Taking a photo at night ?

[Dicehunter]

Just got myself a little camera as it wasn't that expensive as my old 1 died due to an accident with a weight plate....... ^_^

£40 for a 14MP Samsung with an 8GB Sandisk memory card included free of charge.

Now the settings it has are -

• Exposure value -2 to +2
• Iso 80 to 1600
• White balance
• Focus area
• Metering
• Photo style selector vivid/black and white etc..
• Contrast
• Saturation
• Colour
• Sharpness
• Auto contrast balance
• Photo size 1024x768 all the way up to 4320x3240
• Auto quality settings Quality, Fine and normal

And a few different flash styles.

My question is, What would I have to change to get the best night time shots to get a nice shot of my rig at night ?

I know I'm not going to get Canon SLR quality photos because those cost a nut, A lung, A kidney, A piece of your soul and half your liver but something "Ok" would be good ^_^

 

[Davva2004]

You'll need a tripod and a long exposure time. Set up on the tripod, use the self timer feature to start the shot so that you don't get shake caused by pressing the button, and then vary the exposure time until you get the right effect. Set the ISO manually to around 80 to get a nice noise free shot and let the exposure create the picture rather than a faster ISO that will take a bright picture in less time but add noise.

 

[Dicehunter]

You'll need a tripod and a long exposure time. Set up on the tripod, use the self timer feature to start the shot so that you don't get shake caused by pressing the button, and then vary the exposure time until you get the right effect. Set the ISO manually to around 80 to get a nice noise free shot and let the exposure create the picture rather than a faster ISO that will take a bright picture in less time but add noise.

Awesome thanks dude

 

[RamboOC]

this is what i do:
100 ISO so there's not much noise, Dont use flash, Set a long shutter speed (you will have to find the best setting for you as it depends on the camera and lightning, place the camera on something that's steady, set the timer to something like 3 seconds.

My personal preference is that I have the metering mode and focus area set to center for my camera with auto focus (and no manual focus). they way i do it is that after setting the metering mode i put the light on and put the object in the middle of the viewfinder, let it focus on that object and press the shutter button and the timer will do its thing, and before it takes the shot i turn the light off and rotate the camera to the position i want it to be in.

All the outher settings like colour, sharpness, saturation etc. You will have play around with to find the best setting as it depends on the camera.

 

[Warchild]

You'll need a tripod and a long exposure time. Set up on the tripod, use the self timer feature to start the shot so that you don't get shake caused by pressing the button, and then vary the exposure time until you get the right effect. Set the ISO manually to around 80 to get a nice noise free shot and let the exposure create the picture rather than a faster ISO that will take a bright picture in less time but add noise.

Pretty much this!

 

[JR23]

ISO as low as possible. F-stop as low as possible. Do not use flash and do not use any zoom. The longer you make the lens the less light you can get through it , just move the camera instead. Then use the exposure time to balance the brightness of the picture.

I find that with my camera any exposure time below 1/2.5 sec is time to break out the tripod but up until that point I can just rest my hands on something or hold it close to my chest and it's not too bad. Don't hold it at arms length like your taking a selfie with a potato. Your mileage may vary on this one depending on how good your optical image stabilization is.

Set and light the scene as best you can, if it's a night shot you may want to turn off your monitor and any lights just to eliminate any reflections. Make sure you take more shots than you need, it's not worth getting your camera out unless you take 50 shots. Go through them all afterwards and see what worked and what didn't and check what the settings where and find out why and you will quickly learn what your on with.

JR

 

[rzthrun]

Make sure you take more shots than you need, it's not worth getting your camera out unless you take 50 shots. Go through them all afterwards and see what worked and what didn't and check what the settings where and find out why and you will quickly learn what your on with.

If you have the luxury of free memory, I recommend overshooting as well. Playback is very helpful, but can be misleading, so if the camera has a histogram, take a look at it and start familiarizing yourself.

Basically, when it comes to the physics/science of photography, it's about the ratio of
1) sensitivity of the reactive surface (the chip in digital / the silver nitrate in bw analog) referred to as ISO (aka film-speed)
2) the amount of the causative agent (light) controlled by aperture (aka f-stop),
3) and the time they are in contact (shutter speed)

a good exposure is when you nail this for the light available and subject matter.

You'll need a tripod and a long exposure time. Set up on the tripod, use the self timer feature to start the shot so that you don't get shake caused by pressing the button, and then vary the exposure time until you get the right effect.

yea, the shake caused by the shutter release will cause issues. You can also hook to a laptop and control the shutter using Image Capture(mac) or lightroom, or some other program.
But I also recommend practicing a few with out a tripod, one can do a lot with a steady hand, and tripods can be heavy.

 

[JR23]

When I'm rattling off shots with long exposure times and the camera being moved be my gripping it is likely to be an issue I always put it on a tripod and use burst mode and then hold down the shutter through 3-5 shots without moving my hands. The first is always questionable and then I pick the best out of the middle few. I find it's just a bit faster than using a shutter delay or remote and gives me more options afterwards.

A cheap tripod will do wonders, not only for your long exposure shots but also just your state of mind when lighting and setting up the scene as you watch the image build up from a fixed position. Having got a cheap tripod it's easy to see why people obsess over expensive ones.

As stated above the physics is quite simple but each change has another flip side. Increasing the ISO too far for the sensor will introduce noise especially at night so stay really low. Increasing the F stop (making the aperture smaller) will not only extend the required shutter speed but increase the depth of field, which is not always desirable. Obviously increasing the shutter speed makes it blurring more likely.

JR

 

[rzthrun]

Re: Tripod.
yes, ideally one always has the option. Most of my shooting in past several years has been reportage, so tripods weren't an option - got pretty good without one. But there are some things you just can't do handheld. However, if you're shooting alot, knowing how slow a shutter speed you can do handheld and still get an acceptable exposure is well worthwhile

[ to stabilize my shots when handheld, i've developed the habit of pressing the camera against the brow of my face (which causes my glasses to leave marks) or my hip/belt. ] but, yea, always shooting a minimum of two shots (at night even more)]

Going handheld will also teach you how to use available light sources most effectively. I suppose you can learn this on a tripod as well. But I always been a fan of speed.