Night Photography

[Squawk1066]

I am really enjoying seeing all the photos on this thread.

While I have a debate with myself about heading into London tonight to brave the cold again, here's a different one from last Saturday night.


Taken near London Bridge.

[gforceg]

Yellabelly said:

Ooh I Think it's slightly OOF but then I was stood about 2km away!

DSC_6220 by ray_blake, on Flickr

You can keep your Salisbury, Winchester, Wells, Canterbury, York or Durham versions. If you heathens hadn't realised, this is the exceedingly beautiful and imposing Lincoln Cathedral, the tallest building in the world..........until the middle of the 14th Century!

Biased.....moi!....heaven forbid!!

YB

Now I know why you call yourself Yellabelly! Try to photograph the imp some time.

[ecsrobin]

Dave46 said:

Stunning pictures lloyd. I really wanna have a go at light trails

Give it a go they're easier than you think. And despite what people tell you you don't need to go somewhere dark to get the shot so you can practice in the back garden prior to finding a good location.

[dave0010]

Bit of fun the other night.

[AndWhyNot]

Tis the season for going out after sundown- good to see so many contributions to this thread.

A few recent ones from me:

Sycamore Gap, Northumberland National Park

Gap, in the clouds

Llanthony Priory, Brecon Beacons National Park

Ages

Ouse Valley (Balcombe) Viaduct

Over the rainbow

...and a little bit of light art, straight from the camera (plus watermark).

Raising the bar

[moribund]

Really inspiring thread. I've never gone out just to take photos - only taken my camera along when at an event or holiday. Thinking it's about time I did.

Here's a couple of my favorite night shots -

Dunlop Bridge at Le Mans 24, 2007 by giveitfish, on Flickr

Dalby Woodyard in the snow - Roger Albert Clark Rally 2010 by giveitfish, on Flickr

[PBLP]

Nice stuff Andy

B

[fitz1985]

Been out again for a little bit this evening, will sort out uploading a couple tomorrow. Out of interest is it normal for people in cars to swear at you (sign language) when trying out light painting?!

[Gilhooligan]

Went out for a quick couple of snaps last night. I tried to get some decent 'starbursting' effects with this first picture. Shot the picture at f/14 but it still doesn't look that great compared with some images I've seen. Anyone shed some light on why? Do I need to use a smaller aperture? I'm using a Sigma 10-20mm lens with a Canon 600d. Or is it a case of needing better lens glass?

[DibblyDobbler]

Some lenses are better than others for starbursts - f14 should have been ok and the camera body doesn't matter.

[Gilhooligan]

DibblyDobbler said:

Some lenses are better than others for starbursts - f14 should have been ok and the camera body doesn't matter.

Cheers. I think Santa may have to get me a new lens.

[AndWhyNot]

I always found the 10-20 to provide decent starbursts from f/13 onwards. The narrower you stop up the better but the same's true for any lens. In the example above I think if you'd let the exposure run for a lot longer the effect would be much more pronounced.

Far be it for me to stand between a man and some new glass but I'd at least suggest trying a few different setting and brighter exposures before parting with your hard-earned.

[Gilhooligan]

AndWhyNot said:

I always found the 10-20 to provide decent starbursts from f/13 onwards. The narrower you stop up the better but the same's true for any lens. In the example above I think if you'd let the exposure run for a lot longer the effect would be much more pronounced.

Far be it for me to stand between a man and some new glass but I'd at least suggest trying a few different setting and brighter exposures before parting with your hard-earned.

That was a 30sec exposure, I haven't ventured further than that as I'm not sure how you'd judge the exposure on bulb mode.

How long does it normally require for good starbursts? (If you can answer such a question without knowing the amount of ambient light!)

[TheDoggingFather]

AndWhyNot said:

Tis the season for going out after sundown- good to see so many contributions to this thread.

A few recent ones from me:

I was thinking it was about time you contributed....

Just had a trip to London myself, anticipating getting some long exposure goodness.... Due to a very upset child and an early train, I forgot my camera

[AndWhyNot]

Gilhooligan said:

That was a 30sec exposure, I haven't ventured further than that as I'm not sure how you'd judge the exposure on bulb mode.

Switch to bulb mode, then work on the linear basis that every doubling of exposure time is a doubling of ambient brightness.

Gilhooligan said:

How long does it normally require for good starbursts? (If you can answer such a question without knowing the amount of ambient light!)

From a rough visual estimate I'd say you could have had the shutter open for at least 90 secs in the above scenario, so 1.5 stops brighter. It's down to personal taste though, and you have to balance the settings you're dialling in for ambient light with what's appropriate for any light you want to add in yourself. Also remember that ISO is the third parameter in the exposure triangle- for instance, for any given aperture you can raise the ISO if you have time constraints (ie no cable for bulb exposures) or you can drop the ISO if you want to extend the exposure time to capture a complete light trail that's going to take a long time to pass through the frame.

[Ricepilot]

I think night time is my favorite time to shoot these days. I'll echo what somebody else said about bringing out detail that the eye can't necessarily see.

Highly recommend the 'setting fire to wire wool' trick.

Did some last year and loved it, even after burning through a few layers of clothing and having a scorched head and some missing pieces of hair!

Balcombe Lake (10 of 10) by Darren Wood, on Flickr

[droopsnoot]

I had a quick stop yesterday afternoon to see if I could take anything interesting, though the local town is a bit small and not exactly overloaded with lights and interesting buildings.





I did manage to forget most of what I'd read about this, though, so I forgot to disable the shake reduction, left the aperture a bit too open and got 3s expsures. I'll try again next week I think, if it's dry.

[DavidY]

Impressed with ISO12800 on a Canon 6d


Walker Gallery ISO12800 sm by Mr Perceptive X100, on Flickr

[DibblyDobbler]

60 shots at 30s, f4, iso 100 stacked in Starstax blended with another shot at f10 to get the right exposure on the horses.


The Kelpies by Dibbly Dobbler, on Flickr

[RobDickinson]

Why ISO 100?