinder (I personally don't like staring at a screen when I'm taking pictures), poorer battery life (that electronic viewfinder eats the battery!) and shit ergonomics, especially if you have bigger hands and/or put a bigger lens on them (the camera becomes very front-heavy, which is not an issue with a bigger DSLR). I'm a DSLR kind of a guy, but I'm not going to lie and say that there aren't alternatives. You can try the same stuff I showed for FREE with a phone you probably already have (settings are all the same - you always play with the ISO, shutter speed, etc, but you don't really get aperture control on a phone for obvious reasons) and see if you're happy with the results. If the images are too grainy or not detailed enough for your liking - you can always use a technique called "Image Stacking" to get a much cleaner and slightly sharper result. If that's too much trouble and/or you're not getting the results you want - go to a camera store, pick out something you like. Other than the camera you'll need a decent tripod that holds your camera still and software to finalize the image files into beauties that are worth looking at. For the software you can go two ways: Paid: Adobe Lightroom, Skylum Luminar, Adobe Photoshop, Affinity Photo, etc. Something like Photoshop + Lightroom will only cost you 10 bucks a month, which I consider a steal for what it is. Free: UFRAW (standalone or via GIMP), RawTherapee, Canon/Nikon first party apps (like Canon's Digital Photo Professional), etc. You can 100% do the same things in these as you can in Lightroom, but these are free for a reason, which is usually a terrible UI (either too basic or too overwhelming) and not as many tutorials for various things online due to their lower popularity. Pro tips: 1) Avoid "kit" lenses. These are crappy lenses that are plopped with most new cameras, especially the cheaper ones. That glass gets you going, but it generally leaves a lot to be desired. I never even bothered owning one (I have used them many times, though). My advice - buy a "nifty fifty" (50mm f/1.8) of your chosen brand or, for Canon cameras, there are these "pancake" lenses (28mm for EF-S mount) which offer much better sharpness and even background blurring that these "kit" lenses don't offer. 2) Depending on where you live - ebay might have the camera you pick for much cheaper! I'm not even talking used - brand new! The catch is that these are imports from the asian region, so you don't get any local warranty. But you can save a lot. In my case here in the UK instead of buying a Canon 5D Mark IV at a local camera store for £3700 - I only paid £2200 on ebay - brand new! That's a huge saving. I've done it with my lenses and previous cameras too. Saved many thousands this way. Granted, I'm careful and Canon is a great brand, so I never ever needed any warranty repairs and all my gear is naturally out of warranty by now anyway. But keep it in mind that there's that risk. 3) Consider used. Sometimes you can snatch a great deal by buying used. There are risks involved, but if you're careful - you shouldn't have problems AND you get to put the leftover money into better glass or a good tripod...or a trip somewhere... Hope this helps! This turned out to be a long one, lol, but even so - feel free to ask questions if I left something out.. :)

PIXELFLUX thanks for the reply ! Appreciate the depth of input you put into this. I think I’m going to go w/ the Canon EOS SL2 ! Costco is having a Black Friday deal for the camera it includes 3 lenses ( 15-55mm, 75-300mm & 50mm ) 32gb SD card and camera bag ! Would you say it’s an awesome deal at $679.99 ?

+ShiaNaturesFearie No problem, anytime :)

+Anne Lund If you know anything about photography you'll find that this IS the actual glow. In Lightroom you only pull the exposure up/down as needed, same can and a lot of the time IS done when developing regular old film too! You can 100% achieve the EXACT same thing if you expose longer, use a higher ISO or a wider aperture. That's the beauty of working with raw files instead of JPEGs! Coming back to the video - I've since developed a better technique: First, we've started using a UV flashlight instead of a flash/strobe, since they are a constant light and work MUCH better at charging up the phosphor. I also shoot at a higher ISO since I've upgraded to a 5D Mark III (less noise than my 60D), ultimately achieving much more glow without needing to push in Lightroom (sometimes I actually have to drop the glow down). And since I have to do so many of those lately - I've developed a Custom camera profile and a Lightroom preset for myself so the look is always constant... And then I do another new thing in post I never used to do, but that's a talk for another day :D The end results are here: frozencrafts.tumblr.com/post/131183188550/its-october-which-means-its-time-for-halloween

Nashaine Johnson Thanks! Glad you liked it!

+KristieChing Hi! This is tricky due to the fact that glow-in-the-dark objects emit a very low amount of light in comparison to what cameras 'need' to capture an image effectively. Technically, your only options are lowering the aperture to the very lowest value your camera lens can handle so your camera captures the most amount of light possible. If shooting on a DSLR/mirrorless - an f/1.2 or faster lens would help you greatly, though they are very expensive. A cheaper option would be going with an f/1.4 lens. F/1.8 is the cheapest option that could still possibly do the job. Then you will need to raise that ISO, especially for video. ISO will amplify the light signal received by the camera's sensor at the expense of visible noise, so make sure you find the balance between the quality you're happy with vs the visibility of the luminous object. Shutter for video - as low as you can afford. Technically I now photograph at ISO200, f/11, 25s shutter, so if my maths is right - I could get roughly the same exposure taking a video at ISO 3200, f/1.4, 1/40s... It's possible! (if you're interested, my math goes roughly like this: I lose about 10EV (10 stops) when moving the shutter from 25s to ~1/30-1/40s for video. I can gain 6EV by opening up the aperture from f/11 to f/1.4 and I then need another 4EV, so ISO needs to go from ISO200 to ISO3200. ~10EV for ~10EV = similar exposure, but can now take video at the expense of quality degradation and DoF). In terms of videoing - DSLRs are very good at this, especially full-frame ones. If you can get your hands on a Canon EOS 5D Mark III, EOS 1D X, a Nikon D4 or D4s - you should get very decent quality video at those settings, or if you can get your hands on the high-ISO beast Sony a7s - you should get very clean results using that. This is not to say that something like a Canon EOS 550D won't be able to do the job! It's just that you WOULD actually get cleaner results from a 'bigger' camera. In terms of photography on human subjects - I've successfully photographed my friends in London's Trafalgar Square at night sitting still while I was hand-holding my 5D Mark III at ISO 100, 1s exposure at f/2 using Canon EF 35mm f/2 IS USM lens at f/2 and IS active. Pictures were tack-sharp, but it did take a few frames to get where I wanted (use burst).. Raise the settings accordingly for your camera system and you'll be in for a win! Hope this long long post helps :)

Thank you SO Much!! It has helped tremendously!! I really appreciate your in depth response. This is great information! Thanks again!

KristieChing No problem, glad I could help :) Be sure to tall a friend, hah! :)

Most definitely! :)

KristieChing Thanks :) Have a great day and don't hesitate to contact me again if you need more help!

Glad you found it useful! I was thinking of the wireless trigger. I've actually got a Magic Lantern firmware installed on that 60D and for stuff like self portraits I used to use the audio trigger and snap my fingers or something, but since I was talking in the tutorial and such I couldn't use it. But I will get one soon anyway because I now own a 5D Mark III as well as the 60D and it would make sense to have a remote for them.