Canon 40D nightshot

I am trying to get some good recommendations for settings on my canon 40D. I am

shooting a house at night that has specialty exterior lighting (spotlights that

shine up the corners of the house etc).

I have the Canon 18-135mm lens.

Thanks

sorry forgot to mention I will be using a tripod

Canon doesn't have 18-135 lens oO

 

Use spot meter, .cr2 (RAW) and check the histogram after every picture.

ISO 100 or 200.

Since you have a DSLR this is easy. Take 12 to 16 shots and exposure bracket them. Use a cable release (if you have one) and definitely select MLU.

I agree with Michael and Ken. Just try different settings and see which ones work best. If you can get your hands on a shift lens for this shooting, I'd also recommend this tool for architecture.

A spotmeter isn't a good idea for a beginner. You have to be extremely selective about where

you meter, and that selection process takes some prior knowledge and experience. Otherwise

you'll get a terrible a terrible exposure. Likewise with the histogram and nightshots. I'd go

with Ken's suggestion of bracketing and later selecting the best shot. Can't go wrong with

that one.

I have found evening to be the best time for shooting "night shots". There is about a 20

minute window that works quite well. You have about 10 or so minutes prior to sunset and

about the same amount of time after sunset when the sky or ambient light and artificial

lights more or less balance. You need to get there early to get your gear set up. Also shoot in

tungsten

mode. That gives the sky a great deep blue color. Meter off the sky just above the horizon,

adjust accordingly,

and shoot test shots during the whole session, the light changes quickly at that time of day.

Paul, why does Brent (the original poster) have to SET the WB, when he can always tweak the RAW file later?

 

-Nilangsu

Nilangsu,

 

Perhaps because RAW adds a layer of complexity that the beginner doesn't need. JPEG will work fine for him.

Sorry for the lack of response in my above (off-topic) comment. My recommendation mirrors Ken's.

 

Remembering your previous post, Brent, leave the camera in all of its default settings until you understand what they do. I don't recommend that you experiment with RAW until you are getting decent images as JPEGs. Put the camera in manual mode, and bracket the exposures just as Ken recommends. The MLU (mirror-lock up) will help alleviate vibrations, although you can try shooting without it first, and turn it on if you need it.

 

Virtually unlimited bracketing is a great benefit (and curse) of dSLRs. If you have the time, you will nail the exposure eventually. The bad news is that it can make your exposure skills rusty, or they can improve by seeing what actually works. Your mileage may vary.

BTW, since you have a tripod, I recommend using ISO-100 to limit noise.

not 18-135 but maybe 28-135 kit lens with 40D in US, using low ISO, tripod, Long expose, noise reduction - on, setting white balance, RAW file, - best regard

Also if you do a good job of locking down the camera between bracked shots you can layer them in photoshop (assumeing you have it) and creat a composite image. Lots of stuff on the net on how to do this.

 

Jason

Nilangsu, you are correct that one doesn't have to shoot in tungsten mode if one shoots in

RAW.

It is the technique I use however and I do shoot in RAW. I guess it's an old habit, shooting to

the color

balance desired, brought over from film. It does improve work flow a bit though and seems

more precise to me.

f/8. ISO 100. Tripod and cable release. Bracket exposures. You may need to combine a

couple of exposures if the dynamic range of the scene is too great.

 

Be sure to activate the long exposure noise reduction feature on the camera.

 

I'd shoot RAW to maximize the ability to adjust the images in post-processing.

 

It is a matter of taste, but I tend to worry less about "accurate" color balancing of such

photos and more about the effectiveness of the image - sometimes playing around with

the artificial light color casts is interesting.

Still waiting on those lighting shots Brent...