City night shots

[DoctorP]

I am going to head over to the city next week to try and get some night shots of the city lights and buildings and such. Any tips? I have tried some shots here at night but always end up with the lights being blown out. I have tried underexposing a little with some success. I was thinking of trying my UV filter. Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated

Thanks

[OsmosisStudios]

Your UV filter will do nothing: on a DSLR it may as well just be flat glass. dSLR sensors have UV filters at the sensor, so the UV filter is jsut for protection.

Bring a tripod. That's a sure thing. If you really want to experiment, use an ND filter too: that'll give you some REALLY long exposures, especially in the dead of night.

[DoctorP]

Tri-pod was already on the list but I will have to look into buying an ND filter as I do not have one. Any particular one you might suggest?

[wilswong]

To Doctor P.

Here are my list of necessary items for night photography.

- If one can afford to get the F2.8 zoom lens. Go ahead and grab one. The Tamrons and Sigmas are ok but clarity wise the ones from the own manufacturers are way to go. Those who are on budget should opt for the 50/1.8. Using such lens will mean the possiblity not to use the tripod at all.
- Needless to say: tripod
- Graduated Neutral Density filter for the sunset shots prior to full night time shoot. It is a great intro to the photography session and also set you in the mood quickly.
- Remote shutter trigger. Of course timer is perfectly fine as well.

Technical Suggestion

If you can see the light source has flared, chances are you have allowed the camera to dictate where to meter the light. And since the camera has metered on the dark parts of the whole picture, the settings for the camera will inevitably allow the shutter to stay a bit longer than necessary and hence the light source is over exposed

The solution is to meter very close to the light source and EV -1 to compensate. That will ensure that the settings is ok to take in the light but not to the point it will over expose.

To get the starlight effect on the camera, try to use the smallest aperture possible but it would mean the shutter speed will drag.

Here are some of the photos I did for my city night shoot (Midnight 2 Dawn Photography Tour)

[DoctorP]

Thanks for the tips. I have a 50mm 1.8 lens already and a remote trigger. So I will look into a ND filter and do some experimenting. Thanks again for the advice and those are wonderful shots!! I love that last one, that is what I am looking for in my night shots. Thanks again!!

[wilswong]

Originally Posted by DoctorP

Thanks for the tips. I have a 50mm 1.8 lens already and a remote trigger. So I will look into a ND filter and do some experimenting. Thanks again for the advice and those are wonderful shots!! I love that last one, that is what I am looking for in my night shots. Thanks again!!

The last one is actually done with a point-and-shoot compact camera the Canon A540

[romas13]

I would suggest working in full manual mode and RAW files for better dynamic range. Start with ISO 100, f 8-11 and times around 30 sec (this really depends on how much lights are there, also full moon makes big difference). From here try out few shots. If you let your camera measure exposure it will almost surely overexpose.
I don't think you really need ND filter at this point as it will only make exposures times much longer.

Exposure: 30 sec
Aperture: f/10.0
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 100

[bdbolin]

Also bring a flashlight. If you're shooting closer objects, you can highlight certain areas with the flashlight because of your long exposure.

[outamyway]

10 seconds @ f2.8 10.5mm fisheye



5 seconds f3.5 18mm wide




I always start out at around 5 seconds and see what that gives me, this next one was a 20 second exposure, iso 100 f3.5 @ 18mm