Night shots in a city

Recently on a visit to Paris (I'm UK based), I took a few shots of the Blackpool tower look alike
(The Eiffel Tower) When I looked at them, they were not what I had envisaged.

I suspect I used the 'wrong' type of metering, I'd appreciate some pointers for night shots of architecture.

What I wanted was a dark (black/deep blue) sky - local time was 23.00 so it was dark. The tower itself came out as reasonably well lit but the sky and city view around was yellow (lighting)

Most shots were around 1/5sec F1.4 exposure mode = auto, spot metering.
Any tips for having a dark sky so that the subject is not lost in the street light mush?

No tripod, but shot resting on a wall. Not tried this really before, so I'm a bit in the dark (or not). I was also in a hurry so could not try too many variations on settings, but if there is a next time, I'd like to do a better job.

kit
EOS5D MKII, f1.4 50mm F4, 24 - 105L (did not have the 24 -105 at the time.)
Thanks in advance. Rob.

Post a sample but I'm guessing that the metering had a real hard time with that scene. Night shots are better done manually and review the histogram afterwards and make the appropriate adjustments. Also, sometimes you may have to take several shots and blend them together as exposing for one area leaves another horribly miss-exposed. Night shots have horrendous DR and getting them all right in one shot is tough.

Sometimes you can blend the same shot if the original was done raw and you adjust the exposure as needed.

Meters are designed to make middle gray look middle gray. But shooting night time architecture is really about controlling the levels of the highlights and shadows. The problem is that if you control the highlights like the light hitting a tower, or the lights themselves, then you surrender some control over the dark end. If you try to keep the subtle blue versus black on the dark end you may lose some highlights. My suggestion would be to find a mid point then bracket the hell out of the shot. HDR or exposure blending works if you are willing to go that route.

Coincidentally, I am taking adult ed classes at a local high school on night photography, and last night was a field class.

After dark the light meter is practically useless. You have to have to do it by trial and error. First, counterintuitive to what you would expect, you need to set the aperture at f/8, while your mind is thinking of a wide open lens. Anything wider than f/8, and the flares of the street lights will be overpowering.
You need to shoot in manual, and go with trial and error. As I said, the meter is not good enough. Take a shot, and if too dark (or light), double the shutter (or half it, whatever appropriate). They again, and if too much - go a little back, etc.
Not using a tripod, or at least not fixing the camera on a firm surface, or not using a bean bag is a sure way to get a fuzzy shot.
A few months ago I did not have a tripod when shooting Lisbon at night from the tower, desperately trying to fix the camera to something. Out of a hundred shots I had about ten keepers.

A neat way to start with night exposures is to initially shoot in aperture priority at around f/8 and ISO 400. Choose auto-exposure-bracketing (AEB) at 1-stop intervals with a minus 1-stop exposure compensation. With your camera in burst mode, this will give you three exposures (as meter reads, one 1-stop below the reading and one 2-stops below the reading) The biggest failure of exposure metering of night shots is over exposure. One of the three shots will usually give you an exposure right in the ballpark.

You then can tweak the exposure if you need to. Letting the camera initially bracket the exposure is quicker and easier than doing it manually...

The Canon DSLR cameras will, of course, stop shooting after the three shot burst until you press the shutter release for another three shots. BTW: the default of Canon DSLR cameras is to cancel out AEB when the camera is shut down. I always go into the menu and select the option which keeps AEB in effect until I cancel it.

Shoot in RAW and you don't have to worry about color balance.

If you want a different effect, stop down your lens all the way and you will often get star-type flares around any bright lights. You could also use a "star" filter but, that effect is sometimes overwhelming...

A tripod or a beanbag, on a solid surface, will stabilize your shots. Use mirror lock up.

My 7D cameras allow me to register three groups of shooting parameters and then select these with one twist of the mode dial. I always have the C-3 mode set up for night shots. I include mirror lock up in those parameters.

Thanks all for the tips.

I posted a (very sad) example just enough for an idea. 1/5 sec f1.4
I'll try some more tests next time I have a something interensting to take a shot of.

I only did it on the fly as Ive not had the camera long and was away for a few days, previous model was an eos350d, great camera, curiously the shutter noise the 350 makes is far more 'camera like' than the plonk noise the 5D MKII makes, anyone else noticed this? (Or is there something strange about me?, don't answer that...)
Rob.

has anyone here tried the 14mm?

Rob-P wrote in post #15875958
Thanks all for the tips.

I posted a (very sad) example just enough for an idea. 1/5 sec f1.4
I'll try some more tests next time I have a something interensting to take a shot of.

I only did it on the fly as Ive not had the camera long and was away for a few days, previous model was an eos350d, great camera, curiously the shutter noise the 350 makes is far more 'camera like' than the plonk noise the 5D MKII makes, anyone else noticed this? (Or is there something strange about me?, don't answer that...)
Rob.

Thats over exposed. If you had darkened the shot the sky would be a lot darker and you would also get more detail in the Tower.
.
A bit like this i guess

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/davebass5/75109​66806/