Exposure Tips & Tricks?

2Biased · 19 Sep 2015, 10:58 pm

Hey guys,

Recently did a bit of 'monkey-bar' at the Story Bridge, unfortunately most of the shots were extremely blurry from my inability to hold the camera...

I do have some normal exposure shots taken on a tripod, and I was wondering how I could get them to be less blurry as well as less light reflections off of the lens. Some of the pics I took are below. (apologies to mods if this isnt the right place to post, im new)

1. Overlook of the Boardwalk

2. Between the Braces

3. The Monkey Bar Challenge

4. The North Entrance Right

5. The North Entrance Left

6. Inside-Out

dodger · 20 Sep 2015, 5:26 pm

When you say monkey bar, are you hanging off one handed with another hand on the camera?

If that's the case, then I'm surprised your shots are as stable as they are!

The obvious answer is to use a tripod for nighttime photography but if you are indeed hanging off a bridge that might not be possible! Using a higher iso and wider aperture so that you can have a faster shutter speed would be the next thing to try!

No+Pro · 20 Sep 2015, 7:11 pm

They could call it the Darwin Challenge

2Biased · 20 Sep 2015, 9:28 pm

d0dg3r wrote:When you say monkey bar, are you hanging off one handed with another hand on the camera?

If that's the case, then I'm surprised your shots are as stable as they are!

The obvious answer is to use a tripod for nighttime photography but if you are indeed hanging off a bridge that might not be possible! Using a higher iso and wider aperture so that you can have a faster shutter speed would be the next thing to try!

Only in one of the photos (The Monkey Bar Challenge) am I hanging off with one hand on the camera etc.

I have used a tripod for all the other shots, but I'm still getting a bit of reflection from the light and sometimes the odd blur. I always thought it could be the glass of the lens I'm using but I bought new ones and it still seems to be there. I've seen plenty of shots where all the lights in the photo are extremely crisp, rather than being blurry around the egdes (as seen in photo 1 with building logo's etc.)

No+Pro wrote:They could call it the Darwin Challenge

They could indeed. There is a spot where you can get access to the walkways used for maintenance under the bridge, I've tried twice, failing both times. I'm not one for heights.

No+Pro · 20 Sep 2015, 9:36 pm

i think its hard to avoid lens flare when your lens is facing the light source, better glass might not be as easily affected, you just learn to pick your angles. that said, have been playing around with intentional flare on non-splore pics lately, mixed results, some i really like.

as for dangling off the bridge, surprised noone came looking for you, there are twenty-something cameras on the bridge these days if you believe the newses. in a couple of months i would say it won't be possible, when I drove across the other day they looked to be making a start on the anti-jump fences

2Biased · 20 Sep 2015, 9:40 pm

No+Pro wrote:i think its hard to avoid lens flare when your lens is facing the light source, better glass might not be as easily affected, you just learn to pick your angles. that said, have been playing around with intentional flare on non-splore pics lately, mixed results, some i really like.

as for dangling off the bridge, surprised noone came looking for you, there are twenty-something cameras on the bridge these days if you believe the newses. in a couple of months i would say it won't be possible, when I drove across the other day they looked to be making a start on the anti-jump fences

Yeah, I was going to head over the Bridge for a nice shot at the South Entrance but realised that they had closed the walkway off. I was disappointed. I'm assuming the anti-jump fences will also obstruct the photo view, which is a shame but I guess still a necessary asset for the bridge. The whole reason I wasn't able to get onto the under-carriage of the bridge was because they had added some new beams on the underside of the bridge, my guess is to stop people from what I was doing.

Cheers for the tips.

Light Knight · 21 Sep 2015, 6:37 am

Also, some parts of the bridge bounce when cars travel over it. So night shots where the tripod is on the bridge deck need to be kept to down to only a second or two (and when cars are not passing) by using high ISO.

sneakes_ · 04 Nov 2015, 7:21 pm

Really nice shots

Unclehaggz · 04 Nov 2015, 8:52 pm

Nice shots for sure ! they have nearly finished the "anti-jump fencing" on the western/upstream side, noticed when I drove past today!!

I'd hate to know what it cost the ratepayer for all the anti-climbing cladding and now the "anti-jump" fencing !!

2Biased · 05 Nov 2015, 7:43 am

Unclehaggz wrote:Nice shots for sure ! they have nearly finished the "anti-jump fencing" on the western/upstream side, noticed when I drove past today!!

I'd hate to know what it cost the ratepayer for all the anti-climbing cladding and now the "anti-jump" fencing !!

Yeah, and from what I've heard, the anti-jump fence now blocks most of the view

Which is a shame, but they definitely need them, I had a friend who committed suicide off that bridge in 2009, not very nice.

Unclehaggz · 05 Nov 2015, 8:29 am

2Biased wrote:
Unclehaggz wrote:Nice shots for sure ! they have nearly finished the "anti-jump fencing" on the western/upstream side, noticed when I drove past today!!

I'd hate to know what it cost the ratepayer for all the anti-climbing cladding and now the "anti-jump" fencing !!

Yeah, and from what I've heard, the anti-jump fence now blocks most of the view Which is a shame, but they definitely need them, I had a friend who committed suicide off that bridge in 2009, not very nice.

Sorry for your loss!

Vicinity · 05 Nov 2015, 3:50 pm

Just because you never really got an answer, you can make the light crisper etc in post using lightroom - that's probably why all the other shots you've seen are how they are

2Biased · 06 Nov 2015, 9:03 am

CafeCSK wrote:Just because you never really got an answer, you can make the light crisper etc in post using lightroom - that's probably why all the other shots you've seen are how they are

Okay, cheers!

blackpoint · 17 Nov 2015, 11:23 am

From the starburst effect on your lights (which looks good) I'm guessing that you are at the smaller with end of the aperture of the lens.
With some lenses you can get diffraction which can reduce your overall sharpness if you push the aperture all the way to f22 or whatever your lens is. For a scene where I want everything as sharp as possible, I'll typically set the aperture between f8 to f12 (I use a f2.8 lens). I won't go above that for any reason except increasing motion blur (in which case I use a ND filter anyway) or for starburst effects.
If after this I am still struggling because of movement, I could bump the ISO up a bit.
You could try learning about setting your hyperfocal distance. That will help ensure that you have maximum depth of field across the shot from the foreground to background. There's hyperfocal app calculators you can get but as a rule of thumb, focus 1/3 into the scene.
I usually switch the live view mode on So I can digitally zoom on the focus point (don't zoom with the lens) and manually adjust The focus.
I Edit everything in Lightroom. all my shots have adjustments to exposure, blacks/whites, clarity, highlights/shadows, tone curve, sharpening and noise reduction. It's amazing what Lightroom is capable of of achieving when editing or even salvaging photos.
Hope this helps.

Light Knight · 18 Nov 2015, 10:16 pm

blackpoint wrote:From the starburst effect on your lights (which looks good) I'm guessing that you are at the smaller with end of the aperture of the lens.
With some lenses you can get diffraction which can reduce your overall sharpness if you push the aperture all the way to f22 or whatever your lens is. For a scene where I want everything as sharp as possible, I'll typically set the aperture between f8 to f12 (I use a f2.8 lens). I won't go above that for any reason except increasing motion blur (in which case I use a ND filter anyway) or for starburst effects.
If after this I am still struggling because of movement, I could bump the ISO up a bit.
You could try learning about setting your hyperfocal distance. That will help ensure that you have maximum depth of field across the shot from the foreground to background. There's hyperfocal app calculators you can get but as a rule of thumb, focus 1/3 into the scene.
I usually switch the live view mode on So I can digitally zoom on the focus point (don't zoom with the lens) and manually adjust The focus.
I Edit everything in Lightroom. all my shots have adjustments to exposure, blacks/whites, clarity, highlights/shadows, tone curve, sharpening and noise reduction. It's amazing what Lightroom is capable of of achieving when editing or even salvaging photos.
Hope this helps.

You can usually get a good starburst at around f/16, though it depends on the lens. f/16 is usually much sharper than with the aperture wide open (e.g. f/3.5).

dodger · 19 Nov 2015, 3:38 am

That's true but I've found for most lenses that the sharpness sweet spot is between f/8 and f/11. After that you tend to lose a bit of sharpness.

blackpoint · 19 Nov 2015, 8:12 am

d0dg3r wrote:That's true but I've found for most lenses that the sharpness sweet spot is between f/8 and f/11. After that you tend to lose a bit of sharpness.

It depends on the lens but generally the sweet spot is in the middle of the aperture range. So for a lens that is f2.8 to f22 it will be around 8 but it's part of getting to know the lens that you have. There are slight differences learned by trial and error.
I used to shoot the same scene all the way through the aperture range then compare the images side by side in post. You can then Zoom right in to the edges of the images on both comparisons to see what aperture the sharpness starts to break up. You really need to have your focus settings right to check this way though (see hyperfocal distance).