Photography & Videotaping at night - tips please

[Torontogal]

Hi all,
We will be attending MNSSHP and a Disney cruise in Oct. I plan to take a ton of photos of the night-time parade and shows which may be rather dark. Any ideas on how to take the best shots?

I have a Nikon CoolPix digital camera, an Olympus regular camera and my Sony handicam 8mm. Can someone direct me to the right settings I should use? Will nighttime parade shots turn out better if I use my regular camera or digital?
Thanks so much!

 

[MOmousefan]

Use a tripod whenever possible. My camcorder is a Canon Elura 90 and takes poor night movies. My Canon S70 has many settings that improve night shots. The following picture was taken with a tripod.

 

[Torontogal]

That photo is stunning - I love it.
I have a tripod but I don't understand how that can improve my night shots - is it because the camera would not move?
I was not even considering bringing my tripod -- maybe I should reconsider...

 

[bazzanoid]

Most digital cameras, even in auto mode, will increase the exposure time under dark conditions - most modern ones will do anything between a few tenths of a second and about 8 seconds by auto, or longer manually - naturally a tripod is highly recommended to make sure you don't move - every little move will add a blur layer to the final image.

 

[Torontogal]

Thanks for the exaplantion on this. I guess I am packing the tripod! Another dumb question, when taking video with my Sony Handicam - should I change the setting at all or simply take video as is using my tripod? I really want to get good video of the parade!

 

[bazzanoid]

Thanks for the exaplantion on this. I guess I am packing the tripod! Another dumb question, when taking video with my Sony Handicam - should I change the setting at all or simply take video as is using my tripod? I really want to get good video of the parade!

Which model handicam do you have?

 

[ukcatfan]

I can give advice on the digital camera. The same concepts apply to the film camera.

If all of your low light pictures are going to be of things that are moving, then a tripod might not help you too much. When the subject is moving, you need a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the action and this is usually fast enough to not worry about blur introduced from camera shake. For shots like the one in this thread, a tripod is great.

I suggest that you try to find similar situations at home and practice to see what settings on your camera end up the best. The parades move at about a normal walking speed. If your camera has it, using a shutter priority or full manual mode may be needed. Start around 1/60 second and adjust both ways until you get the results you want. Keep in mind that you will need a slower shutter speed when you zoom closer to the subject in order to capture enough light, but remember that you become more susceptible to camera motion blur when you do this. Wide angle shots will likely give you better results. Find a spot for the parade early so you are closer to begin with. They also slow down a little when making turns, so those spots might be better. I like the turn from Liberty Square into Frontierland on the inside of the turn.

Try using a wide open aperture also because on a P&S digital camera the depth of field is usually large even as wide as F/2.8. That would likely be too wide open on a DSLR and part of the subject would be out of focus. You should also think about increasing the ISO level to make the shutter faster. It does add noise, but decent noise reduction software can help cure that. Noiseware has a free edition, but it does not do batch processing.

Good luck!

Kevin

 

[Torontogal]

Thanks for the explanation on this. I guess I am packing the tripod! Another dumb question, when taking video with my Sony Handicam - should I change the setting at all or simply take video as is using my tripod? I really want to get good video of the parade!

 

[Torontogal]

It is a Sony digital handicam DCRTRV103 which takes 8mm tapes.

 

[bazzanoid]

Check your menu settings - under "Program AE" will be lots of different pre-set lighting situations - sunset/moon is good for low light situations, and some of the TRV's had a dedicated low-light colour luminance setting, normally called Dusk - worth checking!

 

[PaulD]

You're camera may not be capable of good night video. I've owned an 8mm Sony and it took horrible video at night. It just didn't have enough sensitivity. You may have one option that is a little bit of a compromise. You probably have a "Night Shot" mode that uses IR light to illuminate your scene. The result is either a green video or a B&W video depending on the model. You can buy an IR light to add even more illumination. Look at the Sony HVL-IRM for about $50. The upside is that you can illuminate your scene without bothering anyone around you (like you would if you used a regular video light). The downside is a monochrome video and people with those weird looking glowing eyes. Of course you could also buy a newer camcorder...

 

[extreme8]

Take a look at this recent thread for some inspiration on low light shots.
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1186626