Trouble with Night Shoot

[Prince Photogenic]

I greatly enjoyed this discussions and informations. Folks now a day are too lazy to learn the craft and expect to be spoon feed.. Sad case when all the knowledges are availabe at their finger-tip, or the Library...

Sounds like an irony.. compared to the era before the internet, we have to go to the library to search through books and microfilms to get info. Nowadays with the internet where information is available at your fingertips, you get lazy to search..

 

[rhino123]

Well... I take it that newbies do not know where to search or what to search for when they started photography, like myself in the past when I first pick up a camera. I wouldn't want people to jump on me whenever I asked a question (so far I am very fortunate, people here are patient and pretty alright, although some sounded harsh, but if you look past their comments, you actually learned pretty much from them too).

So I would try to answer their question to the best of my abilities (of course I am not really a qualified photographers and I admit that some of what I have mentioned might be wrong too), and not do something that I would not want other to do it on me. As an old Chinese saying, "己所不欲，勿施于人"

 

[dennisc]

CS lurks some of the most talented individuals that never fails to impress me but sadly you might never see their works here. I was fortunate to have met some last weekend also, at first glance you'd not imagine what they're capable of, low profiled and very humble. Guess that's their secret: humility, because once you get your head up high, you'd not learn much.
Point is, don't give up, I've seen many discouraging words towards some brilliant shooters here, such as:
your photo is distracting! there's a mole on her face!
so what if there's a mole? are flaws are bad for pics?
Yes! Pls clone it off

Pics are very subjective, there's no saying yours maybe wrong or right but still, as long as the majority likes it who cares. So just keep trying, the bitching would always go on. When I started shooting with a prosumer (used up all my salary to get it, not even 10d was out yet) 10+years ago, I camped at the site via trial and error solely to get the perfect exposure. I'm still a newbie now as I was before, with the only difference that I know the settings now for many situations. Good luck on your aim whatever it may be! You'll get it sooner or later.

 

[Kongfu]

Hi TS,

You may wish to read this up

The Ultimate Beginner’s Introduction to Exposure

 

[swhyge]

CS lurks some of the most talented individuals that never fails to impress me but sadly you might never see their works here. I was fortunate to have met some last weekend also, at first glance you'd not imagine what they're capable of, low profiled and very humble. Guess that's their secret: humility, because once you get your head up high, you'd not learn much.
Point is, don't give up, I've seen many discouraging words towards some brilliant shooters here, such as:
your photo is distracting! there's a mole on her face!
so what if there's a mole? are flaws are bad for pics?
Yes! Pls clone it off

Pics are very subjective, there's no saying yours maybe wrong or right but still, as long as the majority likes it who cares. So just keep trying, the bitching would always go on. When I started shooting with a prosumer (used up all my salary to get it, not even 10d was out yet) 10+years ago, I camped at the site via trial and error solely to get the perfect exposure. I'm still a newbie now as I was before, with the only difference that I know the settings now for many situations. Good luck on your aim whatever it may be! You'll get it sooner or later.

Yes... me encountered too. The real good ones are very humble.... Once, they corrected my mistake (@botanic garden) by saying something to this effect: "maybe you can try this ... it works better for me........." and follow up with some reasoning.....

I am sure he is a CS member!

 

[Prince Photogenic]

Well... I take it that newbies do not know where to search or what to search for when they started photography, like myself in the past when I first pick up a camera. I wouldn't want people to jump on me whenever I asked a question (so far I am very fortunate, people here are patient and pretty alright, although some sounded harsh, but if you look past their comments, you actually learned pretty much from them too).

So I would try to answer their question to the best of my abilities (of course I am not really a qualified photographers and I admit that some of what I have mentioned might be wrong too), and not do something that I would not want other to do it on me. As an old Chinese saying, "己所不欲，勿施于人"

Whao.. Rhino夫子..

I agree, some newbie may not know what to search for. I was once like this and I tried every possible keyword i can think of using google. I'm sorry for my comment earlier, I will be more patient in future.

I was just @#$% that Rashkae and to C&P the same message 3 times before TS could see it.

 

[thoongeng]

some more info found in this thread due to admin issues
http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/newbies-corner/1095737-shoot-firework.html

 

[donut88]

is my camera setting ok? Do i need to change any thing other than iso??

U using A55? It's a v good camera. Pls learn to utilize it fully.

Follow the instructions given by fellow users here. They are all correct.

If u don't know how to adjust those settings, ask someone to show you with your cam or take courses.

No tripod? Go get one. not ex. Decent one no more than $150.

 

[buzzmario]

1st step:

Set your camera on a sturdy tripod.

2nd step:

Set to Aperture Priority - might be denoted by 'A' in your mode dial.

3rd step:

Set your aperture to... say around f8

4th step:

Set your ISO value to around 200, best is 100 (that is... if your camera support it).

5th step:

Switch off your image stabilizing system

6th step:

Take your photo.

7th step:

Preview it... if found too dark, then step up your EV then take photo again.

There this is the steps that I normally do when shooting night landscape.

thanks rhino for the reason of off the IS. btw, as i google, taking night shoot, will it be better using M mode, using the low shutter speed to control the lighting into the sensor rather than using A mode? thanks

 

[thoongeng]

thanks rhino for the reason of off the IS. btw, as i google, taking night shoot, will it be better using M mode, using the low shutter speed to control the lighting into the sensor rather than using A mode? thanks

If the correct exposure for the scene is Aperture F8, Shutter 6s, ISO100, it does not matter if you used M/S/A or any other mode to get there

Use the mode that you are most comfortable with. Though in most cameras Aperture or Shutter Priority mode there are limitations like the amount of exposure compensation you can dial in, so in this sense Manual mode more flexible.

I'm no expert but I tend to use Aperture priority mode to meter the scene, then use manual mode to adjust exposure as needed.

 

[avsquare]

If the correct exposure for the scene is Aperture F8, Shutter 6s, ISO100, it does not matter if you used M/S/A or any other mode to get there

Use the mode that you are most comfortable with. Though in most cameras Aperture or Shutter Priority mode there are limitations like the amount of exposure compensation you can dial in, so in this sense Manual mode more flexible.

I'm no expert but I tend to use Aperture priority mode to meter the scene, then use manual mode to adjust exposure as needed.

Why not just use Manual mode and meter? Set ISO and aperture and adjust shutter accordingly until the exposure meter says it's at 0EV?

Anyways, what the meter says may not be the correct exposure or the exposure you prefer. Another way to check is use LV to check.

 

[kei1309]

Why not just use Manual mode and meter? Set ISO and aperture and adjust shutter accordingly until the exposure meter says it's at 0EV?

Anyways, what the meter says may not be the correct exposure or the exposure you prefer. Another way to check is use LV to check.

because due to the darkness of the land, 0EV can even be underexposed. and darkness of the land also refers to mountains, buildings etc.

i tend to hit +0.7EV when i do night photography.

 

[Rashkae]

Actually, you just take multiple shots until you gwt a combination of settings that give the output you want.

 

[kei1309]

Actually, you just take multiple shots until you gwt a combination of settings that give the output you want.

that, too.

@TS, to explain further what Rashkae means:

you need to explore exposure to find which is the perfect balance of brightness and darkness (or highlights and shadows) that you want. so it can appear as -xxEV or 0EV or +xxEV.

in the end, it's up to you

 

[Blur Shadow]

"shoot in bulb mode exposure 7-8 secs" this one care to explain?

the bulk shuttle is new to me, as i google, is it as i set shuttle to bulk, i can half press the fire button, say from 6 to 30 sec, in between the right time, just snap off? if yes, will at different sec time frame produce different result,? ie the longer i wait to snap, the over explore it will? thanks

Dude. The correct words are "bulb", "shutter" and "overexposure".

I don't know if I understand you correctly, but in general, the longer your exposure, more light will enter, causing the scene to be brighter, possibly leading to overexposure.

In any case, most cameras can be preset to shoot at a shutter speed of 8 seconds. Bulb mode tends to be more useful for exposure of over 30 seconds.

 

[rhino123]

thanks rhino for the reason of off the IS. btw, as i google, taking night shoot, will it be better using M mode, using the low shutter speed to control the lighting into the sensor rather than using A mode? thanks

Actually it is up to your own personal preference. I would prefer to let my camera do a bit of work in calculating the shutter speed for me. Of course you can use Manual mode and had full control of both aperture and shutter speed.

 

[rhino123]

"shoot in bulb mode exposure 7-8 secs" this one care to explain?

the bulk shuttle is new to me, as i google, is it as i set shuttle to bulk, i can half press the fire button, say from 6 to 30 sec, in between the right time, just snap off? if yes, will at different sec time frame produce different result,? ie the longer i wait to snap, the over explore it will? thanks

The basic of bulb mode is that the shutter will remain open as long as you press the shutter release button.

For firework, we normally use bulb mode because it is very difficult to predict the timing of the firework. Of course the longer the exposure, more light will enter the sensor and that might in term cause over exposure.

Note: There really is no actual timing to prevent over exposure in some scene like the firework, many variation came into play - things like smoke, different type of firework, location, etc would actually cause overexposure of your shots. Note that some of the fireworks that I took only had 2 sec exposure, some would easily hit 10sec.

 

[avsquare]

because due to the darkness of the land, 0EV can even be underexposed. and darkness of the land also refers to mountains, buildings etc.

i tend to hit +0.7EV when i do night photography.

yup - so I've actually suggested using live view, which is something I do actually

Set ISO and aperture, open live view, adjust AF box to midtones and do a first metering, then further adjust shutter speed to achieve the ideal/preferred exposure

 

[catchlights]

some more info found in this thread due to admin issues
http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/newbies-corner/1095737-shoot-firework.html

affected posts has been make duplicates and move back here.

 

[kei1309]

affected posts has been make duplicates and move back here.

thank you Uncle Catchlights