I'm still new..so be gentle...

[TheBoombaGnome]

I see a whole lot of long exposure shots where I feel like the shot should be blown out with natural light and frankly, look awful. But for some reason, the street lights and the building lights never seem to effect the overall composition of the shot. My question is how is this achieved? I tried some basic shots on top of a bridge just to see if I understood the concept I was using (I still have a Panasonic Lumix P&S, so I had to use stary night mode to get the long exposure) was working, but the shot was just saturated with the lights from the freeway streetlights...I'm just confused on how to do these shots while still avoiding the craziness of the other ambient lighting...

Thats what the shot turned out as...There wasn't much traffic, but I got the lines. It just seems like it's got so much extra light as opposed to the natural color it really is...I'm not sure...

Thanks guys!
Boomba

 

[Derrel]

I kind of like your photo, although it is a bit too bright for my taste. I think your best bet in this type of situation would be to dial in some Exposure Compensation, somewhere along the line of Minus 1.3 to 1.7 f/stops. That much Minus Exposure Comp will darken the overall image,and will help render the lights bright, but will also keep other areas darker; in this shot, the grass and the roadway are simply too bright, so the Minus Exposure Compensation (found on a control or menu usually marked with the symbol +/- ) will force the camera to end the exposure a bit earlier than normal, thus exposing the shot less than it otherwise would. This shot is over-exposed sufficiently that Minus 1`.7 stops would look much better, IMHO. You chose a pretty good vantage point for the shot, and the composition is pretty good actually.

 

[dyyylan]

Not a big fan of the white balance or the exposure, but it has potential to be a neat shot I guess. I agree with derrel, a stop and a half or so less would help a lot.

 

[D-B-J]

Can you manually set things? For example, i took this shot at an aperture of 25, a 20 second exposure, and iso 100. Granted, the settings do not need to be this extreme. If it is possible to manually set aperture and shutter speed, you should be able to get some pretty awesome shots.

 

[TheBoombaGnome]

Not with the camera i'm using right now. It's a simple point and shoot that isn't really supposed to be able to do 30 second exposures...it's for stars at night...so it doesn't really give me any options. I'm waiting until I have the cash and upgrading to a dSLR, but until then...i'm stuck with it. I guess my question was is it doable once I have a suitable camera, and from DBJ's repsonce, it is. I just cannot wait til I have my Rebel..I went up to best buy tonight to visit...

 

[Boomn4x4]

I guess my question was is it doable once I have a suitable camera,

Absolutly...

A point and shoot, is exactly that.... point and shoot.

They will often give you settings that will alow you to create some custom type pictues, but the reality is, the suck at doing so.

 

[mrpink]

Not with the camera i'm using right now. It's a simple point and shoot that isn't really supposed to be able to do 30 second exposures...it's for stars at night...so it doesn't really give me any options. I'm waiting until I have the cash and upgrading to a dSLR, but until then...i'm stuck with it. I guess my question was is it doable once I have a suitable camera, and from DBJ's repsonce, it is. I just cannot wait til I have my Rebel..I went up to best buy tonight to visit...

There are many things you can learn with a P&S so keep at it, lessons learned here will accelerate your photography once you upgrade. Looking at your Flickr, one thing to watch is tilt- make sure that if a horizon is visible in frame that it is as level as possible. Even the slightest tilt can be overly distracting to the viewer.

Detroit huh? I will be up there in a month or so for the Red Bull air races, AWESOME photographic event. A friend of mine lives in Royal Oak.





p!nK

 

[TheBoombaGnome]

There are many things you can learn with a P&S so keep at it, lessons learned here will accelerate your photography once you upgrade. Looking at your Flickr, one thing to watch is tilt- make sure that if a horizon is visible in frame that it is as level as possible. Even the slightest tilt can be overly distracting to the viewer.

Detroit huh? I will be up there in a month or so for the Red Bull air races, AWESOME photographic event. A friend of mine lives in Royal Oak.

I have been...I love my little point and shoot and I don't think I'll ever give it up. I've already starting picking things up just with ISO and Exposure time now that I'm starting to take photography a little more seriously. I actually just stumbled across my Nikon manual shot camera that I'm starting to play with as well...but I will never give up on the P&S...it's REALLY helpful...

Thanks for the bit on the tilt...I never really noticed that in any of my shots, so I will for sure keep an eye out on that...

The Red Bull races are so sweet...My sister works in the Ren Cen and can usually get us up there to her office right on the water...AWESOME vantage point!



From what I had seen from looking online, it appeared that investing in some Filters would also help the over exposure aspect of it (once I pick up my dSLR that I'm looking at)...is that true or would it be a waste of money for me to pick some up?