Night Photography

[ev]

Hi,

 

 

Where taking pictures of a night, do you always have to use a flash.

I have tried without a flash and the pics came out black.

 

How is the best way to take pictures of the moon, stars street lights

etc.

 

I have a nikon EM with a basic nikon 50mm lens, plus I have a 100mm

200mm sigma zoom lens.

 

I only have a uv filter, and a basic flash unit.

 

And do I need some other lens to do the trick????

Any ideas?

 

 

Thanks Evelyn

[richard_laepple]

Hi Evelyn. Forget your flash, it doesn't reach the moon :-) and you can't brighten up wohle streets. You can only use it for near objects. The results are often disapointing because flashlight often destroys night scenes: the front is un-natural bright, the background is deep black. When your're e.g. downtown and there is enough light (shop windows, pubs, street lights...) you can usually take handshots with fast film ISO 400-800 at about 1/15s-1/30s, f2.8-f4. But you have to hold your camera very tight, leaning your body at a wall perhaps. This is ok if you don't want razor sharp images. If you want sharp results you need a tripod and a cable release at your camera. BTW, IMO sharpness is not the big point for night street images. Try to catch colors. A spot meter is very helpful to measure the brightest areas. When you're camera doesn't allow spot meetering (the EM doesn't I think), get a handheld meter. Moon photography is something special. You need a long tele lens. It's not my field. Others can surely tell you more. Have fun.

[richard_laepple]

Hi again. I want to add, that you're dailight film is not made for electric bulb light. Without filter you get very warm yellow to orange colors. You can either use a special film for bulb light or a blue filter. I prefer a light blue filter (KB6), because it transforms only a part of the bulb light. The results are warmer than with the darker blue filter (mostly KB12), but not too warm. With this kind of filter the film needs about one f-stop more light.

[todd peach seattle, washi]

Hi Ev -

<p>

Here's a link to a Kodak publication that will get you 'in the ballpark' on exposures / films:<br>

<a href="http://www.kodak.com/cluster/global/en/consumer/products/techInfo/ac61/index.shtml">http://www.kodak.com/cluster/global/en/consumer/products/techInfo/ac61/index.shtml</a>

<p>

For most night work, I wouldn't use the filter (it can add extra ghost reflections from streetlights, etc.) You'll probably want a tripod and a cable release if you're going to do much of this.

[the_macman]

Tripod and long exposures.

[larry n.]

There is no trick. You just have to get the exposure right. The EM isn't ideal for this because it doesn't have a manual mode or a spot meter, but it can be done. When photographing a night scene with lots of street lights, the lights might cause the camera to under-expose. Solution: bracket +1. (For example, if the camera indicates 1/2 sec at f/4, take another shot at 1 sec and f/4.)

 

As for the moon, the proper exposure is the same as for a sunny day. For example, f/16, 1/60 sec and 100 ASA film would work. Of course if there is something else in the picture (for example a building), it will be underexposed. No way around that. If you expose for the building, the moon will be overexposed. Of course, you need a long telephoto if you want the moon to be bigger than a spec on the film. 300mm minimum.

[efusco]

Ev,

First, there are any number of photography books exclusively dedicated to this type of photography. I suggest that if this is an interest of yours that you buy one of them and read it. The all come with helpful tables that give good starting points for exposure length and apertures to use for various night and low light shots.

 

Second, go out and experiment with long exposures. At night it is hard to over expose a scene. Even though the difference b/w 1/60 sec and 1/125 sec. exposure is 1-stop, at long exposures the time difference is much greater for a given stop (ie. 1 sec - 2 sec is one stop). Many shots require exposures of many seconds (15-30) or even minutes in length depending on the subject (star circles).

 

Finally,

New York Institute of Photography always has some nice articles. Look at

 

http://www.nyip.com/sub_idx_pgs/referidx/ref_technique_idx.html

 

Scroll down to near the bottom of the page and you'll find a 6 part article dedicated to low light photography that should give you a very solid foundation to see if this is your bag of tricks.

--evan

[Jerry_]

With a 1000mm f11 Reflex-Nikkor for the moon, any other lens for your subject, and a bit of work in Photoshop LE, you can get:

 

The camera you have is the limiting factor. Any Nikon with a manual set of shutter speeds would be better (F, F2, FM2, FM2n, F3, F4.) A tripod is needed, as is a long lens. You can use ISO 100 film if the sky is clear enough.<div></div>

[harry_akiyoshi]

A tripod is a good investment. The EM with a 50mm lens (usually the best choice because of it's larger aperture) is fairly light, and doesn't demand much of a tripod, so it shouldn't cost you too much.

 

As others have said, there are some advantages to using a camera that allows manual shutter speed selection, but what no one so far has said is that there are advantages to using an EM. On most cameras, you meter, set a shutter speed, and then press the shutter release; the shutter goes off at the preset speed. On the EM, however, shutter speed isn't determined before you take the picture. As soon as the shutter opens, a sensor starts reading the intensity of the light hitting the film plane; when the sensor determines that enough light has been collected, the shutter closes. While most manual cameras can only meter down to 1/4 or 1/8 of a second with 400 ISO film, the EM can make exposures out to a couple of minutes or so at least. With very small amounts of light (or very small apertures) it could conceivably sit there forever, because the intensity of light could dip below the sensing threshhold of the sensor. But usually it works fine. I'll try to attach a picture I've taken this way. The basic idea is that you put the camera on a tripod, set the camera to AUTO, press the shutter and wait until it closes. You don't know beforehand how long it will be until you get better at guessing.

 

I think Ken Rockwell has a good article on this somewhere.<div></div>

[robert_m_johnson]

Here is a night shot shot with a 50mm nikkor at 15th of a sec with Tri-x hand

held.

 

http://www.photo.net/photo/1160404&size=lg

[ev]

Thanks everyone for your help. Ive just gotton to read the responses as My internet was disconnected the day after I asked the questions.

 

 

Thanks :0)

 

Evelyn