We are going to have the final critique on Friday, May 4th, 12:30-2:30
Please note that all photo equipment belonging to the department must be turned in by Thursday, April 26th.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Practicioners and resources on night photography
Excellent Aperture web feature on Gregory Crewdson. His work is amazing. I thought my process of shooting my Three Minute Series was complex, but his process makes me feel inadequate.
Equally fantastic is the night series by Jan Staller. Check out the Frontier New York series. Like Crewdson, they make images as opposed to taking them. Unlike Crewdson, he doesn't physically construct the scene. Rather, he explored the familiar areas around him and photographed them in a manner which makes them seem simultaneously familiar and unfamiliar. One of the significant things about Staller is the seeming insignificance of what he photographs. He doesn't seek out the most obvious chooses. There are no photos of the Statute of Liberty or Times Square. In most of his photos, there aren't people. This adds to the otherworldly nature of his photos. The color is amazing. Most of his images contain large elements of neutrality to which the colors offer a counter point.
Here is a link to a guy who blogs about night photography. There are some links to some really good work from here.
Julian Faulhaber- very bold use of color. Great compositions and shots from everyday places that are transformed due to their absence of people. I love the basketball court image. Some are at night, others not.
Darren Soh - Check out his series While You Were Sleeping. Night shots of Singapore.
Harold Davis- He has written a boatload of books on photography. This is his site dedicated to night photography.
The Nocturnes - A group dedicated to night photography. I linked directly to their resources page. Be sure to also check out their image gallery.
DarknessDarkness - a site in conjunction with an exhibit of the same name. I showed you the PDF of the exhibit in class.
Steve Harper - Some really great stuff here. He taught a course on night photography for over 11 years or something crazy like that.
Link to an article about photograping the night sky and creating star trails.
Series of work on the flight path of planes.
Firefly images.
flight patterns from Charlie McCarthy on Vimeo.
PClix is a programmable timer for digital cameras.
2003 Documentary on Night Photography - FYI-All film work as it was shot in 2003.
Nice videos about digital night photography by Harold Davis. Audio quality is poor in the first one. Terrible in the second one.
Equally fantastic is the night series by Jan Staller. Check out the Frontier New York series. Like Crewdson, they make images as opposed to taking them. Unlike Crewdson, he doesn't physically construct the scene. Rather, he explored the familiar areas around him and photographed them in a manner which makes them seem simultaneously familiar and unfamiliar. One of the significant things about Staller is the seeming insignificance of what he photographs. He doesn't seek out the most obvious chooses. There are no photos of the Statute of Liberty or Times Square. In most of his photos, there aren't people. This adds to the otherworldly nature of his photos. The color is amazing. Most of his images contain large elements of neutrality to which the colors offer a counter point.
Here is a link to a guy who blogs about night photography. There are some links to some really good work from here.
Julian Faulhaber- very bold use of color. Great compositions and shots from everyday places that are transformed due to their absence of people. I love the basketball court image. Some are at night, others not.
Darren Soh - Check out his series While You Were Sleeping. Night shots of Singapore.
Harold Davis- He has written a boatload of books on photography. This is his site dedicated to night photography.
The Nocturnes - A group dedicated to night photography. I linked directly to their resources page. Be sure to also check out their image gallery.
DarknessDarkness - a site in conjunction with an exhibit of the same name. I showed you the PDF of the exhibit in class.
Steve Harper - Some really great stuff here. He taught a course on night photography for over 11 years or something crazy like that.
Link to an article about photograping the night sky and creating star trails.
Series of work on the flight path of planes.
Firefly images.
flight patterns from Charlie McCarthy on Vimeo.
PClix is a programmable timer for digital cameras.
2003 Documentary on Night Photography - FYI-All film work as it was shot in 2003.
Nice videos about digital night photography by Harold Davis. Audio quality is poor in the first one. Terrible in the second one.
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Reiteration of the Attendance Policy
As clearly stated in the syllabus and in compliance with the University Missed Class Policy (part of which is copied below), after 3 unexcused absences, your final grade will be reduced a fractional letter grade for each additional absence. A surprisingly large number of students have missed more than 3 classes. If you miss a total of 7 'unexcused' classes, you will automatically receive a failing grade. Please review the missed class policy so that you fully understand what qualifies as an 'excused' absence.
Students are expected to attend every class meeting of courses in which they are registered. Only in specific, unavoidable situations does the University excuse absences from class: 1) personal emergencies, including, but not limited to, illness of the student or of a dependent of the student [as defined by the Board of Trustees’ Policy on Family and Medical Leave], or death in the family; 2) religious observances that prevent the student from attending class; 3) participation in University-sponsored activities, approved by the appropriate University authority, such as intercollegiate athletic competitions, activities approved by academic units, including artistic performances, R.O.T.C. functions, academic field trips, and special events connected with coursework; 4) government-required activities, such as military assignments, jury duty, or court appearances; and 5) any other absence that the professor approves.
Students are expected to attend every class meeting of courses in which they are registered. Only in specific, unavoidable situations does the University excuse absences from class: 1) personal emergencies, including, but not limited to, illness of the student or of a dependent of the student [as defined by the Board of Trustees’ Policy on Family and Medical Leave], or death in the family; 2) religious observances that prevent the student from attending class; 3) participation in University-sponsored activities, approved by the appropriate University authority, such as intercollegiate athletic competitions, activities approved by academic units, including artistic performances, R.O.T.C. functions, academic field trips, and special events connected with coursework; 4) government-required activities, such as military assignments, jury duty, or court appearances; and 5) any other absence that the professor approves.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Reading
Please re-read Chapter 7: Color in your textbook. You can skip the latter section about Developing Color film and such.
I want you to read the following book:
Creative Night: Digital Photography Tips and Techniques by Harold Davis
It is 90% photos, 10% text. I want you to read it all. Much of it we covered in class, but it will only help you to hear it again. There is information on creating star trails, painting with light, etc.
The only part I don't agree with is his section on histograms. He suggests trying to place the tone of the values at the time of shooting. I have continously told you to expose for the highlights, taking in as much as possible, then moving/mapping the tones to where you want them using your image editing application (in your case Adobe Photoshop CS5 Adobe Camera Raw). The method I have taught you will result in cleaner images. Please stick with it. Just keep in mind generally, you will not try to retain detail in a light source. This is to say, let the light sources get blown out.
Exposure Photo Workshop - A nice introductory book all about the basics of exposure. Chapter 9 is on night photography. Chapters 2-5 are about the basics of exposure. Good refresher material. Plus, its presented in a manner other than my own. Chapter 6 talks about all the other modes on your camera dial that I haven't addressed. I want you to read Chapter 9 by Wednesday and the other chapters over the next week or so.
I want you to read the following book:
Creative Night: Digital Photography Tips and Techniques by Harold Davis
It is 90% photos, 10% text. I want you to read it all. Much of it we covered in class, but it will only help you to hear it again. There is information on creating star trails, painting with light, etc.
The only part I don't agree with is his section on histograms. He suggests trying to place the tone of the values at the time of shooting. I have continously told you to expose for the highlights, taking in as much as possible, then moving/mapping the tones to where you want them using your image editing application (in your case Adobe Photoshop CS5 Adobe Camera Raw). The method I have taught you will result in cleaner images. Please stick with it. Just keep in mind generally, you will not try to retain detail in a light source. This is to say, let the light sources get blown out.
Exposure Photo Workshop - A nice introductory book all about the basics of exposure. Chapter 9 is on night photography. Chapters 2-5 are about the basics of exposure. Good refresher material. Plus, its presented in a manner other than my own. Chapter 6 talks about all the other modes on your camera dial that I haven't addressed. I want you to read Chapter 9 by Wednesday and the other chapters over the next week or so.
An Introduction to HDR **OPTIONAL READING**
**I AM POSTING THIS HERE FOR YOUR REFERENCE ONLY. YOU DON'T NEED TO READ THIS OR CREATE HDR IMAGES. SOME PEOPLE EXPRESSED INTEREST IN THE PROCESS, SO I AM POSTING THIS HERE. I TEACH THIS STUFF IN THE DIGITAL PHOTO CLASS. **
All cameras are limited in their ability to capture detail across a wide range of brightness values. The range of brightness values that a camera captures detail in is its dynamic range. In general, most digital cameras have about an 8 stop dynamic range. This is debatable though as it is really governed by how much noise you are willing to put up with. The darkest tones in a digital image are always the noisiest. So, your measure of dynamic range depends on whether or not you want to include the noisiest values recorded. Any case, there are innumerable situations in which the camera is not able to capture detail across the entire range of tones that we would like it to.
A classic example would be trying to take a photo of your living room in which you retain full detail in the scene through the windows and inside the room. Unless you are shooting on a very overcast day and your house is extremely well lit, the contrast of the scene is simply too great for the camera to capture detail throughout. This leads to compromises. You could expose for the windows and lose detail in the room, expose for the room and lose detail in the windows, or split the difference and lose some detail in both. None will result in the image that you really want.
In the past, I would suggest that you take two photos; one exposed for the windows and one exposed for room. You could then mask the two together. Depending on the image, this could take a great deal of time. However, you can get really great results doing this. Another problem with this technique is light spill. I you have some light source creating a gradient of light across the floor or wall, it is very hard to mask that in such a way that it will look natural.
Enter HDR. HDR is an acronym for High Dynamic Range. An HDR file is made by combining the detail from multiple exposures into one 32bit image containing far more information than a single shot could. Basically, you take the same photo multiple times while varying the exposure between each shot. This insures that you have data over a larger range than you could capture with a single shot.
This expanded range of tones contained in an HDR file is then mapped down to a range that you can work with in your image editor. I would suggest you tone map it down to a 16 bit per channel image.
How to shoot a scene to be combined into an HDR image
Let me begin by saying that this technique is only applicable to a scene of high contrast such as your living room during the day. Other examples would be a scene with containing deep shadows and open sunlight. HDR imaging also lends itself to the night photography very well as it allows you to retain detail in those areas that are not directly lit.
How do you know if the scene is high enough in contrast to warrant HDR techniques? If you have significant data climbing the left side of the histogram when you properly place your highlights as far to the right wall as possible without touching, then you should consider HDR techniques.
I you should begin by determining your initial exposure for the highlights that you wish to maintain detail in. Then change your shutter speed to allow in one stop more light. Repeat this until you are certain that you have captured all the detail in the shadows that you wish to maintain. Basically, the last histogram should show a ton of data climbing the right wall and nothing should be on the left wall. In fact, you should have a sizeable gap between the left wall and where the data begins. This will insure that the darkest areas of the image are recorded with ample light and will have little or no noise in the resulting combined image. I would suggest at least 5 shots. I think I have done up to 10. It can't hurt you to take too many. You can always clip some unwanted data when you tone map the HDR image down.
Here is a really great video on exposing for HDR by the makers of HDR Expose.
HDR photography is an advanced technique and accordingly requires good technique.
Things to keep in mind when shooting your images:
●You need to use a tripod. I have taken images without a tripod and then tried to combine them into a HDR image using multiple different programs with no success.
●You should set your white balance manually so that it doesn’t change between shots. I suggest you use the daylight setting when shooting at night. This insures that the funky colors of lights are recording as funky colors.
●Focus once and then don’t refocus. If you don’t have the best vision, you can always allow auto focus to determine the focus for the first image and then turn if off. If you are using a compact digital camera that doesn’t allow you to manual focus, then just be sure that it achieves focus at the same distance each time.
●Capture RAW files if your camera supports them. If not, capture using the highest quality JPEG option.
●Use a remote release or self timer to trigger your camera. If you shake your camera when pressing the shutter release button, then you risk blurry images and images that don’t register correctly.
●Use a lenshood to reduce the chance of lens flare
●Turn on your camera long exposure noise reduction feature. You are likely going to end up with some longer exposure times. This feature helps keep your images as noise free as possible
●Use manual exposure mode. You will need to change your shutter speed rather than your aperture for each shot. Manual mode will allow you to do this. If you want to try this with a compact camera that lacks manual exposure capability, then you have to use exposure compensation to vary your exposures. This should still work fine even if it changes the aperture as compact cameras always have great depth of field due to their small sensor and optical system.
●Use your lowest ISO. Since this technique requires that you take multiple exposures, it really lends itself to non-moving subject. Thus, the long shutter speeds necessitated by using a low ISO isn’t an issue. This will keep noise levels down even further.
Creating an HDR image and tone mapping
There are a number of programs available to create an HDR image from your multiple exposures. I suggest you start with Photoshop CS2 or CS3 if you already have it. If you don’t, try one (or all) of the free programs. They do a great job without all the bells and whistles that you may not need or want initially (or ever for that matter). Each program uses its own algorithms for tone mapping. It has been my experience that some types of images work better with some than others. I have categorized them by cost:
Free programs:
●Picturenaut
Freeware. This a full featured HDR generator with tone mapping capabilities. Most featured of the free programs.
Here is little write up on the application which includes a video tutorial.
Here is a comparison between Picturenaut and Photoshop.
●FDR Tools Basic. Freeware. This a free version of the extremely full featured FDR Tools Advanced. As such, it is very basic. Just enough to let you see the possibilities. No options to speak of in terms of tone mapping. Very easy to use though.
●EasyHDR Basic. This a free version of the extremely full featured EasyHDR Pro. Offers some tone mapping controls. Only supports JPEGs.
For a fee programs:
●Adobe Photoshop CS2-CS5. I begin with Photoshop as many of you already have it. Navigate to File > Automate > Merge to HDR. Once you generate the HDR image, four different methods of tone mapping become available when you opt to go down to 16 bit or 8 bits per channel. The Local Adaptation options offers the most control. Don’t be put off by the initially terrible preview. Enable the advanced options and you are presented with a curve. Begin by setting your black and white point. It will already look much better. Generally, your image will benefit from bringing down the three quarter tones. Then edit the rest of the curve as desired. There are numerous more options for tone mapping in CS5 than in previous versions.
Here is a nice little write-up on what all the new sliders in CS5 mean and do.
Here is a summary of the new sliders in CS5.
Video on how to use the Merge to HDR Pro feature in Photoshop CS5. Her shooting advice is not so good though; she encourage you to shoot in 2 stop increments and suggests it is okay to hand hold the camera. Don't do either.
●EasyHDR Pro. 25 English Pounds. (around $40 dollars). Full featured program with a nice user interface. Trial version is available.
●FDR Tools Advanced. USD 57.69 Full featured program. It is supposed to support masking which would allow it to be used with scenes with moving subjects. Haven’t had a need for that yet, so I don’t know how well it works.
●PHotomatix. USD $99. Well established and full featured application. Good website. Some good resources. Feature rich. Also features the ability to tone map just two images together. This is the most popular third party HDR application. They offer 75% for students and educators.
●HDR Expose. USD $149. They offer an academic discount, but I don't know what it is. It claims to be designed for realistic looking HDR images. I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but I am going to as I am so impressed by their video tutorials. You can check them out here.
●HDR Efex Pro. Nik Software the maker of many fine plugins such as Nik Sharpener, just released this program. I haven't had a chance to play with it yet.
Software summary:
While I have used Photomantix for HDR, I generally use Photoshop CS4 and CS5 as it is the program that my students are most likely to have or have access to. PS is really quite capable of stunning results. It gets a bad rap for its HDR capabilities, but I think that is because you have to be able to edit the tones using a Curve and many people can't pull it off. Photomantix is simpler to use. If you don't have PS or just want to try a free program, I would go with Picturenaut.
All cameras are limited in their ability to capture detail across a wide range of brightness values. The range of brightness values that a camera captures detail in is its dynamic range. In general, most digital cameras have about an 8 stop dynamic range. This is debatable though as it is really governed by how much noise you are willing to put up with. The darkest tones in a digital image are always the noisiest. So, your measure of dynamic range depends on whether or not you want to include the noisiest values recorded. Any case, there are innumerable situations in which the camera is not able to capture detail across the entire range of tones that we would like it to.
A classic example would be trying to take a photo of your living room in which you retain full detail in the scene through the windows and inside the room. Unless you are shooting on a very overcast day and your house is extremely well lit, the contrast of the scene is simply too great for the camera to capture detail throughout. This leads to compromises. You could expose for the windows and lose detail in the room, expose for the room and lose detail in the windows, or split the difference and lose some detail in both. None will result in the image that you really want.
In the past, I would suggest that you take two photos; one exposed for the windows and one exposed for room. You could then mask the two together. Depending on the image, this could take a great deal of time. However, you can get really great results doing this. Another problem with this technique is light spill. I you have some light source creating a gradient of light across the floor or wall, it is very hard to mask that in such a way that it will look natural.
Enter HDR. HDR is an acronym for High Dynamic Range. An HDR file is made by combining the detail from multiple exposures into one 32bit image containing far more information than a single shot could. Basically, you take the same photo multiple times while varying the exposure between each shot. This insures that you have data over a larger range than you could capture with a single shot.
This expanded range of tones contained in an HDR file is then mapped down to a range that you can work with in your image editor. I would suggest you tone map it down to a 16 bit per channel image.
How to shoot a scene to be combined into an HDR image
Let me begin by saying that this technique is only applicable to a scene of high contrast such as your living room during the day. Other examples would be a scene with containing deep shadows and open sunlight. HDR imaging also lends itself to the night photography very well as it allows you to retain detail in those areas that are not directly lit.
How do you know if the scene is high enough in contrast to warrant HDR techniques? If you have significant data climbing the left side of the histogram when you properly place your highlights as far to the right wall as possible without touching, then you should consider HDR techniques.
I you should begin by determining your initial exposure for the highlights that you wish to maintain detail in. Then change your shutter speed to allow in one stop more light. Repeat this until you are certain that you have captured all the detail in the shadows that you wish to maintain. Basically, the last histogram should show a ton of data climbing the right wall and nothing should be on the left wall. In fact, you should have a sizeable gap between the left wall and where the data begins. This will insure that the darkest areas of the image are recorded with ample light and will have little or no noise in the resulting combined image. I would suggest at least 5 shots. I think I have done up to 10. It can't hurt you to take too many. You can always clip some unwanted data when you tone map the HDR image down.
Here is a really great video on exposing for HDR by the makers of HDR Expose.
HDR photography is an advanced technique and accordingly requires good technique.
Things to keep in mind when shooting your images:
●You need to use a tripod. I have taken images without a tripod and then tried to combine them into a HDR image using multiple different programs with no success.
●You should set your white balance manually so that it doesn’t change between shots. I suggest you use the daylight setting when shooting at night. This insures that the funky colors of lights are recording as funky colors.
●Focus once and then don’t refocus. If you don’t have the best vision, you can always allow auto focus to determine the focus for the first image and then turn if off. If you are using a compact digital camera that doesn’t allow you to manual focus, then just be sure that it achieves focus at the same distance each time.
●Capture RAW files if your camera supports them. If not, capture using the highest quality JPEG option.
●Use a remote release or self timer to trigger your camera. If you shake your camera when pressing the shutter release button, then you risk blurry images and images that don’t register correctly.
●Use a lenshood to reduce the chance of lens flare
●Turn on your camera long exposure noise reduction feature. You are likely going to end up with some longer exposure times. This feature helps keep your images as noise free as possible
●Use manual exposure mode. You will need to change your shutter speed rather than your aperture for each shot. Manual mode will allow you to do this. If you want to try this with a compact camera that lacks manual exposure capability, then you have to use exposure compensation to vary your exposures. This should still work fine even if it changes the aperture as compact cameras always have great depth of field due to their small sensor and optical system.
●Use your lowest ISO. Since this technique requires that you take multiple exposures, it really lends itself to non-moving subject. Thus, the long shutter speeds necessitated by using a low ISO isn’t an issue. This will keep noise levels down even further.
Creating an HDR image and tone mapping
There are a number of programs available to create an HDR image from your multiple exposures. I suggest you start with Photoshop CS2 or CS3 if you already have it. If you don’t, try one (or all) of the free programs. They do a great job without all the bells and whistles that you may not need or want initially (or ever for that matter). Each program uses its own algorithms for tone mapping. It has been my experience that some types of images work better with some than others. I have categorized them by cost:
Free programs:
●Picturenaut
Freeware. This a full featured HDR generator with tone mapping capabilities. Most featured of the free programs.
Here is little write up on the application which includes a video tutorial.
Here is a comparison between Picturenaut and Photoshop.
●FDR Tools Basic. Freeware. This a free version of the extremely full featured FDR Tools Advanced. As such, it is very basic. Just enough to let you see the possibilities. No options to speak of in terms of tone mapping. Very easy to use though.
●EasyHDR Basic. This a free version of the extremely full featured EasyHDR Pro. Offers some tone mapping controls. Only supports JPEGs.
For a fee programs:
●Adobe Photoshop CS2-CS5. I begin with Photoshop as many of you already have it. Navigate to File > Automate > Merge to HDR. Once you generate the HDR image, four different methods of tone mapping become available when you opt to go down to 16 bit or 8 bits per channel. The Local Adaptation options offers the most control. Don’t be put off by the initially terrible preview. Enable the advanced options and you are presented with a curve. Begin by setting your black and white point. It will already look much better. Generally, your image will benefit from bringing down the three quarter tones. Then edit the rest of the curve as desired. There are numerous more options for tone mapping in CS5 than in previous versions.
Here is a nice little write-up on what all the new sliders in CS5 mean and do.
Here is a summary of the new sliders in CS5.
Video on how to use the Merge to HDR Pro feature in Photoshop CS5. Her shooting advice is not so good though; she encourage you to shoot in 2 stop increments and suggests it is okay to hand hold the camera. Don't do either.
●EasyHDR Pro. 25 English Pounds. (around $40 dollars). Full featured program with a nice user interface. Trial version is available.
●FDR Tools Advanced. USD 57.69 Full featured program. It is supposed to support masking which would allow it to be used with scenes with moving subjects. Haven’t had a need for that yet, so I don’t know how well it works.
●PHotomatix. USD $99. Well established and full featured application. Good website. Some good resources. Feature rich. Also features the ability to tone map just two images together. This is the most popular third party HDR application. They offer 75% for students and educators.
●HDR Expose. USD $149. They offer an academic discount, but I don't know what it is. It claims to be designed for realistic looking HDR images. I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but I am going to as I am so impressed by their video tutorials. You can check them out here.
●HDR Efex Pro. Nik Software the maker of many fine plugins such as Nik Sharpener, just released this program. I haven't had a chance to play with it yet.
Software summary:
While I have used Photomantix for HDR, I generally use Photoshop CS4 and CS5 as it is the program that my students are most likely to have or have access to. PS is really quite capable of stunning results. It gets a bad rap for its HDR capabilities, but I think that is because you have to be able to edit the tones using a Curve and many people can't pull it off. Photomantix is simpler to use. If you don't have PS or just want to try a free program, I would go with Picturenaut.
Night Photography
Your next project is going to be a series (6 shots) of night photography. Here are some things to keep in mind when shooting at night:
-If you are including the moon, sunset, or sunrise, consider where it will be at the time of your shoot. OF course, the sun rises in the east and sets in the west (changes a little throughout the year, but not much). So, you will get a vastly different photo when shooting sunrises to the east or sunsets to the west.
-It is going to be very dark. Bring a flashlight. This will help you see your camera as well as see where you are going.
-You must use a tripod as exposure times will be long
-Use a remote release to trigger your camera. Or use the self timer if the timing of the shutter release isn't critical. You may want to invest in a cable release which has a timer function. This will allow you to use a shutter speed longer than what the camera otherwise offers. For example, the longest shutter speed my Nikon D300 offers is 30 seconds. If I need a shutter speed longer than that, I have to use the Bulb setting. In that mode, you have to hold the shutter release button down to keep the shutter open. This is not conducive to sharp photos. Higher end cable releases have timer functions built in that will allow you to set longer times and hold them with a single press of the cable release button.
-Use the mirror lock up or anti-shock feature of your camera. This will help insure that the photo won't be soft due to vibrations from the mirror (Only applies to those using DSLRs as compact digital cameras don't make use of a mirror).
-Turn on long exposure noise reduction if your camera has it. Most DSLRs and some compact cameras do. May have dig through the custom menus to activate it. The problem with this is your longer exposures will take a very long time to complete. Let’s say you take a 30 second exposure. First the camera takes the normal shot, and then it takes another 30 second shot in which the shutter doesn’t open. It takes the resulting noise pattern and subtracts it from the original exposure. It is very effective, but it really slows shooting down. Not a big deal when it is 80 degrees out, but it really stinks when it is 25 degrees out.
-Bring your camera’s instruction manual. You should always carry it with you anyways. If you are using a seldom used feature like long exposure noise reduction, then it is likely that you will have to look up how to activate it.
-Use your cameras lowest ISO. This assumes that you can use a very slow shutter speed as needed. For most of you this will require that you use the bulb mode in which the shutter will remain open as long as you keep the shutter release button pressed. Many of the remote releases have a provision to lock the button down until you release it. If your camera doesn’t have a slow enough shutter speed, then you may have to increase the ISO in order to obtain a correct exposure even when the aperture is lens all the way open.
-You may have to manually focus. All autofocus cameras require a certain light level to autofocus. If you are setting up in the dark, you will have precious little (if any light) so you may have to manually focus. If you have a DSLR, you can set the lens on infinity. You should note that the lens will likely allow you to focus past infinity. Past infinity?!? This is to take into account the expansion of the lens due to different weather, humidity, and pressure. So, you make have to take a few photos to insure that it is really set at infinity. Almost all compact digital cameras have a manual focus provision that entails selecting a distance from a distance scale. I simply set mine for infinity when using a compact camera. I was happy with the results. Another neat trick is to utilize an external flash. They often have a much more powerful autofocus assist light built in that will allow your camera to focus in pitch black night. So, you would use it focus, then turn the flash off.
-Consider all the ambient light sources unless. Even a very weak light adds up during a long exposure.
-Set your white balance to daylight. This will preserve the unique colors at that time of day. There is no point at getting up at 2am if you just want to take a photo that looks like it was taken at noon.
-Start taking photos before you even see the sun. There is usually a lot of color in the sky that you don't even notice until you take a long exposure photo and see it. Try it.
-Remember to expose for the highlights. Ensure that you are taking in enough light so that the histogram is very close to the right most wall without touching it. On a recent outing I noticed that some of my students were not doing that because it looked better on the LCD when it was underexposed. That is true. However, it will not look nearly as good as the image that was properly exposed once you begin editing on it the computer.
-Shoot RAW file format (assuming your camera supports it). If it is worth shooting, then it is worth shooting as a RAW file.
-Consider creating a HDR image from multiple, varying exposure (I will soon post more on HDR).
-Look for reflections in water (assuming there is water) that will give you twice the color.
-Bring a cell phone or a buddy; preferably both. If you are trouncing around in the dark it is a good idea to have a way of getting some help should you run into any trouble. Please take this seriously.
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