low light
Sep 13, 2020 11:31:46 #
I agree that the hood is useless if the light source is directly in front of the lens. An interesting thing about light is that these new cameras with the electronic shutters 20fps. will show banding in the photos. Cheap lighting actually flickers so fast that we don't see it,yet the camera will pick this up. Have to be careful when using these fast shutter speeds. Technology has some drawbacks.
Sep 13, 2020 13:06:35 #
Nigel7
Loc: Worcestershire. UK.
Gene51 wrote:
The images are missing shutter speed and aperture ... (show quote)
A bit of a tangent to the original question but the number of blades determining the aperture of your lens effects the points making up the star burst. If your lens has an even number of blades your starburst will have that many points. If your lens has an odd number of blades the starburst will have double that number of points. If you carry several lenses you may have some extra opportunity for creative effects based on this phenomenon. Smaller apertures also make the starburst more defined.
Sep 13, 2020 13:40:30 #
Very cool--Did not realize that worked that way. Have to check that out. I usually close it down to f/18.
Sep 13, 2020 21:32:57 #
LEWHITE7747 wrote:
I agree that the hood is useless if the light source is directly in front of the lens. An interesting thing about light is that these new cameras with the electronic shutters 20fps. will show banding in the photos. Cheap lighting actually flickers so fast that we don't see it,yet the camera will pick this up. Have to be careful when using these fast shutter speeds. Technology has some drawbacks.
Not sure how fast shutters and high framing rates are being connected to discussion of night scenes that call for long exposures on a tripod.
Also if your lighting and shutter speeds cause banding with the electronic shutter, just switch to the mechanical shutter.
Sep 14, 2020 05:37:06 #
Just threw that in there to let people know the problems with shutter speed and light sources. Yes you would use mechancal shutter if banding occurs.
Sep 15, 2020 16:02:19 #
amfoto1
Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA
In some of your images there's a lot of subject movement blur from using a slow shutter speed.
In one image there is either camera shake blur... which can even happen at some shutter speeds due to "mirror slap" or the vibrations of the shutter action itself... or the image has been over-sharpened and that created some JPEG artifacts.
Parts of your images have blurred objects, especially around the boats which are obviously moving a little on the water. To use such slow shutter speeds, you may need to wait for a really still evening when the waters are as perfectly still as possible. Even then, you should try to keep shutter speeds as fast as possible.
To eliminate internal camera vibrations as much as possible, use mirror lockup or shoot from Live View (which also raises the mirror out of the way). You can't do anything about any vibration the shutter itself might cause.
I agree with the idea of shooting shortly after sunset or a little before dawn... instead of in complete darkness. This would also allow faster shutter speeds.
With your 5DS-R you also can use higher than ISO 200 to get a faster shutter speed. Next time, take multiple shots at different ISOs... With that camera you probably would have been fine using even ISO 800 or 1600. You'll just need to try and see if the results are acceptable at higher ISOs. Faster 4X to 8X faster shutter speeds would help eliminate a lot of your image problems, minimizing both camera shake and subject movement blurring.
If you need to use a higher ISO, it may be helpful to know that Canon have a Long Exposure Noise Reduction (LENR) option. However it only works on images with shutter speed 1 second or longer. And, it's very important to understand how it works, or you'll go home without any images! LENR is actually two images. The first is taken normally as you've set the camera. The second shot is of equal duration, but is done with the shutter closed. This image is then used to identify and then "subtract" any noise in the first image. You have to trip the shutter twice, to make one shot. For example, if you are making a 4 second exposure... with LENR enabled you will actually make two 4 sec. exposures, for a total of 8 seconds. If you cancel the second shot while LENR is enabled, the camera will also delete the first shot. You would need to turn off the camera or remove its battery, to cancel the second shot. Just don't forget LENR is on and try to photograph something else with that second, shutter closed "blank" shot. If you do, the first shot will be okay... but the second one you tried to take will never show up. LENR works, but needs to be used correctly or you can end up with no shots on your memory card and wondering what happened.
As some others have noted, "stars" around the lights are what a lot of people try to achieve in city night shots. That's done by stopping the lens down to a smaller aperture (f/11, f/16, f/22). However, you have to balance this against having to use longer exposures (slower shutter speeds) and/or higher ISOs to compensate for the smaller apertures.
I'd recommend you do a test directly shooting lights with your lens at different f-stops, to learn how it performs. You should see them very blurred and indistinct at larger apertures and increasingly sharper as you progress toward smaller and smaller apertures. By learning how your lens renders those stars at different f-stops you'll be able to pick and choose how you want them to appear in images.
Finally, don't put a circular polarizing filter on a lens at night! C-pols reduce a lot of light... typically 1.25 to 2.25 stops depending upon setting... which will force you to use even longer, slower shutter speeds (which are already a problem) and/or higher ISOs (which may be too noisy).
It is not that your images are over-saturated. As some others have noted, these scenes appear to have too much yellow/orange. I bet you were using Auto white balance. Lighting will often render "too warm" when Auto WB is used. You can set a different, cooler white balance. Or just shoot RAW and change the white balance later in post-processing. To give you some idea how that can look, I took the liberty of applying a "cooling filter" to two of your images... I did more subtle cooling cooling to your first image (lots of blurring from the movement of the boats) and fairly strong cooling to the one you cropped as a panorama.
Below are the results. Compare alongside your originals.
In one image there is either camera shake blur... which can even happen at some shutter speeds due to "mirror slap" or the vibrations of the shutter action itself... or the image has been over-sharpened and that created some JPEG artifacts.
Parts of your images have blurred objects, especially around the boats which are obviously moving a little on the water. To use such slow shutter speeds, you may need to wait for a really still evening when the waters are as perfectly still as possible. Even then, you should try to keep shutter speeds as fast as possible.
To eliminate internal camera vibrations as much as possible, use mirror lockup or shoot from Live View (which also raises the mirror out of the way). You can't do anything about any vibration the shutter itself might cause.
I agree with the idea of shooting shortly after sunset or a little before dawn... instead of in complete darkness. This would also allow faster shutter speeds.
With your 5DS-R you also can use higher than ISO 200 to get a faster shutter speed. Next time, take multiple shots at different ISOs... With that camera you probably would have been fine using even ISO 800 or 1600. You'll just need to try and see if the results are acceptable at higher ISOs. Faster 4X to 8X faster shutter speeds would help eliminate a lot of your image problems, minimizing both camera shake and subject movement blurring.
If you need to use a higher ISO, it may be helpful to know that Canon have a Long Exposure Noise Reduction (LENR) option. However it only works on images with shutter speed 1 second or longer. And, it's very important to understand how it works, or you'll go home without any images! LENR is actually two images. The first is taken normally as you've set the camera. The second shot is of equal duration, but is done with the shutter closed. This image is then used to identify and then "subtract" any noise in the first image. You have to trip the shutter twice, to make one shot. For example, if you are making a 4 second exposure... with LENR enabled you will actually make two 4 sec. exposures, for a total of 8 seconds. If you cancel the second shot while LENR is enabled, the camera will also delete the first shot. You would need to turn off the camera or remove its battery, to cancel the second shot. Just don't forget LENR is on and try to photograph something else with that second, shutter closed "blank" shot. If you do, the first shot will be okay... but the second one you tried to take will never show up. LENR works, but needs to be used correctly or you can end up with no shots on your memory card and wondering what happened.
As some others have noted, "stars" around the lights are what a lot of people try to achieve in city night shots. That's done by stopping the lens down to a smaller aperture (f/11, f/16, f/22). However, you have to balance this against having to use longer exposures (slower shutter speeds) and/or higher ISOs to compensate for the smaller apertures.
I'd recommend you do a test directly shooting lights with your lens at different f-stops, to learn how it performs. You should see them very blurred and indistinct at larger apertures and increasingly sharper as you progress toward smaller and smaller apertures. By learning how your lens renders those stars at different f-stops you'll be able to pick and choose how you want them to appear in images.
Finally, don't put a circular polarizing filter on a lens at night! C-pols reduce a lot of light... typically 1.25 to 2.25 stops depending upon setting... which will force you to use even longer, slower shutter speeds (which are already a problem) and/or higher ISOs (which may be too noisy).
It is not that your images are over-saturated. As some others have noted, these scenes appear to have too much yellow/orange. I bet you were using Auto white balance. Lighting will often render "too warm" when Auto WB is used. You can set a different, cooler white balance. Or just shoot RAW and change the white balance later in post-processing. To give you some idea how that can look, I took the liberty of applying a "cooling filter" to two of your images... I did more subtle cooling cooling to your first image (lots of blurring from the movement of the boats) and fairly strong cooling to the one you cropped as a panorama.
Below are the results. Compare alongside your originals.
Sep 15, 2020 17:54:36 #
Thank you so much for you input . I was looking for something I don't know. Always trying to learn. The only thing I picked up from someone is(Frauenhoph)sp Diffraction. That flaring in the one is acutally diffraction of light by wide angle lenes. Only cure is to block the light somehow. Again thank you for your response.
Sep 16, 2020 18:30:48 #
LEWHITE7747 wrote:
Still having problems with night cityscapes---suggestions--also flaring of the lights on the right side of photo. What caused this and how to eliminate this?
When you say lens flare are you speaking of the star effect given off my the lights? If so that's an artifact of the lens iris causing a star burst effect. Can I ask what your f stop was when you shot it? Interestingly enough the higher the f stop (like f22) the more pronounced the affect will be. The more open say f2.8 the softer it will be.
I kind of like the effect myself. Maybe try a circular polarized filter??? Check this link out...
https://www.slrlounge.com/diffraction-aperture-and-starburst-effects/
Sep 16, 2020 19:13:21 #
Thank you so much--very informative--did not know this.I shoot with a crop and 3.5 and a full(51mpg) 2.8. I can't tell you the change from one to the other. I wrestle with these diverse camera's and lenes. Helps me understand why they are so hard to switch form one to the other.
If you want to reply, then register here. Registration is free and your account is created instantly, so you can post right away.