Night time Skyline Portraits

Bgwang7 · Mar 31, 2011

My girlfriend and I are going to dinner at this restaurant that is known to have a great skyline view. We're really excited, and would like to have some pictures to savor the memories. Obviously, a nice dinner wouldn't be the place to break out a D90 with a tripod, so I'm just going to take a compact point and shoot (Canon SD880 IS) to take a couple of snap shots. Are there any general settings or tips that I should keep in mind to take the best shots? For portraits? The weather is going to be perfectly clear and 0% humidity. We're going to arrive after sunset. There's a patio so we can go outside to take pictures. Any advice would be great! Thanks!

Stryker · Mar 31, 2011

No matter how creative you are or how wild your imagination can be, there isn't much you can do with a P&S box except capture some snaps. How about doing a pano of the skyline without a tripod? Get some 50 or more shots of the skyline and stitch them in Panorama Plus X4. Its something like this one: http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...photo-gallery/239863-wierd-pano-just-fun.html

Just a suggestion to make that dinner a lot more fun

Trever1t · Mar 31, 2011

just take the SLR, nobody cares about the guy taking pictures

.

Josh66 · Mar 31, 2011

If all you take is the P&S, they usually have a mode for that exact thing... One of the auto modes, night portrait or whatever it's called. A face icon with some stars/moon. :lol:

Probably better than the green box mode... Unless that camera has full manual, but even with that you'll still be using the built-in flash. Does the flash have manual controls? (Some do, some don't...)

Honestly, that's what I would do. My P&S cameras never leave auto though, because that's all I really have them for - quick snaps where I don't want to spend a bunch of time messing with a camera.

Stradawhovious · Mar 31, 2011

Trever1t said:
just take the SLR, nobody cares about the guy taking pictures .

What they'll say...

"Hey, look at that dummy with the camera!"

What they'll be thinking.....

"Why the hell didnt I think of that?!?"

Also, all sorts of things make for good tripods...... tables, railings, buss trays, trash bins, you name it. if you can't get it framed just right, well, its a D90. You will have room to crop.

2 minutes of embarassment is always better than a lifetime of regret.