night photography

[bjfowle]

I might be going out to get some night shots of the fort worth skyline tonight. I've never done any night photography, so what kind of settings should I try?

 

[Rob]

A tripod (obviously). Preferably stabilised with a heavy bag to prevent wind sway.

Low ISO negative film preferably (look up reciprocity failure if you really want the gorey details) I use Fuji Reala 100 which is excellent for this as it's a bit green heavy, so the sodium glare doesn't go mad and it really picks up the blues of things like neon. If you're digital, stick it on the lowest ISO.

Under f8 will prevent starburst, over f22 will guarantee them (depending on the nature of your lens these vary slightly). I stick the camera in AP mode and let it work out the exposure (works really well with both Nikon and Contax even at 5min+ exposures despite what the manual says).

A polarising filter can really help (loads of glare and strange light reflections are minimised)

A cable-release or remote control is ideal as this minimises the vibration of pressing the button.

Mirror lock up is supposed to help with vibrations, but I've never bothered because my F3HP body with motordrive is soooo heavy that it isn't going to flinch.

So to summarise, a standard cityscape is great with a wide lens, good tripod, f8-f11ish, low ISO.

Hope this helps and look forward to seeing your results!

Rob

 

[Rob]

Here's some of my pictures if you're into it:

http://www.ukphotographs.com/autogallery/robhesketh/london/index.html

 

[bjfowle]

Thanks for the info. I'm not sure if I'll make it out tonight now but hopefully sometime soon. Right now the only film I have is some 400 iso fuji, but I can set the iso on my camera as low as I want to, all the way down to 6 I believe. I have a minolta maxxum 70 with a 50mm prime lense and a wireless remote.

 

[bjfowle]

nice pics by the way

 

[Dweller]

Night photography is so much fun! I have not been out to take any in a while but I am looking forward to the next outing.

For some reason when you are out shooting at night it seems to get people to want to talk to you. I have had some interesting conversations with people that just wandered by and asked what I was doing.

 

[bjfowle]

well i didn't make it out to get the skyline pictures, but i did get out to ameriquest field where the texas rangers play. i'll post some of the pictures when i get the roll developed. i hope they turn out good.

 

[westman]

for me ( city landscape)
ISO 50 / 100 , f22 or below / 1min - 2 min exposure