What am I doing wrong? & general tips for night photography

[Berlindub]

Hello!

First of all hello everyone! I recently discovered the joys of photography and been shooting almost everyday since getting my first proper camera.

I have no troubles taking nice shots at daytime. But when there's no light the problem starts.

I just can't seem to get the exposures right. It's always under or overexposed. A couple of days ago I saw this amazing sunset and took some photos. I thought they we're ok on the camera's screen. They looked like crap on my monitor however. It looked so bland and boring. Certainly not the scene I so eagerly took photos of.

So to the point.

- Even when using tripod my pictures are fussy and not in focus
- Exposure seems to be wrong no matter what setting I try
- The colours of an amazing sunset are missing and the pictures look nothing like it originally was

PLEASE, can you help me and share some general tips for shooting landscapes at low light conditions.

Thanks so much !

PS. I cannot add any pictures right now but will do later

[jdgonzalez]

I would try a few things. Turn off auto focus. In low light it will probably hunt for focus. Switch to manual. Another thing to do would be to use the manual exposure setting. If you're trying to capture the colors of a sunset along with the detail of the foreground you may need to use a graduated filter or shoot in RAW to apply a graduated filter in post production. This will allow you to accurately expose for your foreground and not blow out the sunset.

Good luck. I just tried night photography for the first time and these are the things that worked for me.

[Gaurav Prabhu]

Switch over to "Shade" settings instead of Auto White Balance to get the warm tones of a sunset. If you have a remote to release the shutter use it while your camera is set on a tripod.

[inkista]

Originally Posted by Berlindub

- Even when using tripod my pictures are fussy and not in focus

Are you sure it's a focus issue? And not camera shake? And are you sure you've got a tripod steady enough for the exposure lengths you're using? Are you shooting wide open? Or stopped down so focus isn't quite so critical? And how are you focusing?

Exposure seems to be wrong no matter what setting I try.

Dyanmic range, and fitting the scene into the dynamic range can be tricky. I'd suggest two things: try bracketing exposures, and learn how to use your histogram. Hand in hand with that, you will also want to learn how to do levels and curves adjustments in post processing.

The colours of an amazing sunset are missing and the pictures look nothing like it originally was...

Post-processing can play a big part in this. Are you shooting RAW? What kind of white balancing are you doing? And have you learned about HDR?

[Rootwitch]

Advice from a newbe who resolved the exact same problem you were having - Switch the metering to spot (aka pin-point).

On my Canon T1i, I use Tv (Time Value, aka Shutter Mode) - Mess around with shutter speeds around 1/30 - 1/50, pin-point (or spot) metering, and everything else the same.

Instead of washed out sunsets and evening shots, they're very dramatic, and rich. Give it a try. Hope this helps.

[danbaileyphoto]

Even though you're using a tripod, make sure that it's sturdy. You can brace it by hanging a stuff sac full of rocks from the bottom of the center column.

Also, I would definitely shoot in RAW, that way you can extract the maximum amount of color and exposure information from your images.

Finally, bracket, bracket, bracket your exposures. I'll say it again. Bracket your exposures. Meter off of the colorful sky and then go from there, realizing that no matter what, your foreground, or the land part of the landscape will fall into shadow and appear underexposed. A scene like that simply has too much contrast for the camera's sensor to render everything. You'll have to choose to highlight the sky and let the foreground drop to shadow.

Hope that helps.

[sk66]

Sunsets and other majestic sights are "emotional"..catching the perceived colors and wonder i almost impossible..

Fuzzy however....that's a technical issue.

[danbaileyphoto]

Good point. More often than not, we do have some sort of emotionally attachment to our subject matter, that's why it draws us in. Where there's emotion, there can sometimes be expectations about how it should look or turn out in our minds. This can affect the way that we perceive our finished image, even if we create a technically 'perfect' photograph of the scene.

Remember, a great image is not an exact copy of what you saw in front of you, it's an artistic representation of the scene that reflects your emotional attachment to the subject matter. Therein lies the biggest challenge of the photographer, to create technically perfect images that match our emotional response to the scene. Sometimes, though, even the technically perfect shot won't properly convey our emotional attachment. That's where open minded creativity come in.

[danbaileyphoto]

This post actually got me thinking and it prompted me to write an article about the expectations and the disappointment that can sometimes happen with our photography, much of which is largely due to our emotional attachment to the subject matter.

Read it on The Photoletariat.

The Photoletariat: Photograph With Emotion, Manage Expectations and Disappointment

[Krusty79]

Originally Posted by danbaileyphoto

Good point. More often than not, we do have some sort of emotionally attachment to our subject matter, that's why it draws us in. Where there's emotion, there can sometimes be expectations about how it should look or turn out in our minds. This can affect the way that we perceive our finished image, even if we create a technically 'perfect' photograph of the scene.

Remember, a great image is not an exact copy of what you saw in front of you, it's an artistic representation of the scene that reflects your emotional attachment to the subject matter. Therein lies the biggest challenge of the photographer, to create technically perfect images that match our emotional response to the scene. Sometimes, though, even the technically perfect shot won't properly convey our emotional attachment. That's where open minded creativity come in.

Well put. Thanks for articulating how our expectations and emotions affect our images and the way we perceive them.

I think you should post your article as a tutorial so everyone can read it!