Night photography

[Frank Lopes]

have you tried to shoot at night? with no flash?
Let's see what you have captured.

If you know, please post the technical details of the photograph.
Specially camera make and model, lens, aperture, speed and ISO and did you use a tripod or not.

Here is one that I shot some time ago:

Camera: Nikon D70s
Lens: Nikon Nikkor 18-70mm
Aperture: f/10
Speed: 2.5s
ISO: 400
Tripod: Yes
Location: N42.368558 W71.062982

[Janet Petty]

I have three night shots that I sort of like. They were all taken at the same place (as is obvious )

The first one was set at ISO 100, F6.3, 32 mm, for 1.3 seconds

The second one was set at ISO 1600, F4, 55 mm, for 1/1000 of a second

The third one was set at ISO 1600, F18, 24 mm, for 1/6 of a second

All three were experiments in using speed, light, and ISO combinations together to produce different effects. One and three were shot with a tripod. Number two was not. I caught it just before the carousel began to move.

Thanks for the play.

Janet

[Frank Lopes]

Your ISO 1600 shots seem very clean, meaning very low noise.

What PP have you done if any?
What camera did you use?

Originally Posted by Janet Petty

I have three night shots that I sort of like. ...
The first one was set at ISO 100, F6.3, 32 mm, for 1.3 seconds
The second one was set at ISO 1600, F4, 55 mm, for 1/1000 of a second
The third one was set at ISO 1600, F18, 24 mm, for 1/6 of a second
...
Janet

[Janet Petty]

The only noise removal I did was in camera raw. I bumped up the sharpening so that I could remove the noise without too much loss of detail. It seems to work better for me doing it in camera raw than using Neat Image.

My camera is a Canon 40D with a 24-105 mm L lens.

One other interesting note from that night is that one of the students in the class got the dreaded error 99 just as we were beginning the evening. Since she was on my watch, so to speak, she practiced with my camera most of the evening. The only shots I managed was before the students got to the park and after they went home. It was a great evening with lots and lots of photo ops for the students. Night time photos rock.

Janet

[L33t]

Ofcourse there's no noises when size reduce...

try the original size and see how much noises but on high-end camera you probably won't see any.

[TayMelissa]

Night photos are really increadible!
I'm a newbie regarding photography - I mean real photography not just taking pictures like everyone does - but i adore taking pictures without flash when it is dark!
The lence is kept open for a longer time and you can kinda draw with the light

[davesphotoart]

This was shot on a Canon 20D using a 50mm lens. f3.2 1/125sec @1600 iso. No noise reduction. Heavy PP in Photoshop.

[Dave.Cox]

I shot some fireworks at night some years ago. At the time I was still shooting with film, and used the bulb setting on the camera. I haven't tried it in a very long time though.

Any way, I was playing around with the levels on your shot to bring out the lights a bit more.

[Frank Lopes]

Good for you.
Looks terrific.

Originally Posted by Dave.Cox

Any way, I was playing around with the levels on your shot to bring out the lights a bit more.

[Frank Lopes]

Do you mind sharing what you did in Photoshop?

Originally Posted by davesphotoart

This was shot on a Canon 20D using a 50mm lens. f3.2 1/125sec @1600 iso. No noise reduction. Heavy PP in Photoshop.

[JenLongo]

im terrible with night photos! Mine always turn out very noisy. I am not good yet with night exposure. These all look very nice!

[Frank Lopes]

The reason why sometimes night shots are noisy, has to do with the fact that most of us forget that the camera, detecting very little light, automatically increases the ISO as high as it needs to go so the shutter speed is not so slow to the point of making the images blurry.

Remember, the higher the ISO, the more sensitive the camera will be to light, but the more noise it will create.

The way to solve this "conundrum", is to:
1 - manually set the camera to a low ISO
2 - use a tripod to stabilize the camera

Give it a try and let us know how it goes.

Originally Posted by JenLongo

...
Mine always turn out very noisy.
...