Lighted city after sunset

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pambonello

Senior Member
This is a picture taken tonight of our old capital city Mdina. It was right after sunset and the lights on the bastions had just lit up. I tried different settings but could not get a crisp image. I am attaching the unedited image and related settings. What was I doing wrong? Thanks

012.jpg

Device: Nikon D3200
Lens: VR 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G
Focal Length: 92mm
Focus Mode: AF-S
AF-Area Mode: Wide Area
VR: ON
AF Fine Tune:
Exposure
Aperture: f/20
Shutter Speed: 1/2.5s
Exposure Mode: Shutter Priority
Exposure Comp.: -0.7EV
Exposure Tuning:
Metering: Matrix
ISO Sensitivity: Auto (ISO 800)
 
D

Don Kuykendall_RIP

RIP :(
I took a look at it enlarged and the shot is just not quite in focus. It is soft.With a little Post Processing you can help it a little. If you can I would suggest that you try again and this time set it on manual focus and focus it that way.

Here is a my attempt to sharpen it a little. I also straightened the horizen

012.jpg
 
Horoscope Fish

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
Straightened the horizon, added a slight crop so there's not a 50/50 split between sky and ground. Good cloud formations so they won easily over the cluttered foreground. The rest looks pretty good to me. You could play around with the levels or something I suppose but I don't see much need for it. Nice shot, the composition was just a little off, IMO.
 

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  • 52599d1379360552-lighted-city-after-sunset-012.jpg
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singlerosa_RIP

Senior Member
Even after it gets dark, there is still some great light in the sky for 15-30 minutes. Since you're shooting with a tripod, turn off VR, get a cable release, try mirror up, stopped down, low ISO and open the shutter for as long as it takes to get a good pic. Many of my night shots are at f/22, ISO 100 and 30 sec.

Good luck.
 
hark

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
singlerosa said:
Even after it gets dark, there is still some great light in the sky for 15-30 minutes. Since you're shooting with a tripod, turn off VR, get a cable release, try mirror up, stopped down, low ISO and open the shutter for as long as it takes to get a good pic. Many of my night shots are at f/22, ISO 100 and 30 sec.

Good luck.
Click to expand...

Yes, I agree...having the VR on when the camera isn't being held by hand will create blur in an image. Make sure all the knobs are tight on your tripod, and if it is breezy, be sure the tripod is weighted down especially if it's a lightweight tripod. Using a cable release will alleviate any possible jarring of the camera by your finger (which can happen even when using a tripod), and using the mirror up feature will also eliminate the mirror from creating a slight camera movement during a slow shutter speed.

Question for you--was the sky as light as it appears in your photo, or was it closer to what Don posted? If it was darker than how it turned out, then you'll need to shorten your shutter speed to cut down on the amount of light hitting the sensor. It looks slightly overexposed for a dusk shot.
 
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Mfrankfort

Senior Member
Anything slower than around 1/25... I'm with the other guys in using a cable release... mirror up... timer. Something else that could help is to use Live View. This will get the mirror up, and make a little less movement. Sometimes VR can cause images to be a bit blurry. If your using a tripod, make sure it's off, as it will try to adjust for shake thats not there.
 
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pambonello

Senior Member
hark said:
Yes, I agree...having the VR on when the camera isn't being held by hand will create blur in an image. Make sure all the knobs are tight on your tripod, and if it is breezy, be sure the tripod is weighted down especially if it's a lightweight tripod. Using a cable release will alleviate any possible jarring of the camera by your finger (which can happen even when using a tripod), and using the mirror up feature will also eliminate the mirror from creating a slight camera movement during a slow shutter speed.

Question for you--was the sky as light as it appears in your photo, or was it closer to what Don posted? If it was darker than how it turned out, then you'll need to shorten your shutter speed to cut down on the amount of light hitting the sensor. It looks slightly overexposed for a dusk shot.
Click to expand...

It was effectively slightly darker than what it appears to be
 
wud

wud

Senior Member
pambonello said:
It was effectively slightly darker than what it appears to be
Click to expand...

Forgot if anyone mentioned it, but maybe you should turn of iso auto, and just go with iso 200. Looking at the first image, it looks like your auto iso wanted to make the image almost as bright as daylight.
 
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pambonello

Senior Member
Followed some of the advice given yesterday and went to shoot at the same spot today. I used cable release with tripod on VR mode switched off. The picture was taken 12 minutes after the one uploaded yesterday. This is the result.... Even though there are no pretty clouds, I think this one looks better. This is unedited, still need to adjust horizon and do some cropping.

Mdina 17.09 062.jpg

Device: Nikon D3200
Lens: VR 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G
Focal Length: 116mm
Focus Mode: Manual
AF-Area Mode: Single
VR: OFF
AF Fine Tune:
Exposure
Aperture: f/25
Shutter Speed: 6s
Exposure Mode: Manual
Exposure Comp.: 0EV
Exposure Tuning:
Metering: Matrix
ISO Sensitivity: ISO 200
 
D

Don Kuykendall_RIP

RIP :(
pambonello said:
Followed some of the advice given yesterday and went to shoot at the same spot today. I used cable release with tripod on VR mode switched off. The picture was taken 12 minutes after the one uploaded yesterday. This is the result.... Even though there are no pretty clouds, I think this one looks better. This is unedited, still need to adjust horizon and do some cropping.

View attachment 52720

Device: Nikon D3200
Lens: VR 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G
Focal Length: 116mm
Focus Mode: Manual
AF-Area Mode: Single
VR: OFF
AF Fine Tune:
Exposure
Aperture: f/25
Shutter Speed: 6s
Exposure Mode: Manual
Exposure Comp.: 0EV
Exposure Tuning:
Metering: Matrix
ISO Sensitivity: ISO 200
Click to expand...

Now edit it the best you can and repost it.
 
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pambonello

Senior Member
On second thoughts I think I prefer the light on the first one - however, either way thanks all so much on the tips on this photo! They have been very useful
 
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