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12/09/2005 04:57:06 AM · #1 |
Some of my friends and I are going out to Cincinnati Saturday night to shoot some skyline pics. I've never been able to get a good, clear night shot of a city. Do y'all have any tips? I'm using a Minolta Dimage A200 and I'll have a tripod.
I also have a friend who wants to have a portrait taken with the city as a backdrop, but that's a whole 'nother issue.
Thanks! |
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12/09/2005 07:39:11 AM · #2 |
Hoping that it is a clear night for u, and perhaps u can use a remote-controller to control your shutterspeed. (tripod as u say u have is a "must") A couple of drinks, and u will be fine I think :)
Where's that city ??
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12/09/2005 08:38:46 AM · #3 |
if you can control the aperture of your camera, set it to the smallest aperture you can (which is the largest F-stop number, probably like F11 or F22).
doing that makes your shutter speed longer, but it gives you those really sweet "starbursts" where lights appear in your picture.
these are overblown, but here's the effect:
you'll also get really cool smeared lights from traffic, if you're into that kind of thing. |
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12/09/2005 09:49:53 AM · #4 |
As you mentioned, tripod. and either remote cable release or if your camera has a delay timer, you could use that so the camera doesn't have any movement from pressing/releasing the shutter button.
Experiment with shutter times, depending on how bright the lights are, you may be looking at a second or so, up to 5-15 seconds. It can be really fun to play with different settings. As muckpond mentioned, smaller aperature will give more of that starburst effect on the lights.
Also, as usual, shoot in the best quality and highest resolution possible. With the dark areas, you'll need the best possible quality to minimize posterization.
For the portrait, the flash will illuminate your friend, and keep using the long exposure to get the background. Just have your friend remain fairly still the whole time.
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12/09/2005 09:57:08 AM · #5 |
I've also heard that twilight pictures work better than fully night pictures for getting the lights and details of the city.
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12/09/2005 09:59:54 AM · #6 |
I recently attended a Dallas skyline shoot with about 30 other photographers from the Texas Photo Forum. We got there about 30 or so minutes before sunset and were able to shoot from then, through twilight, and then in the dark. My advice is that though lovely, the shots in the darkness are not nearly as nice because you get lights on a black plane without any reference or dimension. Shooting in twilight provides a beautiful colored backdrop behind the buildings and gives your shots dimension and depth. Just before sunset you can also capture the golden glow in the reflections from the windows of the buildings. I second the recommendation muckpond makes, about shooting at a small aperture for a longer shutter speed. Those little starbursts are really nice and add more interest to the shot.
I used f/22, 30 seconds or longer for the shutter speed, and the self timer on my camera. I was pleased with what I got. :)
Twilight:
Before Sunset:
In Darkness:
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12/09/2005 10:11:40 AM · #7 |
Definitely shoot a lot of shots, using the full range of shutter speed and aperture. Know ahead of time how your camera's noise level behaves at higher shutter speeds and ISOs.
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