Eyelight's Technique 52 for 2015

Thought about just adding these as techniques and settings to be used on my Nikonites 52, but then thought it would be good to have a separate thread.

- Planning to work with a technique/setting (on and off) for a week and post one or a few images that seem to work.
- May use some of the same images between the 2 threads.
- Some of these may be a bit hard to do and I can see running short on time, so the list may change or be finished sometime in 2016 or later.
- Left a few blanks at the end for new thoughts.
- Some shots may include multiple list items, but will only be counted for the item being worked for the week (unless I get desperate).

The list is aimed at: (1) using manual settings, (2) using a wide range of lighting and light sources, and (3) working with seldom used camera functions.

EV -6

I figure go for the tough one first. This is EV -6 using f/2.8 @ 8 minutes. A night shot naturally, looking thru a window, thru the trees to a parking lot lit by overhead lights. The near trees were lit by a post lamp at camera right.

EV -6

Same shot focused on the window, which I think I like better. Also at EV -6, f/2.8 @ 8 minutes (480.8 seconds to be precise), which brings me to a thought to add, that the actual calculated precise shutter speed for using f/2.8 at EV -6 is 512 seconds.

Certainly like no. 2 better myself. The first to me just didn't have any focus point to look at.

When working toward specific EV values, does it make a difference if the camera has an internal setting for exposure compensation set at anything other than zero?

*david*hopper* said:

Certainly like no. 2 better myself. The first to me just didn't have any focus point to look at.

When working toward specific EV values, does it make a difference if the camera has an internal setting for exposure compensation set at anything other than zero?

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The exposure compensation only affects the aperture or shutter if not in manual, but it does affect the exposure indicator.

This first was almost more experiment than attempt at real art. It's an area of photography I've never did much work (on purpose). I'm planning to do several more in the same EV range. Most of the trees were not visible and kind of interesting how much shows up in a longer exposure.

Eyelight said:

The exposure compensation only affects the aperture or shutter if not in manual, but it does affect the exposure indicator.

This first was almost more experiment than attempt at real art. It's an area of photography I've never did much work (on purpose). I'm planning to do several more in the same EV range. Most of the trees were not visible and kind of interesting how much shows up in a longer exposure.

Click to expand...

Excellent info, and something different to experiment with that I knew nothing about (not hard to find). I was curious how that worked since I had taken more bird pics for the weekly challenge, but didn't use them after seeing my exposure comp. was left at +3 from a previous shot. I was in M mode and wasn't aware it didn't actually affect the exposure when shooting in that mode.

EV -6

After the initial trial run, wanted to try something not usually seen with a long exposure. I had to add a few seconds to the shutter open time due to losing aperture diameter to the closer focus.

f/3.2 @ 646 seconds


f/3.2 @ 649 seconds

Thats one long exposure

mikew said:

Thats one long exposure

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These were literally with the lights out. The light source was a street lamp indirect through shades, almost too dark to walk through the room.

good job Eyelight!

Thanks for taking on this difficult challenge this year. I appreciate all of the information that you are including in your shots. They are going to help me understand the EV settings. Keep it up !!

Good luck with this one! I see some interesting shots in the future of this thread as you experiment

One more EV -6 before we move on.

The enlightening thing about these long exposures is how little light it takes and how well the modern digital sensor performs. The light for this shot was a combination of street light coming thru closed shades across the room and the laptop screen which was facing away.

I had the NR turned off earlier and decided to leave it off. There is some noise, but not real noticeable.

EV -5

Same light sources as the last EV -6 shot, so we can see that 1 stop less exposure is closer to what was needed in the darkness.

f/4 @ 8 minutes and 34 seconds <<Should be 32 but I was asleep at the switch.

Eyelight said:

EV -5

Same light sources as the last EV -6 shot, so we can see that 1 stop less exposure is closer to what was needed in the darkness.

View attachment 134216

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Not a bad watch for the money. I picked one up too!

weebee said:

Not a bad watch for the money. I picked one up too!

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I always loved a pocket watch. Used to carry one all the time. My son gave this one to me, so it's worth a small fortune.

Eyelight said:

I always loved a pocket watch. Used to carry one all the time. My son gave this one to me, so it's worth a small fortune.

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I know what you mean about the fortune... My brother carried one... When he passed a few years ago, there was a non working one in his "stuff" along with a small bear from his office. Those are the only 2 things of his I wanted, the watch is in my jewelry box and I see it every time I open it, reminding me of him. The bear is on a shelf in my man cave, watching over me everyday. They are worthless to many but "Priceless" to me!

Pat in GA

Fully agree .
I still have and use my dads screwdriver. It's a ratchet screwdriver with a wooden handle it just feels right in my hands.
it reminds me of being with my dad working on his latest "project" in his shed.
its priceless to me but worthless to anyone else.

Nice "priceless" watch shots!

EV -4

Getting behind on this thread so figured I better get after it. This is one of a few EV -4 shots in a trial and error to see what light I need. This one a little dark and not much DOF


f/5.6 @ 8 minutes and 33 seconds (SOOC)


Decided I'm going to add some processed versions.