Night Photography! - DPChallenge Forums

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L USM

02/09/2006 08:53:58 PM · #1

Ok now that Jennifer has talked me into doing this DPC GTG Night Shoot

I was wondering if anyone out there wanted to shoot as many pointers they could at me because I have never done night photography.

Also if you know of any articles here on DPC or elsewhere about this subject please post them here.

Thanks

Message edited by author 2006-02-09 20:55:01.

Rikki

Canon EOS-20D

02/09/2006 09:07:03 PM · #2

bring a tripod, if you have a manual cable release take it with you.. some warm clothing... hmmmm what else ;)

MPRPRO

Olympus E-5

Olympus 14-54mm f/2.8-3.5 Zuiko Digital Zoom

02/09/2006 09:18:56 PM · #3

First as Rikki said you have to have a tripod. Cable release is the perfered if you are doing any shots where the exposure is going to be longer then the camera has settings for. For example my E-1 the longest exposure without a cable is 60 seconds. So if I needed to do any shot longer then 60 seconds I would need a cable.

If you don't have a remote or a cable and you will be shooting at the settings the camera has, you can use the self timer, set it press the shutter as lightly as you can so as not to cause a long shake and let the camera do it's thing.

If your camera has noise reduction use it. It will take longer to save the image but the reduction in noise will be worth it.

If you are going to do images of the City try shorter exposures for example if you look at my panoramic of NYC I only used 1 second exposures for that.

If you want to shoot about 30 seconds use the smallest apature you can and you will get very nice little star burst looking lines near any lights in the image. That is caused by light slipping through the blades of the iris. Another nice little effect of night shots.

Hope that helps, if I come up with more I'll come back again. Good luck. BTW the full moon is on the 12th, rises in Atlanta at 5:58pm just a little FYI.

Message edited by author 2006-02-09 21:21:17.

kirbic

Canon EOS R5

Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8 L IS

02/09/2006 09:19:15 PM · #4

Shoot RAW,expose right. If you're comfortable with shooting RAW it will give you much more latitude later with white balance, which is always hard to nail for night shots. Exposing right will allow you to pull back exposure a little, reducing noise in shadow areas.
As Rikki posted, a solid tripod is a must, and a remote release is a great thing, though the self-timer can be used in a pinch.
Be prepared to experiment with exposure. I recommend bracketing a lot and comparing later; you'll learn a lot this way about what gives the best results.

Gordon

RIM BlackBerry Curve

Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM

02/09/2006 09:40:22 PM · #5

Watch the night photography video on Radiant Vista

SDW

Canon EOS-60D

Tamron AF 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 XR Di LD Aspherical IF for Canon

02/09/2006 09:47:35 PM · #6

I have been sitting here for the last 1hr debating on going outside tonight and take some B&W night shots. Trying to learn some new things and make use of my new remote for the 350XT.

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

02/09/2006 10:12:41 PM · #7

Thanx for the advice everyone keep them coming.

I will be taking my remote for the XT.

Also did a google search if anyone is interested and got these. Haven't read them yet though

//www.schoolofphotography.com/night/night.html
//photography.about.com/library/weekly/aa112999a.htm
//www.livingroom.org.au/photolog/tips/night_and_low_light_digital_photography_tips.php
//www.photoxels.com/tutorial-night-photography.html

Melethia

Canon EOS-80D

02/09/2006 10:56:35 PM · #8

Oh, sure, NOW there's a thread on night photography... I tried my hand at it for the first time this evening - not sure I have anything worthy of sharing but it was fun! And I have a lot to learn. And yes, do take warm clothes if the ambient temp is below 32 and the windchill below that. Froze my little butt off...

Started out at ISO 100, moved to 400. Had a remote control for the shutter but couldn't operate it with frozen fingers, so I used the self-timer. May have one or two that I like for my own purposes but haven't got the time to really check them tonight. Early (very!) flight tomorrow - must get some sleep.

Good luck, Rex, and enjoy! And thanks to all who posted good tips here - I'll definitely know better next time! (And hopefully it'll be warmer.)

henry_buckle

Canon EOS-20D

Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM

02/09/2006 11:14:21 PM · #9

Id reccomend, shoot in RAW, use a tripd, use MLU, Cable Release. Set the Focus to infinite, and i usually have the arp wide as possible so the shutter speed can be reduce to avoid trailing.

Personally i dont think noise reduction is worth it. Not on the 20D anyway.

02/10/2006 06:42:17 AM · #10

Originally posted by henry_buckle:

shoot in RAW,

Although I am trying to do all shooting in RAW this is just not feasable that night. I have a 1 GB card and if I shoot in RAW I will onjly get about 12 photos before I am done. Guess I will just have to shoot in regular JPEG mode.

LeeD

Canon EOS-30D

02/10/2006 07:07:11 AM · #11

Originally posted by rex:

Originally posted by henry_buckle:
shoot in RAW,

Although I am trying to do all shooting in RAW this is just not feasable that night. I have a 1 GB card and if I shoot in RAW I will onjly get about 12 photos before I am done. Guess I will just have to shoot in regular JPEG mode.

Rex, you should get many more than that with a 1 GB card.

Sony 24-70mm F4 Vario-Tessar T* FE OSS

02/10/2006 10:26:12 AM · #12

I take LOTS of night shots... I love the night!
Here is what I do with my Rebel XT....

My way is not correct....but this works for me

Bump up your ISO all the way up....we will use 400ISO
Open up your lens...lets say f-3.5

lets say your camera want to take the picture at 5 seconds

Bump the ISO down to 200 and change the camera to 10 seconds
then 100 20 seconds (Double for EACH STEP)

then go from f 3.5 skip4.0 and stop at 4.5 double the time to 40 seconds

then go from f 4.5 skip 5.0 and stop at 5.6 double the time to 80 seconds

See the pattern? Take a quick shot at High ISO wide apature and you can figure the rest out...

if you take a shot this ISO 100 at F-22, I would get 560 seconds or over 9 minutes!!! I would set my watch to 8 and underexpose just a bit....the F/22 will get you a nice star type pattern on the lights.
Star pattern on lights from closing the apature

Lots of night shots are I took are here
WWW.LongIslandWallpapers.com

Message edited by author 2006-02-10 10:27:33.

Bear_Music

Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra

02/10/2006 10:31:21 AM · #13

Originally posted by rex:

Huh? I use 1Gb card on my 20D and get 111 shots off one card in RAW...

Robt.

02/10/2006 10:31:39 AM · #14

Some more good info for you reguarding Noise reduction in your camera

KNOW ABOUT IT BEFORE YOU SHOOT and if in a rush, know why or why not to
use it (I posted it in another night photography thread)

Noise reduction will NOT make an image soft. Lets say that you take a picture for 5 seconds. The camera will close the shutter when the picture is taken and record the same amount of time (5 sec in this case) with NO LIGHT at all and use the image to see any Hot or dead pixels. It will then FIX the dead or hot pixels in the image making a MUCH cleaner image. The only downside is that the shot we just took of 5 seconds took 5 more seconds to process. Not bad but when you leave the shutter open for 20 minutes and then have to wait 20 minutes before you can do anything with your camera....well, the image quality is still worth it...BUT FRUSTRATING!

It has absolutely no effect on sharpness. Hope this helps.

(((ONCE AGAIN))) Quoted from another thread

Originally posted by Didymus:

Speaking of Long Exposure Noise Reduction... any guesses, what shutter speeds will be considered 'long exposure'?

It depends on the camera...My rebel XT will use noise reduction for 30
seconds or more OR if the ISO is set to 1600.

My old Olympus was anything over 1 second.

It is really dependant on the camera, camera maker and how bad the
noise on the CCD or CMOS is. Take the longest exposure you can without
using bulb and then do it again without nose reduction....prepare to be
amazed when you blow it up on your monitor!

Canon EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

02/10/2006 10:36:56 AM · #15

THE BEST advice of all.... Turn off your lights in the room and have
almost no light in the room....PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE.... Know
what you are doing when you go by using the above posts for a few
hours...then go out in your front yard, or back yard.... To not try to
take a great picture...just take A PICTURE at night and point the
camera towards the light, away from the light, 90 degrees from the
light....PLAY, HAVE FUN, LOTS OF FUN! It is amazing the first night
shot you nail and then you will put 50 miles on your car in a night
just Playing. It is fun, treat it as such....

If you do not play and learn what needs to be done, you will just be
stressed all night of the Get together just trying to get 1 good shot.

Bigger Version

Message edited by author 2006-02-10 10:40:13.

CEJ

Canon EOS-40D

02/10/2006 10:39:43 AM · #16

Originally posted by Bear_Music:

Originally posted by rex:

Originally posted by henry_buckle:
shoot in RAW,

Although I am trying to do all shooting in RAW this is just not feasable that night. I have a 1 GB card and if I shoot in RAW I will onjly get about 12 photos before I am done. Guess I will just have to shoot in regular JPEG mode.

Huh? I use 1Gb card on my 20D and get 111 shots off one card in RAW...

Robt.

I was wondering about that myself. I get about the same if just RAW with no .jpg @ 107 to 115 shots per card.

MPRPRO

Olympus E-5

Olympus 14-54mm f/2.8-3.5 Zuiko Digital Zoom

02/10/2006 10:49:55 AM · #17

Originally posted by Derf:

Lots of night shots are I took are here
WWW.LongIslandWallpapers.com

That is a great shot of the Tribute in Light. What year was this taken may I ask? Mine was from the NJ side of the harbor here it is:

I also love night photography, we should get together sometime when it is a little warmer and compare our colective skills. Excellent advice as well Derf.

02/10/2006 10:52:27 AM · #18

Thanks...I Live on Long Island and took this shot this past year... More shots from that night are here

My WTC Shots from 9/11/05

Message edited by author 2006-02-10 10:53:26.

Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM

02/10/2006 06:33:36 PM · #19

Originally posted by Bear_Music:

the 12 was a joke. I am just stating I don't get near as much with RAW as I do with JPEG. I am going to be in Atlanta around 1 and will be there probably till around 10 or so. I think I need to stay with JPEG.

Falc

Canon EOS-1D Mark III

02/10/2006 06:43:39 PM · #20

Originally posted by rex:

Originally posted by Bear_Music:

Originally posted by rex:

Originally posted by henry_buckle:
shoot in RAW,

Although I am trying to do all shooting in RAW this is just not feasable that night. I have a 1 GB card and if I shoot in RAW I will onjly get about 12 photos before I am done. Guess I will just have to shoot in regular JPEG mode.

Huh? I use 1Gb card on my 20D and get 111 shots off one card in RAW...

Robt.

the 12 was a joke. I am just stating I don't get near as much with RAW as I do with JPEG. I am going to be in Atlanta around 1 and will be there probably till around 10 or so. I think I need to stay with JPEG.

If you stay with jpeg then you have to get the exposure just right every time because there is no room for adjustment with jpeg. Use RAW and you can be 2 or even 3 stops out and still recover a good image. Buy another card if you have to, but night shots in jpg will be difficult.

02/10/2006 10:52:01 PM · #21

Originally posted by Falc:

only taking 112 photos in roughly a 10 hour span. Hard to do I will have to go with JPEG on this one.

nicklevy

Canon EOS-350D Rebel XT

02/10/2006 11:41:51 PM · #22

Only my 0.02$ but you may be better to bring back 112 good workable shots than 295 missed one. AWB suck big time in night shots.

jenesis

Canon EOS-300D Rebel

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

02/11/2006 12:18:22 AM · #23

Cool Rex! Thanks for starting this thread. A lot of great information here. I rarely shoot RAW and probably wouldn't have thought to do it this night. So that's good. I think I'll have to go out and do a refresher before next weekend. I learned a lot on the Washington, DC nightshoot. But that was quite awhile ago and haven't really shot much at night since then.

And why didn't we check the Moon Phase before we set the date?!? DUH!! :-) Not that it really matters, I couldn't go on the 12th anyways. ;)