Night Photography with Canon EOS Rebel XSi

<p>I am having trouble with night photography. I am shooting JPEG, I have the kitlens. I have it extended all the way to 55 5.6 ISO seems not to matter... They all come out blurry.<br>

I am exposing for a few minutes. The camera is on a portable table seperate from me. There is no moon.</p>

<p>Matt: We own the XSI and one thing it is not- a night camera. Add to it the 5.6 with the kit lens, and you are going to be frustrated. Are you using a remote shutter to trip the camera? You may even have to go with a tripod due to the table having a wobble. Just some ideas...</p>

<p>I am using my computer to trip it.<br>

And I was thinking that it might be the focus?</p>

<p>I used to do night photography with a great deal of success using a XT, so you should be able to do it with your XSi without much trouble.</p>

<p>The "blurry" problem you mention could be due to a variety of causes. Could you post a sample? It will be easier to zero in on the specific issue if we can see one.</p>

<p>Focusing in complete darkness is very difficult. Are you certain that you are actually focused on your subject. If possible, take a small bright light into the scene and focus on that - then turn off autofocus while being careful not to change the focus setting on the lens. Another option is to try a couple additional shots with the lens manually focused just a bit closer and just a bit farther away. In some cases you might also try first getting focus by shooting a frame with flash and then switching to manual focus without moving the focus ring.</p>

<p>f/5.6 should be a decent aperture for shooting night photography. If you are doing tripod-based long-exposure work a good general starting point is to shoot at the same aperture and ISO that you would use for daytime photography of the same scene, and then increase exposure time to get enough light to the sensor. f/8 might be a good option as well, though that will obviously double the (already long) exposure time.</p>

<p>I'm not certain what happens on very long exposures if you have image-stabilization (IS) engaged, but you should go ahead and turn it off in any case. It will not provide any positive value for such long exposures.</p>

<p>The ideas about wobbly tables are worth considering. Even a bit of wind can move the camera enough over long exposures to introduce blur. And, yes, do use a remote release if you have one.</p>

<p>Although it is not related to your "blurry" issue, you should also turn on the long exposure noise reduction feature of your camera.</p>

<p>A good source for a ton of night photography information is the web site of the <a href="http://www.thenocturnes.com/">The Nocturnes</a> , the San Francisco Bay Area night photography group.</p>

<p>Good luck,</p>

<p>Dan</p>

<p><img src="http://gdanmitchell.com/gallery/d/1792-1/MINSYGreenWindows2007_03_03.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p>Thank you so much Dan, I just remembered what I was doing wrong! I forgot to turn IS off. After all the research I have done on this I can't believe I made am mistake like that. Thank you!</p>

Dan, nice work :) Looks like CGI ;-)

<p>By the way, I failed to mention it is star photography. But I do believe that IS being on was the problem, I am running another exposure now to hopefully narrow it down.</p>

<p>Well, The picture still came out blurry. It was 6min at ISO 200 f5 about 40mm. <img src="http://cid-60adb67043dd6c1c.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Canon%20Rebel%20XSi/DPP%7C_0032.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p><a href="http://cid-60adb67043dd6c1c.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Canon%20Rebel%20XSi/DPP%7C_0032.jpg">http://cid-60adb67043dd6c1c.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Canon%20Rebel%20XSi/DPP%7C_0032.jpg</a></p>

<p>Matt ... the earth is rotating while you take your image ... so with an exposure time in the minutes, you will get star trails.</p>

<p>For this kind of photography you need:<br>

- A tripod<br>

- to switch off IS (as you gathered).<br>

- Focus to infinity and switch off AF (switch to MF).<br>

- At 50mm use an exposure time of no longer than 8 seconds (if stars shall be dots)</p>

<p>I used f/2 5seconds 800iso and got reasonable results ...<br>

since you only have f/5.6 (3 stops slower than f/2), you should use 3200iso and 8seconds along with f/5.6</p>

<p>By the way ... if you cannot focus to infinity reliably ... take several shots and modify the focus setting slightly (stay in MF).</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Some great advuce already given, this may not or may be relevant to your lens. When aimed upwards or down at an angle some lenses have a tendency to creep. That is gravity will pull an element down and cause focus changes especially long exposures. Some tape their lenses, I`d use that bluetack stuff to prevent the lens moving while shooting. also if you have no tripod try sitting the camera on something like a bag of rice to adsorb any vibrations, I agree as well to shorten the shutter speed and maybe f8~11 .. HTH..;-)</p>

<p>No matter what camera you have, it will not autofocus in the dark. Try focusing it maually before you trip the shutter. Also use the lowest ISO and a higer f-stop such as f-11 or f-16, this will give you greater depth of field.</p>

<p>Much good advise here. The only thing I've read I disagree with is high ISO<br>

"since you only have f/5.6 (3 stops slower than f/2), you should use 3200iso and 8seconds along with f/5.6"<br>

3200 is a recipe for major noise in a dark sky. 100 will minimize noise.<br>

I've found that focusing just shy of infinity yields sharper images.<br>

A stable platform must be priority 1. The bag of rice idea sounds interesting, I might have to try that one.<br>

I also shoot almost exclusively (at night anyway) at f/8 - f/11 as that is the sweet spot for sharpness in low to mid level zooms and gives more depth of field than wider open. Adjust shutter speed as needed to get a centered histogram - ignore the lcd display.<br>

IS definitely OFF. Use the mirror lock-up too.<br>

Good luck, when you get it right it'll be worth it!</p>

<p><a href="http://www.photo.net/photo/9390791">http://www.photo.net/photo/9390791</a></p>

<p>Ok. I shot a few in RAW last night, and I did not have the lens cap on yet they all came out brown.<br>

My question is, could this be light entering from the viewfinder?<br>

I have my laptop on a different table but next to my camera so I am thinking that light from my screen is getting into the Sensor...</p>

<p>Stray light reflected from walls, street lights etc can affect the front element but the rear viewfinder is blocked by the mirror during exposure. Are you using a lenshood? they help to reduce stray light. If you don`t have onr you can make your own. (link courtesy af another PN member) :) PS check the WB and alter to suit when converting Raw for best result ..HTH<br>

http://www.lenshoods.co.uk/</p>

 

<p>I took another photograph. IT was completely black. No stars at all. ISO 200 5min shutter and f5.6 I think I will invest in the 50 1.8.. Seems like light isn't reaching the sensor enough...</p>

<p>I am finally getting the hangof it. Too bad clouds are in the way.... Another part of the sky maybe.</p>