Newbie question - settings for night photography

[daverey]

Hi

I'm new to photography and have a Panasonic Lumix G2 with the standard lens that came with it a few years ago (14-42mm lens I think). I'm a complete newcomer and don't fully understand all the settings etc, but I am happy to experiment.

For the most part I use the Intelligent Auto+ setting, which works really well for daylight photography and the pictures are great.

If I'm taking night shots then I really struggle. For nighttime landscapes with my mini-tripod I think I've mastered the "S" mode for adjusting the shutter speed to see what works best, but for any scenario when a tripod isn't suitable but light is low I can't seem to get any decent photos:

- if I keep IA+ on then with or without the flash up it seems to take very blurred photos;

- I know then that I need to take IA+ off and probably play around in "P" mode, but I've got no idea what settings to choose to get me a reasonable quality snap.

A good example of what I mean:

I was in New York at the weekend and wanted a picture of the skyline from the Brooklyn bridge. Using S mode was not very good as the bridge vibrations on the long exposure (10 secs+) led to a blurry image. However, if I tried anything hand-held I got the little "camera shake" icon coming up and all the shots were blurred. None of the pre-built settings that I tried seemed to work. Others on the bridge taking pics with ipads and iphones seemed to get much clearer pictures - surely I must be doing something wrong!"

Any help would be most appreciated - I'm not after professional looking photos here - I just want to be able to take clear, sharp nighttime shots with the camera without having to resort to a tripod each time?


Dave

 

[John Deerfield]

Any camera is simply a tool used to record an exposure: a camera records light. Period. Light is a form of energy. The camera sensor (any camera sensor) needs "X" amount of energy to record the exposure. The variables for this are your shutter speed, aperture value, and ISO. I don't care if you are using an iPad or a Leica. When the light intensity is high, it is quite easy to capture enough light (energy) to record the exposure. When light is low, you don't have the energy available "quickly". Thus, you need longer and longer shutter speeds to allow the sensor to absorb more of the light (energy). Again, the math for this is the same regardless of the camera being used. If you want a faster shutter, then something else about the exposure triangle needs to change; meaning you must change either the aperture or ISO (or both) to allow more light (energy) into the camera. Often, your camera is already at the widest aperture (this is a physical limitation). The lens can only allow so much light into the camera. That leaves your ISO. You can raise your ISO to work with less light (ISO "amplifies" the present signal). However, raising the signal also means raising the noise present in the image. This is where larger sensor cameras come in handy: the larger sensor gets more "signal" thus the signal-to-noise ratio tends to be better. Translation, larger sensors do better in low light.

So, you have a variety of options. Use an iPad if you like those images better. Use a tripod (IMO, this is the best option) to allow for slow shutters. Raise your ISO as much as your noise tolerance will allow, this in turn will give you a faster shutter. Whether it is fast enough depends on the light intensity you are trying to record. Use a camera/lens with a "better" low light sensor (better signal-to-noise ratio). The very best option is to understand how the camera creates an exposure so that when a situation arises, you know what your best options are for the gear you have.

 

[mpetryk]

Any camera is simply a tool used to record an exposure: a camera records light. Period. Light is a form of energy. The camera sensor (any camera sensor) needs "X" amount of energy to record the exposure. The variables for this are your shutter speed, aperture value, and ISO. I don't care if you are using an iPad or a Leica. When the light intensity is high, it is quite easy to capture enough light (energy) to record the exposure. When light is low, you don't have the energy available "quickly". Thus, you need longer and longer shutter speeds to allow the sensor to absorb more of the light (energy). Again, the math for this is the same regardless of the camera being used. If you want a faster shutter, then something else about the exposure triangle needs to change; meaning you must change either the aperture or ISO (or both) to allow more light (energy) into the camera. Often, your camera is already at the widest aperture (this is a physical limitation). The lens can only allow so much light into the camera. That leaves your ISO. You can raise your ISO to work with less light (ISO "amplifies" the present signal). However, raising the signal also means raising the noise present in the image. This is where larger sensor cameras come in handy: the larger sensor gets more "signal" thus the signal-to-noise ratio tends to be better. Translation, larger sensors do better in low light.

So, you have a variety of options. Use an iPad if you like those images better. Use a tripod (IMO, this is the best option) to allow for slow shutters. Raise your ISO as much as your noise tolerance will allow, this in turn will give you a faster shutter. Whether it is fast enough depends on the light intensity you are trying to record. Use a camera/lens with a "better" low light sensor (better signal-to-noise ratio). The very best option is to understand how the camera creates an exposure so that when a situation arises, you know what your best options are for the gear you have.

What he said.

Just because you can shoot a five second exposure with the camera on a tripod does not mean that your subjects will be able to sit still for five seconds.

If you want well-lit people and still get background set up the camera to expose the scene (with people absent) in terms of ISO, aperture and shutter speed. Then pose your subjects, set the tripod and pop the flash. The flash will freeze the people (they can even leave after the flash goes) while the long shutter opening keeps burning in the background.

-MP

 

[Michael EOS5D]

If a tripod isn't an option, you could set the camera on any flat surface, like a bench or your car. I've done that with good results but it may not be perfectly level. You can also get one of those flexible tripods that wrap around an object, like a fence for example. Keeping it level would be my biggest concern.

 

[confyushis]

Others on the bridge taking pics with ipads and iphones seemed to get much clearer pictures - surely I must be doing something wrong!"
Any help would be most appreciated - I'm not after professional looking photos here - I just want to be able to take clear, sharp nighttime shots with the camera without having to resort to a tripod each time?

a tripod is the first step towards "clear, sharp nighttime shots" ... learning about the exposure settings on your camera (aperture, shutter speed, iso) is the next step ...

if you are set on not using a good tripod or learning about your camera, consider lowering your expectations ...

1. find a wall, fence, tree, bench, etc. as a "tripod" to set your camera on
2. pick manual mode (usually M on the mode dial)
3. set your aperture as wide as you can tolerate (f/# where # is as low as possible)
4. set your iso as high as you can tolerate (1600, maybe even 3200 or higher if you can live with the noise)
5. set your shutter speed as low as you can tolerate (1/60, 1/30, or slower if you can hold the camera steady against your "tripod")
6. take a photo and review.
7. change 3, 4, and/or 5 as necessary until that your photo is as "clear" or "sharp" as you can get ...

almost every camera with a larger sensor than an iphone/ipad has the potential for better photos in more situations ... knowing how to use your camera will help you get better photos ...

hope this helps ... good luck ...

 

[RedOctobyr]

Could you post an example of something you took handheld, no flash, that came out blurry? That would let people see the settings that the camera used.

As others said, you want your aperture set wide-open. Like f/3.5, which will let in more light than f/8. Zooming out will allow the lens to open the aperture further, letting in more light. Zoomed out, your lens goes to f/3.5, but only f/5.6 when zoomed in, which lets in less than half as much light. You want to set your ISO to something reasonable. Maybe 1600 or so, as mentioned. The higher you set the ISO, the more "noise" (speckles) you'll see in the image, but it will allow faster shutter speeds. Then you have to adjust your shutter speed to make the scene bright enough.

Don't use the flash for anything distant (say beyond ~20 feet) at night. It won't help, and the camera will pick settings that make things worse (the camera is assuming the flash will actually light up the scene, but it won't).

I would probably use Manual mode, M, rather than shutter-priority, S. In P, A, or S modes, the camera is still deciding how bright the scene is "supposed" to be. But if it's night time, you *want* the scene to look dark. The camera may keep the shutter open too long, trying to make it "bright enough", closer to daylight, since it likely doesn't realize you're shooting a skyline at night. This extra-long shutter time will make the camera more likely to move, blurring the picture.

But if you're using Manual mode, you can set your aperture and ISO, then select a shutter speed, take a picture, and see how it looks. Adjust the shutter speed until you like what you see.

If you really don't want to mess with Manual mode, see if the camera has a night-time Scene mode, or something similar. That should at least help it pick more-appropriate settings.

A tripod will really help. But there are things you can do to help get a clearer picture.

When not using a tripod, make sure the camera's IS or OIS is enabled. You typically want to disable IS/OIS when using a tripod, paradoxically.

Also, for any long exposure, but especially if handheld, using the self-timer can help. When you squeeze the shutter button, you typically jiggle the camera, especially if handholding. For a long exposure, this contributes to blurring.

But if you set a 2-second self timer, you can squeeze and release the button, then hold your breath or breath slowly, and hold the camera still, while it takes the picture. But now you aren't squeezing your finger and moving the camera right as it goes to take the picture. Combining the self-timer with resting the camera on a fixed surface will help more, even without a tripod.

Good luck!

 

[daverey]

Thanks all for taking the time to respond.

I'll digest the replies and give some of the suggestions a go - very much appreciated.

Dave

 

[Krusty79]

All the tips you received were great, but for the best results, get a good tripod. You will continue to struggle to get clean images in low light if you do not.