Nightshot:How to improve this pic?

[FLiNcHY]

Time: 11:30

Canon G3
Manual Mode

Shutter speed was 6 seconds
Aperture was 8
ISO 100


The lights in the underpass were overexposed no? because they were very bright and concentrated at the bottom of the tunner

But if i increased the shutter speed, the whole pic would have been dimmed

So how do i make the lights under the tunnel less bright?

 

[denizenx]

you can either use a black card to obcure the lower part for maybe 1/3 the exposure time or more.
or u can take 1 bright shot 1 dimmer shot and combine in photoshop.
or u can BUY a graduated filter.

 

[FLiNcHY]

you mean use a black card and cover half the lense for abt 2 seconds?

combining i know

Graduated filter, which one should be used?

 

[ziploc]

Hi FLiNcHY,

If you are interested in capturing the long light trails left by the passing cars, here are some things that you might want to try:

1. Find a dimmer place without much street lights, so that you can have longer shutter speed without overexposing. In your case the light from the tunnel is too bright for long exposure.
2. Take the pic during a more busy hour where there are a lot of cars passing by. If you do so, you can probably use shorter shutter speed while achieving the same effect, there by not overexposing the tunnel.

A grad ND filter will probably not help in this case as the bright area is localised at the center and not top/bottom.

Hope that helps.

 

[FLiNcHY]

Originally posted by ziploc
Hi FLiNcHY,

If you are interested in capturing the long light trails left by the passing cars, here are some things that you might want to try:

1. Find a dimmer place without much street lights, so that you can have longer shutter speed without overexposing. In your case the light from the tunnel is too bright for long exposure.
2. Take the pic during a more busy hour where there are a lot of cars passing by. If you do so, you can probably use shorter shutter speed while achieving the same effect, there by not overexposing the tunnel.

A grad ND filter will probably not help in this case as the bright area is localised at the center and not top/bottom.

Hope that helps.

thanks for the info. I was just walking home at 11:30pm and decided to take some shots. Walked past earlier at 7:30 but the sky had not darkened yet.

For pt 2, if i use a shorter shutter speed, wouldnt the background be even darker ?Because i tried it with 2 seconds, and it was quite underexposed.

 

[Goldmember]

reduce your aperture to get te beatiful trails of car lights.

 

[FLiNcHY]

i did that for my other shots but my background buildings lost abit of focus and blurred

so how?

 

[Goldmember]

wat was the setting then? please tell me.

 

[FLiNcHY]

isint it stated in the first post?

 

[FLiNcHY]

the other lower aperture shots that i took didnt fully focus on the background HDB flats so i didnt use them to post here.

But lower aperture means i can use a faster shutter speed. But if my background in not focused, then whats the use

 

[ziploc]

Originally posted by FLiNcHY

thanks for the info. I was just walking home at 11:30pm and decided to take some shots. Walked past earlier at 7:30 but the sky had not darkened yet.

For pt 2, if i use a shorter shutter speed, wouldnt the background be even darker ?Because i tried it with 2 seconds, and it was quite underexposed.

Yes the background will be darker. So it depends on what you are trying to capture. If all you want to do is to capture the trails of light left behind by the cars, it really doesn't matter if the background is a bit darker (and in fact darker background is better since it will bring out the trails of light). But on the other hand if you just want to do a lanscape shot then it is different story. In that case, you might want to try taking the pic when the sky is not so dark, eg. during the "magic moment" hours (abt 6pm+ to 7pm+ depends on how early the sun sets and how dark you want it to be), so that the contrast between the background and the tunnel is not too big.

Hope that helps.

 

[Linkster]

Originally posted by denizenx
you can either use a black card to obcure the lower part for maybe 1/3 the exposure time or more.
or u can take 1 bright shot 1 dimmer shot and combine in photoshop.
or u can BUY a graduated filter.

does the built-in ND filter in the G3 do the same job as a graduated filter?

 

[ziploc]

Originally posted by Linkster


does the built-in ND filter in the G3 do the same job as a graduated filter?

Hi Linkster,

The built-in ND filter in the G3 works more like an external ND filter rather then the graduated filter. ND filters are for reducing the exposure without affecting the color or tonality of the pic, there by giving you more play on the aperture (can open wider) or shutter speed (can be longer). Graduated ND filter is half-half, meaning half is ND and the other half clear, and is nornally used for making the sky looks darker.

Hope that helps.

 

[FLiNcHY]

Yeah i know that 1130 is not the best time to take night shots
was just trying it out only

haha

will try again tonite at 8 and see how it goes

 

[Linkster]

Originally posted by ziploc


Hi Linkster,

The built-in ND filter in the G3 works more like an external ND filter rather then the graduated filter. ND filters are for reducing the exposure without affecting the color or tonality of the pic, there by giving you more play on the aperture (can open wider) or shutter speed (can be longer). Graduated ND filter is half-half, meaning half is ND and the other half clear, and is nornally used for making the sky looks darker.

Hope that helps.

i see.. it sure helped..

so i the ND filter shouldn't be 'on' for normal shots rite? i haven't actually used this function in my G3 yet.. partly coz i dunno wat it does.. :dunno: ;p

 

[FLiNcHY]

u mean u never played around with it before?

 

[Linkster]

Originally posted by FLiNcHY
u mean u never played around with it before?

no.. not the ND function..

 

[ziploc]

Originally posted by Linkster


i see.. it sure helped..

so i the ND filter shouldn't be 'on' for normal shots rite? i haven't actually used this function in my G3 yet.. partly coz i dunno wat it does.. :dunno: ;p

Hi Linkster,

No it shouldn't be on all the time. I don't have a G3 but from dpreview it looks like the G3 has an built in NDx8 filter, meaning it will drop 3 stops. If you leave it on, you are going to have a hard time taking hand holding shots when the light is dim.

It would be useful, however, when you are under bright sunlight and you want to open up the aperture to get a shallower DOF. E.g. let's say the exposure is at 1/1000s and f/8, and you can't set the shutter speed higher as it is already the fastest. With the NDx8, it reduces the exposure by 3 stops, meaning you can now set it at 1/1000s f/2.8 and get shallower DOF (f/8 -> f/5.6 -> f/4 -> f/2.8 is 3 stops).

The reverse is the same for shutter speed. E.g. you want to shoot a waterfall in bright sunlight, and the exposure is 1/125s f/8. Let's say f/8 is the smallest aperture on your camera, and you can't achieve the "foamy water effect". With the NDx8, you get 3 stops, so you can now set it at 1/15s f/8 and get the "foamy effect" (1/125 -> 1/60 -> 1/30 -> 1/15 is 3 stops).

Hope that helps.

 

[FLiNcHY]

Great info. I knew the ND filter worked well but didn't know it was 3 stops.

 

[Linkster]

Originally posted by ziploc


Hi Linkster,

No it shouldn't be on all the time. I don't have a G3 but from dpreview it looks like the G3 has an built in NDx8 filter, meaning it will drop 3 stops. If you leave it on, you are going to have a hard time taking hand holding shots when the light is dim.

It would be useful, however, when you are under bright sunlight and you want to open up the aperture to get a shallower DOF. E.g. let's say the exposure is at 1/1000s and f/8, and you can't set the shutter speed higher as it is already the fastest. With the NDx8, it reduces the exposure by 3 stops, meaning you can now set it at 1/1000s f/2.8 and get shallower DOF (f/8 -> f/5.6 -> f/4 -> f/2.8 is 3 stops).

The reverse is the same for shutter speed. E.g. you want to shoot a waterfall in bright sunlight, and the exposure is 1/125s f/8. Let's say f/8 is the smallest aperture on your camera, and you can't achieve the "foamy water effect". With the NDx8, you get 3 stops, so you can now set it at 1/15s f/8 and get the "foamy effect" (1/125 -> 1/60 -> 1/30 -> 1/15 is 3 stops).

Hope that helps.

wow! this is great info! thanks a lot man! really appreciated it..

will go try this function out soon! :bsmilie: