Fuzzy street lamps: I tried to take some night pictures of some ornate street lamps but only got pictures of fuzzy white blobs as I have no inkling on how to do this. Tried the...

trapper1 Loc: Southside Virginia

I tried to take some night pictures of some ornate street lamps but only got pictures of fuzzy white blobs as I have no inkling on how to do this. Tried the "Search" box here on UHH but could not come up with what I feel I need to know to take such pictures. Would appreciate someone aiming me in the right direction as to the techniques for taking such pictures that are sharp and clear.

Tea8 Loc: Where the wind comes sweeping down the plain.

Well it would be good to see one of the fuzzy pics to see what might be the problem. For starters, camera on a tripod. Then it kind of depends on what all in the scene you're imagining that you want the viewer to see and see clearly.

Ched49 Loc: Pittsburgh, Pa.

The best way to get intelligent answers to questions is to post a picture of the problem. My first guess is atmospheric conditions, if it's the least bit foggy or damp outside, your going to get fuzzy looking lights.

Chuck B

Yes, please post a picture.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

and store the image file attachment.

Drip Dry McFleye

In my experiments with making photos of the moon on a clear night I found that the moon turns into a fur ball when you over expose it. You pretty much have to let everything else go black to get the moon to be well defined and sharp edged. I decreased my exposure a little at a time until I got the result I wanted. I'm sure others will have more to add to the discussion.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

trapper1 wrote:

I tried to take some night pictures of some ornate street lamps but only got pictures of fuzzy white blobs as I have no inkling on how to do this. Tried the "Search" box here on UHH but could not come up with what I feel I need to know to take such pictures. Would appreciate someone aiming me in the right direction as to the techniques for taking such pictures that are sharp and clear.

Some more information and a picture (please click store original) would help.

What type of camera? How was it set? Were you using a tripod?

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

trapper1 wrote:

I tried to take some night pictures of some ornate street lamps but only got pictures of fuzzy white blobs as I have no inkling on how to do this. Tried the "Search" box here on UHH but could not come up with what I feel I need to know to take such pictures. Would appreciate someone aiming me in the right direction as to the techniques for taking such pictures that are sharp and clear.

If you want to get lights with detail AND what those lights are illuminating, then you will need two exposures - one where the lights look fine and everything else is black, and one where the lights are blobs, but everything else is ok. Merge the two images either manually with masking, or use an HDR merge program like Photomatix, Lightroom or Photoshop.

Normally I suggest posting a sample image, but in this case it's pretty easy to suggest a solution without seeing a sample. Your description is clear enough.

Leitz Loc: Solms

trapper1 wrote:

I tried to take some night pictures of some ornate street lamps but only got pictures of fuzzy white blobs as I have no inkling on how to do this. Tried the "Search" box here on UHH but could not come up with what I feel I need to know to take such pictures. Would appreciate someone aiming me in the right direction as to the techniques for taking such pictures that are sharp and clear.

Please do post a picture, because none of us mugs here have enough sense of imagination to even begin to visualise what a fuzzy white blob looks like.
I'm sure you care enough for the UHH to have read the rules (AKA recommendations) and know better than to post pictures in main discussion - Admin may move them to the appropriate section.
I hope this will help: https://expertphotography.com/15-tips-night-street-photography/

Plieku69 Loc: The Gopher State, south end

Manual focus. With auto focus the camera will focus on the bright light. You need to focus on the lamp fixtures.
I learned the lesson the hard way this past summer taking head on shots of UP 4014.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Wrong metering setting?
Averaging (and others) will blow out the lamp because there is so much dark in the image.
Try spot metering on the lamp to see how that changes things and go from there.

Tomfl101 Loc: Mount Airy, MD

Gene51 wrote:

If you want to get lights with detail AND what tho... (show quote)

What Gene said. That will do it. 👍👍👍

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Without seeing the picture, I bet the scene was properly exposed, so the lights were overly bright. I look forward to seeing the image posted.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

jerryc41 wrote:

Without seeing the picture, I bet the scene was properly exposed, so the lights were overly bright. I look forward to seeing the image posted.

Then there is a good chance it wasn't properly exposed.

margaretnewell

trapper1 wrote:

I tried to take some night pictures of some ornate street lamps but only got pictures of fuzzy white blobs as I have no inkling on how to do this. Tried the "Search" box here on UHH but could not come up with what I feel I need to know to take such pictures. Would appreciate someone aiming me in the right direction as to the techniques for taking such pictures that are sharp and clear.

I do this often. Put your camera on a tripod, camera in manual mode, aperture at f/22 and as low ISO as possible for correct exposure.