Post your night time long exposure photos here!

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Creative Convention > The Dorkroom > Post your night time long exposure photos here!

FasterThanLight: Mar 26, 2003

mCpwnage posted:

I've been trying my hand at some long exposures but every shot I take seems to be slightly out of focus. AF obviously doesn't work due to the darkness and every time I just switch it into MF and put it on infinity focus nothing is in any way sharp. How do you guys get such sharp focus on these shots taken in near pitch blackness?

Try focusing for the hyperfocal distance. If your lens has DOF scale markings, a quick and easy way of doing this is to set the infinity symbol to the outer marking corresponding to your f-stop. You'll get much more DOF than you would by just focusing for infinity.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2010 15:06

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 05:57

FasterThanLight: Mar 26, 2003

ole_bjorne posted:

Goons, I just bought Nikon D5100 and still learning. Was going to buy a tripod, but then read this article by Ken Rockwell (whom I really trust) - http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/digital-killed-my-tripod.htm which says that tripod is not needed for DSLRs.

So, the question is - is it possible to repeat some of the photos shown here (and majority of them are amazing!) w/o tripod by playing with ISO or what have you. I understand that sharpness will be gone but still...

That article might be the bullshittiest of all of Ken Rockwell's bullshit. The images look ok because they're only 600px wide, ISO 1600 at normal resolutions usually isn't going to look all that great. K-Rock might have magic ultra-stable hands that can shoot at 1/4 sec, but most people don't...I certainly wouldn't count on being able to do that, at least. Tripods are good!

# ¿ Sep 2, 2011 17:36

FasterThanLight: Mar 26, 2003

Klogdor posted:

So, I got a few this weekend, but I really wish I could figure out an easy way to merge two exposures using software available for linux,

Try creating layer masks in gimp, it works well enough and is fairly self-explanatory.

# ¿ Nov 17, 2011 19:35

FasterThanLight: Mar 26, 2003

What were your shutter speed, aperture, ISO? Were you using a tripod? VR on?

# ¿ Apr 13, 2012 18:54

FasterThanLight: Mar 26, 2003

VomitOnLino posted:

Oh. And you probably don't want to go further than f11 on a crop sensor like yours. F16 in a pinch. Also use the lowest numbered ISO possible. E.g. ISO 100 or 50 but not LO1 or however they call it as it reduces dynamic range.

Yep. I'd even go as far as to say not to stop down past f/8 if at all possible. Having enough DOF shouldn't be a problem for these types of shots.

And yes, definitely turn off VR if you're using a tripod.

# ¿ Apr 14, 2012 15:49

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 05:57

FasterThanLight: Mar 26, 2003

Long enough to require a tripod, at least!

DSC00402.jpg by richardhkirkando, on Flickr

# ¿ Aug 15, 2012 05:26

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Creative Convention > The Dorkroom > Post your night time long exposure photos here!