Hi Evelyn. I have done a fair amount of night photography. Looking at the shot here are a few suggestions. Employ these and give this shot another try. 1) Focus. You must do manual focus. Increase ISO to the maximum of your camera to focus and then reduce ISO, holding the focus point. Alternatively if you have a lens with a depth of field ring, set it to infinity for your given aperture. 2) ISO. Use the native or lowest ISO possible to reduce noise that comes from a long exposure. Because of the low ISO your shutter times will increase dramatically. 3) Remote shutter. Essential. Using the shutter button introduces minor shake detracting from focus. 4) Tripod. Another essential. Make sure it is set up stable. If your tripod has a hook on the center column hang your camera bag from it to stabilize the assembly. 5) Aperture. This depends on what you intend and the lens' characteristics. For this shot I might have tried stopping down to give starlight effect to the street lights. 6) White balance. Experiment with different white balance settings. The street lights here are throwing off a yellow cast. A custom setting cooling the light may have worked but experimentation with different temperatures is the ticket. 6) Mirror Lock Up. Again the slap of the mirror will introduce the slightest amount of camera shake. Use the mirror lock up setting of your camera. It sets the mirror in step one removing this shake. Taking the picture requires 2 presses of the shutter button, one to raise the mirror and the second to take the shot. Night photography is all about trial and error. Keep at it, it is great fun.
Evelyn I hope this is not overkill....A few more things. 1) Your camera will go to 1 second on the dial, then to T which will go to 30 seconds. Beyond that you will go to Bulb Mode in Manual. 2) Up to 30 seconds you can avert the need for a remote shutter by using the self timer on the camera. There will thus be no camera shake. I use the remote shutter all the time to avert needing to switch back and forth from the self timer. 3) A way to calculate good exposure: Ramp the camera up all the way to extremely ISO say 6400 or 12,800. Get a good exposure at that ISO. Then move the ISO back to lowest and increase the exposure time by the same amount. Example. You get good exposure at ISO 12,800 at 1 second. When you go back to ISO 200 that is (I think) 6 stops. So double 1 6X for an exposure at ISO 200 of 32 seconds. Have fun.
Hi Louis. Wow! Not overkill at all! Really appreciate your advice - will definitely take it on board. Looking forward to implementing your suggestions - looking forward to seeing the results! Thanks so much! :)
January 26th, 2016
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