Help me with two types of shot

[matt3001]

Guys,

Off to China soon and there are a couple of shots that I want to take with my new 600d. The lenses I have are the kit and a 50mm prime. I also have a tripod with me.

I would like to get some night shots of Shanghai, alongside the Bund. What kind of settings should I use on the camera? Coming from a TZ20, I would normally hit and hope on a 1 to 8 second long exposure. But how should I properly approach?

Secondly, this I think is more tricky. We are staying at Hotel Icon in HK and have a harbourview room:

http://www.hotel-icon.com/rooms.aspx#/club-38-harb...

How do I get that shot of the room in the light and the outside in the dark? Surely if I long expose for outside then I will be over-exposed in the room and vice-versa. Or do I have to take two shots and manipulate?

[markmullen]

The first one will need ideally a tripod and cable release, if not the camera rested somewhere solid, a wall etc, and the camera's self timer (so the vibrations from you pressing the shutter button have time to die out before the exposure starts). Mirror lockup would be ideal, or if your camera hasn't got it use liveview (which flips the mirror up), compose the shot, focus, switch to manual focus so it doesn't hunt when you fire the shot. You'll want a small aperture to keep everything in focus, f11 should do assuming your subject is a fair way away. You'll have to experiment with exposure times as it depends on how much light you've got to play with, dusk is often the best time with some colour left in the sky.

For the second, yes, two exposures and blend them. There are other ways (expose for the outside and use flash to illuminate the room) but to be honest often the best results are from two (or more) exposures. For some of my interior shots I'll use up to 9 or 10 exposures to take into account different light levels and colour temperatures.

[mrmr96]

markmullen said:

For the second, yes, two exposures and blend them.

You can use exposure bracketing, with a wide bracket, to get these. Makes it simpler to get multiples from one position.

[Simpo Two]

Or wait until the light intensity outside matches the light intensity inside and do it one shot. If the room lights have a dimmer, then combined with nature's own dimmer outside, it might work (subject to white balance. Shoot RAW so you have the ability to change it later if required.

You might just get away with handheld as you have more ISO to play with on a DSLR.

[K12beano]

The Histericsgram is your friend.

Take test shots and see where they fit on the histogram view. I expect you've got a view option which lets you see clipped highlights (Nikons flash annoyingly at you when anything is blown). Don't get too hung up on the different channels until a) you get more experience and b) the output is more critical.

If one shot has detail falling off both ends - bracket and blend! RAW advised!