A Different Assignment

[Marc]

The Polo club I do some photography for are attending an event at the House of Lords next week and they have asked me to take some photos for them. I have just received an envelope in the post from The House of Lords containing a "Permit to take photographs". A good opportunity to take some pics of the building without any hassle!

As the event goes on until 8.30pm I'm thinking of taking some external night shots. As I've never taken external night shots before, anyone here got any good tips? I've seen some excellent shots on here so I know the expertise level is quite high.

cheers

 

[Matt L]

i am by no means any good at photography yet lol so other peoples advice will probably be alot better than mine (especially seen as i am yet to take night shots with a dslr)

but with my old camera just made sure that it was on a tripod and on timer, the rest is just normal ie exposure and appeture wise. (and i think the higher the f number the more of a star effect you get on lights)

 

[Marc]

Thanks Matt. I'll be taking my tripod anyway so I'll definitely use it for the exterior shots. Probably use the remote as well.

 

[kalibre]

The most useful piece of advice I got when I started with night shots and wanted to have people/objects in the foreground was:

Ignore the foreground objects and first of all take a shot and expose the ambient background lights how you want them to appear. Once you've got those manual settings dialled in (Shutter speed and WB mainly), then add the foreground subject and let the flash TTL do it's thang. That way you get a nice naturally exposed scene without a lost black background. Only downside is obviously that the subjects need to keep still!

(Obviously I'm assuming you ain't gonna use the flash on the hot-shoe or the flip up, so you may need to tweak the output)

 

[Kerioak]

Hi Marc - sounds like you will have an interesting session - good luck with this and have fun.

Could you try out some night shots between now and then so you are comfortable with doing them?

 

[Marc]

Thanks for that. There will be no people involved in the exterior shots but I will certainly make a mental not of what you said for another time.

 

[Marc]

Hi Marc - sounds like you will have an interesting session - good luck with this and have fun.

Could you try out some night shots between now and then so you are comfortable with doing them?

Hi Christine.

The photos I have been asked to do will be in one of the function rooms but I'm hoping to get the chance to take some other shots as well.

Unfortunately where I live there isn't really the architecture and I wouldn't take my kit into the local town after dark. If I get the chance to go into Milton Keynes one evening, I may try it out.

 

[Lensflare]

FABS - don't wait until it is dark. The best "night time" shots are actually when the sky still has some colour in it. You need the floods on, but they come on before the sky loses all its colour - so twilight is the time to do that. You want an exposure value that marries up both the floodlit building and the ambient sky...if they are within about 3 stops of each other you'll be fine.

Spot meter on the sky, somewhere middlish in tone. Then spot meter the building (or other way round!) Just read the two readings and if the sky is too bright, just wait a bit. Once the sky is too dark - you are begrudgered. You cannot make a dark sky lighter, but by waiting a few minutes you can make a light sky darker, and it is much easier than using grads!
That is all there is to it.

 

[Marc]

FABS - don't wait until it is dark. The best "night time" shots are actually when the sky still has some colour in it. You need the floods on, but they come on before the sky loses all its colour - so twilight is the time to do that. You want an exposure value that marries up both the floodlit building and the ambient sky...if they are within about 3 stops of each other you'll be fine.

Spot meter on the sky, somewhere middlish in tone. Then spot meter the building (or other way round!) Just read the two readings and if the sky is too bright, just wait a bit. Once the sky is too dark - you are begrudgered. You cannot make a dark sky lighter, but by waiting a few minutes you can make a light sky darker, and it is much easier than using grads!
That is all there is to it.

Thanks. Unfortunately I'll be inside doing the business end at the optimum time. Maybe I'll tell them I'm nipping out for a fag! (I don't smoke, but I won't tell them that, although they may get suspicious when I take the camera and tripod with me!)