Lightpainting/Night shots - where am I going wrong?
Discussion
Hi all,
A few months ago I started really enjoying night photography, I find it a lot more interesting than daytime landscapes and portraits. I tend to photograph towns, cities and cars and try to get a good bit of artificial light in there such as street lights, shop signs, headlights and neon etc.
So yesterday I decided to try my hand at some of this 'lightpainting'.
Went to somewhere really quite dark (nearest light source was 2 sodium streetlights about 100 meters away (it was so dark I had to use a torch to setup my bits and pieces, although it looks brighter in the photo).
Camera was a Nikon D40X with the 18-200mm DX VRII lens.
I had the camera set to shutter priority mode so I could force it into a 5-10sec exposure to allow me time to sweep over the car with the LED light I had with me.
I used a decent tripod and remote shutter control to avoid shake.
I have identified a couple of problems that I can solve, namely the focus is slightly out as it was so dark the camera refused to auto focus so I did it manually but it was difficult to get it spot on in the dark, I can hopefully solve this myself next time.
Also, my lightpainting technique wasn't quite right, but again, a bit more messing about will improve this. I learned a lot just last night!
But, my biggest problem is the grainy aspect of the picture. It looks dreadful. I had noise reduction turned on, and noticed the camera had set itself to ISO1600 for the first few shots. I then set it to 800 and then 400 but it didn't seem to make a difference.
I noticed 'ISO-A' was flashing next to 400 in the display, which is making me think the camera was just using auto ISO whatever I did?
So here is a shot, can you offer any help to solve my grain and sharpness issue?
Thanks
A few months ago I started really enjoying night photography, I find it a lot more interesting than daytime landscapes and portraits. I tend to photograph towns, cities and cars and try to get a good bit of artificial light in there such as street lights, shop signs, headlights and neon etc.
So yesterday I decided to try my hand at some of this 'lightpainting'.
Went to somewhere really quite dark (nearest light source was 2 sodium streetlights about 100 meters away (it was so dark I had to use a torch to setup my bits and pieces, although it looks brighter in the photo).
Camera was a Nikon D40X with the 18-200mm DX VRII lens.
I had the camera set to shutter priority mode so I could force it into a 5-10sec exposure to allow me time to sweep over the car with the LED light I had with me.
I used a decent tripod and remote shutter control to avoid shake.
I have identified a couple of problems that I can solve, namely the focus is slightly out as it was so dark the camera refused to auto focus so I did it manually but it was difficult to get it spot on in the dark, I can hopefully solve this myself next time.
Also, my lightpainting technique wasn't quite right, but again, a bit more messing about will improve this. I learned a lot just last night!
But, my biggest problem is the grainy aspect of the picture. It looks dreadful. I had noise reduction turned on, and noticed the camera had set itself to ISO1600 for the first few shots. I then set it to 800 and then 400 but it didn't seem to make a difference.
I noticed 'ISO-A' was flashing next to 400 in the display, which is making me think the camera was just using auto ISO whatever I did?
So here is a shot, can you offer any help to solve my grain and sharpness issue?
Thanks
Yeah, auto ISO off, get the focus right, cleaner background and make sure a shaddow of you/tripod is not in the shot 
(or clone it out).
Personally I would chose somewhere darker, then you can have more control over the lighting. If not, then use a brighter light with lower ISO so the background light is relatively less intense.
(or clone it out).Personally I would chose somewhere darker, then you can have more control over the lighting. If not, then use a brighter light with lower ISO so the background light is relatively less intense.
Your light painting looks ok tbh. Sure, turn auto ISO off, also turn off VR on the lens. To focus, get that torch you used at setup and shine towards your nice looking Porsche so that the auto focus has got something to grip on to.
One thing I've spotted is your lamp's colour temperature is out-of-line with the scene. Not much you can do about that other than compositing two frames at different white balance or getting a new lamp with a known colour temp.
There's a bunch more info on my recent blog post about lightpainting cars
One thing I've spotted is your lamp's colour temperature is out-of-line with the scene. Not much you can do about that other than compositing two frames at different white balance or getting a new lamp with a known colour temp.
There's a bunch more info on my recent blog post about lightpainting cars
AndWhyNot said:
Your light painting looks ok tbh. Sure, turn auto ISO off, also turn off VR on the lens. To focus, get that torch you used at setup and shine towards your nice looking Porsche so that the auto focus has got something to grip on to.
One thing I've spotted is your lamp's colour temperature is out-of-line with the scene. Not much you can do about that other than compositing two frames at different white balance or getting a new lamp with a known colour temp.
There's a bunch more info on my recent blog post about lightpainting cars
Thanks for that.One thing I've spotted is your lamp's colour temperature is out-of-line with the scene. Not much you can do about that other than compositing two frames at different white balance or getting a new lamp with a known colour temp.
There's a bunch more info on my recent blog post about lightpainting cars
When you say 'lamp colour' do you mean the LED light I used to paint the car with?
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