taking night shots with the h5

[polarbeardiggers]

does anyone out there have the best setting for great night shots,i know the camera is limited to fstops at 8.0,or is it really come down to who has the best photo shop to get great night shots,and slow moving water shots. i shoot everything in manual and late evening city scapes i bring the iso to 80, i open the aperature to a range from anywhere 3 seconds to 30 seconds, my fstop set either lowest it will go or right to the max at 8.0.and at extreme darkness you can't even judge by the histogram until after the picture is taken,the evf does help a bid but i just can't focus on the moon with my telephoto lens without the whole picture getting washed out by the light of the moon.i guess i need to get out and practise more,frustrating when you see other pictures taken from the same camera on the web with great night shots and others with slow moving rivers,i'm beginning to think its more photoshop than camera ability, any advise would be greatly appreciated,still learning with the best point and shot camera around,.

[Canuck935]

It sounds like you're on the right track. With night shots, a lot of it is trial and error. I think we need more information from you about your shots. What is it about your night shots that you're not happy with?

With water, you need to use a low ISO and a small aperture so you can achieve shutter speeds of say 1/15th or slower. The use of a neutral density filter will help even more. Personally, I like my water super silky so I like to use shutter speeds of a second or slower.

[polarbeardiggers]

thanks canuck935,i've heard of the nuetral density filter before,that will be my next purchase,i took a shot of small water falls near a dam,while on manual i would set my iso around 80,but i guess when you say slow 1000 iso would be slow right ?,then i set my aperature to about nr 8 seconds,whichs locks my f-stop to a minimum,when i take the shot its all whited out,i guess i need the extra filter,as far as night shots go its more of a miss than a hit,i took a picture of a plane at midnight on a monument,the plane is completely dark to my eys,i use a flashlight to aid in my focus point,set the camera to self timer 10 sec and the nr at 30 second aperature,at iso 80, my ev is close to 0.0, and my f/3.7 could not go any lower,with no flash, the whole plane came in view,and the stars were showing but the white plane came out yellowish,the camera was on a stand.so hoping if you have the same camera you could share some of your best settings for me to try out.thanks for your input.

[Canuck935]

You have the ISO right. 80 is 'slower' than 1000. The lower the ISO number the less sensitive it is to light, thus giving you longer exposures. If you were shooting the waterfall in daylight 8 seconds was too long which is why the shot was overexposed ('whited out'). This is where ND (neutral density) filters come in handy.

I hope you don't mind a small correction. Aperture and f-stop both reference the same thing, so you are setting your aperture to f-stop 2.8, etc. Shutter speed would be the time of the exposure, such as 2 seconds or 1/250th of a second,etc.

It sounds like you got a good exposure of the plane, but the issue seems to be with white balance. Depending on the type of lighting in the scene of your shot, you will get different color casts. Incandescent or halogen lighting will give you that yellowish color you saw in your plane shot. Florescent lighting will give you a greenish cast. Sodium vapor street lights will be very orange, and mercury vapor will be bluish green if I remember correctly.

I do not have the same camera, but I would hope there's a way for you to set the white balance. The camera should have presets for daylight, shade, incandescent, and florescent. These will work better than AWB (auto white balance) in artificial lighting.

[polarbeardiggers]

yes my camera does have the option for the white balance from daylight cloudy to different kinds of bulb lighting, and one touch or one push with also auto, you suggest auto ,can you also flash on a white card before shooting in the dark as well? i will check on the nd filter too, which is mainly designed for slower aperature speeds during daylight conditions right? i will try out more pics at night and get more used to different settings,thanks for the advise,thats why i like this site best of all,people are so kind and willing to help out,thanks.

[Sushigaijin]

yes my camera does have the option for the white balance from daylight cloudy to different kinds of bulb lighting, and one touch or one push with also auto, you suggest auto ,can you also flash on a white card before shooting in the dark as well? i will check on the nd filter too, which is mainly designed for slower aperature speeds during daylight conditions right? i will try out more pics at night and get more used to different settings,thanks for the advise,thats why i like this site best of all,people are so kind and willing to help out,thanks.

Hey!

ND filters will help with long exposures in daylight conditions. It is just like putting a pair of sunglasses on your camera - everything will still look the same, but less light comes through so the scene can be shot at a longer shutter speed. ND filters are usually used with slow aperture speeds - the higher the F/number, the slower the aperture.

The auto white balance of the H5 is pretty good, I almost never take it out of auto as far as that is concerned. The custom white balance (one push/touch) works well too, but you have to shoot your white card in the EXACT same lighting conditions that you are shooting your photos in order for it to work. In other words, a pitch black 8 second shot of a statue will still have a color cast unless you shoot your white card in pitch black for 8 seconds. If you are not using the flash for the photo, you can't use it to set the white balance! It isn't as picky with other types of shots, but since it is a tripod shot there is no reason to make any shortcuts.

Hope this helps!

[polarbeardiggers]

yes that helps and i will take that all in consideration, thanks again for the wonderful help.i have ordered the nd filter made by hoya, i believe its a nd8, they said it will lower my fstop by three,what ever that means because i'm limited to the adjustments on the h5,but i think now i will be able to achieve the slower smoother water looks of streams and falls.what i don't know is setting the aperature to how many seconds work the best ? i can go as high as 30 seconds max,but i'm sure i must not need to always go that high,perhaps at night,but a day shot of water would that be around 3 to 8 seconds? .