kindly advise what i must do to improve
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Francis247
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Hi there,
First of, the sharpness isn't there. A few question on my mind, did you use a tripod?
Secondly, watch your horizon.
The sky is without any cloud, can try to either crop away or have more foreground.
First of, the sharpness isn't there. A few question on my mind, did you use a tripod?
Secondly, watch your horizon.
The sky is without any cloud, can try to either crop away or have more foreground.
From the EXIF I can see: f/4 at 1/3sec, ISO400. Looks as if you tried to capture handhold. Take a tripod, step down to f/11 and ISO100 and take long term exposures. By this you will get everything sharp and clean. Take the 10s shutter delay, watch out for wind to avoid any camera shake. Adjust the exposure then if necessary to get the hotel names etc. clearly.
Kit
Senior Member
Nobody mentioned about the timing of the shot. Just because its called night photography doesn't necessarily means you have to shoot it after the sky is completely dark. You are reducing the buildings into a bunch of lacklustre floating lights. Try an earlier timing e.g. 7:30pm.
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/diffraction.htm
I'd go with KRW and try to use no smaller than F8 unless i really need to cut down the light, or trying to get starbursts of light.
At wide angles and infinity, DOF is decent anyway. F8 is more than enuff, as the TS doesn't need super long exposure to capture water or something.
but ISO100 is a good call :thumbsup:. However, this only applies to cameras with base ISO of 100.
To be more precise, I say use the base ISO, which from my experience may be 100 or 200. using ISO 100 when the base is 200 may compromise picture quality rather than help to reduce noise
Edit: To TS, you need not have a tripod if you can find something to place your camera on. but if you actually *plan* to take night scenery shots, please invest in a tripod
use the self timer mode (as other bro have advised) to avoid the shake caused by ur pressing the shutter. 2 seconds delay should be enuff if your tripod is good. 10 seconds is kinda laggy. a few days ago, i was using 5 seconds delay, however. cos my tripod is cheapo (the free kind) and i was shooting at its maximum extension. so after i press the shutter i need to further stabilise the camera for 2-3 seconds before letting go. LOL.
best is remote control!
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Interesting article, I also checked his reference to Cambrdge in Colour. There they have a nice calculator and a grid to check the amount of diffraction. According this f/11 is still ok, just crossing the technical border to diffraction. Personally, I have seen the diffraction at f/22. Need to check my latest shots at f/16. Would be interesting to see what the 'landscape gurus' like night86mare say about this topic.
sykestang sells a simple IR remote control for Canon (about 15 bucks, IIRC), works well with my 350D and gives 2sec delay. Since the IR sensor is at the front of the cam (above the grip, close to shutter button) you cannot fire from behind the cam. But that's a minor thing.
Alternatively there are wired solutions for remote shutter release, either the Canon standard accessory, 3rd party types or DIY.
David Kwok
Senior Member
For diffraction not to seep in at aperture smaller than f/8, you better be using a full frame sensor, it can go up to f/16. If you are on a APS-C, your minimum is f/8. Have tested it personally and it holds true for Nikon D300. I presume for Canon crop factor which is 1.6, the sensor is smaller than Nikon's 1.5, it should be less than f/8 but it should be negligible to notice. But going beyond f/8 for APS-C sensor is definitely no go.
If you are willing spend, a remote is good, if not your free alternative is use the timer
David Kwok
Senior Member
As most have commented, tilted horizon, motion blurred due to handshake and definitely a long exposure will be very good.
I notice the moderator commented about no clouds ? Well, just my 2 cents worth. Because the exposure is only a fraction of a second, unlikely u will see the clouds are any texture in the sky if it exist, unless it is extremely obvious. But the beauty of long exposure is it can help to bring out those faint details and also helps to soften the harsh reflections found in the waters.
Next is when u stop down to f/8, even the lousy lens give you good sharpness. Most lens normal perform at their best sharpness at such aperture. But do take note of diffraction seeping in upon smaller aperture than f/8. I have seen excellent works taken at f/22 too by DanielKHC, but he used that exposure for digital blending and hence might be for some areas of the final photograph only. He normally does multiple exposures at different apertures to bring out details at different parts of the scene.
Talking about noise, personally if you are already on tripod, then having the lowest possible ISO offered by your camera is ideal because the sensor won't need to amplify the signal too much which brings in noise too. But if it is really super dark for the night, you might find at f/8, it may easily hit longer than 30s required and for Nikon I tried previously, it gives me a wrong exposure. I reckon you need a remote to go further than 30s exposure. So do take note of it too. Turn on your long exposure noise reduction settings in the camera if it exist, it will helps alot in producing smooth images
Just my 2 cents worth. Thanks
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