Shooting at night

Evening all,

Hope everyone's had a good Christmas.

After my first attempt at night shooting I'm after any tips you guys are willing to give.

As you can see by the Photo attached all of my photos from the night came out blurry and a bit darker than I would have like. Also any Photos I took of Planes taxing came out a complete blur, you couldn't even recognize it was a plane they were that bad!! The only chance I had was when the planes were parked on the stands. So any tips and advice on how to take Photos at night would be hugely appreciated

Thanks in advance

Attached photos:

Hello Jamie,

first thing I need to know about the situation with the taxiing aircraft: What was your camera settings (especially shutter speed)? For moving aircrafts at night you need a lens with high luminosity (f2.8+).

Your attached photo is unsharp. Try to focus an area with high contrast, so its easier for the camera to find a focus point. If it does not, focus manually. Set your internal exposure to +2 for nightshots.

Hi Oliver,

The settings on the night were;

1/8 sec at f / 4.5, ISO 1600

70 mm (70.0-300.0 mm f/4.5-5.6)

I'm just struggling to understand how to stop the image becoming blurry when the aircraft is moving. I will also admit that I'm not very good when it comes to cameras and there settings, I normal just put it in auto mode and a way I go :)

Jamie, as a rule of thumb, to get a sharp unshaken picture the shutter speed set should be at least the equivalent of the focal length of your lens. So, 70mm = 1/70 sec. Or 300mm = 1/300 sec. With practice (and/or an image stabiliser built into the lens) you can go slower, but this rule is a good starting point.

So, your 70mm lns needs a shutter speed of at least 1/70 second. Being generous I'd say you need to set 1/60 sec, but as a starting point 1/100th or 1/125 (depending on what settings your camera has) might be safer in terms of getting a sharp picture. 1/125 is 4 stops faster than 1/8th, and you can't increase (lower the number of) the aperture on the lens as its already at maximum, so the only way to get a good exposure at night at those sorts of shutter speeds is to increase the ISO.

You were shooting at 1600ISO at 1/8, and to get a good exposure at 1/100 or 1/125 the ISO would have to be increased by the 4 stops I mentioned before - that is you'd need to up the ISO from 1600 to 12800. So if you shoot a pic at ISO12800, 1/125, F4.5 you'll stand a better chance. However, that ISO setting will create a lot more digital noise in the image, which in itself will be a problem to get rid of (using photo editing software) if you want to upload the pic to a site such as this. Remember the problem will get worse if you zoom in and use more than 70mm, as you'll need an even higher shutter speed and therefore an even higher ISO.

In reality the shutter speed and ISO can be less than suggested. Shooting moving subjects at 1/8 is just asking for blur, very very few photographers will be able to do it, and any sharp pics at that sort of shutter speed are likely to be a matter more of luck than judgement, without a lot of practice.

AlphaMike

Hey, so for night shots, I would strongly recommend a long exposure, that is when your shutter speed is multiple seconds long. For the picture attached, the aircraft was driving so with a tripod, I set it up for (as I remember) 8 seconds, f11 iso 100, for these shots, keep the iso as low as possible, therefore reducing noise as much as possible. I use the same lense you do, the 70-300 on my nikon d5200 body. But you also have to be careful of camera shake, so I have an infrared remote to trigger the shutter (came in my battery grip, also works with all EL-14 batteries, d3100, d3200, d5100, d5200 etc.) Hope this helps you, happy shooting :)

Attached photos:

The rule of thumb regarding focal length being related to shutter speed is only applicable if you are holding the camera.

I tend to use a tripod (or some other rigid support) for night-shots. I use low ISO and high aperture settings which means the exposure times are several seconds to half a minute. Here are some examples for you to compare ... note the EXIF data:

1. http://www.airplane-pictures.net/photo/691989/zk-oko-air-new-zealand-boeing-777-300er/

2. http://www.airplane-pictures.net/photo/635872/airport-overview-airport-overview-overall-view/

3. http://www.airplane-pictures.net/photo/631999//

On rare occasions when I don't have a choice of using a tripod (or support), I opt for low aperture, high ISO just to avoid camera shake ruining the picture:

a. http://www.airplane-pictures.net/photo/665537//

b. http://www.airplane-pictures.net/photo/664510/s2-ahc-regent-airways-boeing-737-700/

Hats off to all those photographers who've mastered the art of night-time panning. That has to be one of the hardest type of aviation photography!

Well, night-time panning requires a really "expensive" bright lens, f/2.8 would be ideal. I won't try a night panning with any darker lens. And this is a specific kind of night shots.

If you are trying to get a classic one (with long exp) you definitely need a tripod - this is a must. In fact the heavier the tripod is, the better results you can achieve. There is no sense in buying a cheap one (unfortunately), to have best results you will need a high class tripod such as Manfrotto or Slik. I personally own a Slik tripod. It is very stable, still really affordable when speaking about its' weight.

Here you have an example of 30s shutter time shot taken with camera attached to Slik PRO 500DX:

http://www.airplane-pictures.net/photo/691923/sp-iba-olt-express-airbus-a319/

Jakub ... I'm officially accusing you of putting ideas in my head! Some lens maker somewhere is going to be very happy :)