Bruges @ Night - By Lumi :P

[Luminance]

Lo folks, last weekend I've been on a city trip to Brugge/Bruges, Belgium.

As I wandered the streets, looking for beers (there are 100 Belgium Beers, 20+ are from Bruges) I found myself some pretty nice buildings, statues and fountains, which are lit up beautifully, so I couldn't resist grabbing my camera.

Here is a selection of the foto's at dusk/night.

I'll add more pics later to deviant, but as these are themed, I put them up first.
Link 2 Bruges @ Night

What do you guys think of them?
(regarding point of shooting, quality, colour, light etc)

p.s. Goal of these pictures are to motivate people to go visit Bruges, as its a very very nice city.

[smilodon]

Those are some nice shots. I note that you asked for some comments. It would be helpful to know what camera and lens you used and if you used a tripod. Getting sharp focus at night is a nightmare and the images you posted look a little soft. If you were hand holding then you've done fantastically well to get them as good as you have but if they were taken on a tripod there are a few tips you could use to get them really sharp. Shutter speeds and f-stops would also be nice to know, if you can remember them (they often get stored in the original images EXIF data).

[Luminance]

Good point Smilo.
I have a Canon EOS 1000D, I use a EF-S18-55 mm F3.5-5.6 Canon Lens (I do have a Tamaron 70-200 mm lens, but that zoomed in to much).
I'm looking for an inbetween lens, or one for 200+ mm, but I don't really have found one, that wasn't 200+ euros, and since I'm a hobbiest and don't make money with my pics, I don't wat to spend a small fortune extra

Unfortunatly I forgot my tripod (although it was half broken anyways), i did bought a new one right before packing the car on our way home (they where on sale that day lol), so I did all by hand.

As for the ISO I used 1600 constantly as its the max my camera has.

The rest of the settings can be found below:
Picture 1:
Shutter Speed: 1/5 second
Aperture: F/5.6
Focal Length: 18 mm

Picture 2:
Shutter Speed: 1/21 second
Aperture: F/4.0
Focal Length: 18 mm

Picture 3:
Shutter Speed: 1/10 second
Aperture: F/4.0
Focal Length: 25 mm

Picture 4:
Shutter Speed: 1/10 second
Aperture: F/5.6
Focal Length: 30 mm

Picture 5:
Shutter Speed: 1/10 second
Aperture: F/5.6
Focal Length: 45 mm

Picture 6:
Shutter Speed: 1/10 second
Aperture: F/5.6
Focal Length: 55 mm
(The quality is not that good, but I just like the way the statue is looking into the "darkness")

Picture 7:
Shutter Speed: 1/10 second
Aperture: F/3.5
Focal Length: 22 mm

Picture 8:
Shutter Speed: 1/10 second
Aperture: F/4.0
Focal Length: 18 mm

[smilodon]

Sorry I didn't see you'd updated the thread. Well I guess you worked out that a tripod was important for night work if you bought a new one . The general rule is that the slowest shutter speed you can hand hold at is matched to the focal length of the lens. So for example if you're shooting at 100mm your shutter speed should be at least 1/100 second. Likewise if you're shooting at 200mm you should go no slower than 1/200mm and so on. This rule breaks down at somewhere around 1/60 to 1/30 second when regardless of the focal length you're going to get trouble with camera shake. So when you were shooting at 18mm theoretically you would still need a shutter speed of 1/60 second. Electronic vibration reduction, if it's fitted on your lens) can add one or two stops to that, so an absolute maximum hand held speed would be 1/15 to 1/30 second.

For me I would never try to shoot slower than 1/30 second and that's with vibration reduction turned on. Anything less than 1/30 and I'm going to see a softening of the images regardless of what I do. This is why at the very slow shutter speeds you were having to use, due to the limited light, your shots were always going to be slightly soft. That being said getting them as sharp as you did was a major achievment.

The tips I've been given for shooting without a tripod is to lean on a wall, against a lampost etc and try to brace myself so I can keep the camera steady. Another trick is to use the self timer rather than actually press the shutter release. Pushing down on the button can make the camera move slightly just when it nees to be as still as possible. Set the self timer to 2 seconds for example and you can be holding the camera as still as possible when the shutter fires.

Also shooting at ISO 1600 is going to add some noise into a shot although your Canon (or your post processing) seems to have kept the shots nice and clean.

Apart from that technicall stuff they look pretty cool. The main rules to follow when doing buildings is to keep your horizon line as horizintal as possible and to keep the main subject of the shot either a little to the left or right of centre.

One small point is that in shot 2 you have a couple of people at the bottom of the image who are disappearing out of the image. It's usually best to try not to cut people in half like that when composing a shot. Either step back to get them completely in shot or recompose when they have moved away. A little point but it can help.

[Luminance]

grr  this is the 2nd time in this topic my post disapears after pressing post quick reply!!!

As for the retype part:

Nice, I wasn't aware there was a general rule for shutterspeeds and focal lenghts.  Unfortunatly image stabilisation is a bit over budget for me, as its just a hobby, atleast, the Canons lenses are. Hopefully Tamron will come with 200+ mm IS lenses soon, who fit my budget better.

As for your softening, mybe you need a newer body? Or you might want to do as me (if your not doing it allready) and hold down the button halfway down and give the final gentle push in between heartbeats (while holding your breath). Your body is then at its most steady. If there isn't a wall nearby (I was actually standing one one to get as least people in my foto's as possible) a small bend in your knees  might do the trick.
(thats all I did on the lower speeds anyways, maybe it was that, maybe the camera)

I am forgetting constantly to buy a clicker (cord with button) so that i don't have to touch the camera anymore, but maybe the self time will do the trick just as good.

Which ISO would you recommend then? somewhere between 6-800?

Hmm, why should it be off center? to get a better focus or?

It was pretty busy on the square, I think a good 500 people where sitting around, walking or cycling (even carriages were coming and going repeatedly very often). Standing on the stone fences helped me losing allot, but it was impossible to get none on them, or all of them whole. There were simply to many moving people as soon as some got up and left, others swarmed in to seat somewhere near lol. But i'll take it into extra consideration next time.

[smilodon]

I struggle to shoot sharp at less than 1/60 sec as I'm getting old and unsteady. I'd love to blame my gear but it's pretty state of the art, so it's all down to my shakey hands :-)

The idea about shooting off centre is known as the rule of thirds. Supposedly the ancient Greeks discovered that we find an image more pleasing when we use the rule for painting or photography. Google 'rule of thirds' for an explanation. Night shooting with crowds is about as tough as it gets. Your pics were nice in spite of the challenges.

[Luminance]

Cheers

As for the rule of thirds, thats very interesting, Now I get it why there is a function that divides the picture in 9 squares or 27 lol.