Equipment list. Tripod. Plenty of Batteries or external battery source. Camera. Good High ISO performance. Bulb Mode. Raw

Transcription

1

2 Equipment list Tripod Plenty of Batteries or external battery source Camera Good High ISO performance Bulb Mode Raw Long Exposure noise reduction Intervalometer either in camera or external Live view

3 Equipment list Good flash light Head lamp-red to protect night vision Cell Phone with Apps for night photography Chair to rest on Good sturdy shoes or boots Bug spray Drinks and Snacks

4 Equipment list Rain Coat for your camera and yourself Wear dark clothes Wear the proper clothes to stay comfortable. Chair.

5 Focusing Challenges to Night photography Determining your composition Determining Exposure Addressing noise concerns Walking around the area Finding your car or camera

6 Focusing Onsite or Pre-focusing

7 Focusing Hyper focus your camera prior to the trip. Determine your focal length and Aperture (Large). Use Hyper focal app or Chart to determine distance you need to focus too. Focus the camera. Take care to ensure the focus is correct and the image is sharp. Tape lens focus ring so nothing moves during transit or while on site. Set your camera focus setting to manual.

8 Focusing While on site you can still use Hyper focal to adjust your focus as described earlier only use flashlight to focus your camera. Focusing is best done using a flashlight while the camera is in live view. Position flashlight towards camera at the hyper focal distance. Position the camera focus point on the flashlight. Go to live view, zoom in and focus the camera. Tape the lens focus ring and put camera focus setting on manual. Camera is ready to use.

9 Focusing Focusing camera at infinity This is best done during daylight hours. It can be done at night but much more difficult. Focus the cameral at infinity. At night you will need to use a flashlight. Do not use infinity mark on a zoom lens. When you are done, tape the focusing ring on your lens and set focus setting on the camera to manual.

10 Composition Getting it right in camera before taking that long exposure

11 Composition Set ISO to 6400 or 12,800. Don t be concerned with noise. Determine your subject and align the camera accordingly. Flash light as an aid Police the borders for distractions Use a large aperture and set the shuttle speed according to the meter. Take a picture and review the image. Make adjustment to remove any distractions and that the subject is where you want it.

12 Composition Repeat previous steps until you are satisfied that the composition is as you want it. Do not be concerned with the noise at this time. You are only looking at your composition.

13 Exposure The six stop process

14 6 Stop process Goal is to have an exposure that is right side biased on the histogram or at least not clipping the darks. If native ISO is 100, then set ISO to If native ISO is 200, then set ISO to 12,800. Use the aperture setting that you are going to use for the final image. Usually 5.6 or 8. Determine shutter speed.

15 6 stop process Take the picture. Review the histogram to make sure it is correct. If it is correct, then note the exposure time in seconds. If not adjust the shutter speed and retake the picture. The number of seconds then become minutes after the ISO is adjusted back to the native ISO of the camera.

16 6 stop process Example 6400 ISO, f5.6 exposure is 44 seconds. The exposure at 100 ISO, f5.6 is 44 minutes. 12,800 ISO, f8 exposure is 33 seconds. The exposure at 200 ISO, f8 will be 33 minutes.

17 EXPOSURE Two schools of thought and what constitutes a good exposure for night photography. Expose to the right or expose to the left. Exposure to the Right is what we are used to. Do not clip the darks or the lights. It is felt that you will have less noise by darkening the mid tones. Downside at night is Long Exposure Noise or High ISO Noise. Expose to the left is what a lot of night photographers expose to. The night scene straight out of the camera is darker and feels more natural to the viewer. One uses lower ISOs and a shorter exposure time. Requires less lower all noise reduction. Downside is that the image will be darker and you could create noise by adjusting the shadow slider to bring out more detail in the darker areas of the photograph. I like to expose to the left. It takes less time, less noise issues and the image just looks more natural.

18 noise High ISO Noise and Long Exposure Noise

19 noise High ISO noise. High ISO noise is a function of the camera. Perform high ISO test on your camera to determine at what point you find the noise intolerable. I performed the ISO test on all of my cameras and I have determined what my highest ISO setting are for all of my cameras. One can also use noise reduction software but one could impact the sharpness of the image while doing so. I use lightroom and when that is not enough, I use DXO.

20 noise Long Exposure Noise. This is a function of your camera design and ambient temperature. It is caused due to the temperature of the sensor. Overheating of the sensor. Red, Blue, and Green dots on your image represent long exposure noise. This type of noise is very difficult if not impossible to remove in post. You can use in camera LENR to drastically reduce if not eliminate the noise.

21 LENR Set camera for LENR. Assume the exposure time is 30 minutes. Take the picture. Camera actually takes two pictures. One normal 30 min. exposure and another 30 min exposure without the shutter opening. The second exposure is a dark frame and should be noise free. Camera compares the compares the dark frame to the desire exposure and removes long exposure noise.

22

23

24 LENR Ambient temperature, length of exposure, and cameral characteristics all impact long exposure noise. Four thirds sensors will create more noise than Full Frame. This is getting better as technology improves. You will need to test you camera to determine when you need to activate LENR. Negative side is the camera is tied up for twice as long so bring two camera with you keeps you working.

25 Milky Way or Star Points High ISO, less that 30 seconds of exposure.

26 milky way or star points Follow previous instructions regarding focusing the camera and determining composition. Will be using a large aperture like 2.8 or larger. Use a wide angle lens. The 500 or 400/focal length is a good guideline for determining exposure time to prevent star movement. Example: 400/14 mm would equal about 28 seconds of exposure time. or 400/24 mm would equal about 16 seconds of exposure. Set you camera accordingly and take your picture.

27 star trails one long exposure or star stacking

28 star trails Follow previous instructions regarding focusing the camera and determining composition. Star trails can take on different patterns. Using the North star in the image will cause circular star trail patterns. West side of north star will be ( pattern while to the east it will be ) shaped pattern. To the south or north of the north star will be flattened somewhat. Wide angle lenses create greater movement than a telephoto lens will.

29 star trails Determine desired exposure time. 1 1/2 hour is usually minimum amount of exposure time. Decision on one exposure or multiple (star stacking). One exposure means camera will be tied up 3 hours since you will use LENR. Make sure you have a fresh battery in your camera. Star stacking will require a higher ISO to shorten the exposure time to prevent LEN since LENR will have to turned off. May have to deal with high ISO noise but software can help in this area. I like one exposure but there are risks. A light (someone s flashlight or a headlight) can come into your scene and ruin your image. Star stacking minimizing this issue.

30 Star stacking You need an intervalometer to perform star stacking and you need software to stack the images. On the intervalometer you set the exposure time for the image, a 1 second interval between shots, and then the number of shots required to reach the one and half hours needed for a good stack. Some cameras have this built in but I like the external one. I use photoshop to stack the images together but that is another class. You can use photoshop masks to remove any unwanted light that may have entered into one of your images.

31 light painting can be done on any night image.

32 light painting Follow previous instructions regarding focusing the camera, exposure time and composition. Light painting will impact the shadow and dark areas so will impact the exposure time. Will have to perform tests to determine impact on exposure time. I use a coast flashlight I bought a Home Depot. Any flashlight will work just be gentle. Gels and other media to create different colors. Use flash light like one would a flash. Use side light to create depth and texture. Straight on light create flat images.

33 light painting Experiment with light painting to create the image you envision. One can light paint a scene in one exposure or multiple exposures. You can light paint any scene you want to. It can be star trails, milky way, star points, or a cloudy day with no stars. You can paint an interior scene as well.

34

35

36 The End