One last question - Concepts of long exposure?

One last question. =P Excuse my thread-making spree.

Alright, does anyone have any tips on the basics of long exposures? I'm kind of getting lost now, because I shot these two photos at f/22, 30", 100 ISO with the 50mm f/1.8 lens... They both came out harsh, lighting wise. The streetlights, etc..

http://img190.imagesha​ck.us/img190/826/img31​44w.jpg
http://img63.imageshac​k.us/img63/5200/img314​3c.jpg

I was wondering how I could get more photos like this during the night that aren't nearly as harsh, but are just as beautiful?

http://farm2.static.fl​ickr.com …18241687_719a2a​a5a8_o.jpg - something such as this

or this:

http://cmdawson.com …Paris-at-night-700458.jpg


Tips would be wonderful!

Traffic Lights are nearly impossible to hold back for two reasons:
1) They're high intensity light sources.
2) They're highly directional due to being focused through fresnel lenses.

Your other two examples are simply streetlights which aren't as intense and are much more omni directional. The more you can avoid point light sources (traffic lights, headlights, security flood lights, etc...) the better off you'll be when shooting in the dark.

FlyingPhotog wrote in post #9495679
Traffic Lights are nearly impossible to hold back for two reasons:
1) They're high intensity light sources.
2) They're highly directional due to being focused through fresnel lenses.

Your other two examples are simply streetlights which aren't as intense and are much more omni directional. The more you can avoid point light sources (traffic lights, headlights, security flood lights, etc...) the better off you'll be when shooting in the dark.

Hm, well it's kind of funny, because that was kind of my goal. I wanted to get that type of photo. Especially a walk-light.

And streelights, I still interpret this photo I took to be rather boring.. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. Maybe it's the perspective? It just isn't eye-striking to me (no pun intended).

http://img63.imageshac​k.us/img63/6759/img314​2t.jpg - this. :\ Only reason I'm asking is because I'm driven to learn. I want to be the best I can be.

Night shots using long exposures isn't rocket science,,it's mainly guess work.. Shooting long exposures there is the glorious unknown of what you'll get.. You won't see what you'll get until you have the image up on a computer screen or the camera's LCD screen atleast.. One problem is contrast which you can use to your advantage if you are smart.. I like the blacks in the background, the points of white light and the high intensity colours,,some photographers don't..

Depending on the situation I normally start at 15 seconds at f/11 at 100 ISO.. Chimp and adjust exposure accordingly..

Tripod, shutter remote is a must,, so is manual focus and manual mode exposure setting.... I never use mirror lock up because I don't believe it's necessary with very long exposures.. I look for nice blacks, clean whites and strong colours..

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I'm by no means an expert, but I've found that taking long exposure shots just takes some practice and experimenting. I agree with yogestee that it's somewhat of a mystery as to what the exposure will end up looking like.

I also agree that intense directed light sources in the image (directed toward your camera) tend to really overexpose and blow out in a long exposure. If you're shooting them, you're either going to have to deal with that or underexpose the image to minimize it. But then the rest will be dark. I find that non-directional light works best. I also think that long exposures around dusk are excellent because you're still able to get some color in the sky (rather than just black or gray). I took these with my old Canon Powershot S3 (on a tripod, using the 2-sec timer shutter release):

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …in/set-72157600058456713/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …in/set-72157600058456713/

Your shots look fine. Two things that I notice in your comparison shots--they're both at dusk when the sky is dark blue but not yet black, and the streetlights in those shots are much farther away.

Just experiment. There's no wrong exposure at night.

Like everyone else says just practice, you'll find something your happy with in the end.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/42427406@N05/3​985446712/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/42427406@N05/3​985350330/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/42427406@N05/4​027766426/

yogestee wrote in post #9496912
Night shots using long exposures isn't rocket science,,it's mainly guess work.. Shooting long exposures there is the glorious unknown of what you'll get.. You won't see what you'll get until you have the image up on a computer screen or the camera's LCD screen atleast.. One problem is contrast which you can use to your advantage if you are smart.. I like the blacks in the background, the points of white light and the high intensity colours,,some photographers don't..

Depending on the situation I normally start at 15 seconds at f/11 at 100 ISO.. Chimp and adjust exposure accordingly..

Tripod, shutter remote is a must,, so is manual focus and manual mode exposure setting.... I never use mirror lock up because I don't believe it's necessary with very long exposures.. I look for nice blacks, clean whites and strong colours..

I guess I could also mess around with it in post, but to be honest, I'm not a fan of post-processing. But thank you! I can't really ever seem to get a perfect focus when manual focusing in the dark though. I'm not sure why! =P

By the way, that is probably one of the best long exposures I've EVER seen in my life!

drocpsu wrote in post #9497058
I'm by no means an expert, but I've found that taking long exposure shots just takes some practice and experimenting. I agree with yogestee that it's somewhat of a mystery as to what the exposure will end up looking like.

I also agree that intense directed light sources in the image (directed toward your camera) tend to really overexpose and blow out in a long exposure. If you're shooting them, you're either going to have to deal with that or underexpose the image to minimize it. But then the rest will be dark. I find that non-directional light works best. I also think that long exposures around dusk are excellent because you're still able to get some color in the sky (rather than just black or gray). I took these with my old Canon Powershot S3 (on a tripod, using the 2-sec timer shutter release):

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …in/set-72157600058456713/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …in/set-72157600058456713/

Hm, it's weird, because when I went outside, it looked like it was right post-sundown, which is weird, because it was 12 AM. By the way, I really like your second shot, so to my eye it looked a lot different. I'm not sure why.

Diamond Dave wrote in post #9498061
Your shots look fine. Two things that I notice in your comparison shots--they're both at dusk when the sky is dark blue but not yet black, and the streetlights in those shots are much farther away.

Just experiment. There's no wrong exposure at night.

Hm, well thank you! It just looks obnoxiously harsh to me, that's all... And haha, I don't think it was dusk.. It was around 12AM when I took those shots. :\ Just the moon was reflecting off of the snow.

AMD87 wrote in post #9498114
Like everyone else says just practice, you'll find something your happy with in the end.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/42427406@N05/3​985446712/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/42427406@N05/3​985350330/

http://www.flickr.com …/42427406@N05/4​027766426/

Last shot is absolutely gorgeous!!

quadwing wrote in post #9500115
And haha, I don't think it was dusk.. It was around 12AM when I took those shots. :\ Just the moon was reflecting off of the snow.

No, I mean the one's you're attempting to mimic.

I was wondering how I could get more photos like this during the night that aren't nearly as harsh, but are just as beautiful?

http://farm2.static.fl​ickr.com/1215/...9a2aa​5a8_o.jpg - something such as this

or this:

http://cmdawson.com/bl​og/uploaded_im...ght-700458.jpg

Thanks for that.. Here are some more from the same series..


http://www.pbase.com/j​urgentreue/patuxay&pag​e=all

take a shot at street lights first, not stop lights, they're easier to get with still exposing everything else, if you have a new snow, use that to your advantage to practice because it will help with not letting the lights be the only thing well exposed.

heres one of my favorite that i've gotten!

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