Shooting a skyline at night

[HrcRacing]

Hello,
When my tripod comes in, I plan on going to our RiverWalk which has a beautiful fountain and taking a picture of it and include the skyline on the opposite side of the river. The shots will be at night.
I'm thinking that I will use ISO 100 but have no clue on where to start with the aperture. I'll most likely be shooting in AV mode.
Any suggestions on aperture and if you would shoot with AWB or one of the options is GREATLY appreciated.
Thank you,
Robert

[Scottes]

Av mode, AWB, and bracket the shots. Taking them in RAW will allow you to mess with the exposure a bit, too. When shooting, check the LCD for "blinkies" which indicate blown-out sections. You probably do not want ANY on a night shot, since the street lights and such are very small, so if you get blinkies on the LCD that indicates that you've blown out a rather large area. Don't be surprised if the histogram looks "all wrong" - night shots usually do. Check the picture itself on the LCD - if you can see details on the LCD you'll have a lot of details in the final shot. Also, zoom in and check it, especially on brighter lights to make sure that you're not blowing them out too much. It's nice when the sky still has a bit of color to it OR when it's pitch black. I like to shoot sunsets so I will do so and then wait and wait as it gets darker.


Do not be afraid to take a LOT of pictures. The first night shoot I did I took about 14 bracketed shots across a 40-minute span as the sky was getting darker and darker. So I ended up with 50-something shots of the same scene ranging from sunset shots to almost night shots. After that I got a pretty good feeling for shooting night shots - at least for that scene. :wink:

I have to admit that I took a lot of shots because I went through the range of sunset to night. If I had showed up well past sunset I probably would have taken a bracketed expsoure, so 3 shots.

[PhotosGuy]

For a skyline you probably won't need a lot of depth of field, so you can start about one stop down from max which will allow you a faster shutter speed. Try AWB for interesting effects (AWB is easily confused), but I'd try Custom Cloudy WB for a warmer effect or Sunny for a cooler one. In any case, I'd use RAW for flexibility in post processing.
The best night shots are just before it's night, as some tone in the sky helps.

[HrcRacing]

On some of the shots, it will be only the skyline with the river in the foreground. However, on the others, the lit fountain will be in the foreground with the skyline in the background. Will I need to stop down the aperture for those?
Thank you VERY much for your help! :grin:

[Scottes]

However, on the others, the lit fountain will be in the foreground with the skyline in the background. Will I need to stop down the aperture for those?
Yes. In order to get enough Depth of Field the aperture setting depends on the lens length. With your 20mm f/8 will be more than sufficient, say f/11 for your 50mm, and if go to 80mm with your zoom you may want f/16 or even f/22 to be safe. (It's more detailed than this, really, but those are good starting points.)

[HrcRacing]

Okay, just to summarize, I'm going to start off with (20mm):

- AV mode
- f/4 or so (skyline only)
- f/8 (fountain and skyline)
- AWB (with some shots taken w/cloudy & sunny WB)
- bracket my shots
- ISO 100

Thank you again for all of your help, I really appreciate it! :grin:

[Scottes]

You're right on, and should do fine.

One more to add, if necessary... With the fountain shot, try one at f/22 or as small as it will go. The very long shutter time can make fountains look very cool.

Be sure to post the shots!

[HrcRacing]

Will do and thank you very much! :grin:

[HrcRacing]

Well, it's not at night but this is an angle of the skyline I was referring to. I went there today to kind of get a feel for the area and to get some daytime shots.
First thing I learned when I got home was that I really need to keep a better eye on the horizon. I mean, I realize that the St. Johns River is one of two rivers in the world that has a Northern flow, but I had it looking like it was going uphill! :shock: :grin: Not so much on this shot though.

20mm, 125s, f/16 (Sunny 16 Rule) @ ISO 100.

[clorich]

I couldn't agree more about shooting just before night. You can get some amazing colors out of what looks like a black sky. The pic below was taken with my G2, 4s, f2.5, iso 50 when I was fooling around in the yard one evening.

http://personal.chrislorich.com/pictures/housenight.jpg

[HrcRacing]

Wow, now that is beautiful! Great shot! :grin:

[PhotosGuy]

If you get it just right...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/PhotosGuy/Architecture/Architecture_006.jpg

;)

[HrcRacing]

I love that effect. You all have convinced me to get there early and stay late! :grin: Great shots! :smile: