Philhyde From United States of America, joined Aug 2003, 674 posts, RR: 1 Posted (8 years 4 months 3 weeks 4 days 1 hour ago) and read 2494 times:
Hello,
I will be attempting my first night shots tonight and I was wondering if anyone had advice. I have a unipod (which I use regularly) as well as a tripod. I wonder if shooting in program mode (Canon Powershot Pro1) will yield satisfactory results, or if I can easily get more creative.
Kukkudrill From Malta, joined Dec 2004, 1122 posts, RR: 5 Reply 1, posted (8 years 4 months 3 weeks 3 days 23 hours ago) and read 2444 times:
Don't know anything about your camera but I would stick to a low ISO to avoid grain killing my shots, and bracket the exposures because the exposure meter would not work well in many situations -- eg an aircraft brightly lit under a floodlight with dark surroundings. Try and stay out of the wind, tripod notwithstanding.
Make the most of the available light ... a lesson of photography that applies to life
MyJetBill From United States of America, joined Oct 2004, 12 posts, RR: 0 Reply 2, posted (8 years 4 months 3 weeks 3 days 20 hours ago) and read 2381 times:
Go for long exposures if you can manually set it....and make sure the camera is absolutely still. Get a tripod and a remote shutter cable.
I went out and took some great skyline shots a few months ago, but it was really windy....and that little bit of movement from the wind wrecked a whole lot of great shots.
I have one, that the exposure was about 5 seconds and an aircraft departing O'Hare to the East looks like a shooting star!
Good luck......good night shots take patience and a lot of trial and error as long as you're shooting digital...
JohnJ From United States of America, joined Jun 2000, 1620 posts, RR: 3 Reply 3, posted (8 years 4 months 3 weeks 3 days 3 hours ago) and read 2298 times:
"make sure the camera is absolutely still. Get a tripod and a remote shutter cable."
I, too, have gotten into night photography recently, and my wife bought me a Quantaray tripod for Christmas. It's a lot of fun. However, I've found that even with the tripod, if I'm zoomed all the way in to 300mm, it's nearly impossible to avoid blur even with my remote shutter release. I guess the camera is too heavy for the tripod, as there is some shake with the heavy lens attached. Has anyone found a way around this? I can't imagine using a 400mm or larger lens under these conditions.
Philhyde From United States of America, joined Aug 2003, 674 posts, RR: 1 Reply 4, posted (8 years 4 months 3 weeks 3 days 2 hours ago) and read 2280 times:
Here are a couple I took last night. Using the tripod was a must, and even then I think I got some shake. I was using Program mode with the ISO locked at 50 (otherwise on this camera I'll get noise). These ended up being about 0.6" and 1" at F3.5
But as you can see, my main obstacles were obstructions and lack of subject matter, although I am pleased with the first photograph.
Maiznblu_757 From United States of America, joined Mar 2002, 5112 posts, RR: 52 Reply 5, posted (8 years 4 months 3 weeks 3 days ago) and read 2242 times:
I hope you dont mind but I used Colorwasher to get this result.
Andrewuber From United States of America, joined Jul 2003, 2528 posts, RR: 44 Reply 6, posted (8 years 4 months 3 weeks 2 days 22 hours ago) and read 2218 times:
Chad-
Looks like that pass of ColorWasher took most of the yellow out, but it also seems to have washed out some other colors as well (maybe it just needs a kick of contrast).
I did some photography with Jin Nakashima (he goes by "Jean" here on a.net),
and he and I agreed that in SOME cases, the yellow cast from the ramp lights adds to the whole mood of the photo. Any thoughts on this?
Maiznblu_757 From United States of America, joined Mar 2002, 5112 posts, RR: 52 Reply 7, posted (8 years 4 months 3 weeks 2 days 16 hours ago) and read 2178 times:
Looks like that pass of ColorWasher took most of the yellow out, but it also seems to have washed out some other colors as well (maybe it just needs a kick of contrast).
Thanks for your opinion, but, it was an example as to what the program can do for a night photo.
Surprised you didnt state that the photo wasnt level either. Oh yea, thats my job...
Jofa From Sweden, joined Apr 2002, 320 posts, RR: 17 Reply 8, posted (8 years 4 months 3 weeks 2 days 14 hours ago) and read 2157 times:
Nightphotography for me means: ISO100, RAW, Custom WhiteBalance (yah i know raw allows me to takes care of it in postprocessing but i want to set WB manually with the help of a white paper), Aperture of 8, 11-16 and even 22 for a large depth of sharpness, and finally a shuttertime to match the above. I have ImageStabilizer turned off since i have had bad experiences with it on during long exposures on tripod.
Choose days when theres no moisture in the air since waterdrops on the lens can mess up things pretty bad, also choose days when it's not windy since it doesn't take much to make the image blurry. I usually shoot several pics of the same subject and save the sharpest one.
Kukkudrill From Malta, joined Dec 2004, 1122 posts, RR: 5 Reply 9, posted (8 years 4 months 3 weeks 2 days 9 hours ago) and read 2129 times:
Drew I agree that the colour cast can enhance nighttime photos. This shot got a badcolor rejection in a.net, but in my opinion it would have lost something if it were colour-corrected:
Philhyde From United States of America, joined Aug 2003, 674 posts, RR: 1 Reply 10, posted (8 years 4 months 3 weeks 2 days 1 hour ago) and read 2100 times:
Maiznblu_757, thanks for showing the example of colorwasher. I am impressed by it's capabilities, but I do prefer the original photo. I tend to think, perhaps from a more purist standpoint, that the color from the sodium (?) lights adds a warmth to the photo.
However, I am curious about your comment about the photo not being level. What is your frame of reference for that determination?
As with daylight photography, I hope I can get some more practice in and start experimenting with smaller aperature settings and longer shutters.
Maiznblu_757 From United States of America, joined Mar 2002, 5112 posts, RR: 52 Reply 11, posted (8 years 4 months 3 weeks 2 days 1 hour ago) and read 2090 times:
As far as the levelness, I would have done a slight CCW rotation. I was messing with that a bit too..
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