First attempt at High ISO

Bad Andy · Sep 30, 2009

Went to the beach tonight to see the incoming tsunami. Apparently it was only 9" above normal, so I could not really see when and where it came in.

The picture below was my first attempt at very high ISO on my Nikon D5000. I set it at an ISO 2500, f/3.5, 18 mm, .8 s speed. The orange lights come from all of the lights in the Port of Los Angeles. The picture is very close to the accurate color temperature, as this is what it looks like in person. Even the building had the green tinge from its lighting. Overall, I think I did ok, for a handheld shot. Had others that were similar, and some that were worse.

Thanks for looking.

-Andy

musicaleCA · Sep 30, 2009

You can get away with adding a fair bit of magenta tint to the image to lessen the green fluorescent ickyness; the sky will change colour, but viewers will be less put-off by a slightly magenta sky than puke green lights.

As for the image, why not just stabilize the camera (tripod; even a flat rock will do the trick in a pinch), use the lowest ISO possible and take a very long exposure? You'll get far less noise. To be honest, night shots such as these don't call for super-high exposures; you can create an image just as good or better by using a long exposure time and low ISO.

Bad Andy · Sep 30, 2009

Hi MusicaleCA,

Thanks for the advice. I didn't even think to bring my tripod. I guess I was expecting fast waves, hence the high ISO. I wasn't really sure what to expect, and wanted to be as mobile as possible in case the waves really were large. (I shot on a walkway about 15 feet above the ocean until the police came and asked everyone to leave.)

What you see here, was the largest size of the waves, only about 6-9 inches high. I waited for an hour or so, to see if larger ones would come, but nothing. I guess by the time it got to California, it had dissipated. After being asked to leave the beach, I had to watch from the parking lot above (through the fence), about 100 yards from the beach.

-Andy