night photography

[freeway66]

Hello everyone,
At this time of year taking night photographs in the city is beautiful. Here in my parts of the woods the Christmas lights and fresh snow make it even more magical. Are ther any tips anyone can offer to make this a more enjoyable past time. I will be using a tripod and cable to capture the moment. I need to know more info about F stops and speeds to use . Any and all info will be appricated.

[GoneTomorrow]

Originally Posted by freeway66

Hello everyone,
At this time of year taking night photographs in the city is beautiful. Here in my parts of the woods the Christmas lights and fresh snow make it even more magical. Are ther any tips anyone can offer to make this a more enjoyable past time. I will be using a tripod and cable to capture the moment. I need to know more info about F stops and speeds to use . Any and all info will be appricated.

I'll tell what little I know since no one has responded yet. You definitely need a tripod and a remote shutter release for your camera (if possible). As for aperture, you'll want to go large, somewhere in the 2.x range (try smaller if you can, my camera only goes to 2.3). And for shutter speed, that will depend on how dark it is. If the light is really low, start with 5 sec. shutter speeds (or faster if it isn't quite so dark) and go up/down from there (you can also try really long exposures with bulb exposure if your camera is able).

In my experience, I try various combinations of aperture size and shutter speed, but for night shots, absolute camera stillness is a must. A tripod is the way to go, but for long exposures, a remote is a must.

Also, there is ISO to consider, but I would try without ISO at all first, then move to the lowest ISO setting your camera has. When using ISO, don't forget about noise reduction, but be careful with it as it sometimes makes things worse.

Sorry if I told you anything you already knew.

[toriaj]

Okay, I'm no expert and maybe they will chime in later.

But, to make the experience more enjoyable, be sure you have gloves!! I want to get some fingerless gloves, maybe with the fold-over mitten, and wear thin spandex-type gloves underneath them.

Okay, on to the photography ... Using the tripod is a must. The cable/remote shutter release is a good idea, or another option is to use the self-timer on the camera. I usually set the camera to aperture priority on the largest aperture setting and let the camera determine the shutter speed.

I also use spot metering. That refers to exposure, how bright the picture is. Choose a part of the picture that you want to be exposed correctly. Meter for that. Another part of the picture might be too dark or too bright, but the part you choose will be correct.

I hope that makes sense. For example, in this shot:
http://www.dcresource.com/forums/sho...ied#post175695
I think I metered for the sign. If I had metered for the lights, the camera would have chosen a shorter shutter speed, resulting in more detail in the lights, but the rest of the picture would be really dark. If I had metered for the building, the camera would have picked a much longer shutter speed, resulting in very clear and detailed bricks on the building, but making the lights very bright and probably the sign too bright too.

In my experience, using a high ISO is mostly helpful if you are shooting a moving subject (so you need a short shutter speed.) If your subject is holding still, you can take as long a shutter speed as you need, and low ISO is okay.

Okay, one last thing: the white balance. You can experiment with the settings on the camera (daylight, cloudy, incandescent, fluorescent, etc) and find what looks the best. It might not be the one you expect. Another option is to do a custom white balance.

Well, the only way is to just go out and try it! The beauty of digital is that we can see the results on the LCD right away. You can see if the exposure was what you wanted, and if not, try something else. Enjoy, and post your results!

[CAPTAIN KIRK1]

I'm new to digital photography.I looked extensively for a camera.Found and like the Nikon P3.I tried using the self timer and night scene mode.I propped up the camera on a table with whatever I could find and compsed the scene(a pier in Santa Cruz Ca.,with the moon above).After setting the self timer I had to carefully hold the camera while I pressed the shutter release.Two second exposures with the aperture wide open produced what I was looking for.A tripod would have been much easier,but you can make do when you have to.
I'm a back packer.I made a walking stick out of a ski pole,and I added a swivle tripod head to the top of the handle.All I have to do is jam the ski pole into soft ground and atatch the camera to it and point it at the sky or camp fire and it's a mono tripod.
The P3 allows for exposure compensations incrementaly from 2 stops over to two stops under,while displaying the difference.I like just taking pictures and looking at them imeditely to see what I need to change.The advantage of digital photography.I hope this is helpfull.It's very crude but it works.
Catain Kirk out