Night Time Theatre
Stef C
Loc: Conshohocken (near philly) PA
i meant mine was.. hahah i just edited it to say that
Would it be possible to photograph the theater like Xmas lights and do it when the sky is still a dark blue just prior to it becoming black??
Just a thought. The excellent photographers here would know the answer to this one.
Gordon
flyguy
Loc: Las Cruces, New Mexico
May I post a similar image of mine?
It's a shot of a theater marque taken at night without a tripod and shot at an ISO of 3200.
-yeah, like that tungsten wb suggestion, also, using a tripod is great idea, try using a remote shutter release- my big finger on that little button always seemed to move the camera a touch (little joke on words there)- please send more of your results of the suggestions you try --- thanks, -- tg
Stef C
Loc: Conshohocken (near philly) PA
drobbia wrote:
-yeah, like that tungsten wb suggestion, also, using a tripod is great idea, try using a remote shutter release- my big finger on that little button always seemed to move the camera a touch (little joke on words there)- please send more of your results of the suggestions you try --- thanks, -- tg
I did use a tripod and a 2 second delay. I don't think there is anything wrong with the clarity of the image that has to do with movement. I think there was just too much light coming in, or not enough depending on which photo you were looking at.
I will try the tungtsen/WB thing my next chance.
Thank you for your help,
Stef C
Loc: Conshohocken (near philly) PA
flyguy wrote:
May I post a similar image of mine?
It's a shot of a theater marque taken at night without a tripod and shot at an ISO of 3200.
Please do :)
Lucian
Loc: From Wales, living in Ohio
You don't need high ISO if you have a sturdy tripod, you don't need ND filters either. An ND filter is only used when you have no other way to reduce the light, as in the scene is too bright for a longer shutter and you already have the ISO set to the lowest and your aperture is maxes out, yet you need that longer time to, for example, make water look flowing.
Also be sure you have turned off your image stabilization when on a tripod (though I'm sure you did). You'd be surprised how much you can shorten your exposure when shooting lighted signs.
Your camera may allow for a double in camera exposure and if so you could do 2 individual exposures at different ends of the limits and have the camera blend the two images. The N ikon D7000 does this for example.
Otherwise it is simple in photoshop to blend these two images. You don't need huge f-stops either for such a close looking sign and building, f16 should have been plenty, unless you were on a long telephoto of course.
Stef C
Loc: Conshohocken (near philly) PA
Lucian wrote:
You don't need high ISO if you have a sturdy tripod, you don't need ND filters either. An ND filter is only used when you have no other way to reduce the light, as in the scene is too bright for a longer shutter and you already have the ISO set to the lowest and your aperture is maxes out, yet you need that longer time to, for example, make water look flowing.
Also be sure you have turned off your image stabilization when on a tripod (though I'm sure you did). You'd be surprised how much you can shorten your exposure when shooting lighted signs.
Your camera may allow for a double in camera exposure and if so you could do 2 individual exposures at different ends of the limits and have the camera blend the two images. The N ikon D7000 does this for example.
Otherwise it is simple in photoshop to blend these two images. You don't need huge f-stops either for such a close looking sign and building, f16 should have been plenty, unless you were on a long telephoto of course.
You don't need high ISO if you have a sturdy tripo... (
show quote)
Thank you ^^^.
I wanted to have the lights from traffic streaking through, which is why i needed the f-stop so high... does that make sense?
If you shoot a few RAW images and post them someone will produce a nice tonemapped HDR from a single RAW file.
Please take a minute to go look at
http://www.stuckincustoms.com for additional inspiration and insight.
Bobber
Loc: Fredericksburg, Texas
The two photos you have contain the data to create from them a single photo with the best features of both on display.
I played with them in Photo Shop and laying the one with the better exposed central area on top in layers, then by using a layer mask revealed the better exposed outer areas by "painting" over them, thus letting them through blended with top layer.
This process also revealed that the camera on its tripod got moved slightly between shots forcing me to not only have to move one layer respective to the other, but to also use Edit/transform/distort for a match up.
I can post the combo picture, if you like.
Lucian
Loc: From Wales, living in Ohio
Nope the high f-stop does not make sense, since that is not what will give you light streaks. It is a slow shutter speed that will give you light streaks and the correct exposure for such a shot is dependent first on low light and secondly on the f-stop to achieve this. But forst you want low light then play with aperture but nothing will work if you dod not have a slow shuter speed, so that is what is most important.
Now if you are saying you need to use the high f-stop to achieve the slow shutter speed then I understand, coupled of course with low ISO.
Try a Graduated ND filter, with the 'dark' part of the filter over the blown out text & the lower part of the building.
I took both of these with the settings I mentioned earlier ...
Aperture priority, manual focus, f/18, ISO 100, 30 sec exposure... WB .. tungsten
about 2 miles away
Stef C! I would take an exposure reading on the marquee signs that you want the sharpest - make the photograph in the early evening - and the outline of the building should be visible - just make sure there is some sort of lightness to the sky behind the theater. Bracket your exposures - shoot some at more time and some with less time from the exact same spot. Then if a single exposure doesn't do it, you can make sandwich in your photo app for the HDR mentioned before! IMHO!
Not just to be gruesome, but you may already know you're photographing a funeral. So many of the old theaters are dying out due to the digital revolution and home theaters people are building.
Years ago we documented many of the old theaters in Chicago, and, OMG, they were fabulous! The lavish chandeliers from the ceilings and velvet draperies...wow!
We'll probably never see facilities like these again. Nice work. Don't stop now!
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