Night tips?

[david3558]

Hey guys,

Sorry if I'm going to seem a bit noob too you, but I'm still new to auto photography in general...and to my camera (D300). The D300 is leaps and bounds better than my D40x, I love how the access to the ISO, WB, etc is at my fingertips...yet I still have much to learn about it as time goes on.

Anyways, my question is...what tips do you have on balancing the color of night shots? Alot of the streetlights around my area are yellow/orange so they are always off color. Also, do you have any tips in general for shooting at night as well as rolling shots etc.?

Thanks!

[KameraBoy]

well to counter yellow lights, change the wb setting from auto to like something that'll read for a light output close to 3500 because thats the temp in K that light is yellow. it should reset the color right and make the white more white.


also helps to bump the shutter speed down to let a lot more light in, because you might think there is enough light but the camera might not be getting all the light you see.

[Cr8tive_leo]

Night Shots:

Depending on what you are going for, you would need to adjust, Apature, Iso and shutter speed. The larger the more light your sensor will get once the shutter opens. A slower shutter at a higher apature will give you different results to a faster shutter and a lower apature. And it's all dependent on your iso.. (sensitivity)

Iso 200 requires lots of light to look nice, gives you a cleaner shot, great for long shutter, or 'bulb' shots. A low apature and long shutter with a tripod will give you steady shots, when cars or lights go by they will look like streaks, while the subject, your car, will be crystal clear.

Iso 400 requires less light than iso 200. A bit grainery (not noticibly) and you can use quicker shutter and play with the apature more.

Iso 800+ will be grainy, you can use quicker shutter, and small apature.

Best you play with your camera settings to find out what works for what you want to achieve as a final product.


White balancing can always be fixed in lightroom or other photo editing software. Moonlight will also factor in on your white balancing. (check the types of light, incandescent, flourecent, mercury) they all have different tempuratures. You have a dslr, take pictures at different settings, see what they do.


Learn how to read F stops for lighting, get used to reading the meter inside your view finder, and on the display to adjust your settings manually.

There is soooo much you can do when you just experiment.

[GETxERxDONE]

i cant wait to go back out and take more pics at night, now that i know how to change aperture and shutter speeds :) and iso too

[JchanFTW]

Originally Posted by GETxERxDONE

i cant wait to go back out and take more pics at night, now that i know how to change aperture and shutter speeds :) and iso too

How about exposure?

[GETxERxDONE]

that i dunno about, but i did learn white balance too

[JchanFTW]

Originally Posted by GETxERxDONE

that i dunno about, but i did learn white balance too

There is a +/- button by your trigger finger. Hold it and rotate the scroll wheel to adjust exposure. It's relative to the intensity and sign (+ or -). Play with it.

[Jardiniboy]

When you're taking night shots, having using a tripod helps alot.