need some help with night time photo

[B.Miller]

so I've been way big into night photography ever since i got my tripod for Christmas. there's a bar we just got in town called wet willies, and they have a really cool neon sign. thought it would be a neat pic to capture the neon lights at night time, but man was i wrong!

i had my tripod with me, my 70-300 on, and went out to shoot some pics.

first i tried a faster shutter time, and it would capture everything around the building, except for the neon lights i was trying to capture.

then i tried to slow the shutter speed down some, which resulted in better capturing the neon lights, but the rest of the picture was way too dark.


so my question is, is there some science to these that im not picking up on? or is it just that hard to capture neon lights as the naked eye would see them at night as well as properly exposing everything else in the frame?



thanks in advance..and i can post up the pics i took if needed

[B.Miller]

nobody?

[Mr. Bill]

I would suggest posting up both the pics you are talking about. This will help with the visualization. Also list the exif data if possible.

[B.Miller]

too dark and too light

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v231/crazybryant1/IMG_5961.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v231/crazybryant1/IMG_5970.jpg


first one is

iso 1600
70mm f9
1/640 sec

second is

iso 200
70 mm f9
4 sec

[ssracer]

I'm still a noob at this myself, but I would guess you have two options because the sign is so bright. Either use a flash to illuminate the building so you can use a fast shutter speed and not have the lights blown out like in pic 2 OR take two identical pics at different shutter speeds. One to get the exposure of the building right and one to get the exposure of the sign right. Then using a pp program like photoshop, do a layer mask so you can use the good part of both pics.

[rejs7]

Another solution would be to create a HDR image - as you are using a tripod this should be possible.

[B.Miller]

yeah, i just didn't know if there was a way to achieve this without combining multiple pictures

[rejs7]

yeah, i just didn't know if there was a way to achieve this without combining multiple pictures

You can do it if you have Photoshop, but the three/five/seven image approach will make for a better image.

[jeromego]

try spot metering the neon sign instead of using evaluative.

[ssracer]

try spot metering the neon sign instead of using evaluative.

His sig indicates he has the XS...not spot metering.

[realitysays]

so I've been way big into night photography ever since i got my tripod for Christmas. there's a bar we just got in town called wet willies, and they have a really cool neon sign. thought it would be a neat pic to capture the neon lights at night time, but man was i wrong!

i had my tripod with me, my 70-300 on, and went out to shoot some pics.

first i tried a faster shutter time, and it would capture everything around the building, except for the neon lights i was trying to capture.

then i tried to slow the shutter speed down some, which resulted in better capturing the neon lights, but the rest of the picture was way too dark.


so my question is, is there some science to these that im not picking up on? or is it just that hard to capture neon lights as the naked eye would see them at night as well as properly exposing everything else in the frame?



thanks in advance..and i can post up the pics i took if needed

May i ask why you changed the ISO from 1600 to 200??

You can achieve what you wish to do, but it requires a lot of chimping...

It is best to shoot at the lowest ISO you can which i imagine for the XS is 100. Spot metering could be a possibility but as you have an XS there is no spot metering feature.

As i understand it, your saying, if you use a long shutter speed (4secs as you said) everything is too dark? The reason for this is because you changed your ISO 3 stops. Effectively cutting out 3 stops of light.

The best way to not blow the sign out is to bracket your images and make a HDR or a photoshop layer mask. You could try using a longer exposure and use a circular polarizing filter, but i don't think this would work as you would need an even longer shutter speed and still blow the sign out.

[nicksan]

Surely there must be something in between 1/640 sec and 4 sec that could have been used to better expose this properly.

[ryant35]

Surely there must be something in between 1/640 sec and 4 sec that could have been used to better expose this properly.

^+1

When I shoot at night I try a large variety of different shutter speeds, slow to fast.

[kevingr]

ND 4 or 8X filter to knock down the sign and chimp 'till you get it right...

Just my 2 cents...

[Philscbx]

first i tried a faster shutter time, and it would capture everything around the building, except for the neon lights i was trying to capture.

then i tried to slow the shutter speed down some, which resulted in better capturing the neon lights, but the rest of the picture was way too dark.If the ISO was set the same, your statement is then the opposite in both cases.

Longer shutter speed is always more light exposed to the film or sensor.

You can start with F stop in the middle of the lenses range.
This will get a better focus vs wide open.

Without a spot meter, zoom into the light to see what the meter says.
Using that as reference, then lower the shutter speed at each shot till you get what you like.

There are split ND filters that may work well in this case.
Half the filter is clear then graded a shade darker on the other half. If you want structure and sign in view.

One other tip is focus.
Shooting up at an angle vs flat view of the lighted sign.
You may have to focus in the middle of the sign or select a point priority that you want the sharpest.

Setting F stop to higher number will if at an angle will further stretch the focus across the sign.

Good Luck

[blighty]

I don't know what you're talking about, I think the one you describe as "too dark" is actually alright, maybe a bit of tweaking the colour. The ideal for neon is neon on its own with a jet black background, certainly in terms of selling pictures. I'd be pretty pleased with that, I recently took a neon sign and actually bracketed and mucked around for ten minutes trying to achieve just that effect, and am very pleased with it, it will shortly be going on istockphoto.