C.C.P.I.C.S. - Class 03 - Low-light Photography

[Aplmac]

Nice shot(s) ... really captured that "pubby" atmosphere.

Thanks! Glad you like it.

 

Here's another low-light shot I did, in Civitavecchia harbour last month

hand-holding the D60 at something ridiculous like about 1/6th. of a second. :eek:

 

Luckily with the focal length set at 18mm., any camera movement was minimised

It's not terribly sharp, but hopefully the lighting and mood make up for that shortcoming.

 

 

Civitavecchia

[FinelyCruising]

...The little $100 or so Panasonic Lumix I like so much! Needs to be brightened a bit to see the animal pattern in the rug...but otherwise I really just love this camera.

 

[boeckli]

Better late than never, they say .... From our recent stay in Hong Kong - Thanks to my Gorillapod and very clean hotel windows :D

 

 

 

The "streaker" is SuperStar Virgo which we boarded a few days later to sail to Singapore

[pierces]

Better late than never, they say .... From our recent stay in Hong Kong - Thanks to my Gorillapod and very clean hotel windows :D

 

 

The "streaker" is SuperStar Virgo which we boarded a few days later to sail to Singapore

 

 

Nice!

 

You folks are really hitting a lot of interesting places!

 

Dave

[boeckli]

Nice!

 

You folks are really hitting a lot of interesting places!

 

Dave

 

Thanks, Dave.

Hong Kong definitely has a WOW factor :) - took LOTS of photos (and video too). Still busy picking ones to upload to my Picasa web albums, should be ready in a few days (also visited Sanya, China and Ho Chi Minh City).

 

More interesting places to come next year :D

 

Special request, Dave - can you please explain to me the concept of exposure compensation which is one of the very few selectable items on my little Dimage X (it can do +/- 2EV in 1/3 increments)? Have not got my head around that and I know that you can explain things so well .... ;)

[pierces]

Thanks, Dave.

Hong Kong definitely has a WOW factor :) - took LOTS of photos (and video too). Still busy picking ones to upload to my Picasa web albums, should be ready in a few days (also visited Sanya, China and Ho Chi Minh City).

 

More interesting places to come next year :D

 

Special request, Dave - can you please explain to me the concept of exposure compensation which is one of the very few selectable items on my little Dimage X (it can do +/- 2EV in 1/3 increments)? Have not got my head around that and I know that you can explain things so well .... ;)

 

Sure! You picked an easy one! :D

 

When you camera automatically sets the exposure, it picks the best setting for the available light (available light = Exposure Value or EV) based on the measurements it takes from many different sections of the image. It's goal is to average the exposure to where it would be if you were shooting a picture of a medium-grey card (a light meter and an 18% grey card were used as a guide to set exposure for decades before auto-exposure was available) This is fine and good if the target is evenly lit without a lot of contrast. If, however, you have a very bright area or a very dark area in the scene, it can fool the auto-exposure and make the whole scene come out over- or under-exposed.

 

For example: Let's assume that you are taking a picture of a sunset.

 

The sky and setting sun are pretty bright and the foreground up to the horizon is pretty dark.

 

The picture comes out with a muddy foreground and an over-exposed sky because the metering caculated the "average".

 

If you want the sky to be detailed and have those saturated oranges and yellows, you need to force the metering to under-expose the scene by setting the compensation to -.5, -1.0 or even -2.0.

 

If you want the darker foreground properly exposed, you need to force the metering to over-expose the scene by setting the compensation to +.5, +1.0 or more.

 

To get them both at the same time is a whole other chapter!:D

 

Hope that helped.

 

Dave

[boeckli]

Thanks, Dave :)

[Kane]

Having seen and enjoyed the "clubby" photos previously posted, when I boarded the ship on our recent voyage, I headed down to capture my renditions.

 

The Connoisseur Club:

 

From the lobby, the Luxe always casts an intriguing violet glow from behind the curtains:

[Aplmac]

Looking up the back end of Caribbean Princess

 

 

 

Bridgetown Port, BARBADOS

l. to r: Ocean Village - Emerald Princess - Caribbean Princess

 

 

_________________________________________

Nikon D60 set on Auto

(I can't be bothered to fiddle with settings!)

lens is the new 18-105 mm. Nikkor zoom.

Yes..a tripod

[Robin7]

I was a little disappointed with these. I did the one in Auckland from our balcony with a gorrilla pod and our little Canon SD 400 Digital Elph. The Sydney one I shot through our hotel room window with our Canon 40D. I rested it on top of some books and used the timed shutter release to decrease shake.

 

I didn't realize how hard it is to get the focus correct! (I also found out that when my husband dropped our camera on an excursion that he broke the manual focus on our favorite lens. :mad:) The focus looked fine through the viewfinder, but I when I got home and looked at these on the computer, most of them are blurry. How do you know if you get the focus correct or not???

 

Robin

 

Auckland

 

 

Sydney

 

[Kane]

Not a technically good or interesting photo, the following is of some astronomical interest. It is the conjunction of the Moon, Venus, and Jupiter. (Venus is the brighter of the two "stars".)

 

 

It was taken with my P&S, and there was a bit of vog this evening.

 

The conjunction is supposed to be at it peak tomorrow nite (Monday). Maybe one of you with a high-end slr and tele lens can capture a good rendition.

[ARBORGUY]

ROBIN 7

I liked your photo of Auckland

 

Auckland

 

 

took the liberty to make some adjustments to it...hope you don't mind!!

[ARBORGUY]

BOECKLI,

Ithink we stayed in the same hotel...used to be the REGENT...

I took the liberty to also do some post processing on your shots...thanks for the opportunity!!

 

 

+

[boeckli]

BOECKLI,

Ithink we stayed in the same hotel...used to be the REGENT...

 

These shots were taken from the 13th floor of the Salisbury YMCA Hotel (i.e. not same hotel).

 

To be honest, for my liking you have 'processed' too much colour into not only my but also Robin 7's Auckland shot - but that's obviously personal preference ...

[BMHussey]

 

 

[Robin7]

Trying low light again. Going to call this "Merry Christmas, From Our House to Yours". Heh. It was 13 degrees when we were out there taking this! Brrrrrrrrrrr.

 

Can someone please tell me the steps to straighten it in PhotoShop Elements 4.0??? Thanks. (I still haven't got my viewfinder screen-thingy installed, and I'm still horizontally challenged.)

 

Robin

 

[pierces]

Trying low light again. Going to call this "Merry Christmas, From Our House to Yours". Heh. It was 13 degrees when we were out there taking this! Brrrrrrrrrrr.

 

Can someone please tell me the steps to straighten it in PhotoShop Elements 4.0??? Thanks. (I still haven't got my viewfinder screen-thingy installed, and I'm still horizontally challenged.)

 

Robin

 

 

Layer from background > Free transform and rotate it. Increase size to cover edges.

 

Nice addition to the thread for the holidays!

 

Dave

[Robin7]

Layer from background > Free transform and rotate it. Increase size to cover edges.

 

Nice addition to the thread for the holidays!

 

Thank you!

 

Robin

[TheRoff]

More in the Christmas spirit.

 

An old but always fun trick with low light. Zoom lens, camera on a tripod, small aperture, long exposure, and zoom while the shutter is open.

 

With a telephoto.

 

 

And then with a wide angle.

 

 

Have a great holiday season!

 

Larry

[Aplmac]

Here's a local island house, all lit up for Christmas

 

 

Exposures hand-held at about 1/6th. - 1/8th. of a second

Nikon D60 with 18-105 lens set at 18,mostly.

 

_______________________________________

 

 

- and a grand-dau's Sweet 16 party with UV lighting!

the only light on the DJ at lower right

is provided by her computer screen!

 

 

Most all other light is UltraViolet

except for some incandescent in the far upper right corner

All hand-held.

In my head, I pretend I'm a tripod!:D

[NMCruzzin]

Very cool Larry!! :) I'll have to try that!......I'm sure my delete key will take a work out :rolleyes: ....but always fun to try!

What fun and great pictures!!!:D

In my head, I pretend I'm a tripod!:D LOL!! Now that I can relate too!! :p:D

 

[cruisingbooboo]

very cool....what were you focused on?

 

 

More in the Christmas spirit.

 

An old but always fun trick with low light. Zoom lens, camera on a tripod, small aperture, long exposure, and zoom while the shutter is open.

 

With a telephoto.

 

 

And then with a wide angle.

 

 

Have a great holiday season!

 

Larry

[TheRoff]

very cool....what were you focused on?

 

Just pick out a spot on the tree. Looking at the results I would try to get a light bulb in the center of the view finder next time.

 

Larry

[nordicus]

A couple from the ice show on Navigator of the seas

Photo1:

Photo2:

Photo3:

Photo4:

[JWJs]

Very, very nice pictures of the skaters!:) I'm impressed. I think you were using a Nikon D300. Hope I can get some pictures like that someday with my Nikon D60!

 

Noticed that your Webshot pictures are large and not the small size I post from Webshots. How did you get the large pictures posted?