Night Techniqques

[lingham]

Im after taking some pics of my car in a multi story car park which has those kinda orang/yellow lights...

whats the best modes and effects to use on the camera

i have the 400D

[Madweasel]

Im after taking some pics of my car in a multi story car park which has those kinda orang/yellow lights...

whats the best modes and effects to use on the camera

i have the 400D
You don't say what sort of effect you're after. Are you wanting to correct the lighting white balance, or do you want to show it more like the way you see it? You'll definitely want a tripod, though having said that, you could get away with a very high ISO, which would perhaps give the gritty sort of image that would fit this scene.

Your lens choice will also drive recommendations. If it's the kit lens, you'll want to set to f/8 or f/11, use a tripod and go for shutter speeds around 1-10 seconds (with ISO at 100 or 200), depending on the lighting. This leads me to recommend manual mode and those aperture and shutter settings. Check the effect on your rear screen and you won't go far wrong. Good luck :)

[lingham]

i basically want the pic to be how i can see it...my car is blue but its kinda turns orange under the lights and i want the pic to look like that

i have a tripod

[lingham]

anyone else?

[Philco]

I would recommend shooting RAW so you can correct for WB, which will get you alot closer to true color a lot faster. A tripod will allow you to go w/ a lower ISO, but if you're turning on your parking lights to get that look, than I would shy away from excessivly long shutter speeds since lights that are so much brighter than the rest of the image can somoetimes flare or create too much glow.

[lingham]

i give up

i still have a tripod and the best i get is this

http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/7924/img1235largest1.jpg

and others like this...all blurry and crap lol

http://img57.imageshack.us/img57/8273/img1222largewk1.jpg

http://img67.imageshack.us/img67/3009/img1231largeap9.jpg

[DrPablo]

Set the WB in your camera to 'tungsten'. Or better yet, get a white piece of paper, take a picture under the lighting where you'll be shooting, then use that image to set custom white balance (very easy, just look in your manual). Shooting RAW is the best, but you'll be closer to where you want to be if you shoot RAW in addition to setting in-camera white balance (i.e. the RAW converter will open your image a bit closer to where you want it).

Remember that it probably won't look accurate if you completely and totally neutralize the color cast. You still want a bit of flavor from the lighting. So what I do with tungsten is neutralize the color cast, then add a little yellow back in while in the RAW converter -- enough to show the color of the lights, but not enough to look like a color cast.

Also, if you're shooting on a tripod, then there's no reason you need to use high ISO for a static subject. Shoot at ISO 100 and you'll get less digital noise. You might also take a laser pointer to help you focus manually as well -- just shine the laser at your subject and focus on the red dot.

[lingham]

i was at 100 for all of it if not 200 but all advice being took on board

[bbc14f]

Hmm those pics look really soft and a little underexposed. For night pics without the use of a flash you are going to need longer exposures. And for this you want to eliminate all vibrations, caused by movement. I've had pictures ruined because of things such as slight breezes, or cars driving by on a bridge etc. Few things you might want to take into consideration;
1. Use a sturdy tripod.
2. Use a cable shutter release; if you don't have one use the timer.
3. If you really want to be picky you could also use the mirror lockup function I think your camera has one. I have the 20D and it can be accessed throught the Functions menu.
4. Check your focusing, the lack of light really makes it hard to focus. Sometimes it might be easier to maually focus.

[mike64]

Looking at the EXIF info your ISO was 400,1600 and 400 for those images, crank it down also set you camera to Av mode and set the aperture to 8-11, also you may have to manually focus as the camera may struggle to focus as it is quite dark (alternatively you could pop the flash up just to focus, it'll do a strobe thing, then switch the switch on the lens to MF and put the flash down) make sure you shoot in RAW and fix the white balance in PP

Hope this helps

[Jon]

You're in sodium vapor lighting - it's a discontinuous spectrum type of light, which means that gettign anything resembling a good colour match will be very difficult. CWB will get you closest, but for best results get some other location.

[Jim_T]

For night shooting, you might also want to invest in a remote shutter release cable. Even with a tripod, you can jiggle the camera just by pressing the shutter.

Another way of avoiding camera jiggle from the shutter press is to put the camera in timer mode. The shutter doesn't open right away and this gives the camera time to settle down.

[ChrisBlaze]

For night shooting, you might also want to invest in a remote shutter release cable. Even with a tripod, you can jiggle the camera just by pressing the shutter.

Another way of avoiding camera jiggle from the shutter press is to put the camera in timer mode. The shutter doesn't open right away and this gives the camera time to settle down.

dont forget the mirror lockup

[basroil]

and don't forget to shoot raw. in this case, the only way to get proper whitebalance is to use raw and then fix the whitebalance after the fact.

[Tdragone]

If you struggle with getting decent focussed shots at night; remember this:
The focal points deal with contrast; putting focal points on the middle of a smooth body panel won't do you any good.
As others have said; use a tripod; ISO 100, F8-F11 and let the camera deal with the shutter speed.
Use center spot focus on the hood of the car by pointing the center AF spot over a joint of two body panels (Hood + Front quarter panel or just on the grill(e); let it get focussed, flip the lens to MF to prevent the camera from refocusing and then take the pic.

Now is a great time to practice using custom White Balance and or shooting in RAW.

[Madweasel]

You are getting lots of advice concerning white balance, but as I understand the original post, you are happy with the colours you're getting. The biggest problem with the 2nd and 3rd pictures you posted is that they're out of focus (check the distant houses on shot 3 - they're sharper than the car is). The second problem is that they're slightly under-exposed, and the third is I think there is still some movement blur on top of the out-of-focus blur (the 400D should produce much crisper pictures than these). Is your tripod up to the job, or do you not have a remote release?

Putting bright light sources in the frame can add impact, but will throw the camera's light meter into thinking there is more light in the scene, hence under-exposing the subject part (your car). They also give your lens a stern test when it comes to flare, which you have here. Did you have a filter on the lens? Removing it can help in scenes like this. A little flare is to be expected in such a scene and can even add a little impact too, but it has led (along with under-exposure) to reduced contrast - the 'flat' feeling the pictures have.

Don't give up! You don't say what lens you're using, but I think you need a wider angle, taken from a close perspective, like in the 2nd shot, but getting more in. Use lower ISO, smaller aperture, and longer exposure, with a solid tripod, maybe focus manually. Try longer exposures than you expect to need and see how they turn out. The beauty of digital is you can check immediately. Don't forget even flat originals can be improved in post-processing (better to start with the best you can get in-camera though). Keep trying and post up your next lot, which should be better. :)