Bear with me I'm new to night photography.

[Modfather]

Besides the very obvious issues with this shot my main concerns are the white specs on parts of the image that should be dark "I'm hoping is noise from the high ISO" and the purple haze/blur in the upper left corner "I have no clue but gets worse the higher the ISO". Any input would be greatly appreciated. THANKS

Settings
Shutter 30secs
F3.5
ISO 1000
18mm
D70s

 

[stmv]

interesting,, the white spot might be a bad pixel that typically is not visible, but in this long dark exposure is visible, Take a shot with your lens cap on,, same setting, and see if it shows up, easy to clone out.

 

[Modfather]

Same shot with the lens cap on shows no spots just a black image.

 

[eurotrash]

resolution reached on what the phenomenon was?

 

[Kias]

It's aliens!

 

[Kias]

Well, after looking at both pictures, they're definitely random. So it looks like you have a case of digital noise. Try lowering your iso and raising your exposure time. You can set your camera to bulb mode to get any exposure time you want. A tripod and remote shutter is definitely needed.

I love doing low light photography. It's amazing how much detail you can get from something with no light on it. It just requires a LOT of patience, and a LOT of playing around with the settings on your camera!

 

[Kias]

Ok, a tripod and remote shutter is not needed. Just set the camera on a firm surface, set a 3 second (or whatever) delay for the shutter and away ya go! The delay is so the camera doesn't jiggle when you press the button. Or maybe it just has time to dejiggle before the exposure starts...

Six of one, half dozen of the other.

Oh, and if you're going to get into low light photography, just be prepared to delete a lot of pictures. I mean, A LOT of pictures.

You'll notice that you do not see my wife in this picture. That's because she left me. I took 15 thirty second exposures with various camera settings to get this one shot at the pirate museum in Nassau. And I was hurrying as fast as I could!

Why is it that she always rolls her eyes when I start doing weird stuff to 'get' that picture. But when she finally sees the picture I took, she thinks it's awesome? That confuses me...

Oh, and that purple haze... That's from Jimi.

Ok, really, I do believe it's lens flare. Was the moon over in that general direction? What lens were you using? Perhaps moving the whole camera a little to the left and then pointing it a little to the right to semi-keep the same frame would've fixed that. Perhaps... Just a thought. Remember, you'll delete a LOT of pictures.

 

[Kias]

If you want to try that truck shot again with a lower iso and longer exposure, lets have some fun!

Got a speed light? Right before the end of the exposure pop a flash on the truck. It'll pop right out of the picture!

Need more fun? Have someone lie down in the truck (or stay up, your choice) start the exposure and right at the beginning of the exposure, pop that flash on the truck. Now get some friends and push that truck out of the picture while the shutter is still open and taking that picture, don't worry, they won't appear in the final picture, it's just like magic. The person in the truck is to drive, you don't want to open any doors, or turn on any lights. What you'll wind up with is a "Ghost Truck!"

No speedlight? That's ok, just take a flashlight and "paint" the truck from afar. It'll still show up real nice. Need more? Take that flashlight and walk it around the truck. As long as you don't point the light at yourself, you won't show up in the picture.

Most of all, just experiment, do the same picture over and over and over, delete the bad ones and have fun! It's what it's all about. :star:

Oh, and I just noticed this is the critique forum. Perhaps this would be better off in the learning / low light - night section.?! <---learned that from my daughter!

 

[BackdoorArts]

Could it be noise from the sensor due to the long exposure time? I know the D7000 has separate noise reduction for long exposures and high ISO, and my understanding is that at 30 seconds the sensor can begin to show noise as it heats up from prolonged work (don't we all?).

 

[BackdoorArts]

Oh, and one caution here with Long Exposure Noise Reduction. When hunting through my menus I accidentally turned it on, and then couldn't figure out why my camera wouldn't write the new image to the disc for a long time - what turns out to be the same amount of time as the original exposure. So on a 30 sec exposure there is a 30 sec process that does the noise reduction, so nothing gets written for a minute. It's absolutely maddening if you don't know why it's happening, and just plain ole difficult if you happen to be outside in the cold waiting to take your next shot. LOL