Night Photography

Author
Discussion

smcquill

363 posts

224 months

Thursday 27th November 2014
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My Griff at night....


Morbid

179 posts

168 months

Thursday 27th November 2014
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[quote=rich85uk]Going to keep an eye on this thread as I'm looking at doing some night photography in Thailand and Singapore when I go next month. Am still fairly new to this and the weekend just gone I used my camera at night for the first time in Kraków.

Apart from a tripod (I'm going to buy a compact one to take with me) how else could I improve my night shooting skills, picture was shot on a 35mm lens, shutter speed 1/13 F5.6, hand held after a beer or 2hehe


Juliusz Slowacki theatre, Krakow by richardhutton85, on Flickr


Sorted that for you. You need to copy the BB code, using the share icon (arrow and rectangle).

rich85uk

3,312 posts

178 months

Thursday 27th November 2014
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Cheers morbid, I was struggling with that one boxedin

Gad-Westy

14,521 posts

212 months

Thursday 27th November 2014
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rich85uk said:
Going to keep an eye on this thread as I'm looking at doing some night photography in Thailand and Singapore when I go next month. Am still fairly new to this and the weekend just gone I used my camera at night for the first time in Kraków.

Apart from a tripod (I'm going to buy a compact one to take with me) how else could I improve my night shooting skills, picture was shot on a 35mm lens, shutter speed 1/13 F5.6, hand held after a beer or 2hehe

http://flic.kr/p/qbxetp



Edited by rich85uk on Thursday 27th November 14:54


Edited by rich85uk on Thursday 27th November 15:34
Well, that's a more than respectable effort particularly when beer was involved. Though you dip chop the top off! wink

The following assumes that you're talking cityscapes rather stars, landscapes etc

There are loads of things you can do but you've identified the main one. A stable (this bits important) tripod, allows you to drop the iso to base level for minimum noise. You can close your aperture down to a sweet spot for sharpness or depth of field. Your shutter speed might end up at several seconds but you won't care because your tripod will look after that.

Continuing in the spirit of minimising camera movement during the exposure, some other things to consider: Use a remote trigger so that you're not moving the camera to take your shot (self timer can also work). Turn off VR if on a tripod. Use mirror up mode or live view if using a dslr as it will minimise mirror slap. Again, if using a DSLR, consider covering up the viewfinder during exposure to eliminate any light leakage.

The last tip that I mentioned in an earlier post is all about timing. If you're going to have sky in your shot, consider shooting just after sunset or just before sunrise. The blue hour as its known. It'll make your scene easier to expose and will make the sky far more interesting. I nearly always prefer the results of the blue hour compared to stuff that is shot when it is truly dark. Obvious exceptions are things like stars where you need that darkness.

One last thing I should have said. Shoot raw and use the histogram to guage your exposure not the preview Your aim is to capture as much detail as possible rather than just trying to get the image to look right on the camera screen. The more highlight and shadow detail you've captured, the better. You can always adjust the exposure later.

Edited by Gad-Westy on Thursday 27th November 16:35

rich85uk

3,312 posts

178 months

Thursday 27th November 2014
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That is a brilliant reply, Thankyou very much would imagine it won't just be me finding that useful

Yellabelly

2,258 posts

252 months

Thursday 27th November 2014
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smcquill said:
My Griff at night....

Stewart, it looks stunning, superb image

PGD5

1,112 posts

182 months

Friday 28th November 2014
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Yellabelly said:
smcquill said:
My Griff at night....

Stewart, it looks stunning, superb image
Agreed, that does look good.

As you've taken the orange light cast out of the floor, I'd take it out of the wheel too wink

Squawk1066

Original Poster:

2,939 posts

170 months

Friday 28th November 2014
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One of mine from my trip to London on Tuesday evening. Thanks for the tips with regards to my camera settings, I am pleased with the results. Sadly the long exposure has highlighted some dust on the sensor.


DavidY

4,458 posts

283 months

Friday 28th November 2014
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Picked partners daughter up in Manchester last night from a gig, she wanted to take a few photos for her photography course, so I joined her with the X-E2 and 14mm, experimented (a lot) with shooting wide open


tram_sm by Mr Perceptive X100, on Flickr


post_sm by Mr Perceptive X100, on Flickr


slug_sm by Mr Perceptive X100, on Flickr

Berz

406 posts

191 months

Monday 1st December 2014
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Saw this thread and thought I'd give it a go. It took a fair whack of trial and error to get it right which is why it's dark rather than the intended twilight!

Hardest bits for me were, 1) getting rid of the orange glow in the sky from all the sodium streetlights (used tungsten white balance and desaturated), and 2) getting sharpness at longer exposures (over about 10 seconds) which I still can't do.

f4.5 / 4 sec / ISO 200
f4.5 / 8 sec / ISO 100
f6.3 / 6 sec / ISO 200
f20 / 25 sec / ISO 200 (3 frames photoshop'd together)

RobDickinson

31,343 posts

253 months

Monday 1st December 2014
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Great first effort!

TheDoggingFather

17,089 posts

205 months

Monday 1st December 2014
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Squawk1066

Original Poster:

2,939 posts

170 months

Monday 1st December 2014
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First time I have had 'bother' tonight and what made it more entertaining is the kind police didn't seemed bothered by me taking photos of a certain popular arena in London, however- Quote of the year from some jobs worth security guard tonight- "You can only take photos with the camera off the tripod, as the tripod is professional equipment'. So you can rock up with a expensive camera and a cheap tripod but the tripod somehow makes it professional. Okay.

ecsrobin

17,025 posts

164 months

Tuesday 2nd December 2014
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Berz said:
Saw this thread and thought I'd give it a go. It took a fair whack of trial and error to get it right which is why it's dark rather than the intended twilight!

Hardest bits for me were, 1) getting rid of the orange glow in the sky from all the sodium streetlights (used tungsten white balance and desaturated), and 2) getting sharpness at longer exposures (over about 10 seconds) which I still can't do.

f4.5 / 4 sec / ISO 200
f4.5 / 8 sec / ISO 100
f6.3 / 6 sec / ISO 200
f20 / 25 sec / ISO 200 (3 frames photoshop'd together)
Great use of the White balance there. Keep it up wink

Gilhooligan

2,211 posts

143 months

Tuesday 2nd December 2014
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Night time is the main time I seem go out with the camera these days. Especially since I've recently got myself Lightroom and have discovered the wonders of shooting in RAW.





PGD5

1,112 posts

182 months

Tuesday 2nd December 2014
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Had a bit of fun with this one smile

Deepcar Autobodies Pitcrew by PGDesigns.co.uk, on Flickr

Gilhooligan

2,211 posts

143 months

Tuesday 2nd December 2014
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PGD5 said:
Had a bit of fun with this one smile

Deepcar Autobodies Pitcrew by PGDesigns.co.uk, on Flickr
Think I saw that on the mx5nutz fb page. Really need to have a go with some steel wool!

RobbieKB

7,715 posts

182 months

Tuesday 2nd December 2014
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I forgot about this thread. I love a bit of night photography. Here's a few recent ones:








PGD5

1,112 posts

182 months

Tuesday 2nd December 2014
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Going to Brugge early in the new year too, the tripod will be going with me for some of those night shots smile

AndWhyNot

2,356 posts

198 months

Tuesday 2nd December 2014
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Squawk1066 said:
One of mine from my trip to London on Tuesday evening. Thanks for the tips with regards to my camera settings, I am pleased with the results. Sadly the long exposure has highlighted some dust on the sensor.

More likely to be a narrow aperture than long exposure that's highlighting the sensor dust. You might be able to open the aperture and make a reciprocal adjustment to ISO or exposure duration and not have to clean the sensor... yet.

DavidY said:
I do like a bit of foreground bokeh!

PGD5 said:
Had a bit of fun with this one smile

Deepcar Autobodies Pitcrew by PGDesigns.co.uk, on Flickr
So you did! Love the shot, if the car was darker still it might not look so hideous!