Night time photography
 

Today is the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, at least in the northern hemisphere; you guys from Oz can just wait for 6 months. When faced with such gloomy short days, it’s very easy to think I won’t bother taking any photos, there’s no light. I thought I’d put together some suggestions for night time subjects and some suggested settings to use.

Subject: City Skyline (at dusk)
ISO 100 4 seconds f/2.8
ISO 200 4 seconds f/4
ISO 400 4 seconds f/5.6

Subject: Floodlit Buildings
ISO 100 1 second f/4
ISO 200 1 second f/5.6
ISO 400 1 seconds f/8

Subject: Streetlit/Candlelit
ISO 100 1/2 second f/2.8
ISO 200 1/2 second f/4
ISO 400 1/2 second f/5.6

Subject: Dimly lit Interiors
ISO 100 1/4 second f/2.8
ISO 200 1/4 second f/4
ISO 400 1/4 second f/5.6

Subject: Dimly lit Street Scenes
ISO 100 1/8 second f/2.8
ISO 200 1/8 second f/4
ISO 400 1/8 second f/5.6

Subject: Brightly lit Street Scenes
ISO 100 1/15 second f/2.8
ISO 200 1/15 second f/4
ISO 400 1/15 second f/5.6

Subject: Brightly lit Shop Windows
ISO 100 1/30 second f/2.8
ISO 200 1/30 second f/4
ISO 400 1/30 second f/5.6

Subject: Fireworks
ISO 100 “B” f/5.6
ISO 200 “B” f/8
ISO 400 “B” f/11

Subject: Traffic Trails
ISO 100 20 seconds f/11
ISO 200 20 seconds f/16
ISO 400 20 seconds f/32

Subject: Fairground Rides
ISO 100 4 seconds f/16
ISO 200 2 seconds f/16
ISO 400 1 second f/16

I am assured that for lightning, the same settings as for fireworks should be used, but despite many attempts, I’ve never managed to capture lightning with a camera yet.

These settings are just suggestions, feel free to adjust as required. Remember, with digital it costs nothing to experiment and try some different settings. I’m certainly not saying this is the only way to do things, but it’s a starting point. If nothing else, I thought it may give people some ideas about possible things to take pictures of.

Regards,

Duncan

Duncan, you make a good point, as there are always photographic subjects, even in the lowest of light conditions. Also, woohoo to the shortest day of the year, cos things can only get better lol :)

Thats a pretty useful list youve posted and Im sure I'll be trying some out. A steady tripod is a must aswell, for those rather slow shutter speeds.

Thanks

ps... what settings for a double BLT sandwich? :P

I haven't done a lot of low light photography but for fireworks I found that with my Canon 20D after selecting ISO 800 the camera did just fine wide open in Aperture priority mode! This was with me only a few hundred feet from the place where they shot the fireworks.

Also the one time I've played with street lights and cars lights I found that total automatic on the camera did excellent! I was actually quite surprised.

For catching lighting, I've read that most people who don't use the special electronic triggers simply point their cameras in an appropriate direction and set up the camera for an exposure of 20 seconds or so. They then just keep triggering the shutter every 20 seconds until they happen to catch a strike. So many trees here where I live that I haven't had a chance to try :( But I do like the trees :)

great info Duncan - I really want to get out and try some low light shots now.

I did have a go at fireworks earlier in the year, but it was on a friends camera and I've yet to see the results... must get hold of those shots soon.

Iv'e never tried real low light shots. Butnow I have the settings for LAMPlight, I'll give it a go.

Thank you Duncan !

Regards

Ian

I see you've replaced your avatar, oh my!!!! I didn't think you'd take it that seriously. I'm going to be chuckling all night now.

Pub interior settings
 

In sunny day lunchtime pub lighting try ISO200, f/16, 1/50th, 35mm lens. Worked for me, though you do have to lighten the shadows a little to get the best out of the shot.

Okay I need some advice on taking shots of wildlife at night.
My camera isn't the best (If only I'd known before I bought the damn thing!!)
It's a Konica Minolta Dimage A200. I have one shot of a woodmouse in my gallery and it shows how bad my photography is!! Admittedly it was at night with only my built in flash with red-eye reduction, and the outside light on which is about 100 watts almost 10ft away. I live in the middle of a forest and get many night time visitors, badgers, foxes deer, etc,and would love to photograph them, but I don't think my camera is up to it :(
Help any advice welcome.
Jo

Jo,

I have just had a little tweek on the contrast and that has made the image less flat.

Night time is difficult as you have to introduce light a bit at a time to keep your visitors. Attatch a link to my Badger shot which was lit by 3 60watt bulbs. The Badgers were enticed to the spot with raisins ( they love them, and will spend a bit of time there if you spinkle them around ). I had to wind the ISO setting up to max though and that is visible as noise in the dark parts of the image.

http://www.worldphotographyforum.com...ewreply&p=1518

Your tweeked image attatched.

Hopefully we will draw an expert in.

Don

Many thanks Don for your advice :)
I think that maybe all my images need more than tweaking!!
I actually just saw your badger shot before I came back to this thread, How weird is that?! Actually I thought you may have used peanuts ;)
Cheers
Jo

Raisins are the thing. Its the fact that they are sweet. Once tasted by a badger they will ignore peanuts until all raisins are gone.

They only started digging our lawn up after squirrels started burying peanuts. Untill then no holes at all. Don't forget to leave out water as well. They normally get all their liquid from eating earthworms, so if ground is hard they suffer from lack of water. In a hot dry summer lack of water can kill more than any one other thing.

Let us know how you get on with the tweaks.

Don

Thanks Duncan, have copy & pasted. Today here in Oz in Eastern Victoria it is 38 degree celsius with a hot northerly wind, so winter solstice sounds ok today... regards embe

Night time photography - owls
 

I want to try some night photography of our local owls, however in order to get the camera (Canon 20D + 100-400 L IS + 550EX Flash) to autofocus I need to illuminate the owls. I am thinking of purchasing a head torch as that way it will leave my hands free for the camera.

Before I spend £40 to 60 I was wondering if anyone else had used a head torch and if so what make/light output/bulb type/etc they could recommend.

Thanks,

Robin

Can you use manual focus? If the owls are perched in the same places then you can setup your gear and get the manual focus right using your torch even before the owls get there. If you use a wide aperture, with the resulting large depth of field, you may be able to estimate the range sufficently well.

I purchased a Rolson head torch at a farmers market.cost £10.It has one bright yellow light,and it can be changed to a blue light(3 small bulbs make the blue light and one for the yellow) 4 bulbs in all.Haven't used it yet,it is for the summer when I take shots of the moon across the sea,late in the evening.

Frank, I do understand from a birding collegue that owls regularly use the same perch and so your idea would work, in fact it would probably be better than using a torch directly on the owl, however, at present I am not familair enough with my local owls to know which perches they use. I will try a headtorch to begin with and then try your method when i am more familiar with their regular perches.

Thanks,

Robin