Night shots

[Tweek]

Trying out long exposure with A70. Also tried out different perspectives, let me know if they work for you.

The conventional, boring angles:

[Tweek]

From Esplanade Rooftop:

[Tweek]

Merlion & Fullerton


Pano

[ammox77]

Hi Tweek,

Well they are not bad, the 2nd pic is perffect! And the rest are all well done! Keep shooting.

Cheers,
Henry

[Tweek]

thanks ammox.

[Linkster]

hey tweek,

u bot the A70?

[megaweb]

very nice shots ...

all shots are well exposure and have good composition

[Tweek]

Linkster...ya lor..why u look surprised?

thank you megamegaweb.

[Klause]

Very good composition and saturated colour. The sky is just nice, I believe you must have taken this pic between 6:50-7:20 ? :P

Clear and sharp picture. Good job.

Your 4th/5th picture is the best. esp the 4th one.

[osmond19]

tweek, can u tell u how to take such nice shot? do u use a tripod for all the shot?

wat r ur setting??? aperture? shutter speed? iso??

[Tweek]

thanks klause. Yup the first two were taken at the magic moment around 7pm. Nice blue sky, almost felt like I was using Provia 100F, haha.

[Tweek]

hi osmond,

yes a tripod is a must for night shots like these. I lock iso at 50 to minimise noise. Then I get into Tv mode, and select shutter speed of 2s to start with. I'll then half-shutter and check the metered aperture. Then I'll adjust shutter speed accordingly to get aperture fstop of f6.3 to f8.0. Typically, the shutter speeds vary from 2s to 15s. The first two pics were probably taken at 4s, f8.0. The Esplanade rooftop pics were longer, 10s or so, at f6.3. Also, I realised that A70's evaluative metering tend to overexpose night scenes slightly, so I dialed in -1/3 to -2/3 ev compensation.

As long as you have a tripod, you should always lock iso at 50 and not worry about shutter speed getting too long. A70 has an effective noise reduction algorithm that'll minimise hot pixels. Also, long shutter speeds can capture light trails of passing bumboats if any, which can be a nice effect.

Just something extra, for merlion shots, try to use spot-metering on the merlion, and overexpose a little bit. If you use evaluative metering, the merlion will be washed out cos the spotlight on it is too bright. If you expose the merlion properly, surrounding lights will be underexposed, can't be helped. In my case, the "Fullerton Hotel" words still show up nicely cos they're pretty bright, comparable to the merlion.

[zod]

try shooting frm benjamin shears bridge loh.
not boring angles laioz

[osmond19]

excellent job, tweek!

thanx for ur help n info!

[Tweek]

Quote: Originally posted by zodnm try shooting frm benjamin shears bridge loh. not boring angles laioz

that, to me, is a boring angle, cos I've done that already.

Anyway that angle is repeated many times in CS. Wanted to do one from Esplanade Rooftop, to capture the entire CBD, but found that it's impossible cos they closed up a crucial portion of the rooftop.

[Falcon24]

I like the colours of the lights. Wat u set for WB? Auto?

[Tweek]

yup WB is at auto.

[Sk8te]

Very nice shots!!

[snowparang]

tweek, amy I know why you would sell your 602Z and use the A70 instead? Confused...

Also, when you say over exposed, which part of the image do you focus on? coulds, lights, shadows, background...?

[Tweek]

Hi snowparang, I sold the 602z quite long ago, last October if I remember correctly, to raise dough for a 2nd-hand D30, which is still what I'm using now. The A70 is used as a portable everyday camera instead, not as my main cam.

As for overexposure with the A70 for nightshots, it's just overall a little too overexposed for my liking when using evaluative metering. Some sky details/colors will be washed out, and strong light sources will have over-blooming. So as a personal preference, I'd like a -1/3 ev or so.