Photos Of Lights At Night

edited October 2012 Posted in » Canon T2i Forum
I am officially starting a trip tomorrow. I think I got everything I need the only question I have is what would be the best settings to take pictures of the Bellagio fountians and lights at night?
Thanks for all the help.

Comments

  • i would like to know this setting please
  • I have been struggling getting night photos as well, any tip on this would be greatly appreciated.
  • edited January 2018
    Hi
    Living in UK, I had to Google Bellagio fountains. Boy have you chosen a tough subject! Not just a fountain, but a dancing fountain and light show at that. I would be tempted to video rather than try to shoot stills. Individual frames can be extracted from video.
    Let me say that there are as many suggested settings for night photography as there are scenes to shoot.
    The following is how I approach night photography, but a search onYoutube will offer many alternatives.
    1) A tripod is a must with IS turned off for the T2i
    2) Use a wide angle lens or the 18mm end of the kit lens.
    3) Set picture quality to RAW or RAW+JPG
    4) Use aperture priority in the range of F4 - F8
    5) Set ISO to low either 200 or 400
    6) You now have a choice of using the viewfinder or live view.
    7) I use Canon's remote control to initiate the shot, however, if you do not have the remote use the self timer. If using the viewfinder you can also use mirror lock-up, but if using live view the mirror is already up.
    The above settings are good for many scenarios where there is ambient light. However, if your exposures are going to require longer than 30 seconds, you will need to move into full manual mode and set your shutter speed to 'bulb'. This then becomes a trial and error situation to guage the right amount of time needed to keep the shutter open.
    For those of you who are thinking 'but I don't want to use a tripod' I can only say that for good night photography a tripod is par for the course. You can try handheld, but be prepared for a lot of blurry shots.
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