NY Night Shots...Hand Held or Tripod

[jessellobet]

Ok...so you guys have helped me with the purchase of my first EOS digital camera and first two lenses (Canon 40D,

17-55mm and 10-22mm).

 

My camera will arrive about one week before I go on a weekend trip to NY city. I am a newbie regarding photography

and I am not going to have a whole lot of time to play around with my equipment before my trip. Here are my

questions.... If I intend on taking building and typical travel shots during the day and night, when will I need a tripod?

And what types of night shots are more in need of the tripod? Also what settings should I use for which types of

shots? I know there is no substitute for trial and error...but I am trying to get a jump on the learning curve before my

trip. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[andy_szeto]

Depending on what time of day and the quality of light when you take the pictures, I would say most of the time you don't need a tripod. Besides, it's hard to find a place which is not crowded for you to use your tripod in NYC. When you get your camera, learn how to set the ISO. Don't be afraid to use ISO 800 or even 1600 for night shot (and turn on the noise reduction). With the IS lens (I assume you have the 17-55mm IS) and proper shooting technique (brace yourself, fire off a few frames rapidly, etc), you may not need a tripod. My trick, I brought a small sturdy tablepod and use the tops of the garbage can as the platform (I would not use the roof of the parked cars) instead of lugging a big tripod. Hope this helps.

[nathan_meador]

Day shots should not need a tripod. Night shots with the 10-22 will benefit from having one, or possibly using a bean bag set on solid objects, to help you get whatever angles you might want, and get good exposure at slower speeds. I've often used my camera bag set on a ledge or table when taking longer exposure shots and tripod wasn't practical.

[baivab]

In NY it's difficult to place a big tripod to shoot, as it's quite crowded. You might find some place in the "island" in Times Sq. where night shots are good. Also, try going to Jersey City, NJ (just across the Hudson river) - Exchange place for wonderful skyline shots of NY (downtown). There you can easily place your tripod. Rockfeller Center, WTC (ground zero), Wall St. NYSE are all crowded even after sunset. I second the advice of carrying a table-pod.

[tim_klimowicz]

For most night shots here in NYC that involve high contrasts (lots of lights, lots of deep shadows), I find myself using between

1/15 and 1/60 at f/1.4 at ISO 800.

 

Any slower and you'll destroy the color in the lights; any higher and you won't capture any sort of darker details.

 

Don't be afraid to let the shadows fall to black. Newbies might throw the camera on aperture priority and shoot away, but the

camera doesn't "know" that you're shooting darker scenes, and will try to pull the brightness way up by slowing down the

shutter speed to something impossible to hand-hold. This will result in blurry pictures that don't even look natural, since all the

dark colors (which should be rendered as such) are pulled way up, and the many little bits of highlights that you often find in

artificially-lit night scenes are blown way out.

 

If you're just shooting Times Square stuff, you definitely won't need a tripod, as the place is ridiculously illiuminated (almost

feels like daylight sometimes).

 

With the 17-55, I'd keep it wide open, set the camera to ISO 800, and shoot away on M, chimping to get an idea of a decent

exposure. Shoot RAW, of course, so that you can adjust the tricky WB in post, but a good baseline for a lot of the lights here is

maybe 3200 or so.

[mneace]

I'm pretty much a newbie as well (bought our first DSLR in November) but lucky for me, or unlucky for me if you like wide open spaces, I live in NJ but work in Manhattan. Have taken quite a few pics of NYC over the last 7 months. Time Square at night will give you great pics, with your 17MM, but you will need a tripod (I like Manfrotto). No problem, just set it up at 43rd and Broadway and point it North. You can play with the exposure times and get sharp images of the building lights (if you point it up) or set it at street level and get some cool shots of blurred cabs going by and people moving about. During the day you will not need a tripod.

 

As to the tripod and such, if you are coming here I'd wait until you got here and go to the B&H store on 9th. If you are into photography you will be like a pig in s---. If you are too busy to spend time shopping, then shop online first at: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/.

 

Good luck and have a great time in the city. This is by far the greatest city on the planet! I love NY!

[mneace]

Tim is right, but I can't afford a F1.4 wide angle. I use a Sigma 10-20 4-5.6. You can't get 10MM 5.6 and 1/15 there, let alone 1/60.

[samuel_hon]

<p>You'll get away without a tripod for most shots. </p>

 

<p>If you want to take long exposures, then maybe take a <a href="http://www.joby.com/"

target="_blank">GorillaPod</a> as a compromise. Personally, I have a lightweight tripod which I can strap to my

camerabag so its there "just-in-case."</p>

 

<p>Sam</p>

 

<p>ps if you're around Battery Park as sunset, the <a

href="http://www.ritzcarlton.com/en/Properties/BatteryPark/Dining/Rise/Default.htm" target="_blank">Rise Bar</a>

has fabulous views</p>

[travismcgee]

Funny you should ask.... I took this photo two nights ago in New York when I was there on a business trip. It was hand-held at ISO 1600 on my 40D with a 24-105 f4L lens. I haven't done any work on it - I just ran it through ACR into Photoshop and converted it to a small jpeg for posting.

 

The thing that amazed me was that the building wasn't illuminated. It was almost completely dark and I could barely see it against the night sky, but the camera saw lots of detail, so don't be afraid to take photos in really low light at ISO 1600.<div></div>

[travismcgee]

By the way, be sure to drop by B&H Photo at 420 9th Ave. It's an amazing place, but just be sure to check their business hours because they close on Friday afternoons and on Saturday. Open Sunday.

 

(I have no relationship with or financial interest in B&H; it's just a cool store and worth seeing.)

[travismcgee]

One more thing...shopping at B&H is one thing, but major purchases should be made from the B&H website. Shipping out-of-state is usually cheaper than paying NY sales tax.