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UER Forum > Archived UE Photo Critiques > More a plea for help than critiques (Viewed 318 times)
Captain Dabney 


Location: Portland, OR
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More a plea for help than critiques
< on 7/18/2013 10:07 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
So I just got back from my first UE excursion where I brought a camera along with me... I have realized I have know idea what I am doing. I was perched atop a large suspension bridge and no matter how hard I tried I could not get a good photo. The shutter times were long so I rested the camera on top of a flat metal railing end. All of my photos seemed to have almost a fog of light in them. I was hoping you guys could steer me in the right direction when it comes to night time photography. I greatly appreciate all your responses.1.




Tenebrae 


Location: The Wild West


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Re: More a plea for help than critiques
<Reply # 1 on 7/18/2013 11:07 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Might be humidity on your lens (try leaving the lens cover off for a bit - 5-10 min. - before taking photos).

theendof93 


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Re: More a plea for help than critiques
<Reply # 2 on 7/19/2013 12:34 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
what type of camera?
what type of lens?
what settings? (shutter speed, aperture, iso, etc)

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corvettejoe 


Location: Central FL
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Re: More a plea for help than critiques
<Reply # 3 on 7/19/2013 12:37 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
As said above... what equipment are you using?
and long exposures... you were on top of a bridge? was the bridge moving at all (swaying in the breeze, or with vehicles going under, shaking at all, etc)


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dtewsacrificial 


Location: Bay Area, CA
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Re: More a plea for help than critiques
<Reply # 4 on 7/19/2013 2:00 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
I think a very common photography setup for low-light urbex photography consists of, in order of importance:

1) A sturdy tripod.

2) A camera (often a dSLR, but not necessarily so) with a decent level of focus control and/or focusing aids for manual focus (ability to highly-magnify some part of the frame, focus peaking, live-view gain, etc.) An infinity end-stop is great too.

3) This camera should also have a BULB mode (or equivalent for long shutter durations) that can be used with a remote shutter release, so you don't introduce movement into the camera during the long shutter duration.

Other common stuff would be:

4) Post-processing software that can deal with RAW files. This is assuming your camera can produce RAW files (all the more-advanced cameras can). Adobe Lightroom is very common and works well.

5) Ultra-wide angle lens. Perhaps not particularly necessary to your bridge photography, it is very useful for interiors.

6) A quality flashlight, as both focusing aid and light-painting tool.

More esoteric stuff would be:

7) Laser, also as both ninja focusing aid and light-painting tool. Be careful as a powerful laser reflected *just so* can destroy your camera sensor and/or your retinas.

8) A camera setup that can produce good image quality at a reduced exposure time. This is the combination of lenses with sharpness at wider apertures (assuming DoF isn't an issue) and cameras with better performance (SNR, DR, color depth, etc.) at higher ISOs. This is because shooting at base-ISO at very long exposures will eventually introduce sensor heating as a source of image noise.

8a) Alternatively, there are chilled-sensor setups (see astrophotography setups), which is another way of going at the sensor heat issue.

9) Intervalometer, being that non-hotspot sensor noise is a random function, and given enough samplings, it can be averaged away when you merge the multi-exposures.

10) A flesh sacrifice to the Dark Lord of dark photography. Tossing some Chicken McNuggets off the top of that bridge might bring you good low-light photo jujus.

dtewsacrificial 


Location: Bay Area, CA
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Re: More a plea for help than critiques
<Reply # 5 on 7/19/2013 2:11 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Oh, as a direct answer to the OP's question, it looks like you:

1) Didn't achieve focus, which is a common problem in low-light situations. Oftentimes you need to focus manually, which is bettered with any of the various focusing aids I mentioned.

2) Your camera didn't remain steady, which may be a function of your inablity to keep it still without a sturdy tripod and/or introducing movement into the long exposure by pressing the shutter button on the camera.

3) There might be condensation on your camera, per what Tenebrae said. Was this a point-and-shoot camera you had been keeping in your pocket?

4) There might be too much dynamic range for your camera to capture in one exposure at whatever ISO you have it on. The deck is completely blown.

5) You failed to toss some Chicken McNuggets off the bridge.

Captain Dabney 


Location: Portland, OR
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Re: More a plea for help than critiques
<Reply # 6 on 7/19/2013 4:46 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
I was using a nikon D60 with the basic 18-55mm lens. I played around with a lot of different shutter and aperture settings but kept getting the same general result. I used a high iso value of 1600.

Do you think the subtle vibrations through the bridge could be to blame for the poor image quality? And do you guys have a particular iso value of preference? And would adding a tripod help if the whole bridge is vibrating from the cars passing?

corvettejoe 


Location: Central FL
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Re: More a plea for help than critiques
<Reply # 7 on 7/19/2013 11:31 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Posted by Captain Dabney
I was using a nikon D60 with the basic 18-55mm lens. I played around with a lot of different shutter and aperture settings but kept getting the same general result. I used a high iso value of 1600.

Do you think the subtle vibrations through the bridge could be to blame for the poor image quality? And do you guys have a particular iso value of preference? And would adding a tripod help if the whole bridge is vibrating from the cars passing?


Your camera should have been more than enough to achieve a good outcome.
I think it either just comes down to learning how to use it better.

I THINK the haloing/glow may have been caused from too much exposure zoomed in too close.

I only say this because I get the EXACT same effect that I can not get rid of when shooting huge full moon shots. No matter what I do I can't get rid of this same looking effect as in your photo. I finally have to zoom back out quite a bit, increase the shutter speeds some and then it starts to look decent after that.

Looking at the cables on the bridge... they aren't really blurry (look at the big fat one directly to the left of the bright bridge itself at bottom of photo). It seems to be pretty solid... so I think its just a combo of incorrect settings...

basically the scene is large, dark and you appear to be zoomed in to massive amounts of light... just like the moon shot I was explaining above.

[last edit 7/19/2013 11:32 AM by corvettejoe - edited 1 times]

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UER Forum > Archived UE Photo Critiques > More a plea for help than critiques (Viewed 318 times)



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