Assignment - NightShots

[Autumn]

Re: Assignment - NightShots

Interesting picture George. I like it. I am curious as to how you took it. I have seen this type of thing before, yes, it was Andrew Thatcher's POTD yesterday.

As I have absolutely no idea, I would guess you put your camera on a tripod and fastened it down at the back of the car somehow. Pre focussed before you started your journey and then set a timed exposure. So that is only my guess. How about telling me how it is really done?

[Archangel]

Re: Assignment - NightShots

Interesting picture George. I like it. I am curious as to how you took it. I have seen this type of thing before, yes, it was Andrew Thatcher's POTD yesterday.

As I have absolutely no idea, I would guess you put your camera on a tripod and fastened it down at the back of the car somehow. Pre focussed before you started your journey and then set a timed exposure. So that is only my guess. How about telling me how it is really done?

Hi Audrey,

This photo might look simple, but it is not as simple as it looks just because:

1. Fixed out of the car things (buldings, trees, e.t.c) in relation to car movement, should be blurry.

2. Moving out of the car things (other moving cars) in relation to the car movement I was in, should be as clear and sharp as possible.

So everything in this photo is related to the movement and the relation of the objects in terms of movement with each other.

I did nothing from what you guessed, except the timed exposure :-)

I was sitting with the camera in the back seat, holding the camera with my hands and positioned it on the top of the car seat.
Stabilizer was on, I was shooting in shutter priority and set the shutter to 1/2 second, ISO200 and didn't use flash.

Much different shutter speeds will spoil the shot in terms of the relation of movement of moving and fixed objects.

For example, 1 second shutter will hardly do the job as everything might come out blurry, because the car I was in was moving too and there was a normal amount of shake.
Using the camera on a tight tripod won't make any difference as there is still shake transmitted from the car to the inner objects and humans in the car.

Faster shutters from 1/6 and down will ruin the blurring effect of the outer fixed objects (buildings, trees, e.t.c) in relation to movement.

So you have to play around with speeds of 1/6, 1/4 and 1/2 maximum.
A higher ISO will help for a more correct exposure.
Prefocus on an another neighbor moving vehicle is not advised as there might be sudden distance difference due to accelerations of that vehicle that might ruin the focus of other distant objects.

As you can see the photo is clear from inside the car to the far distant building and only the outer fixed objects appear blurry in relation to movement.

So what you finally have to do is:

Rest the camera against the top of the seat, while holding it with your hands, set ISO to a higher value of 200 (maybe you will need 400 in your Fuji, because of the absence of stabilizer), experiment with speeds from 1/6 to 1/2 sec and focus every time on an object approximately halfway distance from the car you are in to the far distant object you see in front of you.
If the objects that move along with the car that you are in don't come out clear, try to focus on another car left or right, slightly preceding and then when the camera acquires focus, turn it straight ahead and click.

This is pretty much the general things that you should do. Though different cameras have their own different habits and in this case you need to slightly experiment first sitting behind the car and snapping in order to refine the settings that work best for your camera. Though, those shouldn't be that much different from those I wrote before, slight variations of these settings are considered.

Also, you might want to use the camera in "Incandescent" mode to get the natural color of the environment.


George

[Autumn]

Re: Assignment - NightShots

Thanks for that information George. I hadn't looked closely enough - I thought you were driving

I must give it a try sometime. It is very effective and always nice to try something new.

[Archangel]

Re: Assignment - NightShots

Thanks for that information George. I hadn't looked closely enough - I thought you were driving

I must give it a try sometime. It is very effective and always nice to try something new.

No Audrey,

A friend of mine was driving as we were returning from a friendly night shootout.
I just sat in the back seat of my friend's car to do some last shots, making him feel somehow like a taxi driver


George

[Tom]

Re: Assignment - NightShots

Hello George
Here is one from me. I don't do much night work but this one I got while on holidays in Italy.

Night Visitor