Night Time, Long Exposure shots?

[harmonn2]

I've been interested lately in setting my camera up on my tripod and doing a long exposure of this scenic landscape nearby How would you suggest going about this, as far as ISO and Aperture? I've tried a few sample shots (using different ISO and aperture), but keep getting a lot of the red/blue/green/white dots where the darker areas should be, and all over the photo. Is this because my ISO is too high, or something else? Any other tips for this kind of shot?

Thank you.

 

[BlkdOutGsxr]

The colored dots is noise from the high ISO, there is a really good read that someone pointed me to a little while ago, http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/articles-interest/276016-shooting-night-pictures-stars-stuff.html . You basically want to crank the ISO up as high as you can, open the camera up to the lowest aperture setting, and get a baseline shot, Then you will count down the stops and adjust the ISO, then adjust the seconds the shutter is open accordingly. That was a very good read that helped out my night shooting quite a bit! Also if you have long exposure noise reduction in the settings you can turn that on, but it roughly doubles the time it takes your camera to shoot/process an image.

Edit: Also, tripod and remote or delayed shutter are a must.

Thomas

 

[tegeltka]

Aren't these hot pixels? They can be remapped by a technician at the store, but since they only appear on long exposure shots it might not be necessary.

They appeared in my first long exposure shots when my camera was only few weeks old but I really didn't mind so they just sit there if I don't clone them out in Photoshop.

 

[ChrisCalvin]

I love night photography. how I do it - try to keep ISO low. I keep it 200. and I play with Aperture - keep it wide. use tripod, if you don't have the remote shutter than use timer to shoot. Make first photo adjust settings for long exposure time. When you find the best take next photo. Hope it helps

______________________________________
My new web page Photography Names

 

[harmonn2]

Thanks, all! I do have the remote shutter release, forgot to mention that in the original post. Another problem I was having is actually setting up the composition correctly because it's so dark! After waiting however many minutes for the exposure, I would look at the screen and find out that I had placed a big telephone pole right smack dab in the front of my shot. But that's just a silly mistake on my part. Any of you have some of your night exposures that you could post on this thread for example? (Unless that is against forum rules).

 

[runnah]

Low ISO and High fstop will get you sharp low noise photos. It's good that you have a remote release. Expect exposures in the 2-3 minute range.

 

[spacefuzz]

Bring along a flash light and use it to help set up your composition and focus. Definitely use low ISO if you can, however for star point images you may want to up it up to the 4k range to get enough light for the static stars.

Since you asked these may help you out:
18 minute exposure around f/3.2. Manual focus and ISO 100. The landscape is moon lit. I set up a shot in aperture mode and then used those baseline settings to lower my ISO and target my exposure around the 20 min mark.

This is an 8 minute exposure around f/8 just after sunset. Much more difficult than the complete night shots because you are losing lots of light, I believe around 1 stop every 5 minutes. Again I set up in aperture mode and then lowered my ISO to get the longer exposure I wanted using the expected exposure time when I started the shot and adding a stop and a half. This starts to add up fast and its easy to find yourself with really long exposures! Bring a book

 

[CaptainNapalm]

Keep your ISO as low as possible (100-400) and f/6 or higher and adjust shutter accordingly. Some of my best low light landscape shots on a tripod were take with f/8 at ISO 100 with my wide angle lens. The shutter had to stay open for several minutes to let in enough light. Anyways, that should give you a good starting point.

 

[HughGuessWho]

I've been interested lately in setting my camera up on my tripod and doing a long exposure of this scenic landscape nearby How would you suggest going about this, as far as ISO and Aperture? I've tried a few sample shots (using different ISO and aperture), but keep getting a lot of the red/blue/green/white dots where the darker areas should be, and all over the photo. Is this because my ISO is too high, or something else? Any other tips for this kind of shot?

Thank you.

"red/blue/green/white dots" = Color Noise. Can be removed with most noise reduction software

 

[HughGuessWho]

Check out this article for some vauluable info on Night Photography;

Manaheim's Ultimate Guide to Night Photography