Camera Labs

Received my new tripod the other day, a Velbon Sherpa 435 and also a remote for the camera, decided to take it out (on the coldest night!) and take some shots of the cars going by the bridge. Forgot to turn off the vr on the lens though, will this make much of a difference to the picture and also left the iso @100, would a higher one be better?

Please, C&C more than welcome and excuse the border, I was playing with photoshop. Just want peoples views on where I can improve with settings etc.



iso100

f/22 bulb

exp time 38.8 sec

18-55mm lens

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Nikon D90, 18-105mm vr,55-200 vr 50mm f1.8D, sb-600, sigma 10-20mm

Hi nikyd, good shot! I'd say always stick with low ISOs where possible as they will give you the best quality. The will need longer exposures at night, but sicne this needed to be a long exposure anyway, and you had a tripod, it doesn't matter - so stick at 100 ISO!

I presume you had a cable release to keep the shutter open? If not, you can avoid pressing the camera's shutter by using the self-timer, although on most moderls you'll be limited to the maximum timed exposure, which is normally 30 seconds. Since your exposure was only 38 seconds at f22, you could achieve something similar (brightness wise) with 20 seconds f16.

It looks in focus, but I'd always recommend using manual focus for this kind of thing. And while VR should have been disabled for a tripod-based shot, it doesn't appear to have introduced any wobble.

I'll throw the question back at you - are you happy with it? Is there something else you wanted to achieve with it?

Looks cool, but the white and red lights are on the wrong side of the road

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Nikon D40 and stuff.

Thanks for the feed back Gordon, excellent site by the way,picked up alot from other users and www.dslrtips.com, well done.

I got the Nikon ml-l3 remote which was only £12.40, so for that I thought if it helps the pictures then its worth it.

I think I'm happy with it for my first attempt, I feel the red light stream on correct side of the road lol lacks the intensity of the light further up. I think a dusk shot will be next with the sun just sitting on the horizon and the car lights going by, might add a bit more. Might play with the saturation in PS next time.

What would you suggest for metering and a focal point?

Nikyd.

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Nikon D90, 18-105mm vr,55-200 vr 50mm f1.8D, sb-600, sigma 10-20mm

There not for the UK....

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Roy
EOS 350D, 40D + BG-E2N, EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM, EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM, EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM, 430 EX Speedlite




My Fotopic

I don't think metering comes into a shot like this - you're working in manual, and experimenting with different exposures, so the metering is pretty much useless.

PS - maybe you could post two versions next time, one flipped horizontally for our friends who drive on the other side of the road!

I think it is a very good shot overall, but next time I would suggest trying to find a spot without the lamps. Street lights always mess these shots up for me, the detract too much from the real image, and wash out to make that area look bad.

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Nikon D90
18-55mm VR
55-200mm VR
ML-L3 Wireless release

http://www.flickr.com/photos/97752536@N00/