Night photography help: I am going to Edinburgh city center on Thursday night to take photos of the lights, the big wheel and the general atmosphere. I have not been in the habit of...

riada22 Loc: Edinburgh - Scotland

I am going to Edinburgh city center on Thursday night to take photos of the lights, the big wheel and the general atmosphere. I have not been in the habit of night photography but have read up on the basics. What settings would you use in the situation. It will not be pitch black there will be quite a bit of light.
I'm really interested to know what settings some of you would recommend.

Ched49 Loc: Pittsburgh, Pa.

Not knowing what camera you'll be using, that's something you might have to judge for yourself. Use a high iso and experiment with the shutter speed. Most cameras have a "night" photography mode, they usually work pretty well.

rpavich Loc: West Virginia

riada22 wrote:

I am going to Edinburgh city center on Thursday night to take photos of the lights, the big wheel and the general atmosphere. I have not been in the habit of night photography but have read up on the basics. What settings would you use in the situation. It will not be pitch black there will be quite a bit of light.
I'm really interested to know what settings some of you would recommend.

One thing: you have to shoot manual if you want consistency.

If you use the camera's meter, you will point it one direction, towards lights...and the exposure will be under exposed...and you will point it towards the darker areas...and it will use a massively high ISO to try and brighten those areas...you will have no consistency.

I'd shoot a few test frames..and then get a baseline exposure.

If you want to "smear" the lights creatively and so need to slow the shutter...then you'll have to lower the ISO to compensate and retain the same exposure value.

Make sense?

JoboX Loc: Liverpool UK

riada22 wrote:

I am going to Edinburgh city center on Thursday night to take photos of the lights, the big wheel and the general atmosphere. I have not been in the habit of night photography but have read up on the basics. What settings would you use in the situation. It will not be pitch black there will be quite a bit of light.
I'm really interested to know what settings some of you would recommend.

Camera
Tripod..
Remote trigger

F stop as high as you can get e.g. F22 F36
ISO 100....... reduce noise
Shutter speed vary from 30 secs to 4 or 5 mins per shot.

Have fun experimenting
Doesn't matter what camera as long as you have control of ISO Shutter speed and aperture ... I take in Manual

riada22 Loc: Edinburgh - Scotland

JoboX wrote:

Camera
Tripod..
Remote trigger

F stop as high as you can get e.g. F22 F36
ISO 100....... reduce noise
Shutter speed vary from 30 secs to 4 or 5 mins per shot.

Have fun experimenting
Doesn't matter what camera as long as you have control of ISO Shutter speed and aperture ... I take in Manual

Thanks for that, it's the general direction I was going in.

riada22 Loc: Edinburgh - Scotland

rpavich wrote:

One thing: you have to shoot manual if you want co... (show quote)

There are various points of view but I'll try anything - thanks for replying.

riada22 Loc: Edinburgh - Scotland

cjkorb wrote:

Not knowing what camera you'll be using, that's something you might have to judge for yourself. Use a high iso and experiment with the shutter speed. Most cameras have a "night" photography mode, they usually work pretty well.

Thank you.

Peter Boyd Loc: Blyth nr. Newcastle U.K.

JoboX wrote:

Camera
Tripod..
Remote trigger

F stop as high as you can get e.g. F22 F36
ISO 100....... reduce noise
Shutter speed vary from 30 secs to 4 or 5 mins per shot.

Have fun experimenting
Doesn't matter what camera as long as you have control of ISO Shutter speed and aperture ... I take in Manual

Pretty good advice except for the f-stop part. At very small apertures diffraction will cause loss of image quality, better to stick to something like f8 or f11. This will also reduce the time that the shutter has to be open, which in turn will reduce long exposure noise.

riada22 Loc: Edinburgh - Scotland

Peter Boyd wrote:

Pretty good advice except for the f-stop part. At very small apertures diffraction will cause loss of image quality, better to stick to something like f8 or f11. This will also reduce the time that the shutter has to be open, which in turn will reduce long exposure noise.

Funnily enough I was looking through the internet last night and there were some that agreed with F22 etc and others that agreed with you Peter, I shall have some practice tonight before the event.

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

Please post some of your results!
My daughter is going to attend Heriot-Watt university next semester.

Peter Boyd Loc: Blyth nr. Newcastle U.K.

riada22 wrote:

Funnily enough I was looking through the internet last night and there were some that agreed with F22 etc and others that agreed with you Peter, I shall have some practice tonight before the event.

That's always the best way to learn, and experience gained is never forgotten. Good luck with the shoot, I love Edinburgh.
Pete.

jimmya Loc: Phoenix

riada22 wrote:

I am going to Edinburgh city center on Thursday night to take photos of the lights, the big wheel and the general atmosphere. I have not been in the habit of night photography but have read up on the basics. What settings would you use in the situation. It will not be pitch black there will be quite a bit of light.
I'm really interested to know what settings some of you would recommend.

I find doing night work, f/10 seems to be the best... at least in my experience. I put my Canon in AP to f/10 and let the camera decide the exposure time... I use ISO 100.

f/10 gives me a pretty sharp look at the lights... an example is below. Good luck

Canon t1i, f/10, 5-seconds, ISO 100

Canon t1i, f/10, 4-seconds, ISO 200

selmslie Loc: Fernandina Beach, FL, USA

riada22 wrote:

I am going to Edinburgh city center on Thursday night .... What settings would you use in the situation. ....

A tried and true starting point would be to use ISO 100 and an EV of 4. That would be about 15 seconds at f/16 or 8 sec at f/11 or 4 sec at f/8, etc. You definitely need a tripod.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposure_value for a full list of situations.

EV=4 is a good starting point. Depending on how well it is lit you might use an EV of 3 or 5.

riada22 Loc: Edinburgh - Scotland

GoofyNewfie wrote:

Please post some of your results!
My daughter is going to attend Heriot-Watt university next semester.

I will see what I get before posting, but I am hoping to get something reasonable. I stay not to far away from Herriot-Watts main building, I'm on the bus route that goes to it. I believe that they have various buildings in the Edinburgh area.

riada22 Loc: Edinburgh - Scotland

jimmya wrote:

I find doing night work, f/10 seems to be the best... at least in my experience. I put my Canon in AP to f/10 and let the camera decide the exposure time... I use ISO 100.

f/10 gives me a pretty sharp look at the lights... an example is below. Good luck

Looks good to me thank you.