Night Photography

As I missed the trip to the Christmas Markets I decided to try some night photography, this is something I have played with before starting the course but at that time didnt have any real understanding of ISO, Shutter, Aperture and how to make these work for me.

I was aware that without the flash I would need to keep the camera completely still and in the past have used a wall or a another object to rest my camera on, but as I said above I had no idea how to make the camera work for me and would simply hope for the best.

The images below are a couple I have taken prior to starting the course and were taken in Budapest last Christmas, these were taken using a really simple Samsung Digital camera (not a DSLR).

So, whilst in Egypt and educated on the Exposure Triangle and a much better camera than the one used for the images above I decided to have a walk round the hotel.  I didnt take my tripod with me so had to find walls, tables and anything else that would be suitable as a steady surface.

I managed to get some really good images and then some not so good so have put them below with comments on each to say why I think they are good/not good along with settings used.  I used Aperture Priority on all of them as I wanted to get a wider depth of field as the hotel really was stunning and wanted to capture as much as I could.

Images 1 & 2 were taken at the entrance to the hotel and the problem I had was that the only surface available to rest the camera on was a small  concrete sign at the very begining of the walk way.  Because of this I couldnt take any shots as I walked through the trees getting closer to the entrance doors which would have been nice.  The concrete surface was also very rough which resulted in slight camera shake and was very low.  I dont think these are great shots and wished I had taken my tripod which would have given me much more opportunity.

F/14, ISO 100, S 15sec

F/14, ISO 100, S 20 sec

With the next 4 image's I love the reflection in the water which was really clear due to the lighting the hotel have used around the pool.  I used the wall here to keep the camera steady and again was quite low.  I am really happy with these images as I wanted to capture the reflection in as much detail as possible and feel I have achieved this.

ISO 100, F/22, S 30 sec

ISO 100, F/13, S 10 sec

ISO 100, F/22, S 30 sec

ISO 100, F/18, S 20 sec

The next 3 images were taken at the reception and restaurant area's and are quite nice images, again resting the camera on sturdy surfaces and trying to keep it as still as possible.  They are quite dark and could be edited to add some light, I have done this with the first image and have shown the edited image underneath.

ISO 100, F/18, S 30 sec

(light added in Photoshop CS5)

ISO 100, F/18, S 30 sec

ISO 100, F/18, S 30 sec

The final images below are not my favourite, I dont think framing was great here which was down to available sturdy surfaces in order to keep the camera still.  I have edited one of them to show how we can correct this.

ISO 100, F/18, S 30 sec

ISO 100, F/18, S 30 sec

(Cropped and edited in CS5)

ISO 100, F/22, S 30 sec