Night shot advice

[john185k]

Hi there,

going to a retro car meet tonight and was looking for advice and examples of other peoples work. I will be there from 7 so will get some sun set shots and alot of dark ones.


Thanks

[bramley]

Check your white balance settings. I did some traffic trails shots under street lighting and got a horrid orange colour cast using Auto WB. I can't remember which setting I changed it to but it transformed the shots, made the light look nice and clean and crisp. Worth a few test shots if shooting near orange street lights.

Take a torch, a) to see what you're doing and b) to do some painting with light. You could try for a bonnet open shot of an engine (camera on tripod) then close bonnet and take another shot and merge in PS. Or long exposure with bonnet up and close bonnet in last few seconds? Maybe pick out detail of engine with a torch on long exposure?

Edited by bramley on Wednesday 18th April 13:12

[CarMac]

If it's very dark use the self timer or a remote and definitely a tripod.

[lowdrag]

To start with I assume that this is a static car meet, not racing. You also don't say what kind of camera you will be using but if a point and press your options are very limited. If a DSLR with a good lens (f2.8 or better) you'll have to experiment with the ISO rating to see what kind of speed you are getting and increase the ISO rating so you can use the camera hand held, or else use a tripod with a lower rating. Moving shots are more difficult and require very good lenses and camera. I agree with the above comment on WB settings too - experiment a bit and look in the menu to see what the camera menu offers. Here is an example of a shot taken at 11pm at Le Mans hand held at f3.5 using a 70/200 f2.8 and TC14E converter to give 280mm range. I think I was using ISO 1600 here.


If static, take your flash!

[VxDuncan]

Tripod, 100ISO, remote release.
Unless you are happy to do noise reduction your self turn it on.
Try and shoot medium appertures if possible (F8-F16) as this will use the sweet spot of the lens, and also help to reduce flare and ghosting from the inevitable streetlights / hotspots. Also use a lens hood and consider removing any UV / skylight filters to further reduce ghosting.
You're likely to be dealing with high contrast so shoot RAW, bracket heavily and consider processing to HDR.

Oh, and have fun!

[john185k]

Thanks for your help guys, the night turned into a bit of a rush around so managed a few semi good one, others are poo.... lol

Edited by john185k on Wednesday 18th April 23:08

[franv8]

Great shots!

Only WB advice I can give - shoot in raw and sort out the mess later!

[TonyHetherington]

bramley said:

You could try for a bonnet open shot of an engine (camera on tripod) then close bonnet and take another shot and merge in PS.

I like that