Night Photography.

what lens do you guys best for night photography? - my use is city nights wide angle.

thanks

Is there any difference, lenswise, in day and night photography? (Unless some lenses are afraid of the dark :lol Not having done much night photography, I would think that the same principles for choice of lens would apply around the clock.

The amount of aperture blades would make a difference to the number of "star points" shown on bright lights, but that's a personal preference anyway & not one I'd worry about.

There's been much talk about wide options on this & other forums. I went for the Pentax 12-24 as I like the colours it produces & I have the 10-17 if I want to go wider. I bought it at a good price & had the £50 rebate, if buying now though I'd probably go for the Sigma 10-20 purely on price. Both are going to be sharp stopped down on a tripod & you may appreciate the extra width of the Sigma. You could wait for the Tamron 10-24 but you could take some stunning images with either of the above lenses in the meantime !

I agree, all the listed lenses should be good for night shots. I'm not a frequent night shooter but I've found some shots on my Photobucket account.

These were taken with the DA 10-17 (being a fish-eye it might not be your first choice for city shots but you can get unusual takes with it)
[IMG]http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t5/Prieni/boctower.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t5/Prieni/IMGP9088fc.jpg[/IMG]

These were taken with the *istD kit lens, FA J 18-35 mm:
[IMG]http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t5/Prieni/IMGP9084fc.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t5/Prieni/IMGP7816pu.jpg[/IMG]

Prieni

But you would use the same lenses for daytime shots, right?

Yupp. If the lenses are good performers during the day they are at night, generally. I could imagine that some lower contrast lenses could be performing badly at night. But then I would call them bad performers during the day as well...

And I mean the old *istD kit FA J 18-35 certainly is not renowned for it's performance, be it day or night. However, it's good enough to produce some really nice shots, not only in my hands (see e.g. in the PPG; oh, just saw that 1/5 of the shots with that lens in PPG are by me:shock

Prieni

cheers guys , the sigma sounds good mainly for night stuff check my website for the sort of stuff ,best price is £300 so far , i have the upgraded 18-250mm tamron lens would i benefit going to this new lens and justify spending £300.

If you can't go backwards far enough to get your subject in, then yes !
The extra 8mm at the wide end makes much more difference than say 18 - 26mm & you may have to rethink your compositions a little when shooting that wide, but that said, it will also bring a new perspective to your shots.

Only you can answer that one really, but it makes more sense than buying a focal length you already have covered. Then again if you never find yourself wishing that your Tamron would zoom out a little more then keep your cash or buy a prime at your favourite focal length.

MMMM Tricky one , maybe ill move backwards! and save the £300 on a camera upgrade gutted all the prices have gone up massively just recently.

I bought the FAJ 18-35mm at a bargain price, brand new and boxed, just because it was cheap, it has turned out to be quite a good bargain, far better than i would have thought, so they are out there you just have to look.

There are some dangers associated with night photography.

I took the image below, tonight, on a fly-over near Falkirk, Scotland, where there are 'on / off' ramps, and I thought they would add to the picture.

The amount of abuse and honking horns I got was unbelievable!!!

One guy even stopped on the fly-over and asked, " You a Copper or just a vigilante taking pictures of speeding cars ?"

Another guy stopped on the fly-over and started to get out of his car and approach me, but when I stood up from the camera, and showed my 6'2" - 19 stone frame, with a face like a dug lickin' pish aff a nettle ( * ), he soon got back in the car and made a hasty exit

( * ) translation - a dog removing urine from a stinging plant with it's tongue )




edit - lens info - K10D + Sigma 105 Macro @ f22 for 20 seconds ISO-100

Prieni and Galoot - Great photos!

Thanks beachboy2!

And Galoot: Next time you should take a friend with a camera with you and we could all admire a photo of that bloke's face when you build up to your full splendour
With a physique like that I would do things like that more often...

That shot was worth the hassle, though. I like it a lot. Some thoughts:
I would be keen to see some more of the sky; the lights in the background are fab, but for me they are too close to the edge.
Some of the light trails stop (or start) in the middle of the street. This is understandable as sometime the 20 secs started and ended. Perhaps it would be nicer to either use multiple exposures in camera or do a few more of these and put them together in post processing.

Exposure wise I think you have exactly found the sweet spot, there is some definition in the surroundings, the signs are nice and clear and the white trails not blown too much. Great work!

Prieni

P.S.: And get a sound recording device with you for the nice honking horns

Cheers for the advice chaps , i finally went for the sigma 10-20mm wide angle lens its on order so will post some shots when i have it.