Tree at Night

I really like what you have achieved here, the stark branches against the night sky are really well exposed, and the stars in the back ground add to the mood. You might like to try an experiment with night photography such as this: - Increase the ISO to something like 3200, set your camera to Manual, focus to infinity, with your shot already composed, and adjust your aperture, you need about 30 seconds with it wide open, but be prepared to adjust according to the results. Ideally you need to find somewhere with little or no light pollution. The results can be really dramatic as the increased light sensitivity picks up every bit of light, including all of the stars!

Nice work Stephanie I like this image.

Best Regards

Alf

Alf-

Thanks so much for the advice and input on my photo!! I'm so excited that someone actually checked it out and liked it! I'm new to a lot of this and especially new here and a little intimidated so it's great to hear from someone!

I'll be sure to try that out! This was actually my first time trying any shots at night and as you said, I think my biggest challenge is finding a place I like away from lights. This was actually in my front yard. :) So needless to say, next time I plan to venture out a little! Again, thanks so much for the tips! I'll try it out and share what I come up with!

Best regards,

Stephanie

As Alf mentioned... experimentation is always key, and especially with night photography.  This is a great start.  I wonder how it would have looked if you tilted the camera up a bit to capture more of the sky, and less of the grass foreground.  Seems like there might be more interest in the sky and stars?

I'm a film guy, and know very little when it comes to the digital world.  But I know that increasing a film's sensitivity can work against you in areas that have light pollution, because it records that pollution in the form of "sky glow".  So many times it's actually better to shoot at a lower ISO... trying to find that "sweet spot" between capturing the light you want, that which you don't.  I think a setting of 400 ISO with an aperature of about f/2.8 to f/4 would have been plenty here.  But expeiment and see what works.  If you want to try VERY long exposures to capture star trails, (hour or two), then decrease ISO to 100 and stop down to f/5.6 or even f/8.

I noticed that you were at a 27mm focal length and had an exposure of 30 seconds.  Even without seeing the details of the shot, I could have guessed this since I can just see some trailing in the stars of Orion (upper left).  At that focal length, 22 seconds is about as long as you can expose before the stars stop looking like points, and start to noticeably trail.  Sometimes star trails can be beautiful in the right composition.  But if you want to expose as long as possible and still keep the stars looking like points, use the following equation:

600 divided by focal length = maximum exposure in seconds.  So if using a 50mm lens, 12 seconds is you max exposure.  If using 30mm, then 20 sec. is the max... and so on.  Just something else to experiment with :-)

Mike,

Thank you for your tips and your help! I'll be sure to take your advice as well and experiment with it all! You've really brought a lot of information my way, I really apprecaite it! :) And I think you make a good point...the stars would probably enhance the photo a lot! I'll be sure to try out what y'all have suggested and see what I come up with! Thank you for viewing and critiquing!

Stephanie