Thanks to all for your replies. Especially to Charles, wow!, a really fulsome description. That helps a LOT. Thanks also to Stan, Zos, Ken, and Tim.
The teacher will eventually cover night photography, but I wanted to try shooting some this coming week. So this gives me a direction to go in. Thanks again! Marnie aka Doe :-) In a message dated 4/19/2013 9:44:35 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: On Apr 19, 2013, at 11:11 , [email protected] wrote: > Never really done that much night shooting. > > I am, again, think it's been 5 years, taking a photo class that ends in a > little show (mat & frame & hang pics & invite family & friends). You pick a > theme to shoot around. I am, again, choosing an environmental one. > > There is an oil refinery nearby that is lit up like a fairy castle at > night. They don't like you taking pictures (if they see you on or near their > property), but there is a spot across the freeway where I think I could get a > good night shot. > > Only don't know how to begin. High ISO? Long exposure? Never done HDR, > would that be better? (Definitely plan on using the old tripod, and I do have > a remote.) I can try different approaches and shoot it again on return > trips. > 1. Tripod 2. 2-second release (also ideally with a remote release) so that the mirror is flipped up and everything has settled down a bit before the shutter opens. 3. Shoot RAW - most of the speckles and noise (hot pixels) you get from overheating the sensor are automatically removed by the Adobe Raw converter when you import into (whatever you use) and it'll save you a ton of time "cleaning up". 4. Shoot as low an ISO as you are patient enough to use. That will come back to you in sharpness. If you like, you can start with a high ISO to figure out approximately the exposure range you want to use, and then crank down the ISO (and crank up the exposure time to match). 5. Along with low ISO, stop down to f5.6/8/11 to help with your depth-of-field. Especially when it's pitch dark out (I don't know how well-lit your subject is) it can be tricky to get the focus spot-on. 6. Don't be afraid to start with an automatically-calculated exposure. You can then dial the exposure-compensation up or down "to taste". -Charles -- Charles Robinson - [email protected] Minneapolis, MN http://charles.robinsontwins.org http://www.facebook.com/charles.robinson -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
