Nighttime Photography

[TDT]

Hey all,

I am a new digital camera user...well, I work in a lab at the university I go to here, and use their digital camera (Nikon 5200/5700 I believe), and am getting a Nikon 8700 very soon. So far, my photography has been decent, except for anything to do with nighttime shots, or anything with quite a bit of movement.

For example. Our college had a homecoming parade a few months back, and I took many photos. These were right at dusk, and there was a good amount of movement...but my pictures were quite poor, usually extremely blurry. I've also tried with some pictures of my cat, in my house at night. At that time, the pictures were blurry even then.

Is there a reason why that I'm unable to take better photos in low light situations? How would anyone recommend that I learn more about digital cameras, to get good at them (in all situations). Taking college courses is pretty tough, due to the fact that I'm already taking too much for college - and I need prereq classes to get into the photography classes here. Also, they don't deal with digital cameras, only the 'normal' cameras. Online tutorials, or guides would be better - what would anyone recommend?

Sorry for the newbie type questions, but I appreciate any response anyone can give.

Thanks,

-David

[Dave Dilks]

The short answer to your question is that the camera, in automatic mode, will leave the shutter open longer when taking pictures in low light. These longer exposure times cause movement to show up as blur. There are ways to compensate for this. One of the best places to begin learning about this is here:

Short Course in Using Your Digital Camera (http://www.shortcourses.com/using/index.htm)

[TDT]

Thanks, I will read that article.

One question i do have about exposure. I heard that the Nikons have something like a 10 minute exposure...why would that be needed?

Thanks

[Dave Dilks]

Longer exposure times are used in extremely dark conditions to ensure that a sufficient amount of light reaches the camera sensor. One example would be photographing stars in the nighttime sky. Of course, any movement over the course of the exposure will show up as blur - although in some cases (star trails) this can be a desired effect.

[tas1]

Easiest option is to take a short avi of the nightime image, decompose into frames, then use a software tool to stack the images to generate a single image.

[John_Reed]

Easiest option is to take a short avi of the nightime image, decompose into frames, then use a software tool to stack the images to generate a single image.Aren't you stuck with 640X480 maximum pixels/frame?

[TDT]

I really appreciate the replies that everyone has given me so far. Your help is so awesome, that I can't thank people enough. I will be getting the camera for Christmas, and I look forward to getting into this a lot more. I will have many more questions once I get the camera.

Thanks again everyone!

-David

[Poohbear1]

TDT,

I guess I would say I am a novice so listen more to the experts here.
A week ago I went to downtown Cleveland on Friday night to try nighttime photography for the first time with my Canon digitial. I took my tripod
and set up to take photos of mostly still photos of Christmas lights. My photos
that night did not turn out very well. I used the automatic exposure setting
(P mode). The next night I went back but used the manual mode. I changed
the ISO to 1600. Then, with camera on tripod, I took a few trial and error
pics changing the aperture and shutter speed until I could tell by the
pic display that the photos were decent. True, my shots were of still
objects but by using the manual mode and taking a some experimental
shots I was able to find the right settings. Next time I will try to capture
action using a higher shutter speed as I mostly was at 1/30 which is too
slow for any action. The way a camera does its automatic light reading can
be tricky, but I found that trial and error shots helped me get what I wanted
in the manual mode. Not very technical or scientific suggesting trial and error,
but it worked for me...lol.