mcc night photography ver1

7/31/2019 MCC Night Photography Ver1

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Page 1MCC Night Photography ver3


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7:00 to 8:00 PM Workshop:

Evening / night shot subjects.

Equipment list that you need to have.

Techniques.

Post processing procedures.

8:00 to 8:15 PM Break:

Coffee / Bathroom.

Do your night photography camera checklist

8:15 to 9:?? Practice Outside:

Have fun trying out what you just learned.


Course Agenda:


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What to photograph at night.

When to photograph.

Equipment.

Setup Checklist.

Shooting the Moon

Cityscapes Interior and Exterior Car Trails

Panning Cars

Painting with Flash

Painting with Coloured Flashlights.

Post-processing.

References / Bibliography

Outdoor exercises


Contents


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Moon Buildings

Car trails (inside/outside)

Painting with flashlights

Flash gun photography


What to photograph at night


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Tripod (bring minipod when travelling).

Camera Filters: Not required, but can use a FL-D (magenta) filter to add a nice purple

warmth to the sky.

Flashlights Penlight (for checking camera & for light painting).

Larger flashlights and coloured filters for effects. LED flashlight give brighter light.

External camera flashgun Coloured filters for flash (red, yellow, blue).

Warm clothes including gloves Remote or cable release or use in-camera timer 2 second in-camera timer is best.

Spare batteries for camera & flashlights


Equipment


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Change your camera settings before you get out in the field. Self-timer to 2 seconds (or longer for painting).

Turn on noise reduction to reduce graininess for exposures longer than 1second.

Shutter priority to give you enough time for light trails, flashlight painting.

Aperture priority for depth of field for buildings, landscapes.

Bulb setting for long exposures.

Mirror lockup (if not set automatically).

Manual focus if shooting in dark (hyperfocal focusing / charts if need be).

Shoot RAW or experiment in advance for JPEG white balance.

Recce your site during the day.

Get into position before sunset.


Checklist


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How to Shoot the Moon

Check Weathernetwork for Moon size. Tonight 11% moon (next full moon May 5)

Settings at black sky:

Full moon - use 1/250 at f8 with ISO100. Crescent moon 1/60 at f8 with ISO100.

Dont try to expose for moon and scenery themoon is too bright at night.

Handy to use for cut and paste with Photoshopinto other dusk images.


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How to Shoot the Moon

82% Moon at 10:45 PM using ISO 100, f/8, 1/200 sec @ 300mm DX.


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Cityscapes

Shoot at sunset and just after. Avoid full darkness.

Use Aperture priority, set to f/11 or f/16 for maxdepth of field. Let camera set the shutter speed.

Using telephoto compresses perspective.

Avoid overly bright lights in picture (flare,ghosting) or bright lights just out ofviewfinder (flare).

Use a hat or grey scale card to block

flare. Normal metering is fine but can use spot

metering.

Bracket 1 stop either way.


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Cityscapes

Shot at dusk using 1/5 sec @f/5.6 with 20 mm lens (DX)


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Car Trails (Outside The Car)

Expose for 30 seconds or more with busy traffic. Remember to set noise reduction on.

Shoot from elevation (ie. bridge) or from traffic island (or gofor low shot!).

Look for curves leading to subject (eg. road to a building). Set aperture to f/16 or f/22 and shutter to B (bulb) and

expose for 30 60 seconds.

If a building is in the frame, take a spot reading and expose

for it. Bracket exposure 1 stop either way.

If lull in traffic, hold card or hand in front of lens.


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Shot at 7:45 PMusing 25 sec @f/11 with 22mmlens (DX).


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Shot by Tucker Photography (Flickr)

9:30 PM using 30 sec @ f/5.6 with 30mm lens (DX).


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Car Trails (Inside The Car)

Use driver and passenger, with the passenger takingthe pictures from either:

Back seat with cable release.

Passenger seat bracing the camera.

Clean the windshield. Determine framing and setup tripod on passenger seat

in car use seat belt to secure it.

Use manual focus out of windscreen at f/11.

Expose from 10 30 seconds (10 dusk / 30 night).

Driving through tunnels gives great overhead lighting.


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Shot at 7PM using 13 sec @ f/11 with 10 mm lens (DX).


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Shot at 7PM using 13 sec @ f/11 with 10 mm lens (DX).


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Panning Cars

Hand-held or on tripod. 1/30 sec (dusk) or slower 1/4 sec (night).

Pan at same speed as car.

Taken 9:30PM using sec @ f/6.3using 28mm

lens (DX).


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Painting with Flashlight

Focus on subject (manually if need be) Use medium aperture (f/8 f/11)

Use Bulb (with shutter release) or 30 secexposure

Point light at subject, or point at camera andoutline subject or draw your own design.

Subjects can be outside or in darkened room.

Can tape coloured gels (Rosco / Lee) overflashlight for different effects.


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Shot at10:30 PMusing 30sec @ f/11with 22 mmlens (DX).


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Shot by lapp-pro.de (Flickr) using 58 sec @ f/10 with 16 mm lens (fullframe).


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Lost America Flashlight Painting:

Exposure formula:

ISO 100 or 200,

f/5.6 or f/8,

Exposing from 2-8 minutes.

White balance set at 3500-4000K, (some images in the 5000-8000K range).

Lighting:

Using common xenon and LED flashlights

1 Canon 430EX strobe, with theatrical lighting gel material.

No light stands, umbrellas, synced lighting or external power supplies.

All lighting is hand-held and is added one source at a time during theminutes-long exposures.

Frequently light entire scene with a single light sourcefrom several angles.


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As shown in the Lost America website.

Troy Paiva, has been creating light painted night photography in abandonedlocations and junkyards since 1989


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Painting with Flashgun

Using an off camera flash

About an hour after sunset (still colour in sky).

Start with 30 sec exposure @ f/16 or f/32.

May need 1 min or greater (Bulb + remoterelease).

Use remote or self timer to delay release until

you are in position to flash. Wear dark clothing.

Flash subject(s).


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Painting with Flashgun & Flashlight

Shot at10:30 PMusing 30sec @ f/11with 22 mmlens (DX).


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Key Settings - Post Processing in Lightroom

Adjust White Balance using:

1) Drop downs for

As Shot,

Tungsten, Fluorescent, etc.,

2) Sliders for Temp (3800 is fluorescent) and/or Tint

3) Eyedropper for images with multiple light sources sinceclicking on an area illuminated by one source (eg.tungsten) affects others as well.


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Post Processing (Contd)

Tone Sliders:1) Exposure

Should be used for 1 stop correction only.

2) Recovery adds density to highlights of overexposed pics.

3) Fill light lightens shadows Both Recovery and Fill light will reduce contrast and add noise

and should be used sparingly.

4) Brightness affects midtones

As opposed to Exposure which moves entire exposure.5) Contrast

Move right lighten highlights and darken shadows

Move left darken highlights and lighten shadows.


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Hue / Saturation / Luminance:

1) Best panel for B/W conversions.

Adjust colour sliders to simulate colour lens

filtration.

2) Targeted Adjustment tool

Night subjects have multiple light sources.

Use Targeted Adjustment tool (bullseye) to selectitems in image to key on for Hue, Saturation and

Luminance. Then make minor adjustments via sliders.


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Noise Reduction:

1) Luminance. Luminance noise is grey and black specks. More than minimal use needs a corresponding sharpening boost. Check noise reduction / sharpening combo against sky in image.

2) Color

Can move Color slider more, but no real diff between 30 and 100.

3) Detail

Image edge detail try setting around default 50, no more than 70.

4) Consider Noise Reduction Software if you need morecontrol over noise.


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References Frost, Lee. The Complete Guide to Night & Low-light

PhotographyNew York, Amphoto Books, 2000 Keimig, Lance. Night Photography Finding Your Way in the

DarkBurlington MA., Focal Press, 2010

Practical Photography magazine, February 2007 pp. 41-49.

Digital SLR Photography magazine, November 2007 pp. 34-43. Popular Photography magazine, June 2008 pg. 58.

Nocturnes website. http://www.thenocturnes.com/resources.html

PCPhoto website Painting With Light

http://www.pcphotomag.com/how-to/digital-photography-techniques/painting-with-light_2.html

Lost in America website http://www.lostamerica.com/technique.html

Flickr group Lightjunkies http://www.flickr.com/groups/lightjunkies/


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Exercises Indoor camera preparation checklist.

Cityscapes

Expose for the Cawthra Centre

Car Trails and Car Panning

Cawthra road (side view)

Shoot from traffic island (front / back view)

Hand held & tripod.

Drive with partnerinside car trails.

Painting with Light

Coloured flashlights

Flashgun

Walls, cars, bench.

mcc night photography ver1

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