Taking photos at night tutorial

[joosttx]

I am point and shoot kinda of guy. I don't know anything about fstop and aperture setting etc, etc. I ride at night and have great views of the city lights. I would live the capture these view in 10101's. Of course when I take a picture they turn out blurry. What can I do to make them not blurry without having to drag a monopod out into the woods. Are there any setting I should be using?

[jitahs]

In technical terms, there are clampy wrappy tendril-y thingies that are like snakes with a screw on the end, the arms wrap around small branches, your handlebar, etc. You want one of those. Google "thingy".

[maunahaole]

A beanbag works as well. Go to a photo store or make your own. Or try a small size gorilla pod. Legs are twisty and adjustable for irregular surfaces. Never mind jitahs. He is talking about Miatas again. His answer to all queries.

[jitahs]

Q: how do you carry a 10ft. pipe in a car without exhaust back draft?

A: just did it.

[false_aesthetic]

Higher ISO. But there's a trade-off. More digital noise.

Helps to set aperture to the smallest number possible. Aperture is a fraction f/2 is 1/2 whereas f/22 is 1/22. It corresponds to the diameter of the hole in the lens.

Blur comes from long shutter speed. Raising your ISO and opening up your aperture will shorten the shutter speed.

Handholding a camera be done down to 1/15 second if you're steady. I usually tell my students not to go under 1/60 though.

"beanbags" can be made by putting rice/quinoa/beans in a gym sock and then resting the camera on it. Try to set a 5-10 second delay so that you don't accidentally shake the camera when you hit the shutter.

The clampy thing is called a Gorilla Pod. They work for lighter weight cameras. Not so great for the heavier ones.

Word.

[maunahaole]

Q: how do you carry a 10ft. pipe in a car without exhaust back draft?

A: just did it.

A: roadmaster wagon.

[joosttx]

Q: how do you carry a 10ft. pipe in a car without exhaust back draft?

A: just did it.

Makes me hungry for all-you-can-eat Ethiopian buffets and drive bars, yo.

[joosttx]

Higher ISO. But there's a trade-off. More digital noise.

Helps to set aperture to the smallest number possible. Aperture is a fraction f/2 is 1/2 whereas f/22 is 1/22. It corresponds to the diameter of the hole in the lens.

Blur comes from long shutter speed. Raising your ISO and opening up your aperture will shorten the shutter speed.

Handholding a camera be done down to 1/15 second if you're steady. I usually tell my students not to go under 1/60 though.

"beanbags" can be made by putting rice/quinoa/beans in a gym sock and then resting the camera on it. Try to set a 5-10 second delay so that you don't accidentally shake the camera when you hit the shutter.

The clampy thing is called a Gorilla Pod. They work for lighter weight cameras. Not so great for the heavier ones.

Word.

Thank you OB1.

[jitahs]

Makes me hungry for all-you-can-eat Ethiopian buffets

I still think about that okra dish. Worth taking a picture of with your stomach.

[robin3mj]

Try to set a 5-10 second delay so that you don't accidentally shake the camera when you hit the shutter.



Word.

This is key. Especially with a small camera- the simple act of pressing the shutter moves the whole camera. I have set one of the "my mode" settings on my Ricoh to use a 3-sec delay, with an ISO limit, in AV mode, so I can quickly set up for a dark shot.

Below are a couple recent examples. The color shot was handheld, while I believe the b/w photo was taken with the camera partly resting on the ground.

[Someguy_Onabike]

I sometimes carry one of these miniature tripods: UltraPodâ„¢ I | Industrial Revolution, I got mine at REI. If your pockets are full, the velcro can be used to carry the tripod from a seat or top tube.

If I need to use a slow shutter speed and don't have a tripod handy, I will look for something to brace the camera against. The simplist way is to sit down and use a knee.

As mentioned above, shooting wide open (smallest f number) and using the timer to fire the shutter will do a lot to reduce blur. You may need to turn the flash off for the camera to correctly determine exposure. If the camera sets the exposure based on something bright, like the moon, the rest of the picture may be underexposed. If it's available on your camera, setting automatic bracketing may be helpful so the camera will take multiple shots using slightly different settings so you can choose which you like best.

[hmai18]

Also keep in mind that if your camera is probably going to try and average the exposure of the scene, which means that if you're shooting in the dark or at night, it's going to try and raise the exposure of all of the dark areas in your frame.

If you're shooting city lights at night, you can probably get away with a handheld exposure by spot-metering for the lights. Otherwise, the suggestions above (mini tripod/beanbag and self-timer) will work.