Eiffel Tower

[CatherineA]

It seems that I was given much to use but didn't know how to get the most from them. Could I please have suggestions on how to improve? I have a bridge camera - a Nikon P900 - and I shot in Night Landscape. I'm wondering about I should have positioned the camera but if there are other suggestions too I would be happy to
hear them. Thank you!

[Shadowman]

Were you shooting handheld? ISO (1600) is a bit on the high side for this type of camera. Would suggest shooting at lower ISO setting, place camera on tripod or other flat surface. Image looks fine to me though, could get more detail in the lights with Lower ISO.

[rpcrowe]

A tripod is a great addition to a bridge camera (and any other camera for that matter). It allows you to shoot at a lower ISO because you can use a slower shutter speed without worrying about camera shake, It won't help with moving subjects though. A bridge camera is small and lightweight and can be supported with a relatively lightweight tripod...

A quick and dirty method which will just about guarantee you a good night exposure, when your camera is tripod mounted, is to place the camera in Programmed "P" exposure mode selecting somewhere around ISO 200 or 400. Then select auto exposure bracketing of one stop and combine that with a -1 stop of exposure compensation. I took a quick look at your camera's operator's manual and it appears that this is possible.

You will end up with three exposures: first at the meter reading, second an one stop less than the meter reading and third at two stops less than the meter reading.

The bane of night photography when lights are involved is usually "over" not "under" exposure. The lights are often blown out

I can just about guarantee that one of the three bracketed shots will be a good exposure...

This was shot at ISO 160, using a 30 second exposure at f/14 using the above mentioned technique...

I wanted a long exposure and a small f/stop to smooth out the water and to enhance the individual lights with star patterns so I used a relatively low ISO of 160. The low ISO also resulted in a clean image just about devoid of noise...

I will admit, however, that there was quite a bit of Photoshop editing to result in this image. But that's the name of the game... You get the best image possible in the camera and from there enhance it with editing

[CatherineA]

Thank you John and Richard. A lower ISO and a tripod would definitely have helped. And Richard, thanks for telling me about that “quick and dirty” method - that’s a valuable tip. I knew about using the small f/stop to keep the foreground in focus but I didn’t know about how to use it to get your beautiful shot. That was also good to learn.

Sometimes, when taking a full tripod has been awkward, I have taken my gorillapod out with me but I need to practice to become smooth with using it. A regular tripod is easier for me at this stage and I will take it with me for all night shots from now on.

[Shadowman]

Thank you John and Richard. A lower ISO and a tripod would definitely have helped. And Richard, thanks for telling me about that “quick and dirty” method - that’s a valuable tip. I knew about using the small f/stop to keep the foreground in focus but I didn’t know about how to use it to get your beautiful shot. That was also good to learn.

Sometimes, when taking a full tripod has been awkward, I have taken my gorillapod out with me but I need to practice to become smooth with using it. A regular tripod is easier for me at this stage and I will take it with me for all night shots from now on.

The gorillapod works when you've got nothing else, additionally consider using the timer to prevent more vibration from pushing the shutter manually.

[rpcrowe]

The f/stop - ISO - shutter speed triangle is a concept that really helps the new photographer determine what parameters to use when shooting... Increasing any one of the parameters means that you need to decrease one or both of the other parameters to achieve the same exposure. Conversely, decreasing any of the parameters requires you to increase one or both of the other parameters.

This will give you correct exposure but, each of the parameters of the exposure triangle: f/stop - ISO - shutter speed will also control other facets of the image.

The f/stop will control the depth of field (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depth_of_field) in conjunction with distance focused on and the sensor size. However, there are two other factors which the aperture can impact: at very small apertures, images will usually not be quite as sharp as as with middle of the road apertures due to diffraction. Additionally, using very small apertures in night pictures will often result in star shapes blossoming out from point source lights. I cannot think of any advantages to diffraction but, the star shaped point light sources are often quite pleasant.


The ISO will impact the general quality of the image in how much noise (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_noise) is generated; with lower ISO values normally resulting in less noise. I have qualified this statement because the type of camera you are using and your exposure will also determine the noise in any image. I will normally use the lowest ISO possible in order to achieve the f/stop and shutter speed that I need. However, I will always opt for a higher ISO when I need to stop motion or camera shake. I wold rather have a sharp image wit a bit of noise than a fuzzy image.

The shutter speed will allow you to freeze moving objects by using a fast speed and blur moving objects by using a slower shutter speed. Photographers often take advantage of this to blur moving water. I am sure that you have seen waterfalls that look like cotton candy or ocean surf that looks smooth. A blurred moving subject can give the impression of motion.



Other factors which can determine the amount of blur are subject speed, distance from lens to subject, and the direction in which the subject is moving. Given that distance and focal length are the same, a subject moving across your frame will need a faster shutter speed to freeze it than a subject coming towards or going away from the camera.

The "P" or programmed exposure will allow you to select the ISO. It will then give you a combination of shutter speed and f/stop to provide good exposure. On most cameras, selecting "P" locks you into an exposure value but, allows you to adjust the shutter speed or aperture and will then adjust the other value accordingly.

IMO, a good way for a new photographer to learn the interrelationship of the exposure triangle is to use the "P" mode and shift the shutter speeds and or the aperture up and down shooting at each combination. Branching out, keep the camera in "P" mod and shift your ISO up and down, shooting images at each level. You "should" get a good handle on the exposure triangle as well as the relationship of the individual shutter speeds, apertures and ISO levels to the final image.

[xpatUSA]

Catherine,

Allow me to clarify Richard's excellent post which mentions the "Exposure Triangle".

Just a "minor point" for which I am well known, sad to say.

Please bear in mind that Richard is not talking about sensor exposure. So, increasing you ISO selection ad lib gets you an under-exposed shot which the camera fixes by brightening your image using a factor which depends on the selected ISO - the more the ISO, the more the brightening and the more the shadow noise as a consequence.

[Geoff F]

I would crop just a little from the bottom and left side.

[CatherineA]

Thank you very much Richard, Ted and Geoff!

Richard - I think your idea of experimenting in P mode is a great idea. It's time I start to consolidate all the helpful info that people have passed on to me and that's a good step. What a beautiful photo and it was the perfect speed to capture the skirt motion but otherwise freeze the dancer. That takes knowing photography.

Ted - Sorry that I am being a bit slow on this, but do you mean that if I keep the aperture and shutter speed the same but increase the ISO, then I will get a less-exposed shot? I did look up sensor exposure after reading your post and I see that the same camera settings result in the same exposure on different sensor sizes. It explained it well, but I'm not sure if that is what you were telling me.

Geoff - Yes, I think that would be a real improvement. I didn't know if a crop off the end of the canon would be a problem but I think it would be better gone in this case.

[rpcrowe]

Richard - I think your idea of experimenting in P mode is a great idea. It's time I start to consolidate all the helpful info that people have passed on to me and that's a good step. What a beautiful photo and it was the perfect speed to capture the skirt motion but otherwise freeze the dancer. That takes knowing photography.

Actually, I was experimenting with the shutter speeds. Since virtually every subject or part of a subject can be moving at different speeds, I like to experiment with the shutter speed...

That one was at 1/60 second...

I shot as slow as 1/6 second which resulted in this image...

[xpatUSA]

Thank you very much Richard, Ted and Geoff!

Ted - Sorry that I am being a bit slow on this, but do you mean that if I keep the aperture and shutter speed the same but increase the ISO, then I will get a less-exposed shot?

No, Catherine, not what I meant and I don't know enough about your camera to answer with much confidence.

However - if your P900 can shoot in full manual mode: if you were then to set an aperture and shutter speed and only if the camera doesn't mess with those settings when you adjust ISO, (takes a breath) - the sensor exposure will indeed stay the same but the brightness of your JPEG will increase or decrease pro rata with your ISO setting.

Some people think that "exposure" is analogous to the JPEG or the review image brightness. Those that do think so may also miss clues like increasing noise and poor color.

So, a beginner might shoot a dark corner correctly according to The Triangle at ISO 1600 and f/5.6 for which the metering might rightly suggest 1/40 sec but then wonder why the review image looks like this:

Shot today by a Sigma SD10, possibly the world's noisiest camera, apart from it's predecessor - the SD9.

Deliberately opened in FastStone Viewer with no applied noise reduction (NR) because I wanted to show you a simple raw conversion, free of the manufacturer's default NR.

Hope this helps a bit. Feel free to ask more . . .

[CatherineA]

Hi Ted, I think that on the fourth read through I got it. So, the exposure scale might look the same with different combinations of ISO, shutter speed and f/stop however the combinations that involve a higher ISO are of lower quality because of the noise and poor colour. Just because it a photo is bright enough doesn’t mean it is the quality of brightness that it could be. Is that the gist? Thanks for your time!

[xpatUSA]

Hi Ted, I think that on the fourth read through I got it. So, the exposure scale might look the same with different combinations of ISO, shutter speed and f/stop however the combinations that involve a higher ISO are of lower quality because of the noise and poor colour.

Yes, pretty much so. Less so with modern high-ISO cameras, of course, because of improved sensor design and fancier image conversion algorithms.

Just because it a photo is bright enough doesn’t mean it is the quality of brightness that it could be. Is that the gist?

Yes, it could indeed be put that way . .

Thanks for your time!

You are most welcome. Out of curiosity, can the P900 be set purely manual like I supposed?

Also out of curiosity, I set my SD10 in manual and changed the ISO over it's full range and the aperture and shutter speed did not change at all.

[CatherineA]

Hi Ted, Yes, the P900 can be set to be purely manual and the settings for aperture and shutter speed and ISO are all independent of each other. I can be as washed out or as underexposed as my heart desires and the camera won't try to correct it. I don't believe that I have the range of choices that DSLRs have within those settings (for ex, the ISO choices in manual are 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200 and 6400) but that's another matter.

[rpcrowe]

Do you have "Auto-ISO" as a selection when you go to your ISO listing? I "sometimes" like to shoot in manual but have the ISO change to keep the exposure decent. It works quite well, especially if you can set a maximum ISO? I like to shoot this way when I want a specific shutter speed and f/stop but, still want the camera to control the exposure.

[CatherineA]

Hi Richard, No, I don’t have that option. If I set the camera to “Auto-ISO” when I’m in manual then the camera uses an ISO of 100....what I really need to do is try to systematically put in place all the tips that I have learned from cic. I went out with the best of intentions today but when a number of birds started hopping around me, just within a few feet of me, I just swivelled the dial to capture whatever I could in whatever mode worked. I thought of you though, I thought I really should be using P Mode today and trying what Richard suggested....I will head out again tomorrow and try again.

[xpatUSA]

Do you have "Auto-ISO" as a selection when you go to your ISO listing? I "sometimes" like to shoot in manual but have the ISO change to keep the exposure decent. It works quite well, especially if you can set a maximum ISO? I like to shoot this way when I want a specific shutter speed and f/stop but, still want the camera to control the exposure.

Richard,

I'm wondering, in light of my earlier posts, what you mean by "the exposure"? Does auto-ISO apply EC or something?

Anybody,

Pardon my ignorance, but what does EC actually do in normal cameras?

Since I'm "AlwaysInManual" I don't use EC much, if at all.

Note to Mods: The question is serious, I'm not playing the "minority card" and I'm not getting at Richard or his excellent work.

[xpatUSA]

Hi Richard, No, I don’t have that option. If I set the camera to “Auto-ISO” when I’m in manual then the camera uses an ISO of 100....

Makes sense to me....

[KindachiShota]

Wow, I think it is already a great picture. If any suggestion, I think you should lower the ISO level

[CatherineA]

Thank you Shota. And yes, you are right, that is a high ISO. I will keep it in mind for future night shots.