The Night Photography Thread

[The1]

that's good though, since you're in the night photography thread and have big skies where you are, you can get lightning shots

[The1]

some interesting skies tonight.

hope you like, its sort of my first time shooting lightning, so any advice is more then welcome. (when I say sort of, I once tryed and quickly gave up because i didn't have patients)

[TL]

cools shots, can't say i have ever been able to capture lightning....one of these days i'll take the time

[Weebl]

Excellent. I rarely get to see lightning and it is hard to get also.

[The1]

it was a nice change tonight, the storms were over top and south of me, which is a little different then normal, it meant I actually got a chance to watch it from my building. Usually the neighbouring building is nicely in the way


hopefully I'll get some more chances, and next time, I'll use my 5D instead so I can get a wider shot. Not sure why I picked up the 7D, but I did, and I was stuck shooting at it's extreme when I could have gotten a lot wider otherwise. Live and learn...

[dcstep]

Originally Posted by The1

it was a nice change tonight, the storms were over top and south of me, which is a little different then normal, it meant I actually got a chance to watch it from my building. Usually the neighbouring building is nicely in the way


hopefully I'll get some more chances, and next time, I'll use my 5D instead so I can get a wider shot. Not sure why I picked up the 7D, but I did, and I was stuck shooting at it's extreme when I could have gotten a lot wider otherwise. Live and learn...

There's the little matter of the 5D3 costing twice as much. Also, for most of those shots, I would have actually cropped to focus more on the lightning. The first is really great.

Still, I understand the need for a wider lens. I really like an effective 24mm. In the daytime, if you need to go wider, you can handhold multiple shots and stitch them together.

Dramatic shots. Good luck tonight.

Dave

[The1]

Originally Posted by dcstep

There's the little matter of the 5D3 costing twice as much. Also, for most of those shots, I would have actually cropped to focus more on the lightning. The first is really great.

Still, I understand the need for a wider lens. I really like an effective 24mm. In the daytime, if you need to go wider, you can handhold multiple shots and stitch them together.

Dramatic shots. Good luck tonight.

Dave

unfortunatly the hand holding for lightning is near imposible, most of those shots were between 10-15 seconds just to try and catch the lightning.

wider angle would be more just to be able to catch lightning in the sky as it's so all over the place. And then crop after.

I debated cropping more on a few of them, I may play around with a few of them some more still.

What I really should have done is just set my remote trigger and timer to just keep firing shot after shot for the entire storm and then stack any flashes I catch to get multiple flashes in one shot. Next time I guess.

[dcstep]

Stacking lightning shots can be very effective.

[M_Six]

I wonder how well it would work to use a 3 or 6-stop ND filter for shooting lightning. You could go with long shutter times without the normal surrounding lights flaring up and the lightning would still be bright enough to show up in the image.

[The1]

Originally Posted by M_Six

I wonder how well it would work to use a 3 or 6-stop ND filter for shooting lightning. You could go with long shutter times without the normal surrounding lights flaring up and the lightning would still be bright enough to show up in the image.

I found that when I got much over about 13 seconds, the lightning started to become more faint. And if I made it to about 30 seconds, it was almost non existent. and the sky would just be lighter from all the lightning around.

seems like that 8-15 second window seems to work. Thats just my experience so far, more practice is needed, perhaps using a graduated filter upside down to dim the lights would help a bit.

I desaturated yellow to turn the heat down from some of the lights in the area which helped, and I didn't notice it change the sky at all.

[WDBi]

Went to a pretty popular spot last night with a couple cars we didnt bring a tripod but i think they turned out quite well

[HoustonBMWClub]

^Nice pics. Do you have a tripod by any chance? Turn the exposure up and turn the iso down, will help reduce the grain....unless you're going for that kinda look

[SS32]

Storms at Sand Piper by SS332, on Flickr

Mercer's Pier by SS332, on Flickr

venus rising by SS332, on Flickr

[Chewy734]

very cool shots!

[WDBi]

Originally Posted by HoustonBMWClub

^Nice pics. Do you have a tripod by any chance? Turn the exposure up and turn the iso down, will help reduce the grain....unless you're going for that kinda look

i didnt have a tripod that night so they were all hand held

[sourphish]

Taken 2 days ago. Saw on the news the day before that it would be lunar perigee so I went out with a friend and we took some pics. Here's a few of mine. A bit soft though.

1)


2) Crazy how fast dusk fades to night from the previous picture.


3)


4) This was as sharp as I could get it...forgot to bring things to weigh down the tripod against the wind.

[Seminole]

Taken from my balcony in the Keys. Wish I knew how to make the moon stay sharp and not washed out while taking this shot. I think that would have made it 100 times better.


Florida Keys Super Moon Harbor by Seminolez, on Flickr

[Weebl]

GND

[sourphish]

Originally Posted by Weebl

GND

Yeup. I just got one...albeit a cheap Cokin one to play with

[fluidkaos]

Work and school had me a little delayed on processing pictures, but here is a set I did on the Bars and Pubs of Dublin's Temple Bar on St. Patrick's Day.

The Oliver St. John Gogarty

DSC_2795 by FluidKaos, on Flickr

The Auld Dubliner

DSC_2787 by FluidKaos, on Flickr

The Quays Bar

DSC_2776-9 by FluidKaos, on Flickr

The Temple Bar

DSC_2757-68 by FluidKaos, on Flickr

Farrington's

DSC_2748-56 by FluidKaos, on Flickr

The Porterhouse Brewing Company

DSC_2739-44 by FluidKaos, on Flickr

And one of the Supreme Court House, just because night-time

DSC_2730 by FluidKaos, on Flickr

[Chewy734]

nice pics!

[The1]

Originally Posted by Chewy734

nice pics!