Help - Night Photography

Hi All,

Any ideas how I might take some photos at Night with no Flash? I'm hoping to capture some dark silhouettes of trees / branches. With a cloudy sky in the background. Is this possible with long exposures?

I have a 350D with 17-85mm lens.

Thanks,

Sat

You'll need to use a creative mode. I would start with Av mode and set your aperture at around f8. Your camera will then tell you that it will need a long exposure, anything up to 30 seconds. Then just point, click and wait.

To get more out of long exposure photography you'll need a good tripod that's steady. If you don't have one then get hold of a bean bag, or anything that will allow you adjust your camera into position and hold it there very still. I personally use a Manfrotto 190Pro. Judging from what kit you have the cost of that tripod may be a little out of your comfort zone, it can clock in around £80 ($150) just for the legs.

Other possibly superfluous, or essential depending upon your disposition, things to think about would be to use mirror lock up and a release cable. The mirror lock up is functionality that you have to enable in the custom function settings in your camera. It basically changes your shutter button so that the first press locks up the mirror, and a subsequent second press will open the shutter. This avoids vibrations that may cause images to look blurry, as a side effect of pressing the button. I think the general consensus on this is that if you have a long exposure then the effect of mirror lock up is negligible.

A shutter release cable is simple a cable with a switch that works in place of your shutter button. Using one of these again reduces vibrations in the camera as you remotely tell the camera to take the picture without having to touch it with your hands, thereby potentially adding more vibrations.

My advice would be experiment. Memory card space if free. Take a couple of experimental shots, then review. If they are not to your expectations, then change some settings and try again. You have nothing to lose. Once you've got a few shots then you can post them up and ppl can give your more advice to how to improve.

Hope that helps.

Ephemeral pretty much says it all. Keep it steady, play with the setting as its all dependant on how much light you really do have. If your shooting landscapes and such, I would open the aperture a bit more than f/8 though. One thing Ephemeral didn’t mention is that the lower ISOs even though they expose for a much longer time have less noise than ISO 1600 though at ISO1600 30 seconds is a real long shot, even in darkness.