Darling harbour night shots

[rokkstar]

Hello all,

I took these last night at Darling Harbour.

Would appreciate any tips and tricks and comments about Night photography.




I cannot seem to get an accurate exposure.

What does everyone else do?

Cheers
Matt

[lejazzcat]

Hi ,
As i dont know what your level of experience is, ill give a couple of simple suggestions.

For really useful advice you'd have to post your EXIF data for us to be able to help you .

I suggest bracketing your exposure for starters- that will help you find the necassary compensation for you scene (ie. + 1, 2, 3 ev)

With that you can start seeing the light the way your camera does.

Remeber that the human eye can resolve much greater variations in contrast than a CCD or film can . You wont be able to recreate the scene as you see it - you will always have to make a artistic compromise.

Next, as you have such a large area to capture , it would be difficult to get a correct exposure everywhere. You need to choose where, and whether the highlights or the shadows need to be exposed for - the camera cant do that for you .

Are you using Matrix/ Centre weight/ spot metering?

Theres alot of stuff like the sky in these shots which doesnt matter to your exposure.In matrix the camera looks a the brightest and the largest areas in your image to determine its exposure and if they arent important part then you wont get a good exposure.

After this , there will be custom curves that will handle the exposure better than a standard profile, but you can do alot of that in photoshop...

Give us those EXIF details if you want some more direct technical advice.

Cya

[Hi-Voltage]

I think these are pretty good, but then again I'm a newbie, so I'd be interested in what others have to say.

I tried taking some night shots last night but wasn't too impressed. I think yours turned out better.

[Killakoala]

As i have done this a few times i will offer this advice.

Shoot in NEF (raw) and then adjust the white balance and exposure settings in Nikon Capture or Photoshop (If you have them)

I usually like to change the white balance to give a more blue tinge to my shots, this reduces the amount of incandescent or tungsten reddish tinge that you have. This is very difficult to do if you shoot in JPG, NEF will allow you to change the white balance and the exposure.

As an example check this photo. I used two layers of the same image, changed the exposure and white balance of both until i was happy with the result

http://killakoala.smugmug.com/photos/9621300-M.jpg

The original had the same reddish/orange hue that your images do.

As far as your exposure is concerned i reckon they are fine. The problem is the white balance. Once you can sort this out you will take great photos.

Keep it up