Western Railroad Discussion > need night photo help

I'm hoping someone can help me figure out how to get
all the lens glare or flaring or whatever it is out of
photos with bright lights. I'm a novice at night photos.
Are there filters that can help with this? Any tips would
be greatly appreciated.
Geoff

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What aperature / shutter speed are you using? Are you shooting digital or film? Using a smaller aperature with a slower shutter speed will help to keep the lights from blowing out. The aperature setting for the attached shot was f11. I just opened up the lense on bulb just before the train activated the crossing gates and left it open for an additional 3 minutes after the train passed to get the exposure on the depot. This was shot on Fuji Provia 100F. I haven't tried any night shots with my digital camera yet. I guess I should go out some night and experiment before an important shoot comes up.

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Actually, the shot is pretty good as is. Nice angle, level, sharp. A bit

overexposed, though. (the latter being a somewhat trivial matter easy enough to correct)


I've found Kodachrome to be less likely to exhibit the "blooming" from bright

lights. Adding filters adds reflective surfaces and may make matters worse.

A lens hood may help a little and will not hurt.



Also, you may wish to invest in a Gertag-MacBeth ColorChecker panel and include it

in the frame but in a portion that can be cropped out later. This panel has a series

of calibrated color squares which can later be used to correct for the kind of

lighting used. (about $70 through B&H)


If you would like to try your hand at B&W available light photography, I can recommend

Ilford XP-2 as a good film for the purpose. A "tolerant" film with a "forgiving"

nature and generous reciprocity characteristics. As a benefit(?,) your drugstore can

process it in the same vile soup they use for color print negatives, the catch being

that you have to tell them what kind of film it is so they don't faint when the prints

come out devoid of color.


Be Well,

Tim Colbert K3HX

I agree, it's not a bad shot. Lots of details showing.
I would be proud of that one. The changes suggested earlier are good
suggestions too.. Neat place.. CF7

Thanks for the help. This was a digital shot taken at
1 second F5.6. I will try some longer exposure times
to see if that helps. The lights here are quite bright.
I tryed bracketing but I got the same thing on the
underexposure. I don't suppose anyone makes an anti
reflective filter for such situations.
I also remember reading that the lens is what causes
this. A standard Canon 50mm F1.8 was used. Would a higher
end lens make any difference?
Geoff

When shooting with lights in the photo, reduce aperture (higher F stops) and increase exposure time to reduce the blooming effect.
-Alex

Unfortunately, lens flare is a fact of life for night photographers. There are really only a couple of things you can do to reduce it: Shoot with the smallest possible aperture in an attempt to not use the area of each lens element where the light is reflecting (thus causing the flare), and look for a film or digital back that minimizes light scattering within the media itself. The latter is more to help with the "bloom" effect. Besides that, you can look carefully at what you have pointed the camera at. Really look at that image in the view finder. Stop the lens down and look for those lens flares - you can see them in the view finder if you look hard enough. And then change the camera position or angle just enough to put them in a place in the frame where they do the least harm.

A great rule of thumb for any kind of photography is this: everything you see in the view finder is a compositional element. Pick the best camera position and view angle to get the best possible composition. That includes such things as power lines and trash on the ground, as well as lens flares. You need to take the time to look at what's in your view finder if you want good pictures.

- Kit