Taking night-time pictures.. advice please?

How can I get them to come out sharp and without a whole lot of noise? No doubt I'll be shooting a night time show at sea world when I go probably this Tuesday (yay!). Best ISO speed, shutter speed, aperture? I'm limited to my only lens, the kit 28-135mm. This will be my first experience taking night time pictures. The shows typically have bright lights shining on the animals and their trainers. I'm sure I can use that to my advantage. Thanks folks!

Is there a local photog shop you can rent some glass? A faster lens sure would make your life a little easier. Gonna be hard if you're trying to freeze motion of the animals coming out of the water so a long shutter speed isn't gonna fly and your aperture limits of your current lens isn't going to help much either. Shoot as wide as you can and you're gonna need to crank up the ISO of course.

haknslash wrote in post #9300578
Is there a local photog shop you can rent some glass? A faster lens sure would make your life a little easier. Gonna be hard if you're trying to freeze motion of the animals coming out of the water so a long shutter speed isn't gonna fly and your aperture limits of your current lens isn't going to help much either. Shoot as wide as you can and you're gonna need to crank up the ISO of course.

Can't afford both the rental and the trip that day. :/ Still haven't started making money with this so I can't justify a new lens, be it rental or purchase, with the husband. I'm working on it, though. I got some ok shots with my P&S at the night show so if my Fujifilm S5200 can do it, I think I can do it with my Canon. I'll get to the night show early so I can experiment with the best settings. Maybe I'll get lucky. I know I can take good pics of the day time shows though. At the very least I'll have those.

I know the slowest shutter speeds I can use during the day. But yeah.. I'll just do some exprimenting when I get there.

Yeah get there early and get some practice in with the lighting conditions. If you pulled it off before with a P&S you should be fine with the DSLR. Sounds like a fun trip! I haven't been to Sea World since a kid.

SkyBaby wrote in post #9300631
Can't afford both the rental and the trip that day. :/ Still haven't started making money with this so I can't justify a new lens, be it rental or purchase, with the husband. I'm working on it, though. I got some ok shots with my P&S at the night show so if my Fujifilm S5200 can do it, I think I can do it with my Canon. I'll get to the night show early so I can experiment with the best settings. Maybe I'll get lucky. I know I can take good pics of the day time shows though. At the very least I'll have those.
I know the slowest shutter speeds I can use during the day. But yeah.. I'll just do some exprimenting when I get there.

buy the cheap 50mm 1.8 (less than $100) and see what a large aperture lens can do!

shoot at the widest aperture, shutter must be 1/200 or faster to freeze motion, iso 800 or higher.
if you are printing the photos, don't worry about iso noise...bump it up to 1600 or higher...don't be scared. Take the shot, the most important thing!..

Use a string tripod to reduce camera shake at the low shutter speeds.

http://www.pcworld.com …rlds_cheapest_t​ripod.html

haknslash wrote in post #9300638
Yeah get there early and get some practice in with the lighting conditions. If you pulled it off before with a P&S you should be fine with the DSLR. Sounds like a fun trip! I haven't been to Sea World since a kid.

I got there about 10 minutes before the show started last time and experimented and got better with the settings in time to catch the first breaches and slide outs.

Before my husband started taking me more, I wasn't making it there more than once every 10 years or so with my family. :P

watt100 wrote in post #9300962
buy the cheap 50mm 1.8 (less than $100) and see what a large aperture lens can do!

Ohh now that would be cool! Hmm.. I'll talk to my husband about that. Thanks for the idea!

Rey.dos wrote in post #9300980
shoot at the widest aperture, shutter must be 1/200 or faster to freeze motion, iso 800 or higher.
if you are printing the photos, don't worry about iso noise...bump it up to 1600 or higher...don't be scared. Take the shot, the most important thing!..

I'm pretty pleased with how my camera performs with higher ISO. I think I can do it. I'm gonna get there early and experiment with my settings until I get it right.

jack lumber wrote in post #9301387
Use a string tripod to reduce camera shake at the low shutter speeds.

http://www.pcworld.com …rlds_cheapest_t​ripod.html

That's a neat idea. I'll try it! Thanks!

Shoot RAW files and set the NR in camera to "standard". Process the files with DPP and it will automatically run NR and clean them up. Open the lens up and crank the ISO up to the level required. You really could use a faster lens, but since that isn't an option, go with what you have. Do not underexpose if at all possible.

I have an EOS Rebel XS with the IS kit lens. What would be the best starting settings for me to achieve some decent night shots (with and without the tripod)? Thank you in advance folks.

The longer the shutter is open.. the more camera shake will show. For night time photography of things other than people; a tripod is essential. for shots without a tripod; you'll have to use as large an aperture as you can in order to keep your shutter speed up. From there.. the more you increase the ISO the more you increase noise.

What are you attempting to shoot? shooting lights/buildings can be fun at night; but beware of streetlights.. they can negatively impact your shot with their bright spots in front of your intended subject.

Tdragone wrote in post #9316625
The longer the shutter is open.. the more camera shake will show. For night time photography of things other than people; a tripod is essential. for shots without a tripod; you'll have to use as large an aperture as you can in order to keep your shutter speed up. From there.. the more you increase the ISO the more you increase noise.

What are you attempting to shoot? shooting lights/buildings can be fun at night; but beware of streetlights.. they can negatively impact your shot with their bright spots in front of your intended subject.

Primarily, I'd like to get more proficient at shooting buildings and landmarks at night. I took a couple of shots the other night, however is was brutally cold and even though I didn't have a tripod, I didn't realize how much shake I had incurred during the shot until I got home and really looked at the photo on the PC. I've put up 2 shots. One of them (the one that I really would have wanted to come out nice) is the one that's got quite a bit of blur. The other one didn't come out too bad.

I understand the necessity of a tripod for blur-free shots, but there are times when it's just not possible to have a tripod with you, which is why I'd like to know the best technique and settings in order to get by without the tripod as best as I can. Thanks in advance for all your help.

P.S. I'm shooting in RAW.

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Dark Phalanx wrote in post #9317290
I understand the necessity of a tripod for blur-free shots, but there are times when it's just not possible to have a tripod with you, which is why I'd like to know the best technique and settings in order to get by without the tripod as best as I can. Thanks in advance for all your help.

shooting at night without a tripod is difficult if you don't have large aperture lens, - f1.4 or f 1.8. If the kit lens is all you have try using a higher ISO level (1600), hold the camera on a level surface and use a low shutter speed. For long exposures you really need a tripod.

watt100 wrote in post #9317356
shooting at night without a tripod is difficult if you don't have large aperture lens, - f1.4 or f 1.8. If the kit lens is all you have try using a higher ISO level (1600), hold the camera on a level surface and use a low shutter speed. For long exposures you really need a tripod.

I'll definitely try bumping up the ISO to 1600. In the meantime,I have started to put aside some funds for a large aperture lens. Thanks again!

You could try a mono-pod and rest against a building or other object. Also try to control your breathing if your holding the camera. a good solid tripod helps if you can't afford a good fast lens, it won't replace a fast lens but can help. Are you in Qubec? I got some good 35mm photos a few years ago, using a monopod with 400 speed film at night.