First of all, when you want to capture night shots, specially those long exposure shots to capture cityscapes, you must have sturdy tripod with you. Any shutter speed slower than your lens focal length usually results into blurry image if taken handheld (without using tripod). You may also want to consider wide angle lens as well to capture wide angle view of cityscape which looks pleasant than only few buildings using telephoto lens. In these shots, I used following devices to get nice and clear shots.

Equipments I use for night Cityscape shots

1. Tripod (You need sturdy tripod to handle longer exposure. I used Manfrotto 055XPROB Pro Tipod in these shots.)

2. Wide Angle lens. (Wide angle lens enriches the view of cityscapes allowing to capture great variety of subjects. I used Nikon 16-35mm f/4 lens)

3. Any DSLR camera that supports BULB, shutter mode. (Most of the DSLRs support only up to 30 sec of shutter speed in Manual mode but sometimes you need longer than 30 sec shutter speed and in that case you need BULB shutter mode which most advanced DSLRs have these days. I used Nikon D700 FX camera.)

4. ND Filter (It is optional device if you ever want to increase your exposure time. I didn’t use filter in these shots.)

5. Shutter release cable or Wireless shutter release remote (I use shutter release cable almost every time I use my camera on Tripod. This will help me to reduce vibration of camera while pressing shutter release button on camera. Some photographers use 2 sec delay method (camera takes picture 2 sec after pressing shutter release button) which also works great but I feel that technique bit tedious.

6. Finally, Timer (Usually when you are shooting into BULB mode with your calculated Shutter speed, you may want to use timer not to go too long for shutter speed than calculated. I used my iPhone stopwatch for this purpose.)

When you have required equipments, all you have to do is pickup the location, compose your shot and snap it. Location is one of the important constraint to choose right composition. If you missed right composition because of the location, all your hard work goes into vain. Usually, when I take night cityscape shots, I try to include wide range of objects such as bridges, ships, cruise etc which adds up variety to the scene. Here I have included three shots along with its camera settings; first two of which is shot of Boston Downtown City and the last one is that of Baltimore Inner Harbor.

 Focal Length : 30 mm     ISO : 200     Shutter speed : 13 sec     Aperture : f/4

Focal Length : 16 mm     ISO : 200     Shutter speed : 30 sec     Aperture : f/6.3

Focal Length : 16 mm     ISO : 200     Shutter speed : 8 sec     Aperture : f/11

If you have any questions or comments, I always welcome them and try to answer as soon as I can. Happy Shooting!

Related posts:

1. Shooting portrait in dark (night) or low light condition
2. Night around Memorial Parks, Washington DC
3. How to take multiple shots in Self-Timer Mode

Ed (Colorado, USA) asked : I have heard the term “dragging the shutter” quiet a few times from professional photographer. Do you mind explaining it with example may be?

When you are shooting (specially portrait) at night, you have to deal with different types lights; flash light (probably), street lights and environmental light. Sometimes you want to shoot without background object but there are some time when you want to capture beautiful background scene or nicely lit architecture along with your portrait. If you have noticed your point and shoot or entry level DSLR camera, there is a mode called “Night Portrait” which is auto mode (meaning camera automatically manages the camera settings) but the idea is same; to capture a portrait along with background lights or objects. Using one of these auto mode, you get good result sometimes but sometimes you might not be happy on what you get but there is nothing much you can do on these auto mode. If you want to control the lights and camera settings, you have to step up and dial into one of the semi-manual (S, A and P) or full manual (M) mode and set the values as you need.

You might have used this technique before knowingly or unknowingly and you are just not familiar with the terminology which happens to all of us at some point. It is all about balancing flash and ambient light (light that exist in the environment). When balancing ambient light with flash light, photographers choose camera settings to retain the mood of place, time and environment of shooting. While doing so, we have to allow ambient light by allowing shutter to open little longer (dragging the shutter) and apply the flash light at the end of the exposure (usually to freeze the motion).

Dragging the shutter is very simply and also commonly used technique in night portrait photography but understanding when and where to apply this technique is more important. It is important to know whether you are using Manual flash or TTL flash setting with your camera. If you are using Manual flash, usually Aperture, ISO, subject distance with flash and power of the flash affect flash exposure. Whereas ISO, Aperture and Shutter speed usually contribute to the ambient light exposure. That means you can use Shutter speed independently to control ambient light exposure only because changing Aperture and ISO will also affect Manual flash exposure. The environmental light (also called ambient light) is continuous source of light but flash light is gone with the blink of an eye which is the main reason why we say Shutter speed doesn’t contribute to the flash exposure.

But if you are using TTL flash, those four controls (Aperture, ISO, Distance and Power) have no control over flash exposure because your camera and flash talk to each other based on Aperture, ISO, distance to the subject and apply appropriate flash power to give correct exposure. That means you can now use Aperture or ISO or Shutter speed to control ambient light without affecting flash exposure. Using TTL flash is relatively easy and you don’t have to remember much while changing camera settings but if you are using Manual flash, you have to be very careful about what setting you have changed because if you change your Aperture, you have to change flash power or ISO or distance to compensate flash exposure but at the same time changing Aperture also affects ambient and hence you may have to adjust Shutter speed too. It’s kind of confusing but enough practice clears confusion.

Shutter Speed : 1/60     Aperture : f/4     ISO : 220

Usually dragging the shutter slower than 1/60th of second allows you to register ambient light but you can change shutter speed as you need more and more ambient light. I usually use rear sync flash with slower shutter speed so that your final moment would be frozen.

Shutter Speed : 1/5     Aperture : f/4.2     ISO : 1600

Shutter Speed : 1/3     Aperture : f/4     ISO : 800

Shutter Speed : 1/5     Aperture : f/4     ISO : 1600

These images are taken with TTL flash and you can see how changing camera settings is adopted automatically by flash unit and applying appropriate power to properly expose your image.

Related posts:

1. What is Flash Shutter Speed
2. Fundamentals of Shutter Speed

Now one really important thing to remember is do NOT use a flash unit which trigger voltage is not known to you because if it is over 5 volts, it may fry the camera internal parts. If this is the flash that you used with your film camera then it is probably not a good choice. Most of the new digital cameras trigger voltage is 5 volts. If you want to go higher voltage, you will need an adapter that steps the voltage down to 5 volts. If you are in  doubt, have the flash voltage checked by a competent camera repairperson. Alternatively, you can get the product like Safe-Sync Hot Shoe To Hot Shoe (SSHSHS) made by Wein which is about $70.00 Canadian dollar. If you buy your stuff online, you can get it from Amazon for $49.95 USD right now. This device sits on top of the hot shoe and the flash fits on top of this device. This device works with AC powered strobe units. I have a set of Bowen’s studio units. There is a PC port on the Wein unit that the flash can plug into. This is a very handy thing to have in your camera bag. When you want to purchase a newer flash there are several third party manufacturers that make compatible units. You do not have to go with the manufacturer of the camera it is going to be used with. Most of the units have price going for them. You can get some of the flash unit as low as $150. Just check out the features you need and compare the price and then go to the camera store and make your choice.

Related posts:

1. Understanding Flash’s Guide Number (GN)
2. What is meant by 18% gray and how is that number arrived and why?

Like most people that venture into the DSLR world, the first thing I did was turned the dial to Auto. As you would imagine, that allows you to just turn on your camera and shoot away. The problem with that setting is that it makes all of the decisions for you with speed, light settings, etc. and you won’t always get the best shot possible. There are times where the exposure will not be correct because the processor is picking up something like light in the background, dark clothes, etc. and will make your pictures come out under or over exposed.

My suggestion to those who are really serious about learning the art of photography is to do what I did and put your nose into books, get on the internet or seek out any endless number of other resources for information regarding ISO, shutter speed, aperture and all of the otherwise techie stuff that will help you shoot better pictures. The last piece of advice that I would give you is to read your camera manual and learn how it works inside and out. It might not be the most thrilling read of your lifetime but it’s well worthwhile.

When we talk about dynamic range, we are talking about range of brightness. For example dynamic range of our eyes refers to the range of brightness in which we can see. When you go to the room that is so dark you can’t see anything, then you are outside of the dynamic range of your eyes. Similarly if you are driving to the direction of the sun, you might have trouble seeing road properly and you are sort of blinded by powerful lights of sun. And that means you are again outside of dynamic range of your eyes; you are experiencing more light than your eyes can handle. Obviously more dynamic range you can perceive, more places you can see. Dynamic range also impacts your perception of color because colors have brightness. So when you can see better range of brightness, you can probably see greater range of colors.

In terms of photography, dynamic range gives the ratio between white and dark subject and describes the ration between maximum and minimum intensity of light (contrast ratio). As you all know that light is measured at each pixel level (a digital camera uses a sensor array of millions or tiny pixels to produce the image) and each of those pixel contains “photosite” which collects and stores photons when exposure begins by pressing shutter release button.  When the exposure is finished, the quantity of photons in each photosite gives various intensity levels of light which is determined by bit depth (0-dark and 255-white for an 8-bit image). If each photosite contains 1024 photons, then the contrast ratio would be 1024:1. Generally speaking, dynamic range of colors is higher for DSLR cameras than the compact point and shoot cameras even if their pixel is same because of the bigger sensor size in DSLR cameras (bigger sensor size means bigger photosites and hence more lights can be captured). Usually in digital cameras, the most common method of representing a dynamic range is f-stop which is power of 2. A contrast ratio or 1024:1 would there be represented as having dynamic range of 10 f-stops.

You should already be familiar with photographic concept, stop of light or f-stop. Every time the light in the scene doubles, we say that light has been increased by one stop. Similarly if the light scene is halved, we say it is decreased by one stop. In photography, f-stops are measure of the lights. If you measure the dynamic range of your eyes that is the range from darkest light to brightest light that you can perceive, you find that your eyes have around 18-24 stops worth of dynamic range. And today’s most advanced DSLR camera might have 10-14 stops of dynamic range.

Basically, anytime when there is a big difference between the brightest object and the darkest object in your scene, you have probably gone beyond dynamic range of your camera. If we consider each photosite as a bucket, we can assume photons as a water drops. If the bucket is full, photons will overflow and a photosite having overflown photons means it is saturated for lights and hence defining the camera’s white level and no more colors can be represented within that photosite. Below is the picture where I tried to illustrate the point where photosite is overflown by too many photons and hence loosing details of the image.

Similarly, if photosite couldn’t capture enough photons, it will loose the contrast in the picture and hence producing only dark side of the image.

With the digital cameras, it’s almost impossible to get all the colors in single image specially when there is too much variation of light. That is why the concept of HDR photography came out where we combine multiple pictures (using different HDR algorithm) to create single final image having maximum dynamic range of colors. In HDR technique, we take multiple shots from very dark image to very white image (using Bracketing technique) where we get multiple levels of contrast and by combing them into single picture, we get maximum possible range of colors.

You might ask why 18% gray? Where did they get that number? Well here is the math behind your question. If we use the number 3 for our starting point at the blackest image you can have. Double that number we get 6 and double it again we get 12, double it again we get 24, double it again we get 48, double it again we get 96 and this is the lightest that can be recorded. This as you may have already guessed is tied into f/stops; each time you go to a larger lens opening, you double the amount of light that hits the light receptor that records the image. Now write this number down. Between 12 and 24 you get the number of 18 and that makes it in the middle of the exposure. That is half way between the darkest black and the lightest white. That is why exposure meters are programmed to 18% gray.

Now let’s talk about the exposure meter in your camera, a Reflected Meter, regardless of camera model you have. It measures the light coming into the receptor, mixes it all up and gives you an 18% gray which is the half way from Black to White. The meter measures the light reflected back from the subject in front of the camera.

The second type of meter is the Incident Meter which is not built into the camera. It is a separate meter that has a dome. This dome is at the subject location and is aimed at where the camera is to be located. As an aside, this is the type that is used in most studios. With this type of meter you can get the ratio of the light that falls on the subject when you are in a studio set-up. This is not an explanation of lighting ratios and how to get them. Lighting and ratios is another topic for a later day. But you can use your camera even though it is a REFLECTED light meter and can be changed it into an INCIDENT light meter later. This is not that hard to do as it sounds. There is a simple way to accomplish this which we will discuss in next paragraph.

Only the secrete thing you need is a clean white Styrofoam coffee cup and then place the coffee cup over your lens. It is best to use a 50 mm lens. Now, aim the camera from the subject’s location towards where the photographer will be and get that exposure reading noted down. Manually set the camera to this exposure reading, remove the coffee cup, go to the camera location and take the photograph. This is what the dome on the incident meter is for and how it is used. Just try this out and your exposures will be more accurate.  Use the meta data information about the image you have just taken.

Related posts:

1. Understanding Flash’s Guide Number (GN)

I started learning from my mistakes and here in this article, I’m trying to point out those mistakes so that you don’t have to go through and waste your time but use that time for taking creative shots instead.

When shooting animals, there are few important camera settings and composition tips which you may want to follow to get great result in all aspects.

1. When shooting birds or animals, you may want to use spot metering so that camera meters exposure based on your focus point.

2. Use Continuous-servo (AF-C) autofocus mode (after you press shutter release button, camera focuses your subject whereever you select focus point and continues to monitor subject to refocus if subject moves) along with single point AF (helps you to focus in particular area like an eye for example) or Dynamic Area AF (helps to track moving subject if it goes out of focus in frame) autofocus point. If you are shooting flying birds or fast moving animals, you may want to use Dynamic AF points.

3. Use the widest aperture (smallest f number) possible so that you will get faster shutter speed to freeze the motion of moving subjects.

4. While shooting animals, try to focus on eye as much as possible because it naturally draws viewer’s attention to your photograph immediately.

I hope those tips help you to take some good shots.

Related posts:

1. Using Panning technique to shoot fast moving subjects
2. Things to remember while shooting at beach
3. Composition Tips: Varying your scenic shots

Now you may be wondering which particular lens to choose among so many varieties and how do we know which lens is good over the other. It is very important to know that you have to compare lenses within its own category. That means you have to compare wide angle lens from one brand to wide angle lens of another brand because every lens is made with different components and materials to serve different purpose. OK then, do we have a tool to compare lenses? And the short answer is yes, we do. There is something called an MTF chart which gives us graphical model of the lens performance and describes behavior of particular lens in different conditions. You may find this article bit technical but I will try to explain as simple as I can.

What is an MTF Chart?

MTF is an abbreviation for Modulation Transfer Function and is widely used standard measurement to evaluate the performance of the lens. In a generic language, Modulation means the process of modifying signal to result an output from given input. In ideal case, lens should transmit all the lights it receives as an input but no lens is ideal and can’t transmit all the lights because glass is not 100% transparent. So with the help of an MTF chart, we see graphical representation of how much light one lens can modulate (transmit) to the sensor in different scenarios.

The quality of lens depends on its resolution and contrast which are closely related to each other. If the lens can transmit high contrast, it can have better resolution power. But lens resolution is also dependent to other factors and that is why an MTF charts are preferred method to study optical performance but not the only one measure to determine its quality. An MTF chart consists two axis; X-axis and Y-axis.

The X-axis (horizontal axis) shows the distance from the center of the image (based on film or 35mm equivalent censor) toward the edges. In the graph, “0″ represents the center of the lens and the different numbers represent the distance from center towards the edge of the lens in mm (millimeter).

The Y-axis (vertical axis) represents what percentage of light the particular lens can transmit. It is represented in percentage with maximum value of 1 meaning 100% transmittance of light (which is ideal case only). So in real case scenario, higher the Y-axis value better the lens performance will be (lens having 0.9 Y-axis value is better than lens having 0.7).

How to read an MTF Chart?

Below is an example of an MTF chart.  It has two pairs of lines (two solid and two dotted) plotted in different number values. Those different lines and numbers indicate how well the lens performs with different measurements.  When measuring the lenses performance for an MTF chart, the test is carried out with the lens working at its maximum aperture value.  An MTF chart consists of measurement for the Sagittal (Solid line) and Meridional (Dotted line) lines at both 10 lines per millimeter and 30 lines per millimeter hence producing a chart with 4 separate lines. In this case, you can think of 10 lines or 30 lines sketched inside 1 mm size area and we are going to see how well any lens can transmit the contrast between each lines so that quality of image can be produced in the sensor; better the contrast, better picture quality will be.

MTF Chart for AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED lens

Wide (14mm)                                                                         Tele (24mm)

MTF chart for AF-S DX NIKKOR 35mm f/1.8G lens

Here are few key things you have to know to understand an MTF chart. The red line (10 lines per millimeter) indicates the lenses ability to reproduce low spatial frequency or low resolution.  This line indicates the lenses contrast values and the higher and straighter this line is the better.  The higher the line appears the greater the amount of contrast the lens can reproduce. Similarly, the blue line (30 lines per millimeter) indicates the lenses ability to reproduce higher spatial frequency or higher resolution. This line relates to the resolving power of the lens and again the higher the line the better.

As the line starts on the left of the chart this represents the center of the lens and as the line moves to the right it indicates the edge of the lens.  So you can see how much the contrast and sharpness of the lens decreases from the center to the edge of the image.

Using an MTF chart to determine the Bokeh effect of the lens

Another factor that can be read from the MTF graph is the ‘bokeh’. Bokeh is a term used to describe the quality of the out of focus areas a lens produces. The bokeh effect varies between lenses and the effect is influenced by the quality of the lens elements used and also the number of aperture blades in the lens design (more blades produce a better circle and therefore a better ‘bokeh’ effect). The closer the solid line and the dotted line are together, the better the ‘out of focus’ effect will be on a particular lens.

Nowadays all the major lens manufacturers include MTF Chart along with their lens specification.

Reference: Nikon Europe and Nikon USA

Related posts:

1. Alphabets printed on Nikon Lenses and their meanings
2. Preventing Fungus from Destroying Your Lenses

Assignments like this are challenging because you have to try to do something different from everybody else. You have to go underneath the obvious scene (and its parts) and think about the meaning of what you see.  For example, does the building look abandoned and sad? Does it make you feel lonely?  Does a sign naming the park remind you of happy times? Does the carousel connote the laughter of children? By approaching the scene with an understanding of what it means to you, you can change the way you portray the park and it elements.

There are other ways that you can make your pictures alive. Look for shapes and lines, the quality of light, for repeating patterns, shots from far and near (or wide angle and telephoto),  parts of things that give the whole meaning, reflections – remember you can photograph anything you see- light and dark, textures.

Sometimes people take 10, 20, or 30 pictures the same way over and over again. They stand with the camera at eye level, not moving, and go blam, blam, blam.  To change this boring approach, you must move into different positions when you take the picture. The result will be a new way of viewing the subject that you hadn’t thought about before. Eventually you will learn from your movements and be able to predict how you will change the impact of the photo. Repeat after me: up, down, over, under, past, by (past and by mean alongside an object like a wall). These changes add depth and impact to your photos. Note the grass shot from under the pattern of the mirrors on the white building which was top shot past, and the carousel pieces shot down and far and near. Note also that shooting up gives importance to the subject while shooting down diminishes it.

Next time I will shoot more up and down and also demonstrate the impact of Lightroom which I used to edit these pictures.

Related posts:

1. Composition Tips: Varying your scenic shots
2. Photography Composition Tips: Combining Elements

What is Depth of Field Preview and When do we need it?

Let’s say your lens’s widest aperture is f/2.8 and you want to shoot with f/11. In this particular case, when you close down your aperture value to f/11 from f/2.8, your camera will not close down aperture blades, diaphragm, immediately after you change aperture value. This is because all bodies focus at the widest aperture of the lens and then stop down to the chosen aperture (f/11 in this case) when you press the shutter release button all the way down to take the picture (after focusing your subject obviously).

Note: I noticed that if you are using D90 and the D lens which has aperture ring on it’s barrel, you have to set ring to f/22, locked it and set the actuator (on the end of the lens) which allows opening the aperture from the camera body.

In this case, most advanced DSLRs come with dedicated button to preview Depth of Field called DOF preview button and allows you to close down your aperture to selected value by stopping down lens’ diaphragm. So, when you set aperture to f/11, pressing DOF preview button close down aperture to f/11 and darken your viewfinder by allowing less light through aperture. It is really helpful when you are shooting Landscape and most importantly using Hyperfocal distance formula. In often cases, you will get deceived by widest open aperture and hard to judge what is in focus and what is not.

Canon EOS 40D has Depth of Field Preview button right below the lens release button.

Related posts:

1. What is Depth of Field (DOF)
2. Understanding Aperture and Depth of Field
3. What is Hyperfocal Distance and When to use it