After a couple of years of shooting pictures almost exclusively on my iPhone, I recently decided to get out my DSLR to make an attempt at learning to shoot on manual. One reason I really wanted to do this was to be able to take nice night photos. I am beginning to understand how to do this and have had the chance to practice quite a bit lately. I still have trouble getting the shot to be focused, partly because I don't have a tripod, and partly because when I look through the viewfinder it's really dark out and I can't focus when I can't see anything, but I'm having a lot of fun learning. If you have any tips on getting the focus right, please let me know! I'm posting this from my phone, where the pictures are small enough to look decent, but if you're looking at this on a computer, they're probably pretty blurry! I still have a long way to go, but here are some shots I've taken lately:
Silas on the side of the highway in Valdez, AK
Northern Lights over Silas and Old Gray in Yukon Territory
A rather blurry and a bit dark, but a nice view from our campground in Indian Creek.
Fun with headlamps
The neighbors campsite, they had a big fire and lots of headlamps on
Silas in the Manti-La Sal National Forest.
Same location as above, this time my camera is resting on a tractor shovel
Camped out in White Sands National Monument, NM
White Sands National Monument, NM
One more from our 'backcountry' campsite in White Sands
For getting focus during night photography there are a couple of tricks. Most of the time, since you are shooting stars, your focus should be set at infinity. Therefore you would want to have the lens set on MF and set it to the infinity symbol. The only time you would want to adjust the focus is if the subject of your photo is very close. In that case, you can shine your flashlight at the subject and hold the shutter down half way with AF on to allow it to focus, or look through the viewfinder and focus manually, although keep in mind that if you are focusing on a subject up close, the stars will be somewhat out of focus (depending on how close you are focusing). Night photography is a lot of trial and error. Your photos look amazing though! That campsite at white sands looks rad, especially the pic with the milky way!
ReplyDelete-@jakecarp
Thanks so much for the tips, I will definitely try that! White Sands was amazing, I definitely recommend camping out there if you get a chance!
DeleteYes! That last one is uh-mazing.
ReplyDeleteIf it's not too cold maybe we (you) can try some in Bishop with the eastern sierra skyline!
Thank you for sharing your useful information. canlı casino
ReplyDelete