Night photos

Hi all
As you will no doubt know i have recently bought a digi camera.

Last night, well this morning actually, it looked so lovely out with the snow falling i tried to take a couple of pics. I put the camera on to something called 'night' shots.

When i viewed them they had the street lights all 'wobbly'. i've seen this looking good in some of your shots (i think woo's was the last one) but wondered if i was doing something wrong cos the rest of the pic looked abit blurred.

Didn't change any settings or anything cos i don't know what i'm doing (suprise :D ). Have i just got to practice do you think?

cheers

 

Borrowers, I can't take night pics with my digi, even tho it has a night mode .. I think Woo and Dave w and co have better cameras than me..

 

I think your best bet Borrowers & Daisy would be to use a tripod or beanbag to steady the camera.
As WOO says the 'night shot' holds the shutter open for a longer than normal time and any movement will cause a blur.
Even with a tripod you can get a bit of movement when you press the shutter, but you can get round this by using the the self timer on the camera to open the shutter and take the shot.

 

Oh, do I sympathise or do I sympathise ... (sigh)

Dave W ... you know what camera I have as you had one, and now I have all these attachments which are quite mind boggling. I took some pics of the full moon the other night and they are embarrassing to say the least.

I believe I'm okay now with scenery ... sea/land scapes and sometimes, but only sometimes with closeup flowers/butterflies ... but I am really at a loss with the rest and get quite frustrated almost angry with myself at times.

 

Hi Woo Dave W, thanks for the advice, shall try the self timer, But they come out dark! even with the flash on!!!

 

Hello & thanks for the advice.

YDD, i know all about embarassing! I lost one pic that i thought i had, then uploaded the others onto PB hoping they would look better Mine come out dark too like yours -?

I had the 'anti-shake' or whatever it's called - it has a picture of a hand with (( )) that around. I am not steady at the best of times so thought this would help. Now i see i would have been better not using the night shot. I only took them cos of the snow at 2 a.m. Now i've seen the other GC members pics of the snow, i am so glad i didn't post

Will keep on practising.


cheers

 

Try this.

http://www.ephotozine.com/article/Night-photography

The whole ephotozine site is a goldmine of information.

jjdecay.

 

Thanks for this link jjdecay.

Don't know if i'll ever be any good at this but it's fun trying. Definately won't get anywhere near the standard on here, but i'm not envious :D

cheers

 

some one told me to take the flash off at night don't no if it works or not :confused:

 

I very rarely use flash,especially at night.Sometimes i use a technique called painting with light,which involves an exposure of up to 20 seconds +.(use the torch to focus manually,select a long exposure,click the button and shine the torch where you want light).But normally i make use of available light.Street lights,house lights etc.I select a large aperture,(f4.5 or thereabouts)and hit the button.Depending on available light and the ISO setting,within 3-4 seconds max,you have a nice image.With a very high ISO setting,you can get exposures of 1/200 of a sec or faster.Just be aware,the higher the ISO,the more grain.
ALWAYS use a tripod or other support.
Joe

[ 26. March 2008, 07:28 PM: Message edited by: jjdecay ]

 

An example of painting with light.
This is my garden shed,lit by a small torch from a window on the wall on the right.I cant really remember,but i seem to think it was about 10 seconds.

 

wow that's brilliant jj I love it

 

Now, stop showing off jj.

I haven't had time to read you link yet and won't for the next five days at least. :D

Guess you've given up the restaurant work now and just doing neat things with a camera.

PS Tripod ... birthday in April ....

 

Very nice indeed JJ!
Just had a look at your HDR pics - very impressive.