First night shot

Kleetz · Jan 8, 2008

Welcome!

I went out a few nights back and snapped off a few night shots. This was my first time with my D40 (at night). I knew this would be hard...Turns out it's a lot harder than I thought!!! Add to the fact that my tripod is complete crap and the camera shoe shakes making it very difficult and frustrating to take pictures at night.

This was taken by hand,
18-55mm@46mm
ISO: 200,
Shutter: 1/6,
f/9.0

As you can see, the clock is super bright...anyone have suggestions on how I should go about fixing it? I feel there's really not much I can do.

Ls3D · Jan 8, 2008

Too bad the whites are blown. Decent composition though, and perhaps you will get another chance at it if near by.

-Shea

Kleetz · Jan 9, 2008

Anyone else have some advice for me? Maybe some suggestions to taking better night pictures?

Thanks to all!

THORHAMMER · Jan 9, 2008

you might get a little less ghosting at iso 100, but mostly theres nothing you can do , its the lighting ratio in the scene. you need more light in the shadows to even it out. you can properly expose for the clock but the ground will be dark.

you can light paint the ground with a flashlight to even it out, or you can take 2 exposures and try to stick them together.

Personally, Id go back and setup so the lamp to the right is not in the scene , do iso100 and cut your exposure 2 stops. maybye wait till a car headlight lights up the ground a little that would also do the trick.

Otherwise stick some really dark window tint over the clock face glass !!

jstuedle · Jan 9, 2008

Ls3D said:
Too bad the whites are blown. Decent composition though, and perhaps you will get another chance at it if near by.

-Shea

To prevent the highlights from blowing out, the exposure would need to be reduced to the point the brick sidewalk would be black. This is a good exposure considering what you were dealing with.

I agree, if using a tripod, use a low ISO and longer exposure. Use caution though, too low an ISO will result in extreemly long exposures that could result in something called hot pixles. Certain pixels on the sensor will turn red or blue and show up as colored speckles all over the image.