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Photog Newbie 101: Just shot my first long exposure with a tripod


h00ligan

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I tried several things with the d'lux 4 - only had a few minutes to run out. I wasn't trying to shoot anything wonderful, simply to understand and get to know this camera more.

 

First the details

Shot in a median with traffic moving about 40 mph on either side

Slight light left in the sky

the most pleasing result came at

2 second exposure at f/2.0

iso 80

 

Now, I'm wondering if any of you could advise what exposure could have prevented some of the noise I see in the sky - or is it that I used a low aperture and the light was too dim - so in an attempt to recover information it created that noise?

 

I'm hesitant to post the photo, because frankly it was a hurried effort and I suck at photography to begin with (there's also a bright white piece of litter that draws all attn!) - and i see some really great stuff here. I fluctuated between the posted specs and 5 seconds at 2.8 but didn't do a whole bunch of steps in between due to time constraints. It strikes me that perhaps I should have done more in the middle and less on the extreme ends for a better quality photo. If necessary for input I will post the photo, but it's a completely uninspired composition with basically no merit other than an attempt to learn a thing or two about the camera.

 

Thanks for taking the time to read this, and if there is a better forum to post this in please let me know - as I don't want to inundate you all with such simple things most, if not all, of you have mastered.

 

edit -- it also strikes me now that instead of using full manual I could have set the iso limit to 80 and used shutter priority mode - seeing what the camera then recommended.. probably a good thing for me to do to learn.

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my amateur advice for long exposure (I also tried a lot with my d-lux):

 

close the aperture at f8. you'll get beter (longer) DOF

focus manually - long exposure are not snapshots so you have time to check focus as you like, beside camera focus rather strange in very low light.

set ISO at 80.

take even long exposures .... I had some night exposures at 60s.

With ISO locked and 80 you are in full manual Use exposure bar indicators to under or over expose to create nice effects - sometimes in the night a bit underexposure create good night feeling and emphasis light sources even more.

 

in street photography and speeds over 15s at night you will get light tails but no cars (interesting effects)

 

have fun doing that!

good luck!

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