Pixtus - Photography Forum, Photographers, Photo Tips

pmedr · **night shots -** 08-07-2006, 12:10 PM

i'm still having problems focusing on night shots with out having to use a tripod.
can some one give me a tip on how to take good night shots. i'm using a canon rebel xt/350d

thanks
pete

specialist · 08-12-2006, 06:20 PM

hmmm im not sure.. but if i remember, bumping up your ISO settings should reduce the blur.. just keep on playin with the ISO because it can get noisy at times..

HFMarshburnJR · 08-12-2006, 07:33 PM

What are you shooting? If you are shooting landscapes, then a tripod is (in my opinion) pretty much a must. If you are shooting night action shots, then bumping up the iso is certainly an option. If you cannot get yourself into a situation where your shutterspeeds are faster than 1/60th of a second (if you have really good handholding technique), or 1/focal length (for the rest of us) then you will need a monopod, tripod or a lens with IS or VR technology to help you out. However, I still don't think this answers your question.

If you are referring to getting your autofocus to give you the desired results at night, you may be suffering from the condition where your AF illuminator does not throw off enough light to allow the AF sensor to lock on to your desired focal point. I would suggest that you get to know the manual settings of your camera and manually adjust the focal length of your lens to lock on to the scene that you are trying to capture. It is the only solution that I have been able to rely on - and I shoot a lot of night photos. I hope this helps. Good shooting.

HFM

johnastovall · 08-12-2006, 08:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pmedr

i'm still having problems focusing on night shots with out having to use a tripod.
can some one give me a tip on how to take good night shots. i'm using a canon rebel xt/350d

thanks
pete

First what are you shooting? One thing is set manual focus and manual for the body and set up a hyperfocus zone and if you are good at guessing distance just use that.

Night shooting is one area where I think rangefinders beat slrs, at least today's models with horrid focusing screens and no focus marks on the lens body. For good night forcusing nothing can beat a fresheal screen with split image ringed with micro prisms and a very fast lense. You might want to look at a microprism focusing screen.

lancemoreland · 08-12-2006, 09:11 PM

Bump up the ISO and use a lens with IS and a steady hand and light shutter push helps. Kind of like shooting a gun. Hold her steady and ease down on the triger. No jerking. Here is a gallery that was shot at night and only one of the shots was taken with a tripod.

http://www.pbase.com/lancemoreland/vegas_at_night

pmedr · 08-13-2006, 01:03 AM

i'm trying to take night action shots. and yes ISO makes sense so i will try that.
thank you for all the tips.

pete

AndrewCCM · 08-13-2006, 03:18 AM

What lens are you using? Are you using a flash? What is your metering showing?

Faster lenses F2.8 or less will quicken your AF system.. As mentioned there is no substitute for properly exposing and using a shutter speed that will allow you to freeze the action. Higher ISO's will help as will flash. Combination of flash and higher ISO can produce nice images that still retain some of the ambient light without having to use such a slower shutter speed too.

My advice is to play around some more..but you might even think of getting a fast inexpensive prime lens for the heck of it... a 50mm F1.8 lens is cheap and works well in low-light.

Good luck!