PalePictures Loc: Traveling

Here's my point. I looked at his camera settings. F16 Good. ISO 800... 400 definitely better with noise. F22 Longer exposure.
His exposure was at 15 SEC as it is. That's what his Camera data says. The limitation of his camera is 30Sec without a remote. You need a meter or an app for exposures longer than 30 SEC. I use an app for my IPHONE for this with a remote.

Bottom line given all the variables that his camera says. He could either lower his ISO or he could decrease his f-stop(Higher number like F22) I did not run the number to see that it would be a 10 minute exposure.... It would probably be only 2 -5 minutes. The calculation say that his exposure would have been way over 30 seconds at ISO 100 given his current metering from the cameral. Shooting at F22(which is not needed an proven with my photo) would only increase exposure time.

My points are:

1) Lenses are alway sharper when not stopped down to F22.
2) F16 is plenty and gives plenty of depth as shown by my photo.
3) Shooting over 30 second exposure requires you to:
a) Guess
b) Meter with an external meter device.
c) use an App for you mobile device.

4) His meter readings show that there was not enough light to stop down to f22 and ISO 100 without shooting over 30 seconds period.

I just went back into his camera data to make sure I didn't misread the 15 sec exposure and not 1/15.....

One further note when you put people in the photo things get more tricky. In the prior photo example I had to take two shots from a tripod and composite them together.
The shot of the DOC was taken at 2:00P.M. with a 10 stop ND filter to get the sky and water smooth. I then had my daughter walk down the line and overlayed her onto the long exposure.

I will not dispute what anyone's settings are or what they can say they can do. What I will dispute is something that can be proven with the Physics of a known shot where the In camera settings are intact. Provided that this photo has not been darkened substantially in photoshop then I stand by my original premise.

Whoa that was long......

Yes 5 minutes was a little over the top... But anything longer than 30sec unless your prepared you can't do. (Unless you sit there with your finger held on the shutter button. LOL)

Nightski

Thank you for the wonderful lesson, Russ. I'll keep the point you made about F16 in mind. :-)

PalePictures Loc: Traveling

Your quite welcome.

Here is a chart that relates FSTOP to exposure time and equivalence.

Notice how from F16 to F22 almost doubles your exposure from 1/15 to 1/8.

Nightski

Thanks Russ, downloading it now. :-)

jteee Loc: Montana

Thank you for your comments. I took many sunset photos on this particular trip which solidified my opinion that the Rebel just doesn't do well over ISO 400. Subsequently, I now own a 6D, and am looking forward to putting it to similar tests. I had read where you should focus 1/3 into the shot, but you are suggesting about 2/3? Good info, thanks.

jteee Loc: Montana

And this is why I love this Forum. Thank you for taking the time to explain.

jteee Loc: Montana

Yes I did use a tripod (unfortunately my small SLIK travel tripod, it wasn't as stable as I would have liked for these long exposures), and a remote. I also shot with Mirror Lockup, but don't know if that helped any in this particular situation.

Nightski

JT, could you explain mirror lock up and why you chose to use it in this situation?

jteee Loc: Montana

There are others who will describe better than I, but basically the function locks the mirror up prior to releasing the shutter. This takes one more "action" out of the mix during exposure which can add movement to the camera. I use it during tripod mounted exposures to help further reduce camera vibration caused by the shutter release itself. :shock:

Nightski

I've seen that setting on my camera. I just wasn't sure what it was for. Now I have some idea. Thanks, JT.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Very lovely image! My T3i doesn't appreciate low light very much either :) And I'm also curious about the comment re focusing 2/3 of the way into a scene for max DOF.

Gauss Loc: Earth

I agree this is a pretty photo.

One thought I had was, if you don't like the noise, maybe you could take advantage of it. For example, if you have access to any post processing filters that mimic different types of old classic films, you could try one of those. Or apply some sort of texture or grain that works well with the existing noise.

Again, I think it's nice the way it is, just offering up ideas for experimentation.

infocus Loc: Australia

I like it a lot - could do with the horizon being levelled though. :thumbup:

PalePictures Loc: Traveling

This 60% in is a bit general. If there are things up front that I need more sharp I will focus 1/3 in. If everything in the foreground is silhouetted I will focus 2/3 in. This is why so many people read stuff and get it wrong. Like most things in photography it just depends.
In many cases I am more concerned about what is sharp at a distance than what is sharp in the foreground.

Typically when your doing landscapes on wide angle lenses your playing around with your focus ring just short of infinity. What I will do to make sure I'm covered is

1) Focus on 2/3 frame in lock focus and turn focus to manual.
2) Readjust camera and compose and take shot.
3) Adjust my focus ring slightly in..Take another shot.
4) Adjust my focus ring slightly out.. Take another shot.

Shooting this way on a tripod gives me lots of option. I can pick any one of three separately focused images.. depending on what I'm trying to get. I could also focus stack the images if I like(Although I've never had to do this!)


So here is my sequence I usually shoot when I shoot landscapes.

1) Camera on Tripod and do the focus thing above.
2) At each given focal length I will bracket my shot for 7 brackets on my 5D MKIII
3) Adjust focus in shoot 7 more brackets.
4) Adjust focus out and shoot 7 more brackets.


That's how I get my shot the way I want and that process gives me the ability to create HDR images if I need.

I don't use AEB when I shoot HDR. I manually bracket...This is the method that Joel Grimes uses. (That's who I got it from)

I expose under 3 stops.... Take a picture turn my dial for 3 clicks Take a picture again... Turn my dial 3 clicks...


I never look inside my camera except to compose the initial shot. I can feel the exposure clicks to know where I'm at.

I can take 21 shots of a landscape scene in less than a minute.
I don't have to even look at the back of my camera(Except for the initial composition) I know I've gotten a shot with an exposure and depth of field because of the process I followed not from my eye site.

That's the way I do it.

jteee Loc: Montana

Thanks for your comments, I appreciate you taking the time to look.