Help with night time shooting...

[ise438]

Hi guys...

I am going to visit the Haynes motor museum this Saturday...

In the evening I am planning a trip to Sherbourne Abbey - then onto Weymouth harbour..to take some pictures

I have a 50d - 18-270mm Tamron and I am going to borrow a 10-20mm Sigma...

and Tripod of course

Any advise on Aperture - to use or other tips I can try etc...

Will post results after the weekend....

Ian

[[wingnut]]

Don't close the lens down too much as certain lens experience a softness after an aperture of around f/16, I know my tokina does. Set the camera to aperture priority mode or bulb mode if you want to go for star trails.
Keep the iso low - 100 is good. Use a torch to focus is the light is very low. Use the mirror lock up function and remote shutter release if you have one.
Use the 10-20 all the way and AWB, shot in raw and adjust in Lightroom if needed.

[ka$h]

Why use the mirror lock up feature Matt?

[[wingnut]]

A little bit of Camera design 101 in order to answer the question mate, DSLR's (Digital single lens reflex) camera use TTL, (through the lens) system of view finding. So as you look through the eye peice view finder you are actually looking down the camera body onto a mirror reflecting the image through the lens. Behind this mirror, which is set at a 45' angle is the CMOS sensor which records the image when you open the shutter, in order to take the shot the mirror needs to be out of the way. When you hit the shutter the mirror flips up to reveal the shutter which then opens to allow light to hit the sensor. What can happen is the mirror moving may / will cause a slight amount of vibration / movement when it is mechanically moved out the way.
So by using the mirror lock up feature, you will look through the view finder to compose your shot, then hit the shutter button which will flip the mirror out of the way, a while after, as long as you want but i normally count to 5, hit the shutter button again and the shutter will open and take the shot and also dropping the mirror back into place. By doing this the movement of the mirror flipping up will be eliminated and the chance of vibration and extra blur in your image will be removed.
Hope that explains it a little for you mate.

[cosmicma]

or you could just use live view which lifts the mirror as an alternative to mirror lock up

[[wingnut]]

You could but i have never used it on my 40d and no real intentions to either.

[BertRoot]

I do tons of night time stuff and usually shoot on manual at ISO100, f/9.0 and manual focus as auto focus ain't got a chance in the pitch black. I usually start with a 20 second exposure and work back or forward from there. Keep looking at your shots and your histograms but it really depends on the ambient light, i.e. streetlights, moon etc.

Vast majority of these are night shots. Have a root and see if it gives you any ideas based on the exif data.

[ka$h]

Thanks Matt. I knew how it worked, but never put the movement down to vibration. that's gotta be nearing perfection

Bert, You say start at 20s and work away from there. Do you not trust metering or like the AF do you find the metering useless in those conditions?

Ian, sorry for hijacking your thread, just the topic of discussion makes me want to ask stupid questions!

[BertRoot]

Bert, You say start at 20s and work away from there. Do you not trust metering or like the AF do you find the metering useless in those conditions?

No, metering is fine in these conditions but I find it better to do what you want to achieve the desired effects.

[ise438]

Thanks for the advice guys - really helpful as always...

Ka$h - no problem hi-jacking thread you ask the question I wanted to know anyway lol...

[ise438]

However one more stupid question...

If you subject matter is in the distant - what and how do you manually focus on ?

Ian

[BertRoot]

If you subject matter is in the distant - what and how do you manually focus on ?

I usually just focus on infinity if the subject is way off, especially if using a wide angle.

[ise438]

I do tons of night time stuff and usually shoot on manual at ISO100, f/9.0 and manual focus as auto focus ain't got a chance in the pitch black. I usually start with a 20 second exposure and work back or forward from there. Keep looking at your shots and your histograms but it really depends on the ambient light, i.e. streetlights, moon etc.

Vast majority of these are night shots. Have a root and see if it gives you any ideas based on the exif data.

Fantastic collection of pictures...

How did you work your magic on the Roots Ghost shot ?

[BertRoot]

Fantastic collection of pictures...

How did you work your magic on the Roots Ghost shot ?

Thanks. It was a thirty second exposure, left it a few seconds and then ran in. Luckily it didn't catch me doing it.

[ise438]

Thanks. It was a thirty second exposure, left it a few seconds and then ran in. Luckily it didn't catch me doing it.

Cool - Will give it a try...