How to: Take night pictures/Low light.

[6i9]

6i9 you are a photography god

Duh.

[intence]

can we some examples of your work 6i9?

[6i9]

Give me a G5 and I'll show you how it's done.

[G. P. Burdell]

Great thread. I have a couple of things to add:

Noise Reduction: If your camera offers a Noise Reduction (NR) feature, turn it on for night shots. Some cameras apply it automatically, but you have to activate NR manually on others. If you don't, you may notice hot pixels (random blue/red specks) in the final image.

If you forget to turn on NR, there is a way to remove these hot pixels in Photoshop. You take a dark frame with the lens cap on, preferably during the same session as when you took the pictures you want to fix. Then, you subtract the dark frame from the affected images. Here's a link that shows you how to do it:

http://www.astromart.com/articles/ar...article_id=185

I used this technique with good results on some recent night photos where my camera's battery power was so low that the camera didn't apply NR processing to the images.

Batteries: Have a fresh set of batteries in your camera and a spare set in your pocket when taking night shots - keeping the shutter open and NR processing both require a lot of juice. Also, shooting in very cold temperatures can reduce lithium batteries' run-time, so keep your spares warm.

Mirror Anti-Shock: Some digital SLRs have a mode where the mirror will flip up a fraction of a second before the shutter opens. This reduces vibration due to mirror slap. Turn this on, too, for night exposures.

Tripod: Don't cheap out on a tripod if you can help it. A good, stable tripod makes for better images and protects your investment since it's less likely to tip over in a strong wind. Make sure the tripod you select is rated to support the weight of the equipment you want to put on it. Bogen/Manfrotto and Gitzo are two excellent tripod manufacturers.

[6i9]

Great thread. I have a couple of things to add:

Noise Reduction: If your camera offers a Noise Reduction (NR) feature, turn it on for night shots. Some cameras apply it automatically, but you have to activate NR manually on others. If you don't, you may notice hot pixels (random blue/red specks) in the final image.

If you forget to turn on NR, there is a way to remove these hot pixels in Photoshop. You take a dark frame with the lens cap on, preferably during the same session as when you took the pictures you want to fix. Then, you subtract the dark frame from the affected images. Here's a link that shows you how to do it:

http://www.astromart.com/articles/ar...article_id=185

I used this technique with good results on some recent night photos where my camera's battery power was so low that the camera didn't apply NR processing to the images.

Batteries: Have a fresh set of batteries in your camera and a spare set in your pocket when taking night shots - keeping the shutter open and NR processing both require a lot of juice. Also, shooting in very cold temperatures can reduce lithium batteries' run-time, so keep your spares warm.

Mirror Anti-Shock: Some digital SLRs have a mode where the mirror will flip up a fraction of a second before the shutter opens. This reduces vibration due to mirror slap. Turn this on, too, for night exposures.

Tripod: Don't cheap out on a tripod if you can help it. A good, stable tripod makes for better images and protects your investment since it's less likely to tip over in a strong wind. Make sure the tripod you select is rated to support the weight of the equipment you want to put on it. Bogen/Manfrotto and Gitzo are two excellent tripod manufacturers.

I've never herad of the Mirror Anti-shock feature.

Good info

[G. P. Burdell]

Mirror anti-shock mode is accessible through the custom functions menu on Nikon digital SLRs, and probably Canons too. It's similar to the mirror lock-up function on professional film SLRs.

EDIT: It's anti-mirror-shock mode, not "mirror anti-shock mode." I keep getting that wrong.

[6i9]

Mirror anti-shock mode is accessible through the custom functions menu on Nikon digital SLRs, and probably Canons too. It's similar to the mirror lock-up function on professional film SLRs.

EDIT: It's anti-mirror-shock mode, not "mirror anti-shock mode." I keep getting that wrong.

Oh okay cool. My friend may be getting a DSLR soon, so I'll check it out.

[tEckniks]

good thread... why did you have this 2 years ago.. all the pics i took back then sucked azz.. as you can see in my sig

[cleoent]

GP thanks, lots of good info on this thread!

[bread320i]

lets see some good night pictures im hungry for some

[cleoent]

I added a link to the first post, at the bottom.

[Carzzi]

Yeah some DSLRs have the feature where you can select a "mirror-lockup" to reduce the vibe.
Also, try to avoid using the optical zoom on popular point-and-shoot cameras for night shots. The aperture reduces quite a few stops at full zoom. Most 3X zooms have an aperture of f/2.8 at wide-angle and this reduces in most cases to f/4.8, which is a smaller aperture. Smaller apertures require longer shutter-times in very low light situations, than the camera might be able to offer.

Notable exceptions are the FZ3 & FZ20. These Leica lens-equipped "point and shoot" cameras maintain their aperture at f/2.8 all through their 12X (!) optical zoom range. Also, these cameras feature gyro-controlled optical lens stabilization, to compensate for hand-shake, allowing lower shutter speeds than ordinarily optimal for handheld shooting.

[apr43]

shutter speed stays open for longer, and the tripod is because a human cannot hold the camera still for as long as it needs to stay open. and naw, night pictures have been around for a while, especially with japananese cars, thats what alot of em are, racing at night and all. if anyone needs to know anything photo related, my girlfriend is a photography genius, so she would know it all.

[alanhenson]

And umm... this works with flesh tones also right?

[6i9]

And umm... this works with flesh tones also right?

Try it and post some pics...

[Ahven]

Tripod is useful and long shutter time (1-5 seconds).

[Yuen]

This thread is awesome, thanks to the guys who contributed! It will definitely help a lot of us..

[ClintonM3]

Can someone teach me how to take extreme close-ups, i think is called macro photography.

[Krieg]

Can someone teach me how to take extreme close-ups, i think is called macro photography.

Your camera should have a Macro option which is represented by usually a little Flower or you can go to Manuel mode and Manuelly focus. Press the shutter button down half way and you should see the diffrence. It would help if you specified which camera you have so I would tell you exactlly what to press.

[TIATO]

Just noticed this post. Very good basic info here However let me expand on some things namely vibration reducing techniques and procedures. Vibration will manifest itself in soft ior blurry images.

Tripod - While any tripod is better than none, a heavier tripod will be better than a light one. A larger unit is able to better absorb vibrations.

If you have a short tripod, dont ever extend the center collum to its max as they wobble like crazy.

If its windy if if you want further vibration reduction, hang your camera bag or small bean bag fron the tripod center. This will help steady the tripod even more.

Remote Camera Release - AKA Cable release. Good investment. The second you press the shutter button and release it you already have incured some vibration. To get around this, most mid end DSLR will have remote shutter release options. P/S based digicams sre shipped with a remote control. While they wont allow you to set bulb times, they allow you to trip the shutter wihout having to touch the camera.

Another trick is to use the cameras self timer.

[TIATO]

Your camera should have a Macro option which is represented by usually a little Flower or you can go to Manuel mode and Manuelly focus. Press the shutter button down half way and you should see the diffrence. It would help if you specified which camera you have so I would tell you exactlly what to press.

What Krieg said plus take special note of your cameras minimal focusing distance. That is what really determines your cameras macro cpabilities. If your camera can only resolve subject cleary at a minimum focusing distance of 12" you will not be able to get a clear image at 10".

[SDSilverM3]

The one thing that is a major factor is the quality of light. It seems like places with nice white lights are becoming harder to find. There are many places in San Diego (and many other places) that would make awesome photoshoot spots at night but they are lit up by crappy yellow lights. Here are two examples of crappy vs decent light. I think white cars are the toughest to shoot anywhere.

[G. P. Burdell]

The one thing that is a major factor is the quality of light. It seems like places with nice white lights are becoming harder to find. There are many places in San Diego (and many other places) that would make awesome photoshoot spots at night but they are lit up by crappy yellow lights. Here are two examples of crappy vs decent light. I think white cars are the toughest to shoot anywhere.

Try playing with your camera's white balance settings. Some cameras will let you set a custom white balance so that your subject looks natural under the particular light conditions of that location. To set the custom white balance, you access that mode in your camera, then hold a white or gray card in front of the camera and press the shutter release button.

[SDSilverM3]

Try playing with your camera's white balance settings. Some cameras will let you set a custom white balance so that your subject looks natural under the particular light conditions of that location. To set the custom white balance, you access that mode in your camera, then hold a white or gray card in front of the camera and press the shutter release button.

White balance will not work under that type of yellow light. It makes everything else not absorbing that yellow light look too bluish. The only way to fix it is to Photoshop using the cooling filters and desaturate the object. You can tell by looking at the background in the first pic that I already manually white balanced the camera. The palm tree is waaaay blue since it was trying to compensate for everything else.

[MazIT]

Great thread but I have only seen one photo taken at night!! Come one guys lets see what your made of