Thursday, October 21, 2010

Friday PhotoShare ~

My husband and I took an evening trip to our closest lighthouse the other evening. I started to photograph with the recommended ISO 200, f/11, 30 sec. I understand this was a good setting to capture the star created by the flashing light. This produced a very dark image and foolishly I bumped the f stop to f/22. Wrong! What I got was black photo with one tiny white speck. Than it dawned on me to turn the f-stop down, I turned it to f/5.6 and to my surprise there was an actual image on the screen!! I was so excited, it was a "light bulb" moment.

The most difficult thing for me was focusing, (my lens doesn't have an infinity setting). It was so dark and I could barely see the lighthouse through the eyepiece and far to dark for auto focus. Dang!

My lowest ISO is 200 and it than goes to LO 0.3, LO 0.7, LO 1, what the heck does that mean?? Guess, it means, more reading is needed. I did use a tripod and I did use the self timer. I am pleased with the outcome but there is room for improvement.

I have been looking at this light for well over 35 years, and that night I realized the light does not flash, it is a revolving light, which means I would not get the star effect I was hoping for. No worries, we have 12 land lighthouses, 10 water based lighthouses and 2 lightships in my local area. I am certain one must have a flashing light.

Heading out this evening to try my luck with night shots of my local marina. After receiving a package from Japan today I am certain I have room on the 4GB to practice. Thank you very much to our hostess ~ Courtney.

Please critique, any and all comments are always welcome.


9 comments:

SandyCarlson said...

That is utterly dreamy.

That is my criticism.

Courtney said...

This is great! I love how you can even see the stars!! I'm so glad you had a "light bulb" moment :O) If you did want to keep your aperture at a higher number, you would just want to leave your shutter speed open even longer. Just depends on what kind of look you are going for. I think you did such an amazing job with your first night shot!! Hope you love your 4GB memory card! I know I do :O)

Anonymous said...

Hiya Trish,
I am in the middle of coming to grips with a new camera too. Very difficult. Far too many bells and whistles.

I am impressed with your effort, star-shine or not.

Have you gotten into Active D-lighting yet? That might put some detail in the dark bits.
I left that setting on by mistake and all my 200+ landscape pictures in the sun turned to mush.
Oh well....

NatureFootstep said...

I have no clue of what the LO setting means. Never seen it before. But this photo is ARTWORK!
I really love it. You even got a few stars in it.

But....it might be an even more dramatic photo if you remove the stars and give the colors more saturation. If you do it, please let me know. I would love to see that. :)

Trish ~ ♥ ~ said...

Courtney ~ I looks like my shutter will only go up to 30 sec, then it says "Bulb". Not sure what that is?

Morememes ~ I was reading about the Active D lighting, however I have not "played" with it as of yet.

NatureFootsteps ~ sounds like a good idea, I will let you know.

Thank you everyone for your comments and help. You've all helped me to improve my photography skills and I do appreciate it.

Janell said...

Great picture; love how you got the stars in there.

Courtney said...

I was just playing with a night shot myself and noticed my camera only goes to 30 seconds too and then says "bulb", looks like I need to figure that out too :O)

Janell said...

Thanks for your kind words on my blog! I'm actually inspired by you and want to try some night photography soon. :) See ya on the next photo share!

Charlene said...

I love night photography...you did a great job with this lighthouse. Beautiful!