Light streaks

[D700guy]

Hopefully the right part of the forums to ask this.

I shot the following photograph, which I'm pretty pleased with, especially as it's the first time I really started to push the camera with low light photography.

However, I notice in this shot that where there are street lights, it has caused streaks in the photograph vertically up and / or down from the lights. What did I do wrong in this shot or is it a camera limitation? I use a UV filter on the lens to protect it / make it easy to clean. Other than that, nothing else. Was it the camera settings that contributed to this? Should I have upped the ISO more and used more noise reduction in-camera. This was shot hand-held.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8704223...in/photostream

[Axele]

Nice picture and the pictures shows your experience in photography.In this picture clock is looking totally clear and the white ball as well.

[ianpinion]

Originally Posted by D700guy

Hopefully the right part of the forums to ask this.

I shot the following photograph, which I'm pretty pleased with, especially as it's the first time I really started to push the camera with low light photography.

However, I notice in this shot that where there are street lights, it has caused streaks in the photograph vertically up and / or down from the lights. What did I do wrong in this shot or is it a camera limitation? I use a UV filter on the lens to protect it / make it easy to clean. Other than that, nothing else. Was it the camera settings that contributed to this? Should I have upped the ISO more and used more noise reduction in-camera. This was shot hand-held.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8704223...in/photostream

Hi,

The starburst effect you're referring to is caused by light catching the edges of the aperture blades. The smaller the aperture you use the more pronounced the starburst effect becomes. I wouldn't worry about, in fact I deliberately use a small aperture to get this effect with my night time shots.

[D700guy]

Originally Posted by Axele

Nice picture and the pictures shows your experience in photography.In this picture clock is looking totally clear and the white ball as well.

I consider myself an advanced beginner, still make mistake shots in full manual mode before I get the perfect ISO / Shutter/ Apature settings. Lucky RAW shooting comes to rescue, especially in changing light

Although, I've read the magazine that suggest it's not a total failure if you use Apature or Shutter priority instead of manual.

[D700guy]

Originally Posted by ianpinion

Hi,

The starburst effect you're referring to is caused by light catching the edges of the aperture blades. The smaller the aperture you use the more pronounced the starburst effect becomes. I wouldn't worry about, in fact I deliberately use a small aperture to get this effect with my night time shots.

What I was going for was as wide open as I could aperture to let as much light in and keep as much out of focus as possible - except what I was focusing on, in this case Big Ben tower, fast enough shutter as being hand held I didn't want to have anything blurred, but not too fast that I needed really high ISO which introduces noise. I think I got away with it mostly.

Got to say without the magazine and it's tips, I probably would not have tried this kind of shot, or wimped and used the semi-automatic P mode.