need help with night photography!

[lukipelaa]

ok i've uploaded the pic so u guys can scream your heads off at me. but what ive did was to use front sync flash after watching the d80 instruction video awhile back and wanted to test it out. now what i need help with is.. why does it look so fake? 2nd.. the people in the foreground look so blurry. i thought mininum moving will not be caputured by the cam?
So now.. how do i get the perfect shot at windy point?

EXIF details as such.

1000 ISO
Shutter 30
F22
Focal 20mm'
Flash TTL



another thing but on the same track.
i tried using A and S modes for taking just the city lights... but everytime im done focusing the small round light at the bottom comes out and doesnt let me take the photo. would love help pls!

[gstark]

ok i've uploaded the pic so u guys can scream your heads off at me.

Hopefully, no. Just useful and friendly critique, along with a spoonful (or maybe a shovel full) of suggestions.

but what ive did was to use front sync flash

Why? What benefits do you think that using front curtain sync might have gained you?

FWIW, I think that front sync would be the default on the D80, but for an image such as this, I'm not sure what benefits or disadvantages switching to rear curtain sync might have offered.

Of course, if your only goal was to "test it out" ....

why does it look so fake?

In what way does this "look so fake" ? Could you please explain this for me, as I don't understand where you're coming from with this comment.

2nd.. the people in the foreground look so blurry. i thought mininum moving will not be caputured by the cam?

Generally, minimal movement won't be captured by the camera. What focus point had you selected? Or did you let the camera select that for you?

Looking at the EXIF, I see three items ... ISO was 1000, shutter as 30 - I'm taking that as 30 seconds, and aperture was f/22.

I'm going to ask why those specific settings? F/22 restricts, to the maximum, the quantity of light that reaches the sensor, and as a result, it throws the time you need to make this exposure out towards the long end of the timeframe, thus maximising the chances that something might go wrong. Hello Murphy!

From a purely exposure setting PoV, you could have used F/11 with a much shorter shutter speed setting, and achieved a similar result.

But that's presuming your exposure for the background - the city lights - was correct. But to me they look blown, so perhaps the baseline exposure is wrong too.

Now, you need to understand that no amount of flash from your camera, nor from any studio strobe, would help you to capture the city lights, so the first goal, I think, is to just be able to master that aspect of capturing this image. Remove the people, and the flash, from the equation, and just make an image of the city lights. F/11 as your aperture, camera on a tripod, use a remote so as to not induce any camera movement, and then shoot 0.5 secs, 1.0 sec, 2.0 secs, 4.0 secs, and 8.0 secs, all at ISO 1000 so you have a consistent starting point.

I would even, for these images, move the camera to the other side of that railing, and grab the images from there: there will not be any difference in your exposures regardless of where your camera is actually located.

In the field, use your histogram to determine which of the images is best. This will be somewhat difficult, because it will tend towards the left because there's so much darkness in the image. That will be correct, but you don't want it running off at the rh edge; that would indicate that you've blown the lights, and that's not what you're after. You want to see them, but ideally, you're looking for clarity and some element of detail.

Once you have that image - and the correct exposure settings for the background - settled, all that's needed to do is for you to bring the people back into the image. For the composition such as you've shown, select a focus point in your camera on the rh side of your viewfinder, keep the exact exposure settings that you determined as correct in the previous exercise, open your flash (don't concern yourself about front or rear curtain sync - it's irrelevant in this case) and away you go.

Let's look at that image!

another thing but on the same track.
i tried using A and S modes for taking just the city lights... but everytime im done focusing the small round light at the bottom comes out and doesnt let me take the photo. would love help pls!

RTFM.

Yes, I know that you are, but you're reading the wrong bits. Forget about different ways of syncing - that's advanced stuff, and you don't need to know about that right now. Learn and understand the basic functions of your camera first.

Understand its basic switch settings; learn how it operates.

[lukipelaa]

thanks! will try it out again soon.

another question...

is there a general guide of wht aperture number to use for what kind of shots or is it all trial and error?

and yes i let the cam choose the focus point. erm.. can u explain whats the difference?

and an answer to your question. i have no idea why f22. i was just playing around with it.. until someone threw a bottle of glass down onto the group of us grr..

[gstark]

is there a general guide of wht aperture number to use for what kind of shots or is it all trial and error?

For many people, yes, it's trial and error, but no, that's not how it should be.

In many instances, the aperture helps you to determine what your image is going to look like - perhaps a soft and dreamy portrait, or maybe a super-sharp picture of a tree. Your aperture is one - of several - control mechanisms that are available to you as a photographer, that will help you decide how you want the image to look.

So, an understanding of how aperture affects the look of your image, as well as understanding how it affects the exposure of your image, is an essential part of the learning process here. Likewise, your shutter speed selection can affect both the appearance of your image, as well as its exposure. Yep, add the understanding of that to your learning curve as well.

Now, just to make matters interesting, your lenses all operate similarly, but will behave differently. Very few lenses are at their best wide open, but many will perform very well just a stop or two (or three) from wide open. That means that with almost any lens, you can expect to see optimal performance in the range of f/8 through f/11, and all other things being somewhat equal, and with no other special needs, one of those aperture settings would probably be as good a starting point as any.

and yes i let the cam choose the focus point. erm.. can u explain whats the difference?

Pretty simple, really. Depends upon your actual camera settings, but for many Nikons, the default setting would either be the centre point of your viewport, or else closest subject focus.

In looking at your image, what is in the centre? Is it in focus?

Are the people, whom you wanted in sharp focus, in sharp focus? Try to ignore the subject movement here. Are those people in the centre?

[darklightphotography]

Hi, for this shot at 20mm you could get away with f8 and have everything in focus. There is an online calculator at http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html that can help work it out, but after some practice and reading it will become easier.

Why don't you come to the Adelaide meet on Sunday in Elder Park? You will probably be able to learn a lot. Detail in the Adelaide-Perth forum.

[lukipelaa]

crap. wish i could. i'll be in melb this week and then overseas.

but no worries. i'll be back in adelaide frm feb onwards. i'll be sure to come for the meetups after then to suck the brains out of all of u