Night Photography

crodier66

I am going to Washington D.C this weekend and will be taking night photos of the monuments. I will be using a Canon 7D and 17-55mm f2.8L lens mounted on a tripod. Any suggestions on camera settings?

Thanks,

Chris

moose135

For night photography like that, I'll usually work with a mid-range aperture, somewhere around f/7.1 or f/8 to start. I'll start out in Av mode, ISO 100, and see what the camera wants to give me for shutter speeds. Once I have a baseline, I may switch over to manual and play with f-stop and shutter speed to get different effects. A smaller aperture (f/16 or smaller) should give you some nice starburst effects from lights. I'm assuming the longest shutter speed on your 7D is 30 seconds. If so, you may need to go into bulb mode and use a remote for longer shots, especially with a very small aperture.

Washington is a terrific place to shoot at night. It's been a few years since I've been there, but here is sample from my last trip. You can click on the photo to view the rest of my DC gallery.

crodier66

Night Photography

moose135 wrote: »

For night photography like that, I'll usually work with a mid-range aperture, somewhere around f/7.1 or f/8 to start. I'll start out in Av mode, ISO 100, and see what the camera wants to give me for shutter speeds. Once I have a baseline, I may switch over to manual and play with f-stop and shutter speed to get different effects. A smaller aperture (f/16 or smaller) should give you some nice starburst effects from lights. I'm assuming the longest shutter speed on your 7D is 30 seconds. If so, you may need to go into bulb mode and use a remote for longer shots, especially with a very small aperture.

Washington is a terrific place to shoot at night. It's been a few years since I've been there, but here is sample from my last trip. You can click on the photo to view the rest of my DC gallery.

Nice photo! What was the focal length of the lens you used for this photo?