Night photo help

S

Sonny Eclipse (Colin C)

Member
I'm at Wdw right now and spent last night taking some night photos at Epcot. The things I am shooting are turning out fine but the sky seems way too bright to me. is there something I need to do with settings to fix that or is it something you fix in post processing?

I am using long shutter speeds and typically letting the camera choose the aperture or I'm setting it at 10 or 11.
 
I think you would need to fix that in post; it sounds like light pollution to me.....
 
try setting the aperture at f8-11, iso 100, and manually set your time, try 2,4,6,8 seconds until you find the one that looks most right, or do a series each time with various shutter times, and decide at home on the bigger monitor. this is something i do quite often as wdw has a lot of varied light levels and i think the camera on aperture priority tends too go a little too hot for my tastes. remember, you can bring up the highlights in raw but blown out areas are just that, too hot to handle
 
assuming you are using a tripod, you should use either Aperture priority or Manual mode and use the lowest ISO your camera can go (100 for Canon, 200 for Nikon). ; In Aperture priority mode, the camera will set the shutter speed. ; In Manual, you have to set both Aperture (f/8 to f/11 or f/16) and Shutter. ; Use your camera's meter to set the shutter speed and then change to taste.
 
I'd agree with aperture priority mode being a good one to try for now - set the apertures reasonably small - F10-F14, and ISO at the lowest setting, then let the camera choose the shutter. ; If it is consistently over- or under-exposing, adjust the EV a bit to get it in the sweet spot.

If you're shooting handheld, then you have to stick with the higher ISOs and shutter priority as the best mode.
 
If your objects look fine but the sky is light, look into reducing your exposure settings. But you won't get a dark sky if there's any amount of humidity and lots of light sources around. (In Los Angeles, you get this ALL the time......) In that case, you try to reduce your exposure *just* to the point where the total image looks fine.

Also, depending on the horizon, I've also used a graduated neutral density filter to darken the night sky.
 
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