450D: Night Time Photo Tips

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jpwild

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I have Canon 450D any I mainly use Tokina 11-16 and Canon f4L 70-200 lens.

I do have x64 ND filter, and Lee grads too with of course tripod.

I've dabbed by hand at evening stuff but not actual night time photos, and wondered what's best to accomplish night shots in a city for example with lights? I am talking cloudy nights as well as sun nights with stars in them.

I assume a wide aperture of around 4/5/6 or 8? Or do I shooter shutter priority mode?

Does the shutter also have to be open for a few seconds to let enough light in? If that is the case do I have to use ND filter or no filter.

I am also in the habbit of using a polarizer a lot. I take it it's advisable to not use one when it comes to night photography?

What about ISO level generally for this stuff?

When doing long exposure at night time do I still need to use ND filter?
 
All you really need for night shots is : the camera and lens, a tripod and a electronic release.

You can try metering shots at first, but if you want really long exposures for say car light streaks etc then just use the bulb setting.

The only filters worthwile for night shots really are Light pollution filters but you would need to use an equatorial mount to take a long enough exposure of the night sky with one.

If you are going to try starry skies, then get a program called registax, take lots of shorter exposures as well as a dark frame exposure equal to the sum of the previous exposures ( cap the lens and just shoot, it will record pixel and heat noise so it can be subtracted in the software.

Load all the images into registax, set two alignment points and let it run, you can then adjust the wavelets to get the best image and save.
 
I'm not sure the OP is interested in stacking images or using an equatorial mount. However, Ian is right - you don't really need to worry about any filters whatsoever with night-time photography.

You'll be better off in full manual mode with night shots. Often, you'll need an exposure of several seconds - so a tripod and remote release are essential. You simply won't be able to hand hold without getting very blurry pictures. You won't need to worry about an ND filter - there isn't very much light coming in (nothing like as much as in daylight), so it doesn't do anything much. The main thing to be aware of is that streetlights will often look like sharp pin heads.

You won't need a polarizer either, unless you're shooting through glass or something like that. You won't really improve colour saturation all that much at night, in my experience.

You can set whatever ISO you like, but I find ISO 100 - 200 is best. Noise in night-time shots looks horrible. Far better to go for low ISO's and slow shutter speeds, supported on a sturdy tripod with a good cable release. You can set whatever aperture you feel is appropriate to your subject.
 
I usually spot meter in most situations. Would that still be the case at night time, or evaluative metering?

Thanks for the advice I will attempt some shots over the coming evenings.
 
Tripod and remote shutter are essential for night shots. I've never nothered with ND or polaising filters for night shots.

Manual mode, ISO100, f/9 - f/11, experiment a bit with the shutter speed - if you take a few test shots at 20 secs, 30 secs, 1 min, 2 min you'll begin to get the feel for it. Flickr is useful for pulling up example night shots and checking the EXIF to see what settings people used.

You can balance shutter speed and aperture to get different effects.. in particular for light trails, but also the extent of "star flares" from street lamps, etc.

Practice, and lots of it.. that's the trick..
 
Remote release
Tripod
set mirror lockup in cf
set long exposure noise reduction in cf
set AEB for +1 and -1

Meter as normal and shoot, should be hopefully less than 30 seconds

Good luck
 
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