Testing my New Camera

[scouse007]

Hi
Here are some shots I have taken and uploaded via tinypic (first time) these shots if they have loaded are from my new Canon 70D, Be easy on me as it is my first photo post and the first time for doing night shots and also first time going fully manual with my camera which I have only had for 2 months I upgraded from a 350D...I have manipulated them in a little in Lightroom which I have only just had too !

1 (Canon 70D, 20mm, f/14, 1.6 seconds, ISO 1600)


2 (Canon 70D, 28mm, f/14, 1.6 seconds, ISO 1600)


3 (Canon 70D, 18mm, f/14, 1.6 seconds, ISO 1600)


4 (Canon 70D, 31mm, f/14, 1.6 seconds, ISO 1600)


5 (Canon 70D, 73mm, f/10, 1.3 seconds, ISO 800)

[Donald]

Be easy on me as it is my first photo post and the first time for doing night shots and also first time going fully manual with my camera which I have only had for 2 months

No need to pretend to be nice. For a first time effort, these are very good. Sure there are things we could talk about like sharpening and, more aesthetically, composition, but the fine tuning of all that can come later. For a first time out doing night shots and going into Manual mode, these are very impressive images. Well done.

ps - Glad to see you worked out how to get your images showing in the forum.

[scouse007]

Thanks Donald for your kind and welcome comments, I do want to know were I can improve in all aspects...I am self taught and learnt via "Youtube", I welcome all comments as it is the only way to learn and improve.

[John 2]

Great set of shots. Liverpool is so full of potential. Keep meaning to go. However, I have a nervousness over night shots in a city (any city, not just LP). The thought of being by myself with expensive camera gear in the dark and in a city makes wary.

[scouse007]

So True John about being nervous, when I went across to Birkenhead I had took a shots of the Liverpool Waterfront when I heard a group of lads approaching, I made a hasty retreat to my car, I was with my partner at the time. Taking the other shots around the buildings of the Liver birds I was in an open space and near to security officers whom weren't too far away and lucky for me a police car was parked nearby...

[bnnrcn]

Very nice shots Colin . You can certainly improve yourself here in CinC

[Shadowman]

Nice efforts, as a follow up to your exercise try printing your best and see how well it holds up to different surfaces because someone will surely want a print or you'll want to give one as a gift.

[rpcrowe]

Very nice set of shots. You have avoided the bane of many new night photographers: overexposing the light sources.

However, I suggest that you do some post processing sharpening on the images. Here is one of the shots sharpened using the CS6 Unsharp Mask: Amount 50%, Radius 1.0, Threshold 0. I would expect that working with a RAW image, rather than an image copied from this posting; the results would even be better.

[deetheturk]

Welcome to CinC Colin, I feel like a newbie myself as I have not posted for ages, nice images and you have come to the right place to learn

[Rebel]

This is a great effort for first time night photography, what sort of settings did you use Colin?

[Dave Humphries]

Here are some shots I have taken and uploaded via tinypic (first time) these shots if they have loaded are from my new Canon 70D, Be easy on me as it is my first photo post and the first time for doing night shots and also first time going fully manual with my camera which I have only had for 2 months ~

This is a very good start Colin. You picked a tricky subject to start with.

OK, I'll give you one or two thoughts on each shot.

1 - If I were you, I would check whether you have the Lens Correction profile enabled in LR, since I think I see some uncorrected lateral Chromatic Aberration (CA) in the lower left corner.

2 - Only major thing to say, which is true of some others also, is to check the levelness and consider correcting distortions introduced if/when the camera is pointed upwards to get the top of the building in - often referred to as perspective correction.

3 - This one is perhaps somewhat over exposed, also showing some CA.

4 - On this I might crop some off the right hand side to remove the biggest blue lit area and one street lamp head.

5 - I'm not sure this one was focussed correctly.

~ what sort of settings did you use Colin?

I have added ID numbers and EXIF data for the shots.

Hope that's helpful, Dave

[Rebel]

Cheers Dave.

I'd also try using a lower ISO and longer shutter speed instead to reduce some of the noise in the images.

[DanK]

I agree with the others. A very nice and promising start. I look forward to seeing many more.

Re Matt's comment: my rule of thumb for night photography is that unless there is a reason not to, I shoot at ISO 100, with long-exposure noise reduction turned on if the exposure is long enough to need it. (This takes a second shot of equal length with the shutter closed, so all that shows up is noise, and the camera then subtracts it from the base image. This means the camera is locked for twice the shutter interval. Unlike regular noise reduction, this does not reduce detail.) I only go above ISO 100 if I have a reason to, generally if motion will be a problem. E.g., I had to shoot the one below at 800 to freeze the movement of the fabric sculpture.

[dje]

Hi Colin, I think you're off to a good start too. Just a couple of points

As Matt and Dan have indicated, you will get the cleanest results for static shots like this if you shoot at base ISO (ISO100). Going from ISO1600 to ISO100 will simply change your shutter speed from 1.6 secs (in this case) to 4 times that (6.4 secs). If you are using a decent tripod this won't matter.

For most of your shots you have used an aperture setting of f/14. This gives good Depth of Field but for these shots you could probably get away with a larger aperture (say in the range f/8 to f/11) and still have adequate DOF. This will give you shots that are a bit sharper to start with (provided your focus is right) and will need less sharpening in post.

Focus is important in these sorts of shots and you've done pretty well with most of them. I usually use Live View mode and manual focus for this type of shot. It allows you to readily zoom in to adjust your focus on the point you want to focus on. Either that, or use auto focus in LV mode selecting your focus point location before half pressing the shutter, then change lens to manual focus which locks the focus in. I would usually use a remote shutter release too to avoid camera shake.

One other advantage with LV mode, especially with Canon cameras, is the availability of exposure simulation. In other words, you see a simulated view of what the exposure will be like.

One final thing - the colour of the sky. You can see that nice deep blue colour in Dan's image above. This is achieved by shooting not long after sunset when there is still some residual light in the sky. You need a fairly clear sky of course and you need to experiment with the timing. eg maybe 20 mins after sunset. Just stay there and keep taking a shot every few minutes until you get a pleasing result. The other thing about this is that the residual light in the sky helps to give definition to the buildings.

Dave

[scouse007]

Thanks for all the comments and advice which I have taken on board...I did use a remote via my mobile app and did use LV and couldn't make it that night around sunset as I had planned to do so...much appreciate all the advice.