long exposure tips

I would like some tips on shooting with long shutter, i took this with my powershot SD300, a few nights ago


http://www.putfile.com/pic.php?img=6053245

The camera "must" be on a tripod to get a good shot. That's the first tip. And a cable release will keep you from shaking the camera when taking a picture. Try many different exposures, it's fun.

use a tripod..

Hmm..maybe use a tripod? J/k. A tripod is an absolute must, unless you're going for the blurry artistic effect. It's been a while since I did a whole lot of night photography, so long ago that we used this special thin plastic material called film. Ever heard of it? Ha ha. I actually had to wait for days until I could see the results, so it was quite a trial and error process with a lot of wasted pictures. I used take multiple pictures, then write down the exposure, time of day and conditions, then wait till the pictures were developed to see which ones turned out good so I knew what to do next time. But now, with the instant gratification of digital, you'll have a much easier time.

A couple of ideas, you can find a lot more if you search for "night photography" on google. If you're going for skylines or other lit subject, don't wait until it's completely dark. Shoot while there's just a little bit of light in the sky, that way there's not too much contrast between the lights and sky. Try zooming while shooting for a warp style effect. Use the self timer to trigger the shutter so you won't shake the camera. Leave the shutter open in bulb, and use a flashlight or handheld flash to highlight certain objects. Leave shutter open and use a flashlight to "write" in light. There's a new commercial on TV right now using that effect, it's pretty cool. Just experiment, pictures are free, so do anything you feel like. If you don't like it, just delete it and try again.

Edit: Found the commercial.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW_9SYaWAQg

Has anyone suggested "use a tripod" yet? Oh, everyone...

Use a digital camera, compose your shot well, and not moving your camera betweem shots will allow you to combine shots later if something happens in one part of the frame on only one shot. Using the self timer can help reduce vibrations even more. Brace against a pole or wall if you don't have a tripod.



Experiment lots.

And use a tripod. :thumbsup:

I suppose a quadpod would work too, but a tripod seems to be the favorite suggestion here.

Most importantly, take LOTS of pics. At last count I had over 60,000 digital pics that I have shot on my computers, and that's not counting the thousands of pics I took back in the "film" days.

use the timer delay so you don't shake the camera.

weight the tripod with a heavy bag of some sorts. I use old bank bags, and put BB's, or lead shot in them. Don't use sand!

KingGlamis said:

The camera "must" be on a tripod to get a good shot. That's the first tip. And a cable release will keep you from shaking the camera when taking a picture. Try many different exposures, it's fun.

Click to expand...

Yes the tripod is a must! My camera does not have a cable release how ever, so I also use the camera self timer function.
Seems to work well enough. (man it sucks being at solar minimum, haven't been any good aurora photo opportunity in my area in a long time)

Does the SD series have manual control? That way you can select a low ISO (less noise up to a point) and dial in an appropriate shutter speed for the desired effect.

Otherwise, most can be adjusted post shot in your digital editor so that a night shot still looks like night. .

Fizz753 said:

Yes the tripod is a must! My camera does not have a cable release how ever, so I also use the camera self timer function.
Seems to work well enough. (man it sucks being at solar minimum, haven't been any good aurora photo opportunity in my area in a long time)

Click to expand...

Nice shot!

the iso can be set to auto; 50; 100; 200; 400. shutter 1 to 15 seconds

exposure from 0 to -2 to +2

Fizz753 said:

(man it sucks being at solar minimum, haven't been any good aurora photo opportunity in my area in a long time)

Click to expand...

Are you one of those people who can "hear" aurorae?

This was beautiful!

I put a few touches to it...hope ya don't mind.

Bumped contrast a couple points along with saturation.
Knocked off a couple points for shadows, mid and highlights.
Cloned out the lights and some of the fence.

I have an A75 and like your A-95...even though aged, it produces nice images.

2000xlt said:

the iso can be set to auto; 50; 100; 200; 400. shutter 1 to 15 seconds

exposure from 0 to -2 to +2

Click to expand...

Just a matter of playing and practice. Use the lowest ISO and run through a few of the longer shutter speeds to gauge your results. Digital is pretty forgiving in the new editors and a lot an be pulled from over and under exposed frames. (To a certain level.) Most definitely a stable camera support helps. When caught empty, I place the camera on a wall or such and let the self-timer go.

TorchBoy said:

Are you one of those people who can "hear" aurorae?

Click to expand...

Nope, I just keep an eye on these websites. If it were not for them I would never see anything

http://www.spaceweather.com/
http://www.spacew.com/
and http://www.aurorasentry.net/

RA40 said:

This was beautiful!

I put a few touches to it...hope ya don't mind.

Click to expand...

Do not mind at all.

Tripod and using the self timer is a MUST.

If it lets you set lower ISOs try that. That will keep it cleaner.
Other than that, theres not much else you can do.
Weighting the tripod down may help, some will move around in the wind.

~John

Here's something that applied to long exposures using film. I'm not sure if the idea still applies to digital images. "Reciprocity Failure" made it necessary to adjust exposures over 30 sec. or so to compensate for the inability of old meters to find 18% gray from a composition with extremely low light levels. Yeah. Hooray for film!:tinfoil:
-Winston

Alot of this can depend on if you have an SLR camera.