J-BlickPhoto Thread
- Thread starter J-BlickPhoto
- Start date
1engineer
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Just glad you are alright man. Life happens to us all from time to time. My daughter graduates with her Bachelor's of Nursing Degree and gets "pinned" in a few weeks. At this same time, my bike riding buddy wants me to go on a trip with him to, you guessed it, Moab to ride for a few days. No brainer...I wouldn't miss my daughter's graduation for all the mountain bike riding in the world!
Robmills72
New member
Sweet pics!
J-BlickPhoto
New member
Thanks guys. This forum is numero uno! :first:
J-BlickPhoto
New member
J-BlickPhoto
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T4RT
New member
[MENTION=93894]J-BlickPhoto[/MENTION] - Is this shot taken with a special lens? Is it a fish eye lens? or is it a special setting on the camera?
Thanks in advance!
T4RT
J-BlickPhoto
New member
It's a fisheye lens. Definitely one of my favorite lenses.
Definitely one of my more favorite photos on here! :flypig: :hello:
Got a quick question for you.... I want to try and do one of those night sky/campsite pictures when I'm out at the grand canyon and Moab in May. I've only recently started playing with the manual settings on my Nikon D5100 .... I've got a tri-pod. So here's my question. what are the basic settings I should start with for a picture that will capture milky-way/stars, without drowning out the camp which will likely have some light sources in it?
Any other suggestions for bright-sky out-west photography?
Okki
MadeInMaine
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T4RT
New member
Same here!- D5100 with tri-pod. I would like to catch some OBX night shots this summer down in Hatteras or up in Corolla if it is a clear night.
J-BlickPhoto
New member
You're going to want to focus on the BIG THREE: Aperture, ISO, and exposure. There are obviously other factors that will go into it, but those are your primaries.
First, you'll need to set you camera to MANUAL mode. Its the only way you can freely manipulate the settings. You'll also want to shoot in RAW format if available...NOT JPEG. Most night shots are manipulated with some sort of program such as Lightroom. RAW allows the photo to be easily manipulated and gives you better range when editing.
Aperture: Your goal is to achieve the lowest aperture value possible. You will, however be limited to your equipment. I usually set it to f/2.8 to f/4.
ISO: I typically set the ISO between 2000 - 5000. Again, you'll need to play around with this setting. I typically set my ISO to 1000 and then work my way up through multiple shots. You may find that your setting is too low or too high. EXPERIMENT. Also remember that increasing your ISO will also increase the "noise" in your photos.
Exposure: Since your goal is too take "crisp" pictures of stars and the milky way, you'll want to minimize extremely long exposures. I would suggest 30 to 50 seconds. This should keep the stars in one place and limit the amount of star trails.
One of the biggest problems with night shots is light pollution. Typically from a town/city. Most of my night shots are plagued with light pollution. The best way to figure out where it's coming from is set your ISO ridiculously high and then take a pic. Then you can adjust from there.
Another trick is taking multiple shots with multiple exposures, then merging them with lightroom or adobe editing programs. I can honestly say that I have NOT done this with any of my pics, but it's definitely a great way to make your pics look amazing.
A lot of my shots include a camp site or the 4runner. In a lot of them the truck is illuminated in some way. I always use my headlamp to paint the truck with light. Making this look "good" just takes practice and timing.
In the end, you'll need to experiment. I don't have a lot of "great" night shots, but I limit myself in many ways, by not taking multiple shots and then merging them. I try to "do it all" in one image. Most of the images below were taken several times and then manipulated with lightroom.
Just have fun with it and experiment. As a disclaimer, these are just suggestions and not RULES.
First, you'll need to set you camera to MANUAL mode. Its the only way you can freely manipulate the settings. You'll also want to shoot in RAW format if available...NOT JPEG. Most night shots are manipulated with some sort of program such as Lightroom. RAW allows the photo to be easily manipulated and gives you better range when editing.
Aperture: Your goal is to achieve the lowest aperture value possible. You will, however be limited to your equipment. I usually set it to f/2.8 to f/4.
ISO: I typically set the ISO between 2000 - 5000. Again, you'll need to play around with this setting. I typically set my ISO to 1000 and then work my way up through multiple shots. You may find that your setting is too low or too high. EXPERIMENT. Also remember that increasing your ISO will also increase the "noise" in your photos.
Exposure: Since your goal is too take "crisp" pictures of stars and the milky way, you'll want to minimize extremely long exposures. I would suggest 30 to 50 seconds. This should keep the stars in one place and limit the amount of star trails.
One of the biggest problems with night shots is light pollution. Typically from a town/city. Most of my night shots are plagued with light pollution. The best way to figure out where it's coming from is set your ISO ridiculously high and then take a pic. Then you can adjust from there.
Another trick is taking multiple shots with multiple exposures, then merging them with lightroom or adobe editing programs. I can honestly say that I have NOT done this with any of my pics, but it's definitely a great way to make your pics look amazing.
A lot of my shots include a camp site or the 4runner. In a lot of them the truck is illuminated in some way. I always use my headlamp to paint the truck with light. Making this look "good" just takes practice and timing.
In the end, you'll need to experiment. I don't have a lot of "great" night shots, but I limit myself in many ways, by not taking multiple shots and then merging them. I try to "do it all" in one image. Most of the images below were taken several times and then manipulated with lightroom.
Just have fun with it and experiment. As a disclaimer, these are just suggestions and not RULES.
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J-BlickPhoto
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Thank you!
J-BlickPhoto
New member
Fairly uneventful day. Did some surfing, which will most likely be the last for this trip. I did stay at a KOA campground. They have everything you could possibly need, but I'm not a fan. I always feel like they pack people in like sardines. It also started raining, so I decided to sleep inside the runner. I usually try to keep everything organized, but from the looks of it, I'm failing miserably. :doh: Other than that...the trip continues. 
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