night pics tips needed urgently

[rondarlington]

Hi everyone, I have just purchased a D70 with a 18-70mm plus a 70-300mm lense.
Also I have just received a new Tokina 12-24mm
Now I'm trying to take night shots of resorts swimming pools, restaurants, shopping villages..you know..all night stuff.
Rather than re-invent the wheel, can anybody help out there.
I'm just using auto at the moment with unreal results, but I feel one can do much better.
HELP!!!!!! if you can
~smiles~ Ron

[sirhc55]

Welcome Ron - 1st thing to consider would be the use of a good tripod. If shooting with a wide angle, such as the 12-24mm you can obtain very good results hand held with slow shutter speeds - but IMO a tripod would be essential with the lenses you have.

[rondarlington]

Thanks Chris...Got the good tri-pod, I agree thats the first essential.
Chris, what shutter speeds are you referring to?
What would you use say taking a picture of a restaurant from over the road at nighjt?
much appreciated Chris
Regards
Ron

[big pix]

Ron ...... welcome to the forum......... keep an eye on the Brisbane/Gold Coast section as we are trying to get a mini meet together which would help you out a lot.......

[smt]

Hi Ron,

My tip is this: experiment! Don't be afraid of setting the camera to full manual mode and play with the settings and see how they affect.

You might try something like this:

1. Go out early enough! Don't wait for total darkness, instead, the best "night" photos are usually taken when there's still some atmospheric light available, the so called blue hours.
2. Use your 18-70mm lens.
3. Set ISO 200, Manual mode (M) and white balance to Fluorescent.
4. Now rotate the two dials, one of them sets aperture and another controls the shutter speed.
5. Set aperture to f11 and shutter speed to 2 seconds.
6. Take a picture using a tripod and after that preview it using the LCD.
7. It probably ends up underexposed, and if so, adjust shutter speed to, say, 4 seconds and shoot again.
8. Again preview and adjust shutter as long as it starts to look reasonably good.
9. Take lots of photos with different shutter speed settings. Let it under- and overexpose, too!
10. Post a couple of the best ones here!

This is by no means a perfect introductory to night photography, but I hope it will get you going. I may have forgotten something crucial from the list above, but the most important point is to try things out and learn from the results. Also remember not to mess too much with the settings between two shots. Make only minor adjustments at a time, shoot, and see how it affected.

Good luck and have fun experimenting!

S

[Atorie]

From another Qlder welcome to the forum Ron... it's really hard to tell you what settings to use for 'night' photography.. it all comes down to your subject, well more importantly the light on the subject. Shutter speeds are going to vary depending on how well lit it is. best advice would be to take a few test shots first and review them (use the histogram as well to check for blowouts or under exposure) once reviewed then adjust shutter and apperture accordingly... feel free to post some of your photos here, we dont bite hard (or at all)

[rondarlington]

Thanks guys, I'll be out there again tonight trying these suggestions, this forum is great.
Thanks to all that contribute.
Ron....

[fozzie]

Ron,

Welcome to the forum .

Yes it is a great place to be, re information and bounce ideas around.

[stephen]

Ron i took some of the Perth skyline a few weeks a go and they were disgracful and blurred,Then i realised that i should of had a tripod and completely different settings so you are not alone mate.Its a great and helpfull site

[wendellt]

Welcome Ron

You need a tripod
the kit lens at 17mm which is quite wide is optimal at f8
at 80mm f11
this means no depth of field everything in focus

best time to shoot is when the sky still has a dark blue tone to it say in winter 7:00pm

the sweetspot long exposure is 8 seconds kind of what you see is what you get 30 seconds gives you a really nice ambient bright picture which is more artistic.It's best to experiment between 8 secs and 30secs or use the 'bulb' option

ISO to 100 you don't want to blow out bright lights

and use a UV filter it makes nice subtle starburs of irradescent lights

White balace should be set to incandescent if your shooting restaurants
if shooting buildings with flourecent lights change it to flourescent

but if you want to get artistic try experimenting with the colour temperature measured in Kelvins

ambient light from other strong light sources come into consideration during long exposures, there may be a red cast if you take a shot of a restaurant (warm lighting)

long exposures make pools and water look like smooth silk, if you want to capture riples in the water the way they seem in a blink of an eye, set ISO to 600 or more and shutter to the reciprocal number of your focal length, e,g if your at 17mm shutter should be 20th of a second or more at 70mm shutter: 70th of a sec or more to avoid blurry images

best to experiment though these are just guidlines

[sirhc55]

Wendell - just 2 points - the D70 does not have 100iso and a UV will not produce starlights

[wendellt]

your absolutely right

but my UV filter produces them, which Gary pointed out as a defective UV filter.
ISO 200 will sufice

[MCWB]

and use a UV filter it makes nice subtle starburs of irradescent lights

Small apertures (f/22) will do this too. Or starburst filters!

[rondarlington]

Thankyou everyone for all your advice...night time pics are coming out great around 2secs f11, incandesant...beautiful.
I shall go up and down this range and experiment, but guys, thanks for putting me on the right track..
Great site.great people.
Ron

[Hendrix]

On a tripod take a series of shots with the same aperture at different exposer times like 2-4-6-8-10 seconds.

In photoshop you can then combine the best of each exposure.

I often leave the tripod locked down and take some exposures later to get the window lights and pool lights to.

hope this helps

[kipper]

Totally OT, but I'm going to take a squiz through my old 1970s Cokin Filter system catalogue handed down from my old man to see if there is any good filters for night photography. God you have to love old catalogues, they were scared of showing a bit of skin back then

[kipper]

Cokin have a range of filters that worked with film, I'm sure they work on digital aswell. They're the "star" range of filters that produce starbursts on street lights, car headlights etc.

If you're not happy with the natural lighting, and if you're doing it for a client such as the restaurant you might want to look at bringing in portable lights with various color lights. Again I'm no expert on lighting, nor have I had the experience, but you might want to add colored lighting to produce the desired results.

[rondarlington]

Thanks for all your imput everyone, I have been playing with all your suggestios and heaps of "give it a go" and all I can say is that I'm falling in love with this D70.........it becomes part of you and expresses its own gems...going for the 12-24mm now, so things can only get better, if thats possible
Thanks Nikon and all you "shooters" out there that enjoy the same passion
Ron

[stubbsy]

Nothing to do with your question, but had a look at your website Ron. While it looks nice there are quite a few speeling misteaks that need fixing. Hope you didn't pay someone to do it

[big pix]

have you tried the meter system in the camera with a bracket of exposures.........

[dooda]

I find that shooting in Raw is essential for night photography for playing with WB and lightening/banding quality issues.
I also find that I wished I had a level on my tripod, as I do a lot of correcting in PS.

Also, never go out without a fully charged battery or an extra, as night shots and the resulting long exposure noise reduction sucks the battery life right up.

I ran out once and it disgusted me because I had more shots to take. Check out my flickr account if you want to take a look at them. Got some pics of pools, rocks and shacks all at night. Maybe I should create a new night set.

[dooda]

I just tried checking out your site but I couldn't find any photos. Any chance we can see them?

[rondarlington]

Well thanks to all who threw their ideas at me...what a great selection.
I found with what I was doing...night shots of swimming pools and resorts and such.
TRIPOD, F9-f11 set the iso 200/400 and set the shutter speed between 1 and 10 secs...unreal results.
shall post soon
Thanks again guys..you been a great help.
Catch you all again soon...happy shooting
Ron