PF Photo Contest - Night Fever (6/22-6/28)

[ZapperZ]

Night Fever

Photos for this week's contest must show a night scene. There must be a clear depiction that it is at night. A photo taken indoors with the lights on at night, is not sufficient.

Contest Rules:

1. Any digital photo or digitally-scanned photo relevant to the theme will be accepted within the contest period. In case there's a gray area, or you're not sure if the picture is suitable, check with me first.

2. Please resize your digital photo to no more than 800 x 600 or 600 x 800 pixels. You may also crop your picture if you wish. You are also allowed to adjust the brightness and contrast of your picture but these should not dramatically alter the look of the picture. But other than those, any form of picture editing or modification is not allowed. This is a photo contest, not a picture editing/special effect contest. You may add a watermark or your name/nickname to the photo for identification purposes.

3. Upload your photos to any of the photo servers such as imageshack or photobucket. Then post it the relevant contest thread and link your picture using the img command. PM me if you do not know how. Alternatively, you may simply upload your image file to PF, and then have the full image displayed in your post.

4. Only ONE picture per member per contest. Once a picture is posted, it cannot be changed other than a total withdrawl by that member from that week's photo contest. Exceptions will be made for modification to comply with the rules, such as resizing.

5. At the end of the contest period, I will open a poll and every PF member can vote for the picture they like best.

6. Note that in case we have a large number of entries, I will do the polling in more than one thread. If that's the case, you can vote in each of the polling threads. The photos will be assigned in the polling threads in the order they were submitted.

7. The photo of the subject must be something that you took directly, not via in intermediary medium, and not taken by someone else. Unless otherwise noted, a photo of another photo, painting, print, etc. does not qualify.

8. You can use a picture only once. Once it is used in a contest, it cannot be reused in another contest.

9. Please post only pictures meant for submission in this thread. Photos not meant for submission must not be posted in the contest thread. Posting of more than one photos by a member may result in an automatic disqualification from the week's contest.

Zz.

 

[DennisN]

Very nice photo with nice stars, @Wrichik Basu !

We never had a good experience with night photos. Our cameras don't have good night photography feature. Fixing the camera on tripod doesn't help either. If we fix it on a tripod, set a timer and use the night photo setting, and then move away from the camera, we always find that there were some vibrations due to which the photo came blurred (shutter speed is low). No idea how we shot this one

Hmm, it seems your basic prodecure is right, though I don't know what the shutter speed is. If you've got a phone or camera with manual settings, here is what I would recommend for night photos with stars:

1. Mount the phone/camera on a tripod which has sufficient weight/is sufficiently stable.
   Use these camera settings (ca):
2. Focus: Set to infinity
3. ISO: 50 - 1000 (low rather than high ISO is generally better, because the pixel noise will be less, but sometimes high ISO may be needed)
4. Shutter speed: At least 4 seconds.
5. Timer: 3 - 10 seconds so vibrations from the camera/tripod disappear. If possible use a remote control to take photos. Some phones/camera apps can also be triggered by voice commands, which is good.
   
   Another technique which can be used is photo stacking, that is, taking multiple photos of the same scene and then combine them into one photo with special software, like DeepSkyStacker or Registax.

 

[DennisN]

Malmö Inner Lighthouse, built in 1878.

 

[kuruman]

After dark view of a Greek island harbor

 

[jtbell]

In a suburb of Austin, Texas:

 

[Wrichik Basu]

Very nice photo with nice stars, @Wrichik Basu !

Thanks for pointing out the stars. Didn't see them before.

Hmm, it seems your basic prodecure is right, though I don't know what the shutter speed is. If you've got a phone or camera with manual settings, here is what I would recommend for night photos with stars:

1. Mount the phone/camera on a tripod which has sufficient weight/is sufficiently stable.
   Use these camera settings (ca):
2. Focus: Set to infinity
3. ISO: 50 - 1000 (low rather than high ISO is generally better, because the pixel noise will be less, but sometimes high ISO may be needed)
4. Shutter speed: At least 4 seconds.
5. Timer: 3 - 10 seconds so vibrations from the camera/tripod disappear. If possible use a remote control to take photos. Some phones/camera apps can also be triggered by voice commands, which is good.
   
   Another technique which can be used is photo stacking, that is, taking multiple photos of the same scene and then combine them into one photo with special software, like DeepSkyStacker or Registax.

We have two cameras: Panasonic FZ70 and Panasonic FZ35, and generally use the former for tricky situations. The thing that is most disturbing for night shots is the vibrations. We fix the camera on the tripod, increase shutter speed to around what you have said, and set a timer of around 5s. Remote or voice activation is not available. But even then, the photos come blurred, as if the ground was shaking when the shutter was open. Maybe we have to add some weight to the tripod to increase its stability.

 

[Borek]

the photos come blurred

Does the camera have picture stabilization? Switch it off for long exposures.

Long shot: I would try to switch the focus to manual as well.

 

[Wrichik Basu]

Does the camera have picture stabilization? Switch it off for long exposures.

It remains on by default. Will switch it off from next time.

Long shot: I would try to switch the focus to manual as well.

I generally use MF for most cases. It helps to shift focus easily from front objects to the ones behind them. This is generally difficult with AF.

 

[DennisN]

The thing that is most disturbing for night shots is the vibrations.

Yeah, I sometimes get messy night shots even when I use a tripod. So I often take multiple shots, or "bursts" of shots, with some delay in between, so I afterwards can select the photos with the best focus. I used a tripod for the lighthouse above, I wouldn't be able to shoot that with just my bare hands .

We have two cameras: Panasonic FZ70 and Panasonic FZ35, and generally use the former for tricky situations.

Interesting, I've previously been considering buying a Panasonic FZ70 myself, due to the good reviews of the camera . But other things got in the way .

Panasonic FZ70

By the way, have you tried pointing that camera at the Moon, since the camera amazingly enough have 60x optical zoom? You can get great views of the Moon with it: video example here.

 

[Wrichik Basu]

By the way, have you tried pointing that camera at the Moon, since the camera amazingly enough have 60x optical zoom?

Yes, I have some good pics. One such is uploaded here. (Couldn't post here directly as photos not meant for submission are not allowed.)

The one in your video is better as it even shows the surface of the moon.

 

[jtbell]

In addition to the suggestions for improvements at picture-taking time, some work with image-editing software can compensate for flaws in exposure. I tweak most of my pictures with the “curves” tool in Photoshop.

 

[Marzena]

 

[jtbell]

Is that streak an airplane or a meteor?

 

[Borek]

Iridium flare. Actually I considered posting almost identical picture, as my camera was just a few meters to the side

 

[Andy Resnick]

 

[ZapperZ]

The fish that almost ate the Field Museum.

Zz.

 

[morrobay]

Thursday Night Fever

 

[nsaspook]

 

[epenguin]

+

 

[ZapperZ]

Final day to post your photo for this contest.

Zz.

 

[epenguin]

However I also have been remembering a similar thread last year. I have a fairly basic camera cost about €300. You can see features like craters on the moon - this was taken during an eclipse. The outline is a bit fuzzy but I am wondering whether this is due to movement of the moon. There just happened to be this eclipse, I haven't put much effort into this thing I admit.


https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/pf-photo-contest-night-light-8-11-8-17.953106/post-6042414

 

[Wrichik Basu]

@ZapperZ I didn't know that I had already posted my photo before (I found the same photo in the link that epenguin posted above.) Now the decision is up to you: Either you let me put in another photo, or I withdraw myself from this week's contest to comply with the rules.

 

[ZapperZ]

@ZapperZ I didn't know that I had already posted my photo before (I found the same photo in the link that epenguin posted above.) Now the decision is up to you: Either you let me put in another photo, or I withdraw myself from this week's contest to comply with the rules.

Go ahead and post another photo. I'll have one of the Moderators remove your first entry.

Zz.

 

[Wrichik Basu]

Go ahead and post another photo. I'll have one of the Moderators remove your first entry.

Zz.

Thank you. Here goes the second one: