I found the Observers book of weather {Published absolutely ages ago)very useful, It was small enough to fit in a pocket and up to the usual Observer series standard. O.k some illustrations are a bit dated but a darned useful book non the less.

Regards - Pete

To be serious though, You really need to take a correctly exposed image of a subject and assess the noise from that. My normal Night shots are taken at 100 ISO and beginning around 30 minutes after sunset using around 20 seconds at F18 and usually continuing until i can no longer see any light in the sky at 30seconds at F11. I use the Noise Reduction in Camera and a very tiny amount in PP as i do with all of my images. I also use the Highlight / Shadow warning. so that the shadows are`nt too dark as it would increase the noise if i tried to bring them back.
There is no way on earth that you could make a correctly exposed image with the cap on as it would be too dark even if you took an hour at f1.2.


Regards - Pete

[quote:3496ace15f="terje-l"]I see what you mean, Pete, I was merely trying to take pictures of a "dark" area.

Well you sure did that, You could`nt get much darker than that! (unless you stood in a cupboard at night with the light off when you took the photo with the lens cap on!)

Regards - Pete.

Good Question, It`s difficult for me to quantify as i may be influenced without really knowing! We may be influenced by images that were influenced etc....etc...etc...
I have certainly admired a great many works but what effect that has had on my own images i`m not sure.
I cannot say for certain that seeing the work of any particular photographer has consciously caused a change in the way i take my images but perhaps subconsciously it does?

Regards - Pete

Yes i did understand,Honest

Regards - Pete

Maybe it was Purple Rain?

It is possible that the camera has set the wrong W/B in some of the shots. Perhaps try again in different weather conditions to see if you get more consistent results then. I took some Panoramic shots with my K7 and one image was a different W/B to the rest. And once i took some Shots of a Harrier in a hangar but when a guy entered into the scene wearing black overalls the W/B changed! but it is not a common occurrence and i shoot in RAW so no big deal. Those have been the only occasions in 14,000 exposures with the K7.
Regards - Pete.

Here`s one that went a bit too far!...link

Regards - Pete

Hi Terry, Taking a shot with the lens cap on could give very misleading results as you cannot asses when you have attained a correct exposure.
Perhaps if you provided the ISO and exposure settings that you used might shed a little more light on the problem (pun intended)
I think it far better to take a correctly exposed night shot of a subject using a low ISO (100-200 is most likely to give the least amount of noise).
Best Regards - Pete

I appreciate your view but the beauty of a DSLR is that it is so versatile! You can attach it to a microscope or a telescope, Take pinhole images, Use one flash or ten, Take a shot at 1/8000th of a second or one of several hours duration. So whilst trailing curtain may never be used by one person. To another photographer it may be vital to his style of photography.
When i began using a film SLR back in the 1970`s i would try everything i possibly could. From early Cibachrome with a home modified Gnome enlarger to using second hand bellows and lens reversing rings, Night photography, or playing with various filters and home made devices in fact anything to do with photography! My point is every one uf us can take as much or as little from this great hobby and still enjoy it 100%

Regards - Pete

Some people out there still use anologue!
I bumped into a guy not so long ago at the Ffestiniog railway station at Porthmadog who was still using the old style Pentax 645 Medium format camera. (The one that looks like an SLR and he had no intentions of changing to the digital version. And to be honest i admired the guy!

Regards - Pete