# I tried a night shot..........



## Chicagophotoshop (Jan 30, 2007)

wow it is cold outside.  what can I do to make this better?


----------



## randrx2 (Jan 30, 2007)

Looks good.  What were your settings?


----------



## Chicagophotoshop (Jan 30, 2007)

randrx2 said:


> Looks good.  What were your settings?


I wont even lie to you.  I'm not sure.  I kept the shutter open for 5 seconds.  the rest was auto to the best of my knowledge.  I also sharpened the image in PS by following someone's steps in another thread.


----------



## oCyrus55 (Jan 30, 2007)

Nice shot, but maybe next time you should go do some long exposures when it's not completely dark outside.  I'm pretty sure you will get better results if you do it when it's not completely dark outside.


----------



## Chicagophotoshop (Jan 30, 2007)

oCyrus55 said:


> Nice shot, but maybe next time you should go do some long exposures when it's not completely dark outside.  I'm pretty sure you will get better results if you do it when it's not completely dark outside.


cool thanks for the tip, if it wasnt 6 degrees out right now I would go give it another try.  

what would you suggest I do when it _is_ dark outside?


----------



## Sw1tchFX (Jan 30, 2007)

Yeah, it looks pretty good. i'd just tweak the color balance and cool down the color temperture. 


And since you've been asking so many questions lately and been asking how to make your photographs better, you might want to think about putting "My photos are OK to edit" under your name so that we can show you how things are done in photoshop, or other software.


----------



## Finsen (Jan 30, 2007)

Chicagophotoshop:  If you want to know about the exposure values with which the photo is taken (ie. ISO value, shutter speed, aperture, etc).  You can right click on the original photo (for Windows), then choose "Properties", go to the "Summary" tab, then click "Advanced>>"  There, you should see the EXIF data of the photo.  Hope this helps.  I have learned a lot from looking at the EXIF data when I started photography.


----------



## Chicagophotoshop (Jan 30, 2007)

Sw1tchFX said:


> Yeah, it looks pretty good. i'd just tweak the color balance and cool down the color temperture.


kind of like this?








Sw1tchFX said:


> And since you've been asking so many questions lately and been asking how to make your photographs better, you might want to think about putting "My photos are OK to edit" under your name so that we can show you how things are done in photoshop, or other software.


good idea.  done. 

thanks for your help


----------



## scrutiny1 (Jan 30, 2007)

I can't tell if that's noise or stars.  How many stars can one find above urban Chicago?


----------



## Chicagophotoshop (Jan 30, 2007)

scrutiny1 said:


> I can't tell if that's noise or stars.  How many stars can one find above urban Chicago?


well it is a clear night.  but i'm sure their is some noise.  which leads to my next question.  how does one use noise ninja software?   I have it but the user guide does not work when i click on it, in the help menu.


----------



## Ms.ChicagoPhotoShop (Jan 30, 2007)

looks good


----------



## notrickz (Jan 30, 2007)

did you ever find out about the settings of the shot? (by rightclicking as stated above?)


----------



## Chicagophotoshop (Jan 30, 2007)

notrickz said:


> did you ever find out about the settings of the shot? (by rightclicking as stated above?)


I shot it in RAW. and saved it as TIFF from photoshop then saved it as jpeg.  I right clicked on jpeg and TIFF and found no information.  I forgot to check RAW.  im guessing thats where this info is?  

it will have to wait until friday.  I will be traveling for work next 2 days so I wont have access to my server.  but I will when I get back.  i'm just as interested to find out


----------



## Chicagophotoshop (Jan 30, 2007)

Ms.ChicagoPhotoShop said:


> looks good




:hugs:


----------



## LaFoto (Jan 31, 2007)

I really LIKE this night shot!
Nicely small aperture to bring out the lights as little stars and not blobs, and a sharpness all through the entire photo up to the stars in the sky ... and with those stars in the sky I really think you could well have taken this in total darkness, for they add something of real interest to that sky! Often also I find it is nicer to have some light in the sky to have some detail there, too, but here it is the stars that add the detail to the black sky, so for me it is absolutely ok and more to see a "total night" photo!

But what is that funny bright, too sharp for the water, reflection on the bottom right??? Did you take this photo through glass and is that a reflection on the glass?


----------



## Sw1tchFX (Jan 31, 2007)

>


Just like that, but with just a little bit more contrast.


----------



## MarkA (Jan 31, 2007)

Nice shot!


----------



## Chicagophotoshop (Jan 31, 2007)

LaFoto said:


> But what is that funny bright, too sharp for the water, reflection on the bottom right??? Did you take this photo through glass and is that a reflection on the glass?


i'm not sure what happen there.  I noticed it when I got home.  it may have been either ice on the river or very still water that reflected.


----------



## Chicagophotoshop (Feb 1, 2007)

Finsen said:


> Chicagophotoshop:  If you want to know about the exposure values with which the photo is taken (ie. ISO value, shutter speed, aperture, etc).  You can right click on the original photo (for Windows), then choose "Properties", go to the "Summary" tab, then click "Advanced>>"  There, you should see the EXIF data of the photo.  Hope this helps.  I have learned a lot from looking at the EXIF data when I started photography.


I am not finding this when I right click.  I work in IT so I am usually pretty good at finding information


----------



## kiwiluke (Feb 1, 2007)

Nice shot, it looks like you might have had a high iso (1600+ maybe) try using a lower iso and you'll end up with less noise. the downside is you'll need a longer exposure so may well require a tripod, keep up the good work.
Luke


----------



## Chicagophotoshop (Feb 1, 2007)

kiwiluke said:


> Nice shot, it looks like you might have had a high iso (1600+ maybe) try using a lower iso and you'll end up with less noise. the downside is you'll need a longer exposure so may well require a tripod, keep up the good work.
> Luke


thanks for the positive feedback,  I had the cam on a tripod.  shutter was open for 5 seconds.  thats all I really know for sure.


----------



## Jeremy Z (Feb 1, 2007)

Nice shot.  For a night shot, it's a little overexposed.  Your camera's meter is trying to make it light out, and 18% gray.

YOU know it is night out, so you have to tell the camera so.  Start by setting the exposure compensation to -1.5 stops.  The street lights are all blown out, and the whole scene looks unnaturally bright for a nighttime shot.

I don't necessarily agree with the people who say to shoot it before it's dark out.  Those pix can look good, for sure, but they don't exactly fool me into thinking it was dark out.

Next time you go out shooting at night, set your camera to -1.0 stops under exposure, and set it to bracket in 1/2 stop increments.  You'll see what I mean when you get home.  You'll get some that are too dark, where the little specs of light don't show you much, and you'll get some that are too bright, like the one here.  But you'll for sure get one that is just right too.

Here's an example.  Maybe not the best, but I did nail the exposure.  I couldn't get the damned horizon right.  The shore was at one angle, the horizon was another...  Anyhow, see how the sky is pretty close to the color you associate with a night sky?  Things still look dark, but you can see the lights.


----------



## Jeremy Z (Feb 1, 2007)

The bright spots are a bit too colorful to be stars, and they're not noise either. They're hot pixels or dust. I would bet hot pixels due to the long exposure.

Look into your camera's modes & settings a bit. Most of them have a setting for noise reduction that can minimize this. Sometimes, all you have to do is set it for the idiot night mode.

Next time I'm going to come downtown to do some shooting, we should hook up.  (or vice versa)  I'll PM you my cell number.


----------



## Jeremy Z (Feb 1, 2007)

Now that I look at that photo a little closer, I see the Trump casino in the foreground.  I was there shooting some pictures a couple Sundays ago!

Here's my photobucket gallery from that day:
http://s134.photobucket.com/albums/q112/jzorns/Chicago-21Jan2007/

I took a couple of night shots, but they weren't too good.  I set the ISO to 3200 and was able to easily handhold the shot, at dusk.  But it was soooooo noisy...


----------



## Chicagophotoshop (Feb 2, 2007)

Jeremy Z said:


> The bright spots are a bit too colorful to be stars, and they're not noise either. They're hot pixels or dust. I would bet hot pixels due to the long exposure.
> 
> Look into your camera's modes & settings a bit. Most of them have a setting for noise reduction that can minimize this. Sometimes, all you have to do is set it for the idiot night mode.
> 
> Next time I'm going to come downtown to do some shooting, we should hook up.  (or vice versa)  I'll PM you my cell number.



thanks Jeremy for your input.  I'm still learning about exposure and camera settings.  by -1.0 exposure, do you mean the shutter open for 1 second?  

I can see what you mean by the picture being "over exposed.  the shutter ws open for 5 seconds.  which was simply, too long.  

I pmed you my number.  whenever you come downtown, give me a call.


----------



## Jeremy Z (Feb 2, 2007)

Chicagophotoshop said:


> thanks Jeremy for your input. I'm still learning about exposure and camera settings. by -1.0 exposure, do you mean the shutter open for 1 second?


 
No, I meant -1 _stop_ of exposure.  This can either be one full shutter speed faster, (like from 5s to 2s) one full aperture narrower (like from f/8 to f/11) or one "film speed" (sensitivity) slower. (like from ISO 400 to ISO 200)  Digitally-controlled cameras usually have half stops in there.  Most of us who started with manual film cameras know the stops by heart.  The full apertures are f/1.4, f/2, f/2.8, f/4, f8, f/11, f/16, f/22, f/32.  Each aperture lets in half as much light as the previous one, so it is one stop "slower".  The shutter speeds are either double or half of each other.  1s, 1/2s, 1/4s, 1/8s, 1/15s, 1/30s, 1/60s, etc.  In digitally-controlled cameras, they just show the denominator, unless it goes into seconds, they will show 5" for example.  Sensitivities are also either halved or doubled for each stop.   To keep it simple for now, use whatever camera mode you were using before (assuming it was some kind of automatic one), but dial in -1.5 stops of exposure compensation.  I'm sure your camera has the feature, you'll just have to learn how to use it.



> I can see what you mean by the picture being "over exposed. the shutter ws open for 5 seconds. which was simply, too long.


Not necessarily.  You could still use a 5s shutter speed, but you might have to decrease the ISO, use a higher aperture value, or both to bring the exposure down a bit.


----------



## Chicagophotoshop (Feb 2, 2007)

thanks for the info jeremy. I will try this this weekend.

o man.......Saturday 6pm.....

temp 8 Degrees, feels like -10.  and i'm sure even worse next to the lake where the winds will be blowing hard.

http://www.weather.com/weather/hourbyhour/60611?begHour=12&begDay=34


----------



## Jeremy Z (Feb 2, 2007)

The last time I was downtown, it was warm.  It was on the Sunday of the last big Bears game.  From the planetarium, I could hear the cheering from Soldier Field *loudly*.  I was amazed.

It will be pretty quiet at this time on Sunday; everyone will be cooped up somewhere watching the game & commercials.


----------



## Chicagophotoshop (Feb 3, 2007)

edit:  I made a new thread


----------



## ngirly1991 (Feb 4, 2007)

a really nice pic!!!!!!!!!! wow


----------



## snappin (Mar 8, 2007)

Nice picture!

I can say this much you are tougher that I am.  I am waiting for it to warm up a bit before I go out and try this. Was that taken from the Michigan Ave bridge?  

If you live downtown we should meet up sometime (when it gets a bit warmer). I am in the West Loop (near Madison & Halsted)


----------

