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Post by af3020 on Oct 5, 2024 21:18:17 GMT
Thanks for the compliments guys - much appreciated. Oace - a thought on night photography. If you have a situation where you have the stations and the street lamps on separate circuits I'd recommend doing the following: Set up your camera, black out everything, and then with the camera on the "bulb" setting, open the shutter and turn on the street lamps for about 5 seconds, turn them off and do the same with the houses/stations. Repeat this only now do it for 10 seconds. Take a look at the results of these two pictures. The odds are good that you will identify an exposure that will minimize the "exploding bomb" look you get when you have the lights on for too long an exposure. Once you know what to do then, fire up the train. and just before it enters the picture turn the lights on for the "optimum" time. The end result should look like the blur scene you have but with the street lamp and station lights looking more like a scene in real life. As you might guess, I do this sort of thing all the time. In my case I usually have a number of buildings/signals/trains in the picture so I have to run a series of exposures to identify the best time for the various lights. Since I have everything wired separately it is an easy matter to change the time for the lights being on/off. Here's the same scene but from the trackside angle at night.  |
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oace
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Post by oace on Oct 5, 2024 23:34:51 GMT
Indeed it makes nicer pictures, af3020 ! I am not sure if my LUMIX TZ-70 camera would be able to do this... OACE |
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Post by healey36 on Oct 6, 2024 1:11:36 GMT
I can't say I've done many "night" shots...still need a lot of practice. Did a series a few years back trying to get a Christmas Eve look for the annual Christmas card:  Nothing as sophisticated as your methods, af, just a long series of shots at various angles and exposures using a Nikon P5100, which is a sort of hybrid between a POS and a true DSLR. The real problem with the Nikon is it's dreadfully slow, so nearly impossible to get an action shot without blurred images. I really need to upgrade to a decent DSLR. They tell me the iPhone does a credible job, but I've not tried much with any level of sophistication. |
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oace
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Post by oace on Oct 6, 2024 16:59:48 GMT
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Post by af3020 on Oct 6, 2024 19:15:36 GMT
oace, your spec sheet indicates you don't have a "bulb" setting but it does say you have shutter a series of timed shutter speeds up to 60 seconds so the trick would be to work things in reverse. If you can put the camera on a tripod or set it up on some books so it won't move then the trick would be to black out the room, open the shutter, turn on you lights for various lengths of time and identify the best length of time. Once you have that then just repeat with the right length of time and, since the shutter is going to stay open for a time longer than whatever your optimum exposure is for the station and lamp lights - kill those and let the train roll slowly past everything. When the shutter trips shut, stop the train, turn on the lights and check your viewfinder to see what you managed to capture. - You'll probably have to do this a few times but, hey, it's not film it's just electrons.  |
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oace
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Post by oace on Oct 7, 2024 15:47:58 GMT
oace, your spec sheet indicates you don't have a "bulb" setting but it does say you have shutter a series of timed shutter speeds up to 60 seconds so the trick would be to work things in reverse. If you can put the camera on a tripod or set it up on some books so it won't move then the trick would be to black out the room, open the shutter, turn on you lights for various lengths of time and identify the best length of time. Once you have that then just repeat with the right length of time and, since the shutter is going to stay open for a time longer than whatever your optimum exposure is for the station and lamp lights - kill those and let the train roll slowly past everything. When the shutter trips shut, stop the train, turn on the lights and check your viewfinder to see what you managed to capture. - You'll probably have to do this a few times but, hey, it's not film it's just electrons. Thanks af3020 : my apologies, I'm French native, so I have sometimes issue to understand accurately descriptions in English ! 1 - timed shutter speed range = OK 2 - tripod for the camera = OK 3 - black out the room = shutting off any light, complete darkness = OK 4 - open the shutter = aw, where's the camera in the darkness now ?   = I have to read the user's guide to choose the right setup = OK 5 - turn on your lights = you mean turn the lamp posts and station on = OK 6 - I note the best length of time for optimum result = to achieve the expected exposure = OK since the shutter is going to stay open for a time longer than whatever your optimum exposure is for the station and lamp lights - kill those and let the train roll slowly past everything.7 - You mean : I switch off the building lights at the previously noted optimal exposure time, and then I switch on the train to cross slowly enough to make it visible during the remaining exposure time, until the camera shutter finally closes. 8 - In fact, it looks like doing a "superimposition picture", like with a good old Argentic camera... Am I right, or I miss something in the process ? OACE
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Post by af3020 on Oct 7, 2024 20:33:59 GMT
#7 - yes, you can do it that way or you can start the train rolling while the station lights are on - that way you will get some reflection of the street lamps off of the roofs of the passenger cars.
The technique can be viewed as one of superposition. However, what you are doing is essentially painting with light. Way back when lenses were slow and sheet film was even slower the standard method for doing indoor architectural photography was to set up the camera the way you wanted it, black out the entire room, and then walk around with a floodlight (with a long extension cord) and "paint" the various areas with light - the photographer would vary the amount of time to alternately highlight or place sections of the room in shadow. The main thing was to remember you had to paint EVERYTHING with your light. I recall reading an account by one of the big name photographers of the 1930's who was commissioned to do some indoor photography and he forgot to paint the floor and the ceiling. The end result was a series of images with lighted walls floating in an ocean of black - needless to say he had to go back and do it all over.
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oace
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Post by oace on Oct 7, 2024 21:33:55 GMT
#7 - yes, you can do it that way or you can start the train rolling while the station lights are on - that way you will get some reflection of the street lamps off of the roofs of the passenger cars. The technique can be viewed as one of superposition. However, what you are doing is essentially painting with light. Way back when lenses were slow and sheet film was even slower the standard method for doing indoor architectural photography was to set up the camera the way you wanted it, black out the entire room, and then walk around with a floodlight (with a long extension cord) and "paint" the various areas with light - the photographer would vary the amount of time to alternately highlight or place sections of the room in shadow. The main thing was to remember you had to paint EVERYTHING with your light. I recall reading an account by one of the big name photographers of the 1930's who was commissioned to do some indoor photography and he forgot to paint the floor and the ceiling. The end result was a series of images with lighted walls floating in an ocean of black - needless to say he had to go back and do it all over. Ah, OK af3020 - I see... OACE
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