Landscape at dusk

[phill900r@ntlworld.com]

I Have been trying to take some photos of a landscape, at different hours of the day,
I have no problem getting some good shots between the hours of 08:45 to 14:30. but I can't figure out how to get some good shots after them times.

I would like to get some shots as it's starting to get dark, the only trouble is when I have taken the picture it is either black or blurred. I have tried various F n°s & shutter speeds but still nothing good.

can anyone tell me the best settings/setup for taking these pictures.

my Equipment is:-

Nikon D70 camera

set up as:-
Manual (tried Landscape & Auto)
Image Quality = Fine
Image Size = M
ISO = 200 (tried 400, 800 & 1600)
White Balance = Pre (tried Auto, Cloudy & Shade)

3 different lenses (tried all 3)
Nikon AF Nikkor 35-70mm 1:3.3-4.5 (with U.V Filter & with/without 52mm Polarizing filter)
Tamron AF 80-210mm 1:4.5-5.6 Zoom (with U.V Filter & With/Without 52mm Poarizing Filter)
Sigma DL 75-300mm 1:4-5.6 Zoom (with U.V Filter But NO Polarizing filter Different Size)


on a tripod, (with & without remote shutter release)
also tried Monopod
with & without built in flash.

Many Thanks

phill

[ianpinion]

Hi Phil,

Before you take the shot have you checked your histogram? If all the peaks are pile up to the lefthand side then your shot is going to be underexposed and it will turn out almost black. The other matter is have you waited too long and the light has got too dim to take a shot? The magic hour is the 60 minutes immediately before the official sunset time, when the light has a wonderful quality.

Personally, I would put the camera on a tripod with a remote release and into manual mode. I'd decide what aperture I wanted for a given shot and I would then adjust the shutter speed until on my histogram the highlights were shown to be just clipping the righthand side of it. I'd then know that my shot would be correctly exposed.

Now if the shot was blurred and I had used both a tripod and remote shutter release then I would think that the blurring could have been caused by the vibration of the mirror as it flipped up, so before taking another shot I would lock it up first and then I should capture a shake free image with my next shot.

Hope this brief guide is of some help.

[chris-p]

Another helpful trick is to switch to spot metering and meter off the sky. Set your aperture first, then meter off the sky and adjust your shutter speed till you've got a correct exposure.

Or you could try HDR if the luminance range is just too large...

[phill900r@ntlworld.com]

thanks for the advice, ianpinion & chris-p

when you say check the histogram before I take the shot. do you mean take a test shot check the histogram and adjust where needed?
the reason I'm asking is because I can't figure out how to get the histogram up unless I have taken a picture first.

I am new to photography, this is my first camera that isn't a point & shoot camera, I am trying not to let the camera do the work for me, I am trying to set the camera up myself, to learn how the camera reacts to different settings, but as I said in my previous post photos at dusk has me lost.

[matt wilson]

Wondering if your camera will do auto bracketing of exposures .

Try setting your aperture and exposure and if you can bracket the exposure 2 stops over and under what the camera wants to do.

From that position look back at the shot and see how things are going .

The advice to alter the metering is also good .Insted of going for evaluative or zonal metering set either spot or centreweighted and meter of f the part of the scene you want correctly exposed .

Finally shoot in Raw .There's far more scope to tweek the exposure on the pc later that way.

It seems like an awful lot to learn.I admire your reasoning for not wanting the camera to take over .I use mainly aperture and shutter priority depending on what I am after .

Been digital a year and also used film SLR's years ago so have an idea (would call myself a kleen amature though )

[ianpinion]

Originally Posted by phill900r@ntlworld.com

thanks for the advice, ianpinion & chris-p

when you say check the histogram before I take the shot. do you mean take a test shot check the histogram and adjust where needed?
the reason I'm asking is because I can't figure out how to get the histogram up unless I have taken a picture first.

I am new to photography, this is my first camera that isn't a point & shoot camera, I am trying not to let the camera do the work for me, I am trying to set the camera up myself, to learn how the camera reacts to different settings, but as I said in my previous post photos at dusk has me lost.

Hi Phil,

To bring up the histogram, I think I'm right in saying that you'll need to be using the Live view on the LCD screen and scroll through, using either the front or rear scroll wheel, until a histogram appears on it, but I'm sure Chris will be able to tell you how to do this as he uses a Nikon camera.

[OldBoy]

Originally Posted by phill900r@ntlworld.com

I Have been trying to take some photos of a landscape, at different hours of the day,
I have no problem getting some good shots between the hours of 08:45 to 14:30. but I can't figure out how to get some good shots after them times.

I would like to get some shots as it's starting to get dark, the only trouble is when I have taken the picture it is either black or blurred. I have tried various F n°s & shutter speeds but still nothing good.

can anyone tell me the best settings/setup for taking these pictures.

my Equipment is:-

Nikon D70 camera

set up as:-
Manual (tried Landscape & Auto)
Image Quality = Fine
Image Size = M
ISO = 200 (tried 400, 800 & 1600)
White Balance = Pre (tried Auto, Cloudy & Shade)

3 different lenses (tried all 3)
Nikon AF Nikkor 35-70mm 1:3.3-4.5 (with U.V Filter & with/without 52mm Polarizing filter)
Tamron AF 80-210mm 1:4.5-5.6 Zoom (with U.V Filter & With/Without 52mm Poarizing Filter)
Sigma DL 75-300mm 1:4-5.6 Zoom (with U.V Filter But NO Polarizing filter Different Size)


on a tripod, (with & without remote shutter release)
also tried Monopod
with & without built in flash.

Many Thanks

phill

The shot below was taken about a hour before the sun's disk started to appear on 1/12/2009. I set the camera on Shutter priority and reduced it to 2 seconds. Half press the shutter release button whilst looking through the view-finder and the bottom line will show what the meter says, in my case it was F16 and ISO 200, so I took the shot. If it had said it was ISO 1000, then I would have dialed down to the Shutter Priority speed of 4 seconds and again half press the shutter button to get another reading. For the auto-focus to work you need contast, like between the black trees and the reddish sky or between the water and black landscape.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2629/...c9f03520_b.jpg

I should add I used a D3 for this shot, but still have a D70.