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      05-25-2011, 01:15 PM   #507
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Originally Posted by dcstep View Post
Show us an example or two.
Sorry dcstep...it's the picture of the MINI above. They were trying to help me with a poor shot I had taken. Some of my night pictures came out crystal clear (post 449)...others had a high amount of grain in them (post 462/472/487)....and I'm not sure I understand why.

In looking at the exif info on the clear picture (post 449)...I'm getting the following.

Camera: Nikon D90
Lens: 20 mm (35mm film equiv: 30mm)
Exposure: 0.6 sec, f/3.8, ISO 1600


So...the higher ISO get's me a clearer picture? I usually let this auto set...should I be locking these down?
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      05-25-2011, 01:25 PM   #508
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Originally Posted by ShopVac View Post
Not to shed off a great topic like 'NYC' since I've never been there...

Is there something I need to change when doing the night pictures for different lighting situations? I can't understand why some of my pictures came out crystal clear while ones like this last one are grainy and out of focus?
Learn this: http://www.digital-photography-schoo...al-photography and it will change the way you view exposure regardless of time of day.
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      05-25-2011, 03:14 PM   #509
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I think you got the barn behind in the focus rather then the car unfortunatly, did you take several pics when you did this shoot? or just 1? Don't be afraid to take multiple shots.

If you have a tripod, definitely use it at night, it will make a huge difference. It will allow you to take your ISO lower and have long shutter speeds to get nice clean shots.

1600ISO is going to be noisier then 800ISO any day, so the lower you can get it, the better the pictures will look, however, when you start getting really low, your shutter speed and apertures have to compensate more, resulting in higher chance of camera shake.
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      05-25-2011, 04:01 PM   #510
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Joey - like what the1 said, it appears the focus was on the wall rather than the car.

Try shooting in AF-S mode instead of AF-A. This will help with focus with what you want rather than letting the camera decide for you.
As for ISO if you have a tripod you can leave it at 100 - 200. if you're hand holding then i would push it a bit to 1000.

The D90 is a great camera and i use to shoot a lot of my night shots with it & D60 with the 18-55mm kit lens.
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      05-25-2011, 05:58 PM   #511
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Quote:
Originally Posted by The1 View Post
I think you got the barn behind in the focus rather then the car unfortunatly, did you take several pics when you did this shoot? or just 1? Don't be afraid to take multiple shots.

If you have a tripod, definitely use it at night, it will make a huge difference. It will allow you to take your ISO lower and have long shutter speeds to get nice clean shots.

1600ISO is going to be noisier then 800ISO any day, so the lower you can get it, the better the pictures will look, however, when you start getting really low, your shutter speed and apertures have to compensate more, resulting in higher chance of camera shake.
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Originally Posted by TL View Post
Joey - like what the1 said, it appears the focus was on the wall rather than the car.

Try shooting in AF-S mode instead of AF-A. This will help with focus with what you want rather than letting the camera decide for you.
As for ISO if you have a tripod you can leave it at 100 - 200. if you're hand holding then i would push it a bit to 1000.

The D90 is a great camera and i use to shoot a lot of my night shots with it & D60 with the 18-55mm kit lens.
Appreciate the heads up...

I actually was using a tripod...and did take different pictures (actually bracketed them). However, if I'm out of focus on the one, the rest are going to be similar and sometimes it's difficult to see in the little window if it's good or not.

Since I'm holding the focus box in the center of the camera, but the focal point in the lower third, I think it's missing the spot on occasion. I'll adjust this down to see if it helps in the future...and look to lock down the ISO for a more clear picture next trip out.
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      05-25-2011, 06:03 PM   #512
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If you're on a tripod, take all the time in the world to set it up. In this high speed world we live in, it seems like things take forever when you want to shoot 20 pictures.

But what I would attempt if i were you, is drop your ISO to about 100, lock in your F-stop for a nice clean subject, since it's your car and it's a large subject, maybe an F4 or 4.5 would give you a nice depth of feild. and let the shutter speed do the rest until you get used to shooting fully manual at night, that might be the best starting point.

you might see about a 15 second shutter speed on that. so sit there with a drink and and some donuts
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      05-25-2011, 09:16 PM   #513
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Quote:
Originally Posted by The1 View Post
If you're on a tripod, take all the time in the world to set it up. In this high speed world we live in, it seems like things take forever when you want to shoot 20 pictures.

But what I would attempt if i were you, is drop your ISO to about 100, lock in your F-stop for a nice clean subject, since it's your car and it's a large subject, maybe an F4 or 4.5 would give you a nice depth of feild. and let the shutter speed do the rest until you get used to shooting fully manual at night, that might be the best starting point.

you might see about a 15 second shutter speed on that. so sit there with a drink and and some donuts

For some reason...I didn't have any issues taking these in Europe...but I'm fighting it now. I think I just let myself get out of practice (besides, I think I read the entire D90 manual on the plane)

This is from Vasto...a small town on the Adriatic Sea


I need to look at the original of this again, but I think I cropped it because of all the people walking around.


And my favorite picture I've ever taken of the Grand Canal (be careful what you say...I'm sensitive on this one )
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      05-25-2011, 09:19 PM   #514
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beautiful shots! I might recommend cooling them down a tiny bit. Cameras don't like finding white balance at night. I tend to shoot on raw+jpeg, so i put my camera to K and go into the menu and turn it down to between 2500 and 2700k and everything starts to look natural, and then of course, i adjust it some more in post processing after if i'm not happy with it.

might be worth a shot, gives you 1 less thing to do on the computer after.
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      05-25-2011, 09:22 PM   #515
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the grand canal pic looks good.....i have to visit europe one of these days
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      05-25-2011, 09:33 PM   #516
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I played with the colour temperature, and added a tiny bit of exposure, then deleted the street lamp on the far right and a rouge palm leaf.

I tryed to brighten the sky a tiny bit to reveal the clouds that were there and stars, but there was too much noise so i left it alone.
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      05-25-2011, 09:48 PM   #517
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TL View Post
the grand canal pic looks good.....i have to visit europe one of these days
See that...compliment the guy's favorite picture to get bonus points (Thanks )

I think someone with your abilities would have a field day over there...I really do. I'm sure you see things much differently than I do (at the picture taking aspect).

Quote:
Originally Posted by The1 View Post
I played with the colour temperature, and added a tiny bit of exposure, then deleted the street lamp on the far right and a rouge palm leaf.

I tryed to brighten the sky a tiny bit to reveal the clouds that were there and stars, but there was too much noise so i left it alone.
That definitely looks better...I don't think I edited anything from this other than a crop. What did you all do to tone this down?

I think much of the amber tones come from reading Ken Rockwell's site at the time, where he recommended going into a more A2 (amber setting) tone on the camera. I think I agree with you on cooling them down some...I might go back and revisit some of the pictures I had of the Coliseum sometime.
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      05-25-2011, 09:54 PM   #518
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to be honest, i cooled that picture as much as humanly possible in the programs i had. Lights at night just crank the heat.

I took the colour temperature and bottomed it out, and then i added a cool tone filter to cool it down even more. The only thing i could probably do to cool it some more would be to open a blue layer in photoshop to bring it down some.

So basically, to skip all that, i find even the pre-configured white balance modes on the cameras at night are still to warm. which is why i put it on the custom setting at 2500K at night, or i find something white and do a custom setting off of that. It tends to bring out the most natural colours. I tryed doing the same thing to your canal picture, but because there was enough light from the sun, the auto white balance was able to do a good job and my playing barely changed anything. (that picture is pretty much perfect in my opinion )

for removing the random palm leaf and the half light at the right side, i just threw it in PS and selected the items and did content aware. It did the rest.
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      05-25-2011, 11:02 PM   #519
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I hope you don't mind.
I did too much graduated filter on the lights and should kill off some green/blue there too.
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      05-25-2011, 11:03 PM   #520
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I need to experiment with the filters more
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      05-26-2011, 12:36 AM   #521
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Ran out drove off a cliff and went 4wd over a hill to get this.
Translated (F'd up my bottom going off and back on the shoulder)
Just an example of the SF Bay area for anyone going to visit, me on the end and don't mind the bobbing heads in the other cars.
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      05-26-2011, 12:42 AM   #522
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why would heads be bobbing????










Just kidding.
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      05-26-2011, 12:52 AM   #523
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Whack a mole?
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      05-26-2011, 12:57 AM   #524
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Dammit I was just about to go to sleep.
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      05-26-2011, 08:05 AM   #525
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Precision View Post
Dammit I was just about to go to sleep.
and then?

you found a night photography thread and had to take your camera outside?
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      05-26-2011, 12:21 PM   #526
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Weebl View Post
I hope you don't mind.
I did too much graduated filter on the lights and should kill off some green/blue there too.
Definitely don't mind...but interested to know more about how you did this (from PS I take it). I like the way the detail came back in the lights...reminds me more how I recall it.
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      05-26-2011, 12:57 PM   #527
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Camera RAW is a wonderful thing. Make a copy of your original. Open the original in Bridge and then open in Camera RAW. Set the white balance to Custom and choose the White Balance tool from the tool area above the picture. Look for a grayish area. I chose the small foyer-like place near the right side of the image. Click there and your white balance should be closer to what you want. Click Done. Open the copy of your original the same way. Go to the HSL/Grayscale tab and slide the yellows and greens sliders all the way to the left so you lose that green fringing around the lights. Click Done. Now in Bridge, select both copies and go to Tools and Open in Photoshop layers. Put the image with the green fringe on top and add a layer mask. Now just paint out the lights so the corrected lights show through. I added a High Pass filter with the blend mode set to Soft Light and then I cloned out the small lens flare (or whatever that is).

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      05-26-2011, 01:21 PM   #528
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Thanks I'll run through this tonight and see if I can make a go of it...right after I put my wife and daughter on the plane to Boston.
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