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  • Night Shots at gate

    Hi,

    New to the forum, and would like to ask you guys (the experts) about how to take night shots. By night shots I mean the shots that are taken from the gates when the aircraft is parked. I've tried numerous times with a tripod but it still doesn't come out the way I want it. It comes out yellowish and soft, unlike those that can be seen on the database. Is it the WB that's set wrongly? Could anyone give me specific settings I should use? Attached is an example.

    I use an EOS 400D (Oldie) and a Tamron 70-300mm, but for these shots I suppose I should use the 18-55/50mm instead?

    Thanks!
    Michael

  • #2
    The white balance certainly needs to be attended to. I use a Nikon D7000 for night shots. Settings are Auto WB, aperture priority, ISO 100, centre weighted metering. Admittedly the only night shots I have were taken at RAF Northolt on an arranged nightshoot under very white light compared to most airports.

    In photoshop I would find a part that I know should be white and set the white balance to that. Alternatively, I set the grey point (middle dropper on the right side of the histogram window in photoshop) on a tyre sidewall. On some occasions I will even (shock horror !!) use the auto colour tool.

    When shooting from a tripod, which I use 100% of the time for night shots, use the shortest lens that you can get way with. The further the lens goes away from the vertical centreline of the tripod the greater the danger of tripod shake. Try to avoid shooting when people are walking around near you, especially in a terminal to avoid tripod shake again.

    The tripod should be the sturdiest that you can buy with chunky legs and a solid hinge to the head of the tripod. I like and use the bigger Velbon DF61 tripod which has very chunky legs, firm leg clamps and bracing struts from the lower legs to a centre pole. It also has a bubble gauge for levelling. All this for a penny short of £30.00
    If it 'ain't broken........ Don't try to mend it !

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    • #3
      If you shoot in RAW, you can literately forget about white balance and adjust it during conversion of the RAW file. I have shot probably hundreds of Night Shots with many Canon types, the workflow is still the same.

      If yiu shoot in JPG, try adjusting the WB manually, start with the lowest Kelvin seeting and check in the camera display and start from there. Or you can if course try the WB preset for artificial light.

      But again, easiest way is to shoot RAW.

      Cheers
      Gerardo
      My photos on Flickr www.flickr.com/photos/geridominguez

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      • #4
        Thanks guys. I'll try when I fly during the summer holidays.

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