Tripod night shoot of city skyline. What aperture?

[vipgraphx]

I use F8-F11 and sometimes even F11-f16. I crank up the ISO and try to get a faster shutter. The longer the shutter is open the more noise/grain you will get.

You might want to try Night HDR….YOu get great results.

Here is one I did the other night.



TUCSON Night Sky by VIPGraphX, on Flickr

 

[Lightsped]

So a fast shutter speed with high ISO would be better than a slow shutter speed at ISO 100 or 200? What ISO is recommended?

I've never tried HDR before. I might give it a spin soon.

Bodies are Nikon D3100, D7000, and D800.

 

[vipgraphx]

It depends on what you are shooting and what you are trying to accomplish. If you want light trails you need long exposures at low ISO. If you don't want light trails then Higher ISO and faster shutter.

THis is where HDR comes in because you can get both in the shot without blowing out all your highlights.

 

[sk66]

I start with hyperfocal settings. That can easily be SWAGGED by using the focal length as a percentage of the focal length...I know that sounds confusing, but it's simple.
For a 50mm lens the hyperfocal distance is 50% of 50; ~25ft. For a 25mm lens it's 25% 0f 25; ~ 6ft. For a 10mm lens it's 10% of 10; ~1ft. That's at f/11 for FX and f/16 for DX (the SWAG has a little more error in it for DX). If you change the numerical aperture by 2 (2x or 1/2, i.e. f/16 to f/8) you also change the hyperfocal distance by 2x (wider ='s further).
** because this is just an estimate, and you are probably estimating the focus distance; focus a little long...

From there, I bias the point of focus away from the hyperfocal setting based upon what is more important; FG or BG.
If you focus short of the hyperfocal distance you will gain a little up close but you will loose a lot towards infinity.
If you focus beyond the hyperfocal distance you will get better sharpness in the distance (only one point is ever actually "in focus") and you will loose a little up close, but the furthest the near DOF limit will be is the hyperfocal distance (i.e. 25ft for the 50mm). Because of this, it is usually best to focus on what you actually want to be in focus while using the smallest aperture that doesn't limit resolution.

Aperture and resolution... we normally discuss aperture/resolution as being the "diffraction limit;" the point at which the airy disk is 2-3x the size of a pixel and a loss of image "sharpness" (contrast) is visible. And that is certainly the maximum I would stop down unless I absolutely had to go further. This is around f/16 for most DX bodies.
BUT, f/8 equates to ~12MP of data/detail for DX and 30MP for FX. F/16 equates to ~ 3/7 MP's respectively... about the minimum I would consider acceptable for critical sharpness. (The (outdated) COC standard only requires ~1MP for "sharpness" in a print/display)