Going to shoot spinnaker tower tonight

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danny842003

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So im going to try and get some shots of spinnaker tower tonight across the water from gosport. Hopefully it will be illuminated in colour and should have some good reflections on the water.
After reading up all week I think I have a good idea what i need to do to get some good shots.
So any advice for what will be my first night shoot with a DSLR? Sadly I only have a gorilla pod (as im mostly interested in travel photography) so im hoping I can find somewhere to set it up well.
 
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Well my first experience of night photography with a DSLR. The pictures looked a lot better on the LCD than they do on my screen back home. Was taken with a 550D, 18-55mm lens F11, 30 second and iso 100. With a gorillapod as when i go travelling it is all i will have to hand, so best getting used to it here.
Question how do I stop the moon from having that blue spot?
 
nice pic, shame the moon is so bright !!!!!
do you have a filter on the lens, could be the cause
 
Nope no lens or hood, im a total newbie and I would not have a clue. It has taken me all week to read and think about what kind of settings I was going to put in to the camera as it is :D.
If nothing else I have learnt a lot planning I guess.
 
The blue spot is likely a bit of lens flare, and sadly unavoidable I expect.

Overall sharpness would likely be down to a bit of camera movement. The gorillapod is not the most stable platform to be using.

With long exposure the best way to reduce camera movement is by not having to touch the camera once it is set up. Pressing the shutter, and releasing, will cause vibration. As will the slap of the mirror.

I tend to use mirror lock up and a remote release, which virtually eliminates both. If you don't have a remote set the self timer, which should give the camera time to stabilise before the shutter fires.
 
Hi thanks for the reply I did set the timer but only for a 2 second delay maybe next time i should try it at 10 seconds give it a little bit longer to settle.
I will have to look up mirror lock as i have no idea what that is.
 
Found what i needed to read and found it in the menu on my camera. Luckily I only live a few miles from where this photo was taken so will probably go give it another shot some time this week. I know gorillapod isnt ideal but I know with total certainty if I bought a tripod i would just leave it in the UK so trying to work with what I will have when im away. It took me a few trips to convince myself I would carry an SLR.
I have been on this forum about a week and have learnt so much its brilliant.
 
Should have gone Friday night for the fireworks. There were about 60 photographers all lined up taking photos, some good advice being handed out, but plenty more bad ! :)
 
This was friday night. I was getting there as most were leaving. To be honest I hadn't even thought about the fireworks. I couldn't actually believe how many people were walking away with tripods I was expecting to have the place all to myself.
 
Yeah it was crazy. Funny though. We got there really early to nab a space as it always gets manic
 
That is a very beautiful shot of the tower! Well done!! Colours are wonderful! I will hopefully have some good shots when i get a "proper" camera :-)
 
Im probably going to go down again this weekend if the weather is decent and my remote has come off Ebay. Will post the results.
 
danny842003 said:
Well my first experience of night photography with a DSLR. The pictures looked a lot better on the LCD than they do on my screen back home.
Click to expand...

It looks fine here with regard to exposure. Is your home monitor calibrated? If not, that may be an issue because the exposure looks fine here.

here's nothing much you can do about the moon being so bright I'm afraid. You could take a second image that is underexposed and "borrow" the moon from that one in Photoshop, but not much you can actually do in camera.
 
I have never calibrated the screen, although I have also read that the glossy screen on mac books are not the best for viewing images anyway. But to me it just dosent look that sharp on parts of the tower as if it has had a bit of movement. I will give it another go any way, will keep me out of trouble for an hour.
 

IMG_0473 by danny842003, on Flickr

So left it a bit late tonight and the tower wasnt illuminated like it was last week oh well. That will teach me to watch X factor.
Used mirror lock for the first time and a remote and bulb mode. Was shot with ISO 100, F13 and 45 seconds.
I think the results are much better looks a lot crisper to my untrained eye.
Any comments?
 
I agree, the results are much crisper there - good work!

Obviously it would look better illuminated, also if possible try to shoot as dusk becomes night - getting a little colour in the sky might also add to the shot. Then if you really must you can go home and watch x-factor ;)
 
danny842003 said:
That will teach me to watch X factor.
Click to expand...

You must be mad! I don't even know how it gets called a 'talent show', it's more of a fixed personality show. "I WANNA TAKE IT TO DEADLOCK!" :schtum:

Anyway, the shot :lol:
It is much sharper but it's a shame about it not being lit up. I think you need to go back next Saturday night, a bit earlier though so you can miss the Fix-Factor (no Jim involved) and get a shot with it illuminated ;)
 
Yeah I will go again next weekend would have gone now but didnt think and had a drink so thats that.
 
Why such a small aperture and low ISO? Have you tried ISO 200 or even 400, and an aperture of f/8? Shouldn't be too much noise at that level of ISO and f/8 should be more than enough to give you a sharp image, as it falls in the sweet spot of most lenses. The advantage of these changes is that it will give you a shorter shutter speed, minimising the risk of blur due to camera movement if you are having to work with a tripod that isn't as stable as it could be.
 
Well went down tonight to get another shot of the tower illuminated. Sadly they are illuminating it in many colours now. I think its supposed to look like a christmas tree and I could not get a photo to show the different colours well without the rest of the photo looking really badly exposed. So the light up the sail looks white when in fact its various colours.


IMG_0505 by danny842003, on Flickr
 
Still looks much better fella.

If you are able to, how about taking a photo at each stage of the colouring, then blending them together afterwards?
 
The colours in between each level are all different colours but moves down probably every 5 seconds was a bit annoying.
 
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