Chunsum,
Thanks for your lessons!
I checked one of your works:
http://www.pbase.com/image/25434462
My question is, how did you meter the light to take this shot? From
the far away buildings? The sky? The lakeshore? or the lamp nears
you? And did you change to MF after getting the meter by using AF?
because of all the light source, I used spot meter and meter for
the lights on the building for the following reasons.
1.) My main concern was the building
2.) if I meter for the light right in front or the white lights
along the shore, the buildings would have been under exposed.
3.) if I meter for the Sky, every thing else would have been over
exposed. especially for the lights close by.
by metering for the light on the building I can get a good exposure
on the skyline while only over expose the foreground slightly. this
also give the sense of dept and layers in the composition.
I use AF and switch to MF to keep the focus. My eyes are only good
enough to drive at night. you can continue to get meter readings
even in MF mode.
you can then adjust in SPP.
From the thread,
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1027&message=8091696
many experts took great nightshots without noise, but I took some
with ISO100/200 last night and still had visible noise there.
When I first got the SD10, both Laurence Matson and Rick Decker
told me this: alway try and get your exposure right. This is one of
the biggest tip I received.
When you overexpose a night shot, which people tends to do( I know
I did and still do it at times), you are going to get noise. many
people think that you have to use Manual Mode to shoot a long
exposure, so they tend to set the shutter a but too long thinking
the longer it is, the better the shot gets exposed. you don't want
to do that.
Use Manual only if you are sure you have a good reading. otherwise
try AP and take the same shot twice. once with no exposure
compensation, once +0.3. But I can say that msot of the time
you'll end up using the 0 EC.
you want to get the exposure dead on or +- 0.3. granted with SPP
you can get away with +- 0.7 or even +-1. but do try to get it as
close as you can.
there are still some noise in the shot but they are minimal. you
can't escape noise, you can only try to get it to a minimum.
Noise can also be produce in SPP. so becareful when using the
sliders, especially exposure, sharpening, filllight, and saturation.
but the important is to not over expose it too much. the shot below
is 13sec. the origial was a bit overexposed but salvaged in SPP.
but you can still see the noice in the sky:
http://www.pbase.com/image/28097585
if you have to compensate exsposure in SPP for more than +- 0.6
then you're probably too far off. I use -highlight, -saturation,
and -FL and keep exposure with in +-0.3.
SPP setting for the above shot:
Exposure: -0.1
Contrast: +0.4
Shadow: -0.1
Highlight: -1.6
Saturation: -0.7
Sharpness: +0.4
X3 Fill Light: -1.0
Color Adjustment: 0
Color Space: sRGB
here's a 8sec exposure and it's SPP Settings:
http://www.pbase.com/image/28097586
Exposure: +0.1
Contrast: +0.4
Shadow: -0.1
Highlight: -1.6
Saturation: -0.2
Sharpness: +0.4
X3 Fill Light: -1.0
Color Adjustment: 0
Color Space: sRGB
here's a pano made with 3 5sec shots:
http://www.pbase.com/image/28105323
now with this pano, you'll notice to the left there are noticable
noise, that's becasue this shot was bit too over exposed. it's hard
to meter a pano. here's the SPP setting I use for the 3 shots(they
are the same):
Exposure: +0.2
Contrast: +0.4
Shadow: +0.0
Highlight: -1.5
Saturation: -0.4
Sharpness: +0.5
X3 Fill Light: -1.0
Color Adjustment: 0
Thank you for your answer!
I'm not very good at explaining what I do with these shots but I
hope you get the idea. if not, I'll try again. remember, it's like
shooting film and it's all about exposure. light doesn't change its
properties for digital.
good luck.
--
Chunsum
http://www.pbase.com/chunsum
http://www.pbase.com/sigmasd9
