Shooting Vehicle's In The Dark.

Davo7

Davo7

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David
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Right guys, for my works new web page i have to take some pictures of the lorries. Im going to take some tonight in the dark with the orange side lights on. Now i've never taken a single pic with my DSLR in the dark so could do with a few pointers!

Anyone got any tips, advice? Mode selection advice etc?
:cool:
 
Nope im afraid i dont have a tripod at the moment, im pretty sure il find something to use as a temp, tripod!
 
Advice... Go buy a tripod before even taking the camera outside.

You will need long exposures or lots of flashes. If its proper dark, you'll just have some orange lights in a sea of black.
You need enough light in the sky to to still be able to see the vehicle, even more so if you dont have flashguns to light it up.
Shoot manual or Aperture priority and see what exposure times it gives you. might be anything between 1/50 of a second to several seconds depending how dark it is.
 
As I've been out walking the dog a fair bit at night and like long exposures, I've been using the beanie hat (no hair, so a necessity for me) as a 'bean bag' on walls, fence posts etc and it's done fine for me. Enough flexibility to reposition it.
Remember to use the 2 second self time with long exposures so releasing the shutter doesn't affect the picture.

Make sure you try a few different exposures, especially if you've got lights in a dull scene as the camera's metering may not get the desired result.
 
Easier said that done imo, if its those nasty street light orange lights prepare for disappointment, they cast a orange shade on the whole picture and its nothing you can correct with white balance. My best advice would be using the 'painting with light' technique, put the camera on long exposure and walk around hitting the test button on the flashgun. But you need a flashgun, a cheap ebay gun will do the same trick as a 580ex in this case. Just take plenty of test shots, thats the best way to perfect your shot
 
Been delayed, cant get out for the bloody weather, horrendous.
 
Get some practice shots in. It's stretching it to have never shot at night before and expect to get the money shot..

Night photography isn't difficult, but it needs practice to gain confidence. A tripod is pretty much essential, and shooting RAW makes it easier to get the final look right. As to mode, there is only one mode for night shots.. Manual mode :thumbs:

Dara, by orange lights I think he means the marker lights on the vehicles themselves.
 
It's all about the light and how creative you can be.
This was shot outside my house, using two cheap battery powered camcorder lights. The camera was on a tripod and remotely triggered to avoid any movement.
105295796.jpg


Note the slight orange overspill on the block paving in the foreground and on the headlights. There's a sodium light in our close that I climbed up to put bin bags over to kill the orange light that ruined the previous two nights efforts.
I want to reshoot this better sometime.
Another way is to take/light just parts of the vehicle at a time, leaving the camera in the same position, then add them together as layers later. That might work well with a lorry, which would be huge to light.

Also look around your lorry park for good lighting situations, overhead lights casting pools of light etc.
 
Byker28i said:
There's a sodium light in our close that I climbed up to put bin bags over to kill the orange light that ruined the previous two nights efforts.
Click to expand...

LOL! Briliant! Have yet to find myself shimmying up a lampost at night when shooting. Wonder what the neighbours thought!? Very nice shot tho, looks like your efforts were worth the risk.
 
Bugler said:
Hi Byker
Can you not just desaturate the areas with the orange cast in PS
Click to expand...

A more effective way of doing it would be to gel the lights to match the sodium light, shoot RAW and then bring the white balance back in post. This is the standard technique for using flash or other lighting rigs with an ambient input. Gel the flashes to match the ambient.
 
Excellent shot.

Byker28i said:
It's all about the light and how creative you can be.
This was shot outside my house, using two cheap battery powered camcorder lights. The camera was on a tripod and remotely triggered to avoid any movement.
105295796.jpg


Note the slight orange overspill on the block paving in the foreground and on the headlights. There's a sodium light in our close that I climbed up to put bin bags over to kill the orange light that ruined the previous two nights efforts.
I want to reshoot this better sometime.
Another way is to take/light just parts of the vehicle at a time, leaving the camera in the same position, then add them together as layers later. That might work well with a lorry, which would be huge to light.

Also look around your lorry park for good lighting situations, overhead lights casting pools of light etc.
Click to expand...
 
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