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Beginner Photography: Night

Night photography! I kind of had to phone it in this week, guys. We had one clear night and I was carless and home with my daughter, so I couldn’t go out when it was properly dark. But I knew of a lovely church within walking distance that I’ve been meaning to shoot for a while, so we trekked out there with my camera and tripod.

I’ve done night photography before, you can see my shots and my process here.

This week I tried to shoot panoramas since I was close to my subject (can’t get too far away without a road and cars in the way) but it proved to be pretty difficult. The tripod I’m working with isn’t the best and I was having a hard time panning smoothly to capture multiple shots in a row. I wound up hand-holding the camera for most of them. I shot on aperture priority with the aperture wide open to gather as much light as possible and at ISO 100, but that left parts of the scene blurry. I didn’t take enough shots of the scene to get the detail I wanted when stacking my images.

Here’s an incredibly helpful video on image stacking and panoramas, which I should have watched before I went out:

I’m not thrilled with how any of my shots came out. I really wish I’d taken more time and captured more shots of each part of the building to stitch them together.

f/3.5, 1/20th, ISO 100

 

f/3.5, 1/40th, ISO 100

f/3.5, 1/30th, ISO 100

 

I also chose to center all of these shots to make the building feel as impressive as it is, but none of them are perfectly symmetrical which just makes it feel off.

The first and third shots I made virtual copies of, then edited one to expose for the sky and one to expose for the building, merging them as HDR. I’m afraid I was a bit lazy and have some haloing around the building now that I look at it. 

Are any of you shooting on the theme each week? How are you finding it?

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Live Show Recap: HDR

HDR: the good, the bad and the ugly.

First off: NO SHOW NEXT WEEK. It is Thanksgiving in the US, so we’ll be eating to excess with our families. The week after will be “Cars”, then the week after (Dec 10th) Toby and Christina will be on the live show!

Black Friday! November 27th, we’re giving away signed, numbered prints for the first 50 purchasers of our Everything Set. Keep an eye out for that insanity.

PhotoNews:

  • Chelsea and Tony were on the news! sdp.io/nyberg
  • Challenge! Show us your polarizing filter shots vs non-polarized shots (both RAW files to tony@northrup.org)
  • “Did you just say peen?” “I guess you could say this video was… polarizing”
  • Development of the Nikon D5 announced
  • Z Camera E1 sdp.io/e1

Question:

  • How many exposures for HDR? 3-5

Now to review some photos! Picks, stars and notable bits:

Question:

  • Would you alter a photo for a client?

Portfolio review! Justin teaches us about baby seagulls and why we never see them.

Chit-Chat, where they read your comments on past videos and maybe make fun of you. Chelsea’s favorite segment, for obvious reasons.

  • “Don’t be a scratch pansy”.
  • “It’s like how I look pretty until I go to New York City”
  • Leica users. The worst.
  • “Are these two dating?”
  • The professor

Back to your photos (after the stream drops and then comes back in with my calling to my dog):

More PhotoNews:

Another lovely portfolio!

More of your questions:

  • Tony and Chelsea tell you how their work has influenced each other
  • holiday gift idea video coming up! Here‘s last years
  • how to photography snowy owls

Photo speed round!

One more question, T&C’s favorite photos of their’s. Check out their portfolios: Chelsea, Tony.

And that’s our show. Next week we’re off, see you in two weeks for CARS! Have a great Thanksgiving, those of you who celebrate it.