Never!
12-18-2008, 02:25 PM
#1
Gets Weekends Off
Thread Starter
Joined APC: Dec 2007
Position: EMB120 Left
Posts: 629
Never!
Some of you may wonder why I've slacked off on pictures, of course its because its eternally dark here in Alaska and I haven't yet mastered my camera. So the above is proof that its always dark, well at least at Kotzebue at this time of the year and that I'm not very good at taking pictures in the dark.
Last edited by FlyOrDie; 12-18-2008 at 06:16 PM.
12-19-2008, 04:40 AM
#3
Gets ALL Days Off
Joined APC: Mar 2007
Position: Sit down comedian.
Posts: 958
fly or die... I dont know what you have tried, but if you have an exposure more than 1/3 of a second, you cant hold it solid with your hands. Try bringing the shutter speed up or set the camera on something and use the timer. That is the best tip to making your night photos 100 times better.
Couple tips to bring shutter speeds up though if you need to hold by hand, shoot in manual mode, shoot wide open (for you that is probably F4 or F5.6 unfortunately), and take your Exposure Bias (little light meter thing in the view finder) and drop it all the way down to the left side. That will make you fully underexposed, but it will bring the shutter speed up a hair more. Make sure you shoot in RAW so you can go back into the computer later and adjust the lighting back up to normal.
Also, while we normally strive to shoot ISO 100 all the time for the best quality, sometimes you have to bump that ISO up if you have a cheaper lens with a small aperture in low light. Ideally, for inflight shots I have taken at night, I use 100 or 200 ISO, and set the camera on something to create a solid base- but you need to have a smooth as glass ride to do it. If you are hand holding, bump your ISO up to 1600 or whatever you Nikons get. Keep in mind your noise is going to go through the roof so in post production 1) Dont sharpen, you will make it worse. 2) Use a good noise reduction software. Also dont mix bumping up the ISO tip above with the exposure bias tip above, that doesnt work well unless you are going for a super grainy and noisy photo.
Also one last tip, if it is really dark, and you just cant get anything to come out clear, try this. Take a ZOOM LENS, use an exposure of 1/3 to 1", take a photo of a screen or digtal panel, or something with bright light and contrast (turn the brightness up!), hold the camera as steady as possible and slowly zoom in the lens when the shutter is open. You can get neat effects from zooming in and out while doing this. Anything more than 1 second on the shutter and you are going to have a messy picture. Also try rotating the camera slowly, this creates some neat effects as well. Give all that a try and post some good captures.
Couple tips to bring shutter speeds up though if you need to hold by hand, shoot in manual mode, shoot wide open (for you that is probably F4 or F5.6 unfortunately), and take your Exposure Bias (little light meter thing in the view finder) and drop it all the way down to the left side. That will make you fully underexposed, but it will bring the shutter speed up a hair more. Make sure you shoot in RAW so you can go back into the computer later and adjust the lighting back up to normal.
Also, while we normally strive to shoot ISO 100 all the time for the best quality, sometimes you have to bump that ISO up if you have a cheaper lens with a small aperture in low light. Ideally, for inflight shots I have taken at night, I use 100 or 200 ISO, and set the camera on something to create a solid base- but you need to have a smooth as glass ride to do it. If you are hand holding, bump your ISO up to 1600 or whatever you Nikons get. Keep in mind your noise is going to go through the roof so in post production 1) Dont sharpen, you will make it worse. 2) Use a good noise reduction software. Also dont mix bumping up the ISO tip above with the exposure bias tip above, that doesnt work well unless you are going for a super grainy and noisy photo.
Also one last tip, if it is really dark, and you just cant get anything to come out clear, try this. Take a ZOOM LENS, use an exposure of 1/3 to 1", take a photo of a screen or digtal panel, or something with bright light and contrast (turn the brightness up!), hold the camera as steady as possible and slowly zoom in the lens when the shutter is open. You can get neat effects from zooming in and out while doing this. Anything more than 1 second on the shutter and you are going to have a messy picture. Also try rotating the camera slowly, this creates some neat effects as well. Give all that a try and post some good captures.
