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10/07/2007 12:06:49 PM · #1 |
I made it out of the city. For the first time in almost 5 years I saw stars in the sky. I was in the country side. During the day I took a lot of great 'outdoors' pictures, and it was nice not having buildings and cables all over.
The question is this. At night I walked up to the TSUNAMI wall. I sat there with my camera and balanced it on the wall (No tripod with me). I wanted a long exposure of the waves crashing into the rocks, but the lens couldn't focus on anything so I was stuck trying to figure things out. It was total darkness. I tried a manual focus and 30 sec shutter with all 3 lenses but nothing turned out. I upped the ISO to 1000 but still nothing. Not sure what I was doing wrong. There was just nothing the lens could see...even though I saw the waves kinda...
So I guess the REAL question is: What should I have done in this situation? |
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10/07/2007 12:09:41 PM · #2 |
| thrown a flashlight out in front of where your focusing, put on manual focus, focus on the flashlight and then remove the flashlight and take the shot? |
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10/07/2007 12:11:24 PM · #3 |
| You could estimate the distance and focus using the distance scale on the lens, use a flashlight to real it. |
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10/07/2007 12:12:07 PM · #4 |
Auto focus does not work well in low light.
Manuel focus is what you need to do.
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10/07/2007 12:13:22 PM · #5 |
try finding a vertical line (like a post or a tree, etc etc) which is about the same distance away from you as your subject.
Focus on it, make sure to switch to manual focus now to lock it in, then turn back to your subject. |
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10/07/2007 12:15:16 PM · #6 |
Originally posted by Beetle:
try finding a vertical line (like a post or a tree, etc etc) which is about the same distance away from you as your subject.
Focus on it, make sure to switch to manual focus now to lock it in, then turn back to your subject. |
In the dark? |
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10/07/2007 12:20:23 PM · #7 |
As far as I can tell, his issue isn't focus as much as it is exposure. "I upped the ISO to 1000 but still nothing"...
Let's break this into two components:How
1. For focusing, set the lens on manual focus, and have a small penlight you can use to set the focus on the distance scale on the lens barrel.
2. For exposure, set the camera to full manual mode, set the aperture nearly wide open, and use "bulb" to count down long exposures. You really need a cable release and a tripod for this, but if you set the camera on a solid surface (which you did) the cable release alone will suffice. It's really hard, if not impossible, to use bulb with your finger and not get camera movement.
Bottom line; for true night shots, even at high ISO, 30 seconds isn't enough.
R.
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10/07/2007 01:24:43 PM · #8 |
Originally posted by Bear_Music:
Bottom line; for true night shots, even at high ISO, 30 seconds isn't enough. |
I'll second that. Even when taking cityscapes a bit after sunset I hit 30 seconds quite easily. |
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10/07/2007 02:32:28 PM · #9 |
I do lots of nights but lets face it....not alway is there a flashlight, but you always have your cell phone. Ask who ever is with you to walk out, put the camera in auto focus and get a focus lock on the EXACT DISTANCE by opening the cell phone and having the lcd face in your direction. If you are shooting wide open, you want a good focus. Now put the camera to manual focus to keep this setting. Shoot away and check your first shot by zooming all the way in... If the first one is off, they will all suck!
done |
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10/07/2007 02:45:26 PM · #10 |
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10/07/2007 03:23:36 PM · #11 |
| If it was total darkness and you could barely make out the waves, then your camera wouldn't stand much chance of picking anything up! - It needs to have *some* sort of faint light coming from the scene. Even moonlight would suffice. |
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10/07/2007 03:45:02 PM · #12 |
Originally posted by routerguy666:
Originally posted by Beetle:
try finding a vertical line (like a post or a tree, etc etc) which is about the same distance away from you as your subject.
Focus on it, make sure to switch to manual focus now to lock it in, then turn back to your subject. |
In the dark? |
Ok fine, I am making certain assumptions here.
I have very rarely experienced TOTAL darkness. I assumed that he wouldn't be trying to take photos is absolute darkness, anyway. An entirely black photo would be a tad boring.
So, assuming that there is moonlight, or some other distant source of light, you have a much better chance focusing on some vertical line (without or without flashlight shining on it), than you do on moving waves. |
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10/08/2007 05:22:48 AM · #13 |
Thanks for the advice.
There were boats in the far far distance. There were small lights behind me. It hadn't occurred to me to manual focus on another lit spot behind me, and then point it at the waves. I was using the auto half down and trying to move the camera back with my finger still half down on the shutter...that obviously didn't workout. I'll be off to get a cable release tonight to have for next time.
Thanks all! |
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10/08/2007 09:33:51 AM · #14 |
Manual focus.
and if you have a lens that is "parfocal" then it's easy. "Parfocal" means that a zoom lens will not change focus as the focal length of the lens is changed. So you can zoom in tight, focus manually, and then zoom back out and focus won't change.
Tamron's 24-135 SP lens is like this and has been my favorite lens for night work for this reason. Most canon L lenses are parfocal as well. It's a spec that's hard as hell to find on a lens spec sheet, but easy to check on any lens you have.
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10/08/2007 10:32:05 AM · #15 |
My experience with night shooting has been mostly with manual lenses shooting all manual. I generally focus to infinity, then back off just a little, and it seems to work well. I don't try to shoot close up subjects or telephoto much at night. BM's little flashlight idea is a good idea too, esp if you are clumsy like me and tend to drop small things like filters. A cell phone can be used for a flashlight to see lens and camera settings too.
I then shoot a few until I get he image to look the way I want it to on the LCD. You can zoom in the LCD image and adjust focus some if needed. Remember that the darkness can fool you into thinking underexposed is well exposed when you are evaluating the image in the LCD.
I am surprised that no one has mentioned using self timer to get the camera stable.
You may also want to try tungsten W/B for some of the shots, esp where there are the orange sodium lights from a city lighting the sky.
Starlight only shots take a long exposure, sometimes over a minute. Find night shots on DPC and check out the camera settings where the photogs have posted them with the images and it will help you to understand more about exposure times.
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