-M3=Lunch-

So I was out the other night and decided to try out some long exposure pictures. The light was behind the subject, where it would have been nice if it was behind me. I should have done it probibly 20 min earlier in the day, as it was almost pitch black out. Next time I will try to get the sunset behind me like Rob O, and see what happens. Let me know what you think for a first timer.

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/75881/1.jpg">

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/75881/2.1.jpg">

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/75881/3.jpg">

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/75881/4.jpg">

The last one is a picture of my backyard, it was completely black outside, couldnot see a thing with the naked eye. I think this long exposure thing is really sweet. Rob or anybody if you have some tips let me know. I am working with a Sony DSC-F707

Kimchee

crank your ISO up a notch...

-M3=Lunch-

camera to its full extent.

Kimchee

allows for more light... too high of an ISO level and the picture will be grainy, but in low lights anywhere from 100-400 (depending on the camera's capability) still looks good.

RKA

Well, with the first two pics, that seems to be the issue. Dark car, light in the background. The camera is metering off the background (mostly), and the car turns up underexposed (dark). Use the flash and see if that works. It may not if you're too far away from the car. Many times what people will do in these situations is take two shots. The first meters off the background, and the car will appear black, just like your photos. The second picture will meter off the car, and the background will be blown out. These two images than then be pulled into photoshop, and merged, so you get the best of each shot. Both the properly exposed car, and a properly exposed background. Unfortunately, I've never messed around with that, so I can't give you specifics.

The third pic looks like the white balance is off. Everything has a yellow cast to it. You'll have to look in the manual for your camera to see what kind of white balance adjustments you can make. You did capture more detail on the car though...and the background isn't overexposed.

Regarding the ISO, generally, you'll find that the pic will get very noisy when you approach 400. If you're using a tripod, leave the ISO at 100. The image will be less grainy, and the tripod offers the stability to do a 10 second exposure without picking up camera shake. Where you need to bump the ISO is when you're taking handheld shots, and picking up camera shake due to the slow shutter. If you bump the ISO from 100 to 400 for example, that will allow you to increase shutter speed from 1/16th sec to 1/64th sec. This increase in shutter speed will probably aid in removing any camera shake in the image.

ed@4induktion.com

hey, those are my brakes !

Kimchee

The 20D showed signs of graininess at 800.. the 1DS mark II doesn't show a hint of graininess at even 1600 ISO. It's incredible!

RKA

He said he's using a Sony DSC-F707.

-M3=Lunch-

thank you ed! they work well.

RKA

M3=Lunch...here are a few examples of what KIMCHEE was talking about. I took these in a dark room, lit only by a computer monitor on the other side of this desk.

Here is a resized copy of the image we're dealing with. The 100% crops are being snipped out of an 8 megapixel image (see right side of image below).
<img src="http://home.comcast.net/~raj_ashar/1DmII_Noise/resized.jpg">

Here is the 100% crop. The image was captured at ISO 1600 on my camera (very roughly equivalent to ISO 400 on your camera). You can see the graininess picked up in this image. Never mind the blur...I got a little camera shake at 1/8 sec handholding this shot.
<img src="http://home.comcast.net/~raj_ashar/1DmII_Noise/100_crop.jpg">

Now is a 100% crop of a similar picture taken at ISO100. Because of the low ISO, I had to put the camera on a tripod.
<img src="http://home.comcast.net/~raj_ashar/1DmII_Noise/iso100_100crop.jpg">