Practicing night shots

"BeaterGT" (beatergt) 09/14/2015 at 10:19 • Filed to: gopro, Colorado

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Thoughts? Suggestions? I’m using a GoPro4 until I can save up for a real camera.

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > BeaterGT 09/14/2015 at 10:28

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No suggestions, but I want your paint colour.

BeaterGT > Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer 09/14/2015 at 10:50

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It’s my friend’s truck, but I agree, the color is awesome.

Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer > BeaterGT 09/14/2015 at 10:51

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Recommend.

Camshaft Chris: Skyline/McLaren/Porsche Fanboy > BeaterGT 09/14/2015 at 11:05

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Best suggestion would be to get some good editing software.

BeaterGT > Camshaft Chris: Skyline/McLaren/Porsche Fanboy 09/14/2015 at 11:08

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Such as?

Raymundo > BeaterGT 09/14/2015 at 11:18

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A real camera? The GoPro4 is a real camera, but it’s not a camera I would use to take stills at night. For the same price as the GoPro4, I bought an entry level DSLR. You don’t have to buy an expensive camera to get good results. Photography is all about capturing and controlling light. With a GoPro you can’t really control much. With an entry level DSLR you have full control of how much light comes into the camera.

With an DSLR you will be able to control your aperature size, ISO, and shutter speed. To capture the above image I used a shutter speed of 15 seconds and walked around the car, “painting” light onto it with a flashlight.

In this scenario I didn’t have the luxury of using a long shutter speed so I had to bump up the ISO, I believe this was at 800, in order to capture images at night without a tripod.

Again higher ISO, shorter shutter speed. I also have my aperture setting at the lowest setting which opens up the aperature all the way allowing more light to get to the sensor. The will also shorten your depth of field and create a nice blur on things that are out of focus.

This picture was taken by roflcopter and was done with a Canon 40D; even cheaper than a GoPro4. The point is that you don’t need to spend a lot of money to get good results. Get an entry level camera and learn how to capture and control light before you really lighten your wallet.

BeaterGT > Raymundo 09/14/2015 at 11:36

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Obviously it’s a real camera! The GoPro can do different exposure times and ISO settings so as of right now, I’m going to be learning on that. We were using a tripod and different attempts with cell phones and flashlights. Thanks for the tips, I’ll try and work some of them in tonight with my LGT.

Camshaft Chris: Skyline/McLaren/Porsche Fanboy > BeaterGT 09/14/2015 at 12:03

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Personally, I used Photoshop Elements 11. Picked it up at Costco for $70. Best deal you can get for it. I also use the Nikon software that came with my camera. Not good for too much but editing the lighting and saturation.

Also, for night shots, you still need some form of lighting. Not anything crazy bright or reflecting (i.e. flash), but just some soft light, ideally something in the background that doesn’t reflecting or cause glare in the paint/glass.

BeaterGT > Camshaft Chris: Skyline/McLaren/Porsche Fanboy 09/14/2015 at 12:06

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Thank you for elaborating! I’ll look into picking up better editing software. We were just toying around with flashlights and smartphones while the GoPro was on Night Lapse mode (only 5 or 10 second exposures)

Camshaft Chris: Skyline/McLaren/Porsche Fanboy > BeaterGT 09/14/2015 at 12:36

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No problem man. There are lots of different editing programs out there and everyone has their own personal preference, but the combo that seem so work best for me are the two programs I listed. Now, Photoshop will do everything that the Nikon program does as well, but it’s more of process, so I like to use them as a combo.

BeaterGT > Camshaft Chris: Skyline/McLaren/Porsche Fanboy 09/14/2015 at 12:42

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I downloaded Picasa and Lightroom last night, still yet to mess with them too much. There’s quite a learning curve. The GoPro-shipped software is primarily for video editing but there are sliders and whatnot.

Stephen the Canuck > BeaterGT 09/14/2015 at 13:35

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Skip Picasa and go straight to Lightroom. It’s got much better capabilities and isn’t that much more complex.

Stephen the Canuck > BeaterGT 09/14/2015 at 13:41

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You don’t need to save up a whole lot of money to pick up a used DSLR or MILC. Those would be the best value for starting out.

I can’t say that a GroPro would be the best camera for stills, but it should work well enough to practice your composition and working with natural light.

I’m guessing you’re into automotive photography so here’s a few links.

http://www.speedhunters.com/tag/photo-101/

http://www.carphototutorials.com/

http://www.motorverso.com/portfolio-item…

http://www.chasingasphalt.com/

http://learntoshootcars.com/

We also have this: http://photography.kinja.com/

BeaterGT > Stephen the Canuck 09/14/2015 at 13:52

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I should have wrote I’m starting with $0 so either way I will need to save for one and I know the GP isn’t the best (it’s still 12mp!) but I’m working with what I got :)

I’m getting into photography in general,but thank you so much for sharing the links!!

Stephen the Canuck > BeaterGT 09/14/2015 at 14:00

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You should be able to find a decent starting kit for around $200. Photography can get crazy expensive, but almost anything will work to start out with.

Working with what you have is one of the main things with photography, if you know your equipment and how to do things then you can get amazing results for very little investment.

BeaterGT > Stephen the Canuck 09/14/2015 at 15:10

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Exactly that! I know there is always better equipment to be had (when isn’t there?) but I have to master what I have now before I can move on. I don’t think that shot up top came out too bad for my first try either.

Stephen the Canuck > BeaterGT 09/14/2015 at 15:49

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It is pretty decent. Did you crop it that way? There’s a fair bit of dead space above and below the truck. The lighting isn’t particularly even, though that could have been from the lights you were using. If you could get the whole truck lit like the middle of it the colour would pop better I think.

BeaterGT > Stephen the Canuck 09/14/2015 at 15:54

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Our tripod was very much...improvised. The crop is just a shitty instagram crop and the truck was at a park so we didn’t have much to work with for background. As for the lighting, I actually stacked three pictures to get the shot and then tried to do the editing post-stack. From my other comments, you’ll see I’m a noob at editing as well but learning nevertheless.

Stephen the Canuck > BeaterGT 09/14/2015 at 16:24

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Instagram would do that. Usually when taking automotive pictures there is room left in between the front of the vehicle and the side of the frame so there’s “room to drive into”.

It loses detail around the roof, wheels, and both ends from the lack of light there. So evening out the light would be good. The background is fine. It’s mostly the light is the issue, where I think using the GoPro is lacking. Most DSLR or MILC or even higher end point and shoots will allow for much longer shutter speeds so you could get much more even lighting. Shooting with the GoPro and stacking photos, you would want to get good lighting on a different part of the vehicle for each photo, then stack and mask them so the well lit parts all end up in one photo.

So for this case, if you’d taken another five photos, one for the roof, one for each end, and one around each wheel, you could merge those and end up with more even lighting.

Night time photos are one of the tougher situations. Well lit/daytime is much easier. That’s when it would be good to practice your compositions.

BeaterGT > Stephen the Canuck 09/14/2015 at 16:33

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You’re the man, Stephen. Thanks for all of your help.