Night time photography questions

[Shafty]

I'll get straight to the point.
fore some reason my eye has been drawn to night time cityscapes and reflections.

Can you shoot long exposures along with bracketing?
or
Would I be better off shooting with long exposure/bracketing on its own?

 

[benhasajeep]

If your camera has bracketing. It will bracket within it's normally available settings.

 

[BananaRepublic]

You will have to post up the result

 

[snowbear]

Try both. This was taken at twilight: 1/25 second at f/8. ISO 1600; no bracketing. The camera was braced against a handrail (no tripod available).

 

[dennybeall]

"Long Exposure" is a method to capture a small amount of available light by opening the shutter longer. "Bracketing" is usually used when the camera can't capture the range of light in the scene. You could use both on the same scene but I'd guess the result would be more artistic than documentary.

 

[Designer]

Can you shoot long exposures along with bracketing?
or
Would I be better off shooting with long exposure/bracketing on its own?

I think it will depend on the scene. If the scene has very dark areas AND some very bright areas (lights) then bracketing seems logical. Each portion of the scene will be better exposed.

The term "long exposure" is relative. Compared to shooting sports (1/2000 of a second) an exposure of 2 seconds will seem "long", and 2 minutes will seem even longer.

Therefore; if you are bracketing your shots, and your shots range from 2 seconds to 20 seconds to 2 minutes, then you are doing both.

 

[Shafty]

can you bracket with 1 minute shutter speeds?

You will have to post up the result

As soon as I get a chance to take them I will.

Try both. This was taken at twilight: 1/25 second at f/8. ISO 1600; no bracketing. The camera was braced against a handrail (no tripod available).

?

Cool shot, I'll try both but before I do I thought I'd ask those more experienced. I've seen shots at night with long exposure and then I've seen shots with Bracketing I can't see any real difference

 

[Designer]

I've seen shots at night with long exposure and then I've seen shots with Bracketing I can't see any real difference

And you shouldn't if the photographer has done everything correctly.

 

[Peeb]

Oil well was 20 seconds /ISO 1600
Capitol was 1/60 @ ISO 5000

Point- there are many choices one can make in exposing night shots. Go give it try and let us know!

 

[Shafty]

I've seen shots at night with long exposure and then I've seen shots with Bracketing I can't see any real difference

And you shouldn't if the photographer has done everything correctly.

Ah right. I'll try both and see what happens

View attachment 142619 View attachment 142618

Oil well was 20 seconds /ISO 1600
Capitol was 1/60 @ ISO 5000

Point- there are many choices one can make in exposing night shots. Go give it try and let us know!

I'll be sure to post them

 

[jtran76]

DSC_1837 by johnd_tran76, on Flickr

This was shot at F2.8 using shutter speed of 1/125 at ISO640.

 

[photoalsovideo.com]

I'll get straight to the point.
fore some reason my eye has been drawn to night time cityscapes and reflections.

Can you shoot long exposures along with bracketing?
or
Would I be better off shooting with long exposure/bracketing on its own?

I used to use bracketing all of the time when shooting film. With digital I tend to not bracket and it works fine. Just a preference thing. No right or wrong answer here. With film you had to shoot 1 stop over and 1 stop under. Film cameras were equivalent to analog. With digital its 1's ans 0's and more forgiving.