Please help with photography!

[skyrocketneko]

I have a Canon EOS Digital Rebel T2i.  I'm trying to get a shot of this elk that keeps eating the bushes outside my windows in my bedroom. He's banging and scraping the house with his huge antlers!

The problem- it's pitch black outside, so I can only see his outline. He spooks with the flash.  He also spooks when I try to open the blinds.

I can leave the blinds open, but I'd have to sneak around the room in the dark waiting for him to come. But you certainly know he's there with the BANGS SCRAPESCRAPE BANG.  Up til midnight last night!

So.. how should I set up my camera so I don't get a horrible picture?  I've already tried 2 nights in a row, and the flash gives me a ghost picture of the animal with my shutters, or just makes the whole thing look grainy- then he bolts anyway so I can't try again.  I have a bunch of lenses I don't even know what to do with.  I haven't had a photo class since college, and I've lost pretty much all of my skills! 

[melodys_angel]

can you up the amount of light that your camera captures from the area around it?  I cant remember what its called at the moment (its ont he tip of my tongue but its oneof those days the simplist of things just teases you, you know?)

Other then that, im not soo sure.  I havent played with camera settings since college and would have to actually have one inmy hands to remember anything

Im sure someone here can help you out though <3

[AnnaPommes]

you would need more light. you could increase the time the shutter is open or put light on outside of your house. if you just change the time and it is dark, the picture probably will gett very unsharp.

[DoctorMowinckel]

Three principals of photography, ISO, exposure, and aperture.

Exposure refers to how long the shutter's open, longer exposure, the brighter the image, but if your exposure is too slow, you could end up with some motion blur. 1/60th of a second is about as slow as you can comfortably get for shooting things that will be moving, unless you're shooting something fast like sports.

Aperture refers to how wide the opening is at the 'iris' of the lens. A lower aperture will let more light in, but you'll have a smaller depth of field. Depth of field refers to how wide the margin of focus is. A high aperture will let less light in and you'll get a wider depth of field, but you could end up with a much longer exposure.

The last thing is ISO, ISO refers to how light sensitive the film or digital sensor is. The more light sensitive it is, the brighter the image. However, more light sensitivity is accomplished by loss of fidelity, since a high ISO, something like 6400 will have fewer light sensitive elements to allow a shorter exposure. This can be easily defeated with a bit of post production.

You camera will have a setting called 'Av', which is 'Aperture Priority Mode', it adjusts the exposure based on the aperture. Set the program dial to Av, set the aperture as low as it will go (there will be a dial in front of the shutter release that will raise or lower the aperture while it's in Av), set the ISO to 3200,  (I don't know how to change this on a T2i, you'll have to figure that out) dial in the focus manually if it's too dark for the autofocus to get a bead on what you're trying to shoot, and release the shutter.

[kaoskat]

Looks like you have some great advice! Good luck!