Help...photography experts...need advice!!

[hstrickland]

What kind of lens do I need for night time photography? I don't want to spend mega bucks...$1000 but want a decent lens. For example, taking pictures of fireworks. Or is there a setting on my D5000 that will get me decent pictures?

 

[mom2rtk]

Any camera will take nice fireworks pictures with a tripod and a cable release. There are entire threads here devoted to fireworks photography.

If you're looking for something in OTHER low light situations, you will find lots of advice here. What you need is a lens with a larger aperture. The nifty fifty (50mm f1.8) is generally accepted to be a great lens for the money at just under $100. They go up from there, but that's a great place to start.

 

[disneyboy2003]

What kind of lens do I need for night time photography? I don't want to spend mega bucks...$1000 but want a decent lens. For example, taking pictures of fireworks. Or is there a setting on my D5000 that will get me decent pictures?

In general, there is not a lot of light available during the night, so you have to make your camera "see" a lot of light. Recall that exposure of a photo consists of adjusting the aperture, shutter speed, and ISO.

Specifically for night / low-light photography, you need to use a large aperture (low f-number), slow shutter speed, or high ISO. Any / all 3 of these will increase the amount of light that your camera "sees", which is what you want for night photography.

For lenses, you'll need to look for lenses that have a large aperture (small f-number). There are many different options, but you don't have to spend thousands of $$$$$. Here are a few options:

• 50mm f/1.8, about $100 - your cheapest option and best value
• 50mm f/1.4, about $400 - a very nice lens
• Sigma 30mm f/1.4, about $400 - a very popular low-light lens on this message board
• 85mm f/1.8, about $400
• 100mm f/2, about $400

These are Canon-specific recommendations, so you'll have to look for the Nikon equivalent for these lenses. However, you'll see that all the f-numbers are small. That's what you'll need to look for.

You'll also notice that these are "prime lenses", or fixed focal length. There is no zooming on these lenses (except you can "zoom with your feet").


For fireworks, MarkBarbieri, one of the members of this message board, started a thread specifically on how to shoot fireworks: How To Shoot: Fireworks

In general, though, to get the best fireworks pictures, you'll need slow shutter speed, like around 2-6 seconds (just a ballpark figure). Because of this, you'll also need a tripod and a cable release, too.

You might not necessarily need the above lenses for fireworks photography (I'll let others chime in on this one). Your current lens might be good enough, since you're not necessarily trying to capture something in low light. Fireworks themselves are super-bright, so your current lens should be able to do okay with fireworks.

Hope that helps.

 

[TheGoofster]

The D5000 definitely has settings that will allow you to get some great fireworks shots, but as Mom2rtk said, most of that is dependent upon your use of a tripod (and even though a remote / cable release isn't 100% necessary - you could use the 2 second delay feature to help avoid camera shake, a remote / cable release just makes it a whole lot easier and or quicker, and it help to assure that you don't miss any shots while waiting for that 2 second delay).
I've actually gotten some really nice results of fireworks using my little P&S camera (that has a nighttime mode) and a tripod.

If you are looking for more along the lines of hand held results, or other dark / indoor events (like indoor sporting events) than a lens with a wide aperture (often referred to as fast lenses) is what you are looking for. There are some really nice lenses for pretty reasonable prices. There are quite a few posts on this board about different fast lenses, and people's opinions about them.

For example, the post that was done right above me (it was posted while I was writing mine).

 

[ukcatfan]

Any camera will take nice fireworks pictures with a tripod and a cable release. There are entire threads here devoted to fireworks photography.

If you're looking for something in OTHER low light situations, you will find lots of advice here. What you need is a lens with a larger aperture. The nifty fifty (50mm f1.8) is generally accepted to be a great lens for the money at just under $100. They go up from there, but that's a great place to start.

I could be wrong, but I do not believe the D5000 has a focus motor in the body, so the 50mm would not AF. If AF is important to you, then their 35mm f/1.8 is probably a better option. I believe it is around $200.

 

[Gdad]

+1 for tripod

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Another +1 for a tripod. A $100 tripod is vastly superior to hand holding. A $200 tripod is noticeably better than a $100 tripod. You can get much more expensive than that, but the improvements get smaller and smaller for every dollar you spend.

If you are taking pictures of things that aren't moving, just about any lens will work. If you are taking pictures in low light of stuff that moves, be prepared for some compromises. I'd start with the tripod and do the best you can with that. While you do that, you'll also learn more and have a better sense for what lens you want.

As for mega buck $1,000 lenses...I wish. It's easy to go way above $1,000 for a lens these days. Heck, $2,000 is starting to seem common. On the plus side, most of the more expensive lenses that I've bought are worth more now than when I paid for them.

 

[hstrickland]

Thanks, guys, for all the great info!!! I'm bound and determined to make the most of my new camera.....gonna take lots of practice, though

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Check out
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1450061

The tutorials are 100% awesome.

As for your camera, night time and fireworks can almost be classes as 2 different kinds of photo's. The kit lens can do fireworks just fine because fireworks are nothing but light.
Night time photo's and indoor low light are a whole other ball game. That's when you want to look at other lenses.
The lower the F number means the higher the Aperture. I.E. if a lens says F2.8 it lets in much more light than an F4, making it a "faster" lens. For Fireworks, you actually may not want to get a faster lens as it may let in too much light which blows out the highlights on the trails left by the firework. Of course, you could always adjust it down on the camera.

Low light and night shots you want a faster lens. The 35mm 1.8 goes for about $200 and I've loved it so far for indoors on the D5000.