focusing at night

imgrizzlybear · Jun 29, 2008

i just did a small photoshoot this friday and one thing i noticed from the photoshoot was focusing. it was so difficult for me to focus in the night with the canon 40d. i couldnt tell if the darn thing was in focus or not. i tried using auto focus but it wouldnt focus correctly. my question is, how on earth do you focus during night shots. i find it nearly impossible.

deudeu · Jun 29, 2008

This is where having a good viewfinder is important. Though when it is really dark it doesn't make that much difference.

When I am at night and I can't tell if the pictures are in focus or not, I usually try to refer to the lens. I am lucky enough that the ones use most of the time have a focusing scale on them.

Sw1tchFX · Jun 29, 2008

do you mind explaining what the photoshoot was for, and why it needed to be at night? I'm curious.

RacePhoto · Jun 29, 2008

Autofocus reads contrast between points, so in the dark, there is usually nothing. You'll need to focus manually.

Since I come from the days before auto-anything

through the lens metering was really special... find a point of light, and manually focus on that. This could be a bulb, a reflection, or something. If it's so dark that there's nothing to see to manually focus on, it's probably too dark to take a picture.

Also you can use the markings on the lens, but that's kind of difficult, since it's dark and you can't see them.

If you can find something that's the same distance as your subject, focus on that and then frame on the photo you intend to take.

Since you didn't mention what it was, distances, subjects, it's much more difficult to give a better answer.

TheJakeyl · Jun 29, 2008

If I ever shoot at night, I use my tripod, and 20-60 second shutter times. But you can't obviously do that for somethings you are shooting. Here I am at night drawing with a candle in my backyard.

That was taken with my E-510 with a 60 second exposure.

imgrizzlybear · Jun 30, 2008

deudeu said:
This is where having a good viewfinder is important. Though when it is really dark it doesn't make that much difference.

When I am at night and I can't tell if the pictures are in focus or not, I usually try to refer to the lens. I am lucky enough that the ones use most of the time have a focusing scale on them.

im using a canon 28-136mm USM w/ IS and it does have a scale. i just have no idea as to how to use it. im new to photography.

Sw1tchFX said:
do you mind explaining what the photoshoot was for, and why it needed to be at night? I'm curious.

i just wanted to build my portfolio i suppose. and i have a thing for night shots. i think its just so bad ass. it was just me and 2 friends driving around at night. we found a cool spot near my highschool so we decided to take some pictures. i had some softboxes but no outlet so too bad. i had a speedlite but ehh. im not too fond of flashes. we ended up using my car's headlights.

RacePhoto said:
Autofocus reads contrast between points, so in the dark, there is usually nothing. You'll need to focus manually.

Since I come from the days before auto-anything through the lens metering was really special... find a point of light, and manually focus on that. This could be a bulb, a reflection, or something. If it's so dark that there's nothing to see to manually focus on, it's probably too dark to take a picture.

Also you can use the markings on the lens, but that's kind of difficult, since it's dark and you can't see them.

If you can find something that's the same distance as your subject, focus on that and then frame on the photo you intend to take.

Since you didn't mention what it was, distances, subjects, it's much more difficult to give a better answer.

it was basically pitch black. well almost. i was able to take the pictures with a speedlite. but it wasnt continoous lighting so i had no way to focus.

heres a picture. it might give you a better idea.

imgrizzlybear · Jun 30, 2008

TheJakeyl said:
If I ever shoot at night, I use my tripod, and 20-60 second shutter times. But you can't obviously do that for somethings you are shooting. Here I am at night drawing with a candle in my backyard.

That was taken with my E-510 with a 60 second exposure.

i know i can get better lighting with longer exposure but haha i cant figure out a way to focus when my viewfinder is basically black.

RyanLilly · Jun 30, 2008

You can set you camera not to fire the speedlight, but to emit the focus assist bean, its that little red IR light. You can focus in complete darkness. You should find these under menu>custom functions.

Sw1tchFX · Jun 30, 2008

imgrizzlybear said:
im using a canon 28-136mm USM w/ IS and it does have a scale. i just have no idea as to how to use it. im new to photography.

i just wanted to build my portfolio i suppose. and i have a thing for night shots. i think its just so bad ass. it was just me and 2 friends driving around at night. we found a cool spot near my highschool so we decided to take some pictures. i had some softboxes but no outlet so too bad. i had a speedlite but ehh. im not too fond of flashes. we ended up using my car's headlights.

it was basically pitch black. well almost. i was able to take the pictures with a speedlite. but it wasnt continoous lighting so i had no way to focus.

heres a picture. it might give you a better idea.

You could have done this in broad daylight. If it's shady, a speedlight through an umbrella possibly could have blocked out the sun, if it was overcast, absolutely could have. If you have monolights, easy. Just need to bring in your light close and with as much power as possible. Shoot at your max sync speed and stop down.

This was done at about noon with two 580EX's:

This was 1 in the afternoon on a very sunny day with two SB600's:

4 in the afternoon on an overcast day with one sb600:

3:30 in the afternoon on an overcast day, pouring rain:

With strobes you don't have to shoot at night to get that night look, that way you don't compromise image quality with high ISO's, motion blur, your models also aren't up till 2 am tired and irritated. There's also nothing wrong with hard light when you want that moody look.

even if it's middle of the day, the sun can be a hairlight and you can have your speedlight bare as your key.

I shot this with one of my SB600's in my left hand stretched out as far as I could, this is hard light, but the results are awesome.

Mike_E · Jun 30, 2008

Nice!!!

JerryPH · Jun 30, 2008

imgrizzlybear said:
i had a speedlite but ehh. im not too fond of flashes. we ended up using my car's headlights.

Yes you did, but you may not have considered it.

Carry a flashlight, shine it on the subject before you shoot, and since we shoot at night, a tripod is logical... flash the subject, press the button 1/2 way down... focus... turn off flash light... press shutter the rest of the way.

Another way is to flash subject, pre-focus, set focus to manual... shoot as much as you want.

imgrizzlybear · Jul 1, 2008

haha thats a great suggestion with the flashlight jerry. i shall do that next time. and switch, all you did was shoot it in the day and stop down? they sure turned out really good.