Devil's Tower Night (Need Help)

WyomingBob

Here is my first real attempt at night photography. No light. I took this last night. Nikon D200, Nikkor 18-200 3.5-5.6 lens. On tripod, used timer do not have a release. About 18 degrees out, slight breese. F3.5, ISO 1600, 23 sec manual, 18mm. I think the light looks good, but the picture seems out of focus and grainy. I took quite a few pictures on different settings and they all seem to be grainy. Any help or suggestions would be greatly apprieciated.
Thanks
Bob
http://BobMolderPhotography.smugmug.com/

squirl033

just at a guess, the noise is a result of the high ISO setting. i know Nikons have made great strides in high-ISO performance with some of their newer models, but the D200 isn't one of their new models... it's the same age in terms of introduction as my Canon 5D, and back in those days, 1600 was a VERY high ISO setting... aside from the noise, though, this is a great shot! have you tried a noise-reduction program to clean up the noise?

Adamideas

Hey thats a good first attempt. I like the composition. I'm unclear about what you said about not having a release and you used the timer... and it was a 23 second exposure? I know nothing about D200's; does your camera do 23 seconds or did you have to hold the shutter button down for 23 seconds? If so that might account for blur... Once I used a rubberband and a pebble when I forgot my release. I covered the lens with cardboard while I placed the pebble and rubberband on the button and started the exposure, then gently took the cardboard away.

If your lens has autofocus you could let it focus on a point of light (like the moon) and then switch it off and take your long exposure. I've had ok results doing that.

Noisy images can still look interesting. And if it bothers you too much you can use lightroom to remove it (that program works really well in my opinion).

-Adam

kdog

Terrific composition. I agree with the others that the noise may be typical for that camera at those settings. Keep in mind that if you increased your exposure at all in post-processing, you would have increased the noise as well. Since you were using a tripod, I'm wondering why you didn't shoot at ISO100 instead, although on that camera you may have to use manual control of your shutter to do it.

What did you focus on? If you were focused at infinity, say for the stars, that may explain why the tower which was in the foreground was out of focus. Of course focusing on the tower in the moonlight is no easy prospect either. One of those million candle-power (or whatever they are) hand-held spot lights aimed at the tower might work if you're close enough.