Night pictures......??

I've got a G5 and I'm wondering how long of an exposure time is possible with this camera??

I'm wanting to get into some night photography and I'm just trying to learn all I can about this camera right now...Thanks!

Does anyone have nighttime pics taken with their G camera?

a G6 is 15 seconds... I believe a G5 is the same.

here are a couple I've taken:
one from the 'transportation" challenge, I think this was about 4-5 seconds:
http://www.2strokebuzz​.com/potn/nighttrain.j​pg
and this was a full 15-sec exposure at night (lot of ambient light in the city)
http://www.flickr.com/​photos/2strokebuzz/962​2433/

Wow....Those are cool pics! 15 seconds should work....

I want to try and shoot the night sky....stars, moon......Comets
I also want to do a city shot with passing headlights/tailights..​.

shooting stars, etc. is tricky in the city with so much ambient light (street lights, houses, light reflected off smog, etc). But in the country, it's much darker and you should be able to get good results. I shot some when we were camping but I can't find them right now. It was pitch black other than our small fire, and we were drawing 15-second pictures with a flashlight.

I'm in the "country" (unfortunately) and I have a perfect place to go for complete dark out of the town lights........For the city shot, I am taking a trip soon and wanted to figure all this out before I get to Tampa.

I really like those city shots of bridges or tall buildings and then the blurr of car lights going by......

Reeforbust wrote:
I really like those city shots of bridges or tall buildings and then the blurr of car lights going by......

All it takes is some experimentation, a good location, cooperative weather, and a tripod.

Also try to start shooting as the sun sets, I can see the chicago skyline out my window, and over the course of a half hour, the light changes SO much, different colors and reflections, some days it's truly amazing how different two shots just a couple minutes apart can be.

http://www.flickr.com/​photos/2strokebuzz/753​45814/
http://www.flickr.com/​photos/2strokebuzz/753​50669/
http://www.flickr.com/​photos/2strokebuzz/753​57857/

These aren't the greatest shots in the world, but they give you an idea how much the light can change in fifteen minutes. If the sunset is a dud, you still have the chance to shoot the night photos you were going to shoot in the first place!

B.

Wow....Time does make a difference.

Hi Bryan!

If you say 15 seconds exposure... what does that mean? And how to minimize color streaks using night scene mode without using a tripod? Thanks!

that the shutter is open, exposing the film, for 15 seconds (in Tv or M mode).

those city shots were much shorter exposures, rarely would you need a 15-second exposure. The only one of those that was actually 15 seconds was the one on the porch, it looks like daylight but it was the middle of the night.

Note that your photos get noisier the longer the shutter's open, too.

As far as 'night scene', (I believe it's called "slow-sync flash" technically), the flash exposes the foreground, then the shutter stays open to expose the background properly. So the only way to avoid the streaks and halos is to ensure the camera and subject don't move at all, even after the flash stops, until the shutter closes.
here's what happens (see my head, usually it looks more like a halo around the subject) if the subject moves:
http://www.flickr.com/​photos/2strokebuzz/631​00883/
(not sure why i used "night scene" there, there was nothing to expose in the background)
So, primarily you want to hold the camera steady. A tripod or setting it down on something solid (use that remote! I thought it was silly at first but I use it all the time now) is the best way, but if that's not an option, hold it as steady as you can (look up holding techniques on the internet) and KEEP HOLDING IT STEADY after the flash goes off for as long as it takes to finish the exposure. Depending on the brightness of the background, it's usually hard to hold it still that long, so sometimes you can use the streaks to "artistic" advantage if you move the camera as soon as the flash fires, like this:
http://www.flickr.com/​photos/2strokebuzz/707​38720/
or if you're drunk, this:
http://www.flickr.com/​photos/2strokebuzz/631​00953/

B.

Meaning, I should not move the camera for 15 seconds after the shot?

I tried my G6 at night - friends on the foreground and buildings at the background. Luckily, my friend brought his tripod. The thing is that, the buildings at the background looks good but at the foreground, we look like "ghosts". We experimented not to move for about 5 seconds. Same thing. Maybe it's focused on the background? But if I focus at the foreground (which is us), will be the buildings at the background looks blurry?

Reeforbust,
The moon can be an exception to night shooting. If you use a long exposure, you'll just get an over-exposed white blob with RGB values of 255,255,255. The moon is really in full daylight, if you think about it, and you have to expose it as such. Unfortunately that means the stars in the background will be exteremely under-exposed, but you could composite two images. Search on these forums for "moon" or "shoot the moon" and you'll find some great tips and examples.

Sophia,
Nothing should move relative to the camera for the duration of the exposure--whether that's the camera moving, or the subject(s). Though you can get some cool effects with this, as seen in some of Bryan's pics. If you lock the focus on the foreground, it's very likely that the background will be in focus unless you're zoomed all the way in (with a wide aperture and full zoom, your DOF is shallower). There may be a simpler way to do this, but my normal routine for locking the focus on an object that isn't in the center of my frame is to first center that object, half-press the shutter button until it acquires focus, then, while still holding the shutter halfway, press the manual focus (MF) button. That locks the current focus, and allows you to manually alter it if you want, using the wheel. Then I reframe the shot, and take the picture. You could skip the MF if you were shooting by hand, but I'm assuming you're setting the camera up on a tripod and then using the timer/remote to capture yourself with friends--that's where the MF trick is handy. Once you've locked focus, you can release the shutter button, walk into the foreground, and trip the shutter with the remote.

If you listen carefully, you can hear the shutter click closed after the exposure is finished, and then you can move.

No, no, it's never going to go that long, maybe a second or so, It varies depending on the scene, like dbump said, you'll hear a very faint click when it's done. Just don't drop the camera as soon as the flash goes off, that's the common mistake, remember that it's continuing to expose after the flash goes off. It's good practice to hold the camera longer than needed anyway, just to make sure you're not moving it too early in the daytime, too.

"night scene" is kind of a weird mode, if one understands how it works well enough to use it properly, one wouldn't really need it, heh. In the optimal situation (barely-lit people within flash range with a dark but not totally unlit background) it works great, but otherwise you usually end up with some halos and light streaks. Your photos probably were blurry because there was too much light on them aside from the flash and the background was dark enough to warrant a long exposure and they couldn't stand perfectly still that long (no one can). Try it during a sunset or dusk and keep the subject out of bright light... you want them to only be hit by the flash.

B

So any alternative on what mode for a situation that I just mentioned awhile ago? I'm starting out with Auto and Night Scene (was like, Oh, it's dark already, I have to use "night scene"). Auto is pretty perfect for me. One time, I used TV at night time. It does good job too - just not that "colorful" compared to night scene mode.

yeah, AUTO should work better for the foreground, you'd just lose some background in most cases.

To really do it right (exposing both properly), you'd basically do what "night mode" does, but you'd do it manually with the flash set to "slow sync" and adjust the settings (in M, Tv, Av, or P) to work for the situation. "Night Scene" is just a generic setting for convenience's sake that doesn't always work as you'd hope. My camera is in a bin at canon right now so I can't check, but i don't think you can adjust the shutter speed or aperture in Night Scene... maybe you could look in the owner's manual to see what the auto settings are, then set C1 or C2 with the same settings and experiment with different speeds?

If you're shooting something important and have a lot of time, that's the way to do it, but for everyday shots, you're probably best off trying some auto and night scene shots and seeing how they look, then maybe try some without a flash at all if the subject is still. if you're not shooting things that move, a long exposure on a tripod is almost always gonna look cooler than using the flash, but you can rarely get a decent flashless photo at night when you're holding the camera.

Thanks for the advices guys! I'll keep those in mind.