Beginner City photography

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Tim Ellis
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I will be going away for a few days to Edinburgh and looking to take a goo few city photos a lot will be at night.

Although it wil be night there will be a lot of city lights as such.

So any hints and tips for this type of photography?

I will be taking my Samsung NX3000 for ease of transport.
 
Camera movement will be your biggest problem here. A tripod would be ideal but in a city this can cause problem with crowds ect. You could try resting the camera on a firm object i.e. a wall a bench ect. then use the self timer to trigger the camera.
 
Assuming you're talking about cityscapes and architecture, try around twilight / 'blue hour' (instead of late at night) when the sky isn't completely dark.

A dark blue sky still looks like a night photo but is often much more striking than completely black sky, especially behind buildings. Also the ambient light level is a bit higher which helps with clean exposures, fill light on buildings (rather than just the artificial lights shining back at you), etc


EDIT: found these as an example, courtesy of Heidger Marx http://www.heidgermarx.com/

Okay:
Zurich-014.jpg


Better:
.jpg


Source: http://www.heidgermarx.com/2013/09/night-photography-and-the-blue-hour/
 
Last edited:
Camera movement will be your biggest problem here. A tripod would be ideal but in a city this can cause problem with crowds ect. You could try resting the camera on a firm object i.e. a wall a bench ect. then use the self timer to trigger the camera.

Expanding on Steve's post r.e stability - you could consider a gorillapod, which can give stability where a tripod would not be practical / allowed.

An example with a gorillapod attached to a handrail below. Here tripods were not allowed, and holding is pretty much impossible for night shots. Although it was not stable enough to allow for a 30 second exposure like you'd get with a solid tripod, it still allowed me a 2.5 second exposure with no issues.

10583922016_38c86b0c2a_c.jpg


A gorillapod is also less weight - something to consider.
 
The gorilla pod is a good idea. Basically you need to take a photo that requires a longer exposure in order to get enough light. Any time you do this you will be challenged to keep the camera completely still while shooting. A tripod of some sort is needed and I would also consider a cable release so that you do not have to touch the camera during your shot. The last thing that I would suggest to keep the movement down is to turn on live view. This will raise the shutter and lower the movement within the camera itself. Also having it in live view will help you focus. Set your lens to manual focus and in live view pick a spot you want to have in focus, then hit the magnify button to zoom in on that spot. You can manually focus on that spot and it is a lot easier to see using this method. The last thing I would recommend is to take multiple shots trying different exposures (time). I usually take a couple over exposed and under exposed and it is amazing which one I end up liking the most once I get home and on the computer. It is generally not the one I thought I would like. Well when I first started that's how it was.

I hope that helps some. Feel free to ask any questions you might have.

:canon:
 
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