Quick question, night photography

insane_lewis

insane_lewis

Suspended / Banned
Messages
75
Edit My Images
Yes
hi all, i have had a quick look around the forums and drew a blank.

im hoping to attempt night photography for the first time tonight.

im heading down to brighton, looking at using the pier, marina, the famous arches along madera drive etc.

my equipment is a canon 1100d with 18-55mm and 100-300mm, and of course a sturdy tri pod.

but what i was going to ask, on what settings should i start? i would like some clear imiges and images that show motion.

thanks very much. and i will post what i capture:thumbs:
 
There's several ways to get your exposure and all of them are the same as the daytime. PASM.

I like to stick it in manual, choose the lens' best aperture which would be f8, always starting at base ISO for maximum dynamic range and probably start with a 20s exposure making my way up and down from there.

You really should stay in between your lens' maximum range as you hit diffraction at small apertures and it will be inevitably softer wide open so bear that in mind.

Working in the f8-11 range you'll most likely be exposing from 15-30s depending on the amount of light (and at base ISO) but to make silky water etc you may want a smaller aperture to guarantee 30s+ exposures depending on the "choppyness" of the water.

Night time really is my favourite time for shots, you can get some really pleasing images.

Make sure:

-You remote release or use timer.
-Keep warm, it gets cold after a while!
-Have something to do like talkphotography on your phone :-P
-Take something to eat and drink, you may find it's really fun and creating images at night takes a bit more time to set up so you could be out a while!

Hope that helps.

Have fun :)
 
Last edited:
thank you very much indeed. i will make sure this page is open on my phone lol
 
Keep warm

Normally if you are out, you are walking, doing this you will be stationary, 2 pairs of socks and take a good warm pair of gloves.

Apart from adding that, as above really :)
 
Don't use zoom lenses unless you have to and remove all filters including UV it will reduce flare.Also take a flash gun so you can do fill in flash if you need to.:cool:
 
kestral said:
Don't use zoom lenses unless you have to and remove all filters including UV it will reduce flare.Also take a flash gun so you can do fill in flash if you need to.:cool:
Click to expand...

Why don't use zoom lenses?
 
Go to

Tutorials and reviews
Tutorials and guides
Photography technique
Star trails

Great advice for night shooting. Will keep you busy for a while too..

Good luck!
 
I'm partial to a bit of night shooting and believe me it gets freezing I was out for 4 hours the other night and couldnt feel my feet, not good lol

I always try and shoot ISO 100 for minimum noise, then adjust shutter speed to get the exposure I want, if its really dark, you're probably looking at around 120-180 seconds to get a decent amount of light in (this will give good cloud movement too) most of my night shots are around 2 minutes exposure. Make sure you nail the focus (I usually set ISO 6400 for about 10 second exposure for a couple shots till I get the focus bang on then change the ISO back to 100) remote release is a must, also as someone's said, there's really no need for filters at night (apart from POSSIBLY a polarizer to dampen reflections if neccessary)

Take a torch too, helps to see what your doing in the dark lol

Oh, and a flask of something warm :-)
 
Last edited:
i'd stick to manual as phil said in the first post....

i slightly differ in my approach to get correct settings though....

i set the camera to the lowest f number (widest aperture), go straight for ISO 64000 and use the pointer within the optics to adjust the timing value to get the correct exposure.... once thats done i decide how long i want to shoot for and its a simple task of removing stops and adding them elsewhere (which will create different images but will keep the correct exposure) i.e remove a ISO stop remove a stop of shutter(making a longer speed etc i always try to get the ISO to fix on 100 so you have a fairly lengthy shutter before you adjust the aperture stops further increasing you timing length

as to whether or not to use zooms- i know of no reason why you shouldnt unless someone can inform me- zooms are fab for creating immense depths of field as well as their reach capabilities
 
Just to add:

Unless shooting really long exposure in the dark, your scenes are likely to have quite a bit of dynamic range (total dark areas combined with bright lights).

Your camera is also going to take a big dip in range from 100-200, the D7000 for example, starts at around 14ev and then dips 2 stops in light with that one stop value in ISO.

With such a wide DR scene, night photography is probably the only time when I reduce the shutter speed first to get more light in.

I don't think noise will be a probably with 95% of long exposures as the gain from 100-400 in most cameras (even compacts) is so miniscule but the DR dip is quite substantial.

That's the methods in my madness anyway :)
 
Pics are up, in general photos I think lol
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top