Some tips

[Bantx]

to help me get better at my night shots, I've been messing around with it last night, but I don't feel as satisfied.

This was my best shot last night messing around with it.

 

[KmH]

So, did you forget to add the tips?

 

[Bantx]

Oh my bad I wasn't clear I was asking for tips.

 

[gsgary]

Don't eat yellow snow

 

[KmH]

Don't spit into the wind.

Take a how to "Communicate Effectively" class.

 

[Bantx]

thanks for all the help...

 

[Derrel]

I used to shoot a fair amount of night photography stuff back in the mid-1980's,and my best tip for you would be to pick an ISO setting and an f/stop, and use that as the basis for estimating exposures.

For example, pick your camera's lowest or "base" ISO setting, let's say it is 200 ISO. Pick a smaller f/stop, like f/8. And from that consistent basis, learn how long you need to expose various night scenes.

One of the advantages of a low-ish ISO like 200 and a small-ish aperture like f/8 is that it allows you time to do some off-camera flash pops, and it gives you a pretty decent amount of depth of field. One of the mistakes a lot of people make on nocturnes is to expose to quickly--the resulting photos look very,very dark,and I think it's actually better to make the exposures look a bit brighter, and then to "pull back" the highlights later, in post. You cannot totally,totally blow out the highlights, but when all a picture shows are the brightest light sources, I consider that an underexposed night shot.

After practicing at 200 ISO and f/8, pretty soon you'll be able to estimate scenes where you need 15 seconds or 30 or 60 or 120 seconds, and so on. Keeping the ISO and aperture consistent is the way I was taught to shoot nocturnes, and it really helped simplify things.

 

[Bantx]

ahh thanks Derrel I'll try that next time for sure

 

[LokiZ]

I think Derrel had some real good information and approaches to night time shooting.

A few additions I would say are:

1> Use a tripod.

2> Use manual focus.

3> Bring a deer spotting spot light or similar type of light to help you set your focus on the subject. (If distance from subject allows for that.)

4> Bring a friend to help with the lighting or aiming of the spot light if possible.

5> Use a remote trigger for your shutter release.

Just a few ideas I thought of many of which are not special in any way.