night shots are hard

[racedraper]

how do you guys keep things in focus at night? It is a foggy night and thought it would be good practice. no photoshop here only cropping

[Byron Lentz]

I love nite shots, this one I used a tripod auto focus, took several shots untill I was happy with the exposure. Some photoshop work,but not much.

[Frog]

The difference between your shots and Byrons is that he could use auto focus because he had enough light and contrast.
You're shooting in fog/mist and your autofocus probably kept searching. Try manual focus and I'm sure you did use a tripod.
What white balance did you use?

[AgingEyes]

I'd grab my fujifilm f40fd and shoot it. That way, I don't have to worry about focus

[Mr Yuck]

I love the atmosphere of these. For sharpness, of course use a tripod, and as Frog said, use manual focus.

My nitpick is color, for the sodium vapor lights (the streetlights) use the "tungsten" white balance setting and you may find that the colors are more accurate.

[racedraper]

these are the color of our street lights the fog and mist amplified the effects . yeah I tried auto focus but you know the results.lol this was the first time using my tripod and it works great.

[MB1]

The answer to your night photography problem is #1-Use a Tripod and #2-Bracket everything (WB, Exposure and Focus). Of course that means you are going to have to take a lot of shots but with digital that really isn't a problem.

Other than that everything that works for daylight photography still matters. Composition, catching the magic moment, clarity of thought and intent and hard work all pay off day or night.

[Greg McCary]

Most times I under expose the shot and then bring it up in PPing. This keeps you from blowing out lights. You really can't fix over exposed lights. Or I can't. Sometimes it also requires a lot of cloning/ healing and painting. Always shoot RAW and the WB can be adjusted in PPing.

[GB1]

- Use manual focus
- Use a tripod
- Use a sufficiently deep depth of field aperture. f 8.0 or even f 5.6 should be fine.
- Use a color compensating filter if necessary. These pix are way too red.
- You can affect some areas of the image being too exposed with respect to other areas by using a graduated neutral density filter. There's other tricks too - if you use a long exposure you could even wave your hand over that area of the scene to reduce the light, much like dodging and burning.

GB

[Greg McCary]

Take that UV off as well. It will cause flares and can cause reflections back into the camera.. And use a hood.

[Frog]

these are the color of our street lights the fog and mist amplified the effects . yeah I tried auto focus but you know the results.lol this was the first time using my tripod and it works great.

So if that really is the color of lights there, then I actually think #1 is pretty nice.
The focus is soft throughout but its a foggy/misty night so nothing should be sharp.
The street lights ARE too bright. Maybe you could do some burning on them but don't ask me how as I'm not good at it.

[racedraper]

Take that UV off as well. It will cause flares and can cause reflections back into the camera.. And use a hood.

oh yeah I took the UV off. after reading about how it dulls the photos and the hood was on. I will take pics tonight to show to show the lights on a normal night and use some of your great suggestions.

[racedraper]

here is the pic tonight. I adjusted the camera for tungsten lighting so this is what it looks like on my street

[Greg McCary]

Very nice. It looks like you are off and running. Have fun and be sure and share your pictures. When you use the higher F/stops the lights will have the nice star effect you see here. Well done.

[jorger101]

Hello racedraper

I cannot add more to the wonderful advice you receive from everyone else, but what really helps focusing a great deal at night is the greater depth of field you get with a small aperture. I often use the smallest opening on the lens (around f/22 or less) and take a long exposure with my camera mounted on a tripod. Just like Greg mentioned you get those nice star effects that way. Use manual focus at night no matter what. It is very tricky for the autofocus system on most cameras to get it right.