Tips on Night Photgraphy.

[Nautifish]

Good evening everyone i am new here and have just bought myself a new Nikon D5000. My question is at what settings do i need to use to get a really good clear night shot? For some reason i seem too be getting alot of Orange Hue which i am not like liking. I have my ISO SET at 400 and F22...Am i doing some thing wrong?

Thank you.

 

[peanut170]

If the colors wrong you need to change your white balance. You mite level the tripod also.

 

[Nautifish]

Thank you peanut. I will get out tomorrow night and try and give this another shot.....

 

[Sharfy]

Good evening everyone i am new here and have just bought myself a new Nikon D5000. My question is at what settings do i need to use to get a really good clear night shot? For some reason i seem too be getting alot of Orange Hue which i am not like liking. I have my ISO SET at 400 and F22...Am i doing some thing wrong?

Thank you.

Pretty cool! What SLR and lense you are using with this? I am really having night shots problem with all the cam I hold (my friends SLRs from Nikon, Canon, SOny and Olympus)

 

[Negative ISO]

If you shoot in RAW mode the orange hue is very easy to fix in PP

 

[Nautifish]

Hi Shafry.

I have a Nikon D5000 which i must say i am loveing. The lense i was useing at the time was VR 18-55m. I also had the camera mounted on a tripod.
It is an OK shot but thats about it i am not happy with it. This was the 1st day i had bought the camera and me being me, decided i would try some night shots before anything else...lol.

 

[Nautifish]

Thank you Negative ISO.

But what do u mean by PP?

 

[Sharfy]

Hi Shafry.

I have a Nikon D5000 which i must say i am loveing. The lense i was useing at the time was VR 18-55m. I also had the camera mounted on a tripod.
It is an OK shot but thats about it i am not happy with it. This was the 1st day i had bought the camera and me being me, decided i would try some night shots before anything else...lol.

wow great Nikon user too hahhaha, I haven't tried night shots that much because of my work scheds so I can't practice it really (just done holding and trying few from friends SLR and thats it, thinking I have problem with night photographs)... Hoping one day i can do more night shots so that I can improve.

 

[KillerKowalski]

Practice on leveling it out next time. This picture is unfocused. If you don't have a remote, try to use the self timer after your focus is in instead of pressing the shutter release.

 

[jillyronald]

It is very good shoot. You used here Star lens, behalf of it use without star lens. In this lens you can capture a very good photography with attractive lights. Try to use more without star lens, it shows different lights in this photography.

 

[Nautifish]

Thank you so much for the advice everyone i really do appreciate it.

Nautifish.

 

[RobNZ]

My question is at what settings do i need to use to get a really good clear night shot? For some reason i seem too be getting alot of Orange Hue which i am not like liking. I have my ISO SET at 400 and F22...Am i doing some thing wrong?

Thank you.

Youre using a higher ISO than you should (which will increase noise) and you shot this scene at F/22, so your not letting much light hit your sensor.

You mention you were using a tripod, so here is what I would do inthis situation.

1. Shoot RAW (will help a whole lot in post to whitebalance amongst
others).

1.1 Compose your shot, check your horizon is as close to level as you can work out at the time.

2. ISO 100 or the lowest your body will allow (helps in keeping noise levels low for longer/darker exposures).

3. Open up your aperture (f/5-9ish), this will let more light in reducing exposure time, again reducing noise. Your subjects are a fair distance away so you should be able to get it all in focus.

4. Set your focus manually with the help of live view at 10x to guarantee its in focus.

5. Use the cameras self timer function to reduce the risk of any camera shake (using live view also acts as mirror lockup).

6. Turn any image stabilisation OFF

7. Shoot and have some fun.

 

[RobNZ]

It is very good shoot. You used here Star lens, behalf of it use without star lens. In this lens you can capture a very good photography with attractive lights. Try to use more without star lens, it shows different lights in this photography.

Considering the OP just got this DSLR I doubt she used any filter (star lens). The effect comes from a longer exposure (f/22) and bright lights.

 

[Nautifish]

Thank you so much for that RobNZ.

I have to admit i am having problems When it comes to Exposures.

& No i did not use any filter's....They are next on my list though...lol

OH AND I AM Female.....lol

 

[kundalini]

It is very good shoot.

No, it's not. And here's why. See posts #2, 5, 9 & 12. Post 13 was informative also.

Now for my own 2¢.
There may be some potential for this location. Position yourself so that the three reflected light paths converge and create a visual path for the viewer to follow, which leads to the main subject.

Check your horizon!

Rarely is a totally black sky attractive. Get there earlier and wait for the sun to set. The next twenty minutes or so should yeild a better looking sky. Often you will get a beautiful blend of colors after the sunset. This should also decrease your shutter speed enough to pull off the stared effect of the small aperture without blowing out the street lights and their reflections off the water so much.

Depending on the limits of your camera, bracket at least three shots +/- at least 1 stop. One metered for the sky (highlights), one for the buildings (mid tones) and one for the darkest area (shadows). Blend in post.



EDIT:
Forgot to add..... don't bother with the star filters IMO, a waste of money. The starred effect looks much better straight from the lens. The better lenses with more aperture blades looks more natural to me.