Comments on: Nightscapes like daytime, long exposure landscapes

By: Siddharth Aphale

Siddharth Aphale — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:45:16 +0000

Hey Tanya, I am an amateur photographer. I have a sony alpha 200 which I am currently using. I came across this page and was stunned by the effect you were able to get. Could you please guide me about nightscapes and exactly which mode are you shooting in? I have tried a few photos of my own in the shutter speed mode achieving an exposure of 30 seconds but after trying hard, I have not been able to get a longer exposure and nor am I able to capture the blue sky… Please do guide me thank you.
Hello Siddharth,
For nightscapes, you need to set your camera to bulb mode and use a remote release. Bulb mode will keep the shutter open for as long as the shutter release is pressed. The blue sky will come with longer exposures. The darker the night sky, the longer the exposure you need to set. Often its trial and error to start with. If it’s a really dark night, set the camera exposure to 5 minutes, then adjust from there depending on the outcome. The best advice I can give, is to have patience. Nightscapes take a lot of patience, as well as trial and error.
Have fun with it!
Tanya.
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By: jayne del rosario

jayne del rosario — Mon, 25 May 2009 21:03:31 +0000

Hi. i am a fan of yours. i love this long exposure night shots. and i am currently a graduating student. taking photography. i wanted and was inspred by your topic. was wondering if i can use that as my topics. but i need some objectives and statement of the problem regarding this topic. it’s for my thesis this year. hope you could help me. thank you so much
Hello Jayne, Yes you can use this topic for your thesis. All the best with it

By: Jenny

Jenny — Thu, 21 May 2009 04:12:09 +0000

Tanya,
This is a great tip for me because I’m a night person and find it difficult to get up early for those morning shots.
Still reading the manual for my new DSLR Canon. So many more options and I have to try to remember how I used an SLR camera again. It will be great to use depth of field and different apertures and ISOs.
My first trip will be down to Ocean Grove and that place where Seachange was filmed. Then I thought I could use some Flybies to get to Sydney again to stay with friends and relatives.
Hi Jenny,
Enjoy your trip. I’ll look forward to seeing some photographs
Kind Regards.
Tanya.

By: Mat Marks

Mat Marks — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 20:04:14 +0000

Hi Tanya:
Your Photos are awesome.
I came upon them by doing a search on Long Exposures at night.
I am new to DSLRs and just bought the 5DM2. I did my first long exposure (30 secs) at night and freaked out when I saw all that noise!
Your photos are soooo clean compared to mine!
Do you do noise reduction in both the camera and in photoshop? Canon’s Digital Photo Prof. has noise reduction too. Do you do it there too on your RAW files?
Thanks,
Mat Marks
Hi Mat,
Yes, I did turn on the camera’s noise reduction settings for long exposures. Although this still resulted in a lot of noise in the original. I then edited the image with Photoshop CS2 (under filters) to reduce the noise as much as possible. I did all this in the jpg not the RAW. Hope this helps
Kind Regards.
Tanya.

By: timmy_pete

timmy_pete — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 15:07:43 +0000

Thanks for the guide! I’ve been experimenting a little recently and found that ISO100 seems to be fine noise-wise on my camera (Canon 350d). I am intrigued by how long it took the camera to process the photos. I have not had any similar time issues; though I assume you are using RAW, and would be curious what file sizes long exposure RAW is relative to daytime RAW (I have only used it during the day, and have used highest-qual JPEGS at night for no particularly good reasons).
I took this early last week and tried lightpainting for the first time, it helped as although the moon was very bright, the verandah and door were pitch black and in shadow even after longer exposures than this shot. http://www.flickr.com/photos/timmy_pete/3100607271/ (exposure and lighting details on flickr) it did indeed take a few shots to get something nice.
Cheers, Tim
Wonderful photo you have on flickr Tim. Yes, I do shoot in RAW. I’ve found little difference in the size of RAW files, whether I photograph in daylight or night light. Both file sizes are relatively similar.
Kind Regards.
Tanya.

By: Linkwize

Linkwize — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 22:53:57 +0000

Next time try also using the torch you used for focussing to ‘paint’ in details during the long exposure.
Thanks Linkwize, that’s a good tip. I think I read about that in a photography magazine. I’ll search it out and re-read it.

By: Patrick Lockerman

Patrick Lockerman — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 19:16:38 +0000

Tanya, you mention that you hold the shutter button down half way to autofocus. How is that done with the remote? Do you not use a wireless remote? And lastly, can’t you simply focus manually?
-Patrick
Nice to see you on Facebook Patrick
Yes I use the wireless remote’s button to hold the shutter half way down. It works just like the button on your camera in that you can hold it half way down to focus, then press it fully to take the shot. You can manually focus if you find that easier. Personally I find it hard to do that in the dark with little light to guide you.
Have a great day!