Comments on: Night Photography Tips for DSLR Users

By: Rick Landry

Rick Landry — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:59:00 +0000

I just struggled with a very spontaneous night photography event, i.e., attempting to shoot a nearby raging forest fire threatening a town. Wind gusts were up to 35 miles an hour, and it was 10:30PM, dark except for the fire. Although I managed to come away with a half dozen “good” shots of this phenomenon, I “battled” with a 400mm lens which would not lock-on to a focus point ( there were plenty of flames!), and thus I could not depress the shutter. Manual focus produced the same problem. I found the only way I could get the shutter to operate ( using a Canon 5D MkII @ ISO1250, 1.5 to 3.5sec., and f-stop 5.6) was by turning on and off the camera: sometimes it would then latch on to a focal point, and I could depress the shutter.
In retrospect, I think my mistake was narrowing depth of field by opening the aperture as wide as I could. I may inadvertently have been preventing the lens from focusing on something at the distant range. I would be interested to learn what others think about this? TY.

By: yasky

yasky — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 06:28:10 +0000

Although I enjoy nigh photography long enough, this tips also help me with some new information.

By: borndate

borndate — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 04:26:46 +0000

Good video, eventhough it didn’t go in detail but sufficient for entry level dslr user to understand on how it works for night photography. For advance user who already knew this, you don’t need to read this site, right? You all are “very pro” now. If you still insist to blog in, you can always add in whatever it is missing in this video. Share it with us.

By: Dan

Dan — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 02:22:03 +0000

Some complained about it being to basic. If it is to basic for you then you most likely don’t need the help the rest of us are looking for on this site. It was very helpful to me including the knobology, Keep the tips coming.

By: awokenMIND

awokenMIND — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:54:50 +0000

@Rick:
As I too have a Rebel XTi, I do own its manual and well, it explains how I set an aperture and how to dial in the time or change ISO-Settings. Nothing else did I criticize in my above comment. It’s just that I don’t want to see each and every button to be pushed in a video tutorial. Every owner of a DSLR should know how to dial in an aperture as it’s dealt with in the manual. The meaning behind e.g. different aperture values may not be the key of a manual but that’s not what I was talking about!

By: Rick

Rick — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 17:30:12 +0000

@awokenmind: When you find a user’s manual, out of the box, for ANYTHING that explains the product better than a third party publisher, let me know. The manual that came with my Rebel XTi is next to worthless. However, I have had some success with the field guide.

By: DD_nVidia

DD_nVidia — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 23:07:20 +0000

Er, linkback?

http://www.cameralabs.com http://www.dslrtips.com

And some props to Gordon for making all the videos over at cameralabs and dslr tips.

Why switch your camera back to fully automatic, well, suppose its personal preference, mine gets set to Av @ f/4 ISO 400 as a custom function 1 when it goes back in my bag, so if i pull it out to get a shot, I’ve got it, sure a little noise, but nothing you’ll see when printed at a4, or a3 with a little NR.

Some people also seem to be confused by depth of field here.

The noticeable DoF on your 50mm F/1.8 lens isnt always the same, even though its a prime lens. The distance you are focusing is important. Stand right up near the closest focusing distance, the depth of field will look more dramatic, go back to capture it properly, it won’t look as though the depth of field is so big.

If i have it right there is a formula to work out the depth of field with Aperture, Focal Length AND Focusing Distance, Distance between the Subject and other items in the foreground/background.

Something along those lines anyway. Wikipedia has the forumla i’m sure.

Anyway, props again to Gordon and to those over at Cameralabs.com and DSLRtips.com – should check them out plenty more videos over at the site.

By: Jeffrey

Jeffrey — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 06:49:00 +0000

The suggestions are pretty basic, but good ones nonetheless.

Niel, great comment with great suggestions

On the depth of field issue, I think it really depends on how far you’re focusing, because if you’re focusing to infinity, I don’t think it would matter what your aperture is because it’s all going to get covered anyways. If you’re doing an exposure on a tripod, I would use the smaller aperture simply because at wider apertures you typically get edge softening =/

I think the timer trick is the most useful one noted in the video – it’s easily overlooked =] also, i think the timer trick carries well into macro photography – when shooting on a tripod, i typically use the 2 sec timer to avoid camera shake

By: Rob

Rob — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 01:40:23 +0000

Excellent. I like this guys video clips but I think it’s about time ‘DSLR owners” could start treating non DSLR owners without contempt and even “heavens above” include us.
I’ve got a Fuji S5600 and I can’t think of anything the average DSLR has that mu bridge doesn’t. I have PASM, Raw, 2.5 frames per sec, 1 sec startup, filter ring, and ISO from 80-1600. Ok fair enough, It doesn’t have a bulb and I have to use the self timer.
There are plenty of non DSLRs on the market now that overlap the DSLR features. Please includes us. I always watch the videos and enjoy them as I’m sure other “ultra zoom” users would too but may overlook them.
Cheers

By: Mandy

Mandy — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 10:23:48 +0000

great video, it’s nice to see visually how to do it rather than just reading about night photography. I find I take a lot more in when I can see how it is done.

Thanks