Originally Posted by Alan
Oh Yeah!!
P.S. - You had asked:
"What constitutes a "proper" exposure when taking night shots? The histogram? Eye-balling it? I saw one guy describe the method as follows: keep lengthening the shutter speed til it "looks right" in the viewfinder."
I shot all of my fair pictures in Av mode with center weighted metering. I shot in raw and post processed with SilkyPix DS3. From what I remember, I did little exposure compensation.
Now, does this apply to all night shots? No. In these examples I have a very bright, well lit object centered in the frame. Some night shots are fairly dark overall with light spotted about. There are a few ways to handle it. First, set exposure compensation more negative as the total overall scene gets darker. Your camera's meter always wants to expose to 18 % gray. Your first photo in that shopping mall sign series is the most properly exposed. I know you don't like it, but it is the dynamic range of the camera that you have to shoot for. Notice the blue sign at the bottom behind the mall sign. You can see that it is blown out in thenext two. Also, look through the viewfinder and take shutter speed readings of various parts of the scene. As you scan from dark areas to light areas, how much does your shutter speed change. If it doubles then that is one stop. If it quadruples, that's two and so on and so forth. You can get a feeling of the "dynamic range" of the lighting and can better compensate for it. In the last shot I posted of that ride with the blue sky, I probably aimed the center area of the camera at the brightly lit portion of the ride and hit the AE lock button before backing out composing and taking the shot. I say probably because that's what I practice most of the time when in those kinds of lighting situations. I can literally freeze the shutter speed at any setting based on the brightness of different areas in the scene. If you scan around you can easily decide which areas you can stand to be blown out and which areas you don't mind are in the shadows. I am still teaching myself to use the HUD info in the viewfinder and to always check it as I am composing a shot. I hate taking a great photo only to later discover than the lighting had changed and the shutter speed was 1/30th @ 200mm and the terrific shot I took is crap because of motion blur. I kick myself thinking "If I'd only paid attention". It's a learning process thathopefully becomesgood habit.
Alan,I'd love to have a MkII. Have a great time at the fair!!
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