Night Photos

[dm52]

A few night shots. Only beginner attempts, have only had the camera for a few weeks (D70S). These were taken on about the second night with the camera (with kit lens). Taken well after dark just by moonlight. First two have been lightened a bit in photoshop the third one is straight from the camera, just resized.





Any comments or tips welcome. Don't be too harsh only just getting into the DSLR thing!!

[paulvdb1]

Great pics - please feel free to share the Exif data though.

I'm a bit of a fan of this style since I saw a guy in pbase who shot a bunch of night-time shots of Cambridge Uni I think

[owen]

Terrific shots, especially considering you say you're only new to this.

I'd like to know where abouts these shots were taken too

Cheers,
Owen. PS. Check out the site in my sig, you might find some places to go take more shots.

edit: can you describe the lighting in the first photo?

[leek]

Some interesting shots there dm... Welcome to the forum...

41 seconds and 2 x 30 second exposures...

I love the first one - it has a very eery feel to it...

Keep 'em coming...

[dm52]

First picture
Aperture: f/3.5, ISO: 200, Exposure time: 41.2 sec (holding finger on shutter in bulb mode have since got a remote so I don't have to do this!)
Focal length: 18mm
Second Picture
Aperture: f/3.5, ISO: 200, Exposure time: 30 sec, Focal length: 18mm
Third Picture
Aperture: f/4, ISO: 200, Exposure time: 30 sec, Focal length: 18mm

The first two were taken just south of Abion Park Rail just off the Prince's Highway. The third was taken on a little jetty on Lake Illawarra (maybe in the suburb of Mt Warrigal?).

To answer the question about lighting. It was nearly a full moon and that was the only light source. Probably about 8pm so well after the sun went down.

[Jamie]

Nice pictures.

These are pretty long exposure times, just be carefull that you dont blow the image out too much.

In the last one the lights in the distance are blown out quite a bit, i suggest a shorter exposure time and use Photoshop to bring out the jetty and all the darker bits afterwards.

I'm by no means an expert though, just a suggestion.

In bulb mode you should only need to push the shutter to open it and push it again to close it, no need to hold the button.

[nito]

Nice shots. The only thing I can suggest is cropping off the dirt on the road. Its takes away from the continuality of the shot, as you follow it to the distance.

The third one is great. Especially the alignment of the two poles with the two trees in the background. nice

[vrboy]

I agree with nitto on the dirt on the road it stands out too much and distracts from the shot, rather than cropping though maybe use the healing brush , spot healing brush or patch tool in cs2 to fix this,
also burn the road about 15% to take some focus off it and redirect into the shot, other than that love your work
By the way what remote did you get, I have been thinking of getting one myself.
Craig

[marcus]

Very nice! Love #1. IMHO I don't care about the road dirt, in fact I feel it adds to the shot.

I'm sure your proud and happy with your first images from your new toy!

[KerryPierce]

Very nice shots. I like the first one a great deal.

[mudder]

G'day DM,
Particularly like the first one, has a really eerie, almost spooky feel... Not sure on the second one, I think it's the framing... The third, maybe try a smaller F stop to try and prevent the lights from blowing out, and I'd also be tempted to have taken a step to the right and had that reflection from the street light on the left miss the jetty pole... Just wondering whether to clone out the part of a jetty/pier coming in from the right side...

Really like that first shot, that's got a lot of mood to it... Any vignetting in PP? The corners seem a tad darker...? Or is it just me

[kipper]

Am I doing something wrong, because I have to push and hold in bulb mode.
Not two presses one for lockup, one for release of the mirror from lockup.

[dm52]

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions everyone, I will have a play with some of the suggestions in photoshop and see how they look.
I did not add any vignetting in PP I think it might be just due to using the kit lets out wide at 18mm, some reviews I have read suggeested that it may . I think it would be a bit less if I had have zoomed a bit. I also think it may look more obvious as I brightened the photo in photoshop.
In bulb mode you have to hold down the button. I tried the other way but it doesn't work. With the remote control it works with one press to open and one to close. There may be some other way that I don't know of though