johan.sie
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thanks manaheim, really insightful tips indeed =)
yeah same with the rest, what lens do you used on those?
yup it was night and i wasn't feeling too well as well so just get a tripod and grab a few quick shots, i was out the other night to learn about iso actually =) so i have only a few sets with various iso from 100-3200 =)
thanks though!
yeah same with the rest, what lens do you used on those?
yup it was night and i wasn't feeling too well as well so just get a tripod and grab a few quick shots, i was out the other night to learn about iso actually =) so i have only a few sets with various iso from 100-3200 =)
thanks though!
I have been obsessing over night photography for some time now. I've taken and re-taken the Boston skyline pictures about six times trying to get it absolutely perfect. These are my most recent, and I think I have it almost dead-on.
(hope you don't mind my sharing in your thread)
==1==
(there is one post processing goof on this one because I did it at 2:00am, but I just need to tweak it... I'd be amazed if you can find it.)
== 2 ==
== 3 ==
This one is my hands-down all time favorite night shot. (again in Boston- the cities are always great for night shots) Forgive the god-awful watermark... I'm rushing this morning.
Some things I've learned about night photography that may be handy for you:
hmmm... is that it? It's all I can think of off the top of my head.
- A tripod is really really helpful, particularly in wind.
- Be aware that a cheap tripod won't hold up against wind that well.
- With some lenses a smaller aperature will give you the nice stars that you see on some of my pics. (OP, I see your shots have that too... more than mine by quite a bit on that first one)
- A remote shutter release is a great friend on these trips, and can be had reasonably inexpensively. (don't buy the $15 cheapos... I've lost 2) If you don't have one, you can do a timed shutter release, but it really slows you down and does have a small increased risk of camera shake.
- You have to do the tradeoff between stars and crispness of the lens, so play with it to get as close to your lens sweet spot as possible and still get any level of star effect you want.
- MANUAL FOCUS... omg. Can't stress this enough. Not so much a problem if you are taking a picture of a nearby "well-illuminated" subject, but for anything else you want to focus to infinity to get everything sharp. (unless you dont want it sharp) (johan, you will see if you look closely that your focus is actually a touch off... sorry, just using you as an example)
- You want to figure out where infinity is on your lens... not all lenses are marked, and the ones that are marked are not always dead-acurate. Experiment with it and get to know your lens. (always a good idea anyway)
- RAW is KING in night photography, and I don't give a bag of wet mice what anyone else says on this- trust me here. You have stupid amounts of weird light at night of all different sources. The LAST thing you want to be doing with your time is futzing with white balance. Get your shot with good exposure and composition and move on to the next one. Fix the WB in post-processing. You have reasonably limited time on night shots, don't waste it.
- Again on WB: I feel pretty strongly that incandescant light (the yellowish cast you see on a lot of shots) is eeeeeeeevil. I understand that people want the "real effect" from night shots, but here is the trick... did everything look horribly yellow to you when you were on the scene? No. Incandescant lights certainly are very yellow, but people's brains correct for that naturally, so you have to actually look pretty hard to see yellow when you are on the scene... so in the end, your pictures look way different than what the eye sees. Certainly if you LIKE the yellowness, keep it... I think it looks like a mistake, personally. (no offense, mind you)
- Weather is very important on night shots. Humidity and air quality are going to come into play a lot because on a longer exposure any haze effects are going to be amplified significantly- esp when dealing with skylines. Be aware of what the weather is like and how it will effect you. (haze isn't always bad... I have another shot thats filled with fog and it looks awesome. I'd post it, but I think I've posted enough shots in YOUR thread already.)
This site is incredibly handy for getting a good sense of your weather conditions.
- DONT FORGET YOUR PERSONAL SECURITY. You are walking around in the dark with hundreds and possibly thousands of dollars of equipment, and a good bit of your time is going to be focusing, where? Your camera! What's more is that photographers always attract attention, so people will know you're there and that you're up to something. It's a very good idea to bring a friend, and if you are alone, be constantly aware of who is around you, what direction they are going in, what their posture is, etc. I carry a very large metal flashlight with me when im doing this and I almost always have it in my hand.
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