Night Shoots: Locations, Settings, Tips
 

Hey everyone,

With my job's strange hours most of the times I have available to get some pics going are at night.

I've found a couple good spots, and can get some ok shots with my current settings. I thought we could start sharing information like what settings have we found best for night shots, and locations with some cool back drops.

The settings I am currently using for my night pics are:

ISO: 400
F-stop: 8
Whitebalance: 4k

A couple locations I've used are:

- Just below the North Shore Auto Mall, along the water front area.
- Richmond BCIT Campus (security guards can be difficult)

What are some settings and locations that you've had the best luck with?

Shipping/loading bays are cool.

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3809/...6da8e6c3_z.jpg

There was this spot I liked a lot near the airport, but last time I went, the road was all torn up and bumpy. I guess they're building something there.

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5487/...2f1b0504_z.jpg

I probably have a couple more night shots, but I can't find them right now lol.

I've been down around the Vancouver convention centre a bit with older cars in the past... No pics unfortunately to show right now. There's a couple side streets in and around gastown that have some cool cobblestone and lamp posts that work well with pics at night. Although the people around there are sometimes hit and miss. Down in kits along the water there's a nice parking lot I've had some nice shots at too

Mind if I ask what settings you're using on your cameras?

Trying to take pics of cars? Or just land/cityscapes?

ISO400 why? Makes no sense really. ISO100 and a tripod. F8-F16 and a intervelometer. Really depends on what your trying to do with the scene really. Pretty vague question. Plan a "night shoot meet" and get some people out there and you can ask question, and share idea's.

Good luck, keep shooting! Post up some of your work too!

Thanks,

Ok so first, I just found my old account (This is Xul, name change pending).

I suppose I should have specified. I'm trying to take pics of my car, and ISO400 was suggested to me by a friend who took the pics below.

http://www.revscene.net/forums/membe...-mall-area.jpg

http://www.revscene.net/forums/membe...-mall-area.jpg

I bought a tripod a couple days ago and am using a Nikon D80.
Going to go out to get some pics tomorrow night, weather being co-operative.

Here are a couple of my shots, without tripod. I'm not sure what settings I was using for these:

http://www.revscene.net/forums/membe...inja-shoot.jpg

http://www.revscene.net/forums/membe...inja-shoot.jpg

Especially on a D80 your going to want to use the lowest ISO possible, so ya ISO100 and a tripod is your best friend. Google "light painting" and this might help you get some good pictures with better lighting, because your pictures seem to be quite dark depending on the light at your location.

Photo Cornucopia

err wrong account

Thanks Boost, I will switch down to ISO100 tonight. Oh That's Light painting, a few friends in Victoria have done a few interesting shoots using light painting!

So I guess when the a car turned and light up my car as my friend was taking a pic would have been light painting, accidental, but light painting none the less:

http://www.revscene.net/forums/membe...-mall-area.jpg

I didn't let the mild rain win last night, I took a quick lil trip to Granville Island.
Got a few decent pics:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.n...21878705_o.jpg

https://scontent-sea.xx.fbcdn.net/hp...33064468_o.jpg

I adjusted the white balance, for a bit more warmth:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.n...08839984_o.jpg

I'd be down for a night shoot meet! I love shooting at night, being able to control the lighting better makes it fun. I can probably organize something; I did a couple last year with some decent turnout. One time we ended up at the loading bays I posted above, but got ushered out by security in 5 minutes :X

In regards to light painting, getting creative with that is also fun. Here's an older pic on a friend's G37.

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2814/...7a6c2667_z.jpg

F22, 10 second shutter, ISO 200 and a few passes with one of those bright Chinese flashlights. I could have touched it up more in Photoshop, but was too lazy lol.

And here's another older pic of a MS3, light source was a couple of phones haha.

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3772/...444b8020_z.jpg

F8, 20 second shutter, ISO 100, and my friend and I ran around the car with our phone lights while shutter was pressed haha. I need to find a good portable light source to make more of these photos.

Since you have a Nikon D80 you should invest in a flash. The D80 has a built in commander mode that can trigger off camera nikon speed lights.

Here is one i did with a single Nikon SB-500 at the bottom right corner, 1/4 Power shooting slightly upwards on a light stand.
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7559/...ae9b3149_b.jpg

Hand held, F4, 1/100 shutter speed, ISO 400.

Night Shoot meet would be cool.