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Night Photo Question
Ok, I have my vacation approved, and I am starting to plan the trip. I will be going to Death Valley the first week in November. It looks like I should have a full moon on Oct 28th with the last quarter on Nov 5th.
I am thinking the nights will be clear and crisp, and with the moon might provide some intersting photo opportunities.
OH.....I am thinking about night landscape photos, with / without, moon and / or stars.
I have been out in areas without ground lights and on a bright night the visability (to human eyes) is very good, and the number of stars visible is unbelievable.
Any thoughts on some camera settings to start with?
Thanks,
Sam
I am thinking the nights will be clear and crisp, and with the moon might provide some intersting photo opportunities.
OH.....I am thinking about night landscape photos, with / without, moon and / or stars.
I have been out in areas without ground lights and on a bright night the visability (to human eyes) is very good, and the number of stars visible is unbelievable.
Any thoughts on some camera settings to start with?
Thanks,
Sam
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I've not tried any night stuff with just natural light, but i did try shooting a lighthouse about an hour before dawn a couple of weeks ago, I didn't get very good results as my tripod was shuddering in the wind. SO make sure you have a solid tripod, a torch/flashlight (my American is improving:D), a couple of cold ones (seeing as your on vacation), Oh and a light meter helps too.
Shoot in raw, the metering doesn't work so well on my camera at night, so I use it in manual and rely on the histogram.
I set up the shot, try to make sure I haven't over exposed anything, take the shot, review the histogram, adjust and reshoot as required.
Good luck, looking forward to seeing the results!
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Sam, I shoot at night, because I am there............and Andy can tell you how badly I do it, because I have no tripod when I am "there", I never plan on being there. If that makes any sense.
Probably, for you, the two most important things I can think of are the tripod and a flashlight. I bought a small one, fits in my camera bag very conveniently. Last time I shot at night, it was not dark, dark, yet, but way after sunset, I didn't get back to the car until 10 PM, was alone on the beach and scared almost to death. Don't know whether it was fear or no tripod that led to the amt of blur I had to deal with when I got home. I have some of those will pick out the best and show you.
I don't know my light source. It was extremely dark, very fast that night, there was cloud cover over the moon, etc. But you are right, there is light, from somewhere. Or there was for me.
I have seen photos of stars on this site, so someone is doing this, but I don't remember who. I was just trying to take beach shots.
I would keep after Andy to give you some exposure times, and, or set it on AV, you know I read that with lights and things, to just set the lens on infinity, and that would be true of stars. Whoever was doing this shooting that I saw picked up movement from the stars, so that would be a factor in the exposure time.
But that flashlight can save your life, and your photos, if you remember you have it, I always have mine and didn't remember it the other night. I never have my tripod, am often alone and wouldn't want to carry it anyway, unless I knew where I was going exactly. That night I walked a couple of miles.
ginger, for now.
I do this as I just go to shoot sunsets, or people, on the beach and overstay any sensible amount of time.
They keep lights off of the beach because of the turtles nesting and stuff. It is not like a boardwalk. The houses are set far back, and they are not allowed to have enough light to affect the beach.
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I don't know how they do it.
But I read a long time ago that the moon is in daylight, so hehe, we should expose for daylight. I don't know how true that is.
I think most moons, might be put in in post. Shot separately. So I would shoot a few, myself, kind of at daylight exposures. Just in case.
ginger
ginger
I just bought a good tipod, and will be shooting RAW. I do check the histogram, but not every shot.
One idea I have is to see if I can get a nice landscape, iluminated by the moon and stars. The moon may or may not be in the shot. I will try different setings, bracket, and hope for the best.
Thanks for all your replys,
Sam
with a ranger up in Yosemite a couple of weeks back and there are parts of
the park that are still inaccessible as a result of the recent floods.
8-10 seconds exposure is about right before stars streak. Your shutter/apeture
settings will depend on how much light the moon casts.
Have you thought about using a gel filter and flash to "paint" with during long
exposures? You can achieve a similar effect painting with a bright light too.
Enjoy your trip!
Ian
However, my histograms can be way off, and be a very good shot. Or a very good shot, IMO.
The night stuff, for me, it would end up dark, mostly, I would want it to end up dark, and that would keep the histogram over to the left and tall. Then I get them the opposite way, too.
I did see a bell curve, finally, in the last month or so. I only see the histogram, so far, when I put mine on levels.
I have to shoot a baptism tomorrow. I do that on the portrait setting, you know, being a beginner and all........ nah, it's been working pretty well. My percentages are better there than with the more thinking side of the dial. And all I care about is to show up, get the job done. Have to go to church on those days too. Life can be tough.
I don't think I get a bell curve on those things. I just pray, right now, on my knees (got religion on my brain, have you seen my entry to the challenge?), anyway the gods above and I are going to change the ISO on my camera back to 100 as soon as I send this missive over to you.
Thanks, for the thanks, Sam,
I got a great night, almost, shot out of giving you advice, I find that hysterically funny. Never would have seen that shot if not for your question.
And I love the clouds, probably my favorite shot of the night (evening).
ginger
Hey how about a shoot out...........no, for one of the weeks of that challenge I will be stuck with fall folliage and stuff.
I was going to say it would be fun to have a shoot out kind of thing where we both shot "night" shots. Another of my problems would be, I was genuinely terrified after I left the fences. It turned black. I took the first path back to the houses, very scary trees, then had to walk to my car, let out one loud scream when an innocent dog walker came up behind me.
So, I don't think I will knowingly be in "real" dark again, without my husband, for a very long time.
Sara lives in town houses. No night stuff there. I just don't see how I could get it in that week.
I will look to see when your trip is again. When I get back, if the weather cooporated, and if my husband did too, and I got "lucky", I could maybe corral him again. But it would be beach, and I have done the beach..........can you over do a beach?
You know, speaking of Ansel Adams, he kept doing the same place over and over. I have a book coming sometime, is there a jackson freeman? Anyway, I ordered these books eons ago, i love the guys style, and it isn't PS, it is inspiration. The book that won't ship for a couple of weeks, it dwells, I think, on the nature side, the finding of things...........well, I think i will like it.
I probably should prepare Andy for the fact that I don't function well in the cold, as in I hate it, really I do. And it can be colder here in the forties, than it ever was at zero degrees when I was skiiing in the Rockies, back in the fifties. It is wet heat, and wet cold. Wet heat is "cool", wet cold, can't expect great shots. The good part is that is when we supposedly get our great clear skys with fantastic sunsets.
That is when Shem Creek is usually photographed. Of course that is not a place I will ever photograph again.
ginger, rambling........
You got me wantin night shots.
What are you doing for "Time"?
I am tired of "time", want to move those doggies on.........
Andy, can we clock out of one challenge, then clock in the next one? (Pretty good analogy, clocking out of one, and into another, haha, challenge)
Andy, if I can move my doggies on to the next assignments, if I can feel safe on the beach or somewhere, Andy, I will take a tripod, a release, set it on RAW, AV, whatever else, and rev up my practice on checking the ISO and the exposure compensation. I can only do it til Friday latest. Then I am in photo jail for a long time.
Oh, it has to stop raining, I want some light in the sky.