Tips for night shooting

Any tips for shooting city centre landscapes at dusk/night.?

I have a Canon D600 and the stock 18-55IS lens that came with it. I was in downtown Shanghai last night and there were some beautiful moody clouds above and behind the skyscrapers as the sun set and the buildings were gradually being illuminated.

As it got darker I found the auto exposure lengthening and the images blurring so tried using my mini tripod which stopped almost all the blurring but there was a lot of flaring from some of the neon lights on the buildings.

I'd really like to try and capture some decent, in focus shots while I'm here.

Any quick tips/pointers greatly appreciated

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I found on my eos m3 that turning off the IS helps at night but you do need a good/stable tripod and a longer exposure.

Also I don't use auto focus much these days, especially on static subjects like skylines, coastlines etc. It seems quite slow and confuses itself too easily on passing birds, people etc.

I think this is a habit now probably from using an FD lens a lot of the time with an adaptor which has to be used in full manual as there aren't any electrical connections at all.

Being a spectacle wearer I generally rely on AF as I struggle to get a clear picture through the eyepiece much of the time and the screen on the back is difficult to get a decent focus on middle distance landscapes and buildings etc.

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http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...be4ea331f1.jpg

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That's a pic from my S7 Edge which almost captured the moody clouds and shows the kind of image I was hoping for

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In this situation this is what i do...

Turn the camera to A (aperture priority) then choose the lowest (number) aperture you can, f2.8 f3.5 etc higher number f16 f22 etc not so good for this situation, unless you want a certain look.
As mentioned turn off IS if you're tripod mounted, which it most definitely needs to be for this type of shot.
Turn on auto iso if you have it, otherwise trial and error with manual iso, it will need to be high though.
Use the self timer to take the shot, less chance of camera shake.
Turn off AF, set the lens to infinity and fire away.

@Malty, have you seen the new Eos M5? looks really good but expensive.

Much appreciated I'll give it another try later in the week

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by ilscuro

@Malty, have you seen the new Eos M5? looks really good but expensive.

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No, I haven't been looking but will do thanks. I'm pretty much 100% happy with my M3 to be fair. It hasn't annoyed me in any way.

I am absolutely delighted I decided to get the M3 over the M10 and I'm doubly delighted that I got a pack that came with the optional electronic viewfinder. I compose shots etc almost exclusively with the EVF and almost never with the LCD. I think it would have been mega restrictive to have been stuck with only that as I would have been with the M10.

I sold the longer kit lens which was something like 55-250 and bought a tamron 70-300 VC lens instead. On top I have the other kit lens which is a 18-55 EF-M IS I also have a 12-18mm EF-S IS for landscapes and a 50mm FD lens which i adore and use loads - probably more than the kit lens to be honest.

cheers,

malty

Quote:

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Originally Posted by maltloaf

No, I haven't been looking but will do thanks. I'm pretty much 100% happy with my M3 to be fair. It hasn't annoyed me in any way.

I am absolutely delighted I decided to get the M3 over the M10 and I'm doubly delighted that I got a pack that came with the optional electronic viewfinder. I compose shots etc almost exclusively with the EVF and almost never with the LCD. I think it would have been mega restrictive to have been stuck with only that as I would have been with the M10.

I sold the longer kit lens which was something like 55-250 and bought a tamron 70-300 VC lens instead. On top I have the other kit lens which is a 18-55 EF-M IS I also have a 12-18mm EF-S IS for landscapes and a 50mm FD lens which i adore and use loads - probably more than the kit lens to be honest.

cheers,

malty

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Do you not have the 22mm f2 EFM? it's my favourite M lens

No, not yet. I have seen multiple people rave about it I just don't see where it fits in in my arsenal to be honest.