Wellington By Night

I've taken this panorama at the Wellington waterfront on a night photography trip. It is amazing what colors a camera can detect at night. What you perceive with the naked eye is in a lot of cases only a glimpse of what the resulting image looks like. Different lights throws off different colors at different color temperatures. If you have not yet tried night time photography, I do hope this post will serve as an encouragement to take you camera and try it for yourself.

Do's and dont's:

• Try and shoot when there is still a little bit of color in the sky. The bit of light left will help to outline you subject.
• Use a sturdy tripod and a remote shutter cable to make sure you do not introduce vibration when you press the shutter. Also, keep in mind you will be shooting at long exposure times.
• Shoot at ISO100 to reduce noise.
• Use an aperture of f8, which is typically where your lens will perform at its best.
• Let your camera work out shutter speed.
• Turn off any image stabilizing your camera or lens may have.
• Optionally, use manual focus. Some cameras may hunt for focus in low light conditions.

Once you are set up, take a sample shot and check the exposure and focus on you camera. Zoom in to make sure your main focal point is sharp. In case your image's exposure is not to your liking, dial the camera to manual mode and set the same f-stop but with a slightly slower shutter speed.

Once all is fine, take you final picture.

In post processing on your computer you will find that a little vibrance and saturation may be required depending on the light conditions you shot the photo in.

Canon 600D, Canon 50mm f1.8 Mk II. Exposure 6sec at f8, ISO 100.