Shooting at night w/ 30D....

(i hope that i'm posting in the right forum)

I'm having a hard time getting crisp/sharp images at night with my 30D and sigma

17-70mm. I'm shooting with a good tripod and using the mirror lock-up function

with timer option...

I generally try to shoot at 100iso to keep the noise down with an average

f-stop(4.5-5.6) and in manual.

I added an image that i took recently to demonstrate what i'm talking about.

details: shot in manual, at 70mm, f4.5, 13 sec exposer, ISO 100...

Is there something else that i can do...?

thanks for any info you can provide,

cheers nico

ps. any thoughts on the proper exposer of night images? I generally tend to

favor underexposing a full stop, is this correct?<div></div>

First : ) I think that you have to get closer :)

with such lens 17-70 how do you excpect that you reach that distance, your subject seems so so so far away, and you cannot achieve a good sharpeness by night from your lens, so try an other lens like 200 mm or you have to go for F 10 or even more and ISO 200 and 1/15 or 20sec.

And I am not sure that SIgma lens is so sharp neither :)

I hope I helped you :)

Let see what others have to say too :)

Biliana

Just a few things about night photography with the 30D (you are doing the right things generally):

<br><br>

1. Don't underexpose, instead expose to protect the highlights that you want to preserve.<br>

2. It's often better to take 'night' photos at twilight when there's still a bit of blue in the sky as any darker black and it just becomes featureless (you'd be better off cropping.)<br>

3. Even a 'good' tripod can waiver a little bit over many seconds - especially in wind. Sometimes a weight (bag) is useful to hang underneath or another trick is to tie a bungee cord under it that you hold down with one foot.<br>

4. Use a cable release (the timer will work just as well.)<br>

5. It can be difficult to obtain focus at night - you can do better by setting up earlier or taking a large torch to help you manually focus.<br>

6. For the distances you are using and with DOF limited by the darkness I would be tempted to go to f/8 and ISO 200.<br>

7. Enable Custom Function 2 (CF-02) which is Long Exposure Noise Reduction - this shoots a 2nd dark frame after the original one that is used to cancel out noise.<br>

8. Sometimes the haze can reduce your sharpness.<br>

9. Include only those parts of the frame where you can get some detail, generally - i.e. get closer or zoom in.<br><br>

Here's a photo showing some 30D 'night' photos. Notice many are not quite night at all. Also (to me) the least attractive once as the ones with the black sky.

I disagree with Glen's point #2. The night sky is often anything but black. The rest of his points are good, though.

<p>

I don't trust autofocus much at night. Most of what I shoot I can manually focus at infinity and leave it there. Make sure that you have a sufficiently sturdy and immobile tripod and head.

<p>

Most of all, practice practice practice. Night photography is tricky, unpredictable, and highly rewarding.

<p>

<a href="http://abandoned-alaska.com/coppermine/thumbnails.php?album=8">this is my gallery of night shots taken with my 20D</a>

<p>

<img src="http://abandoned-alaska.com/coppermine/albums/01-22-2008/normal_IMG_3743.jpg">

i tend to underexpose my night shoots because i feel that the light colored areas become too bright and even burnt if i expose correctly...

anyone have any thoughts in regards to this....?

thanks for all the good suggestions... i'll give them a shot...