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Hi Photographer friends,
This week, I am taking you back to before we started our RV travel. We visited some friends in Vegas and I ventured late at night to capture some night photography. Vegas is surely a good place for that. I like neon lights, busy streets and illuminated buildings. There's no place live Vegas for that.
This time, what happens in Vegas is not staying in Vegas.
I was still using my Pentax K-5 at the time, and used various lenses on this photo shoot. I thought I would be alone, since it was around 1:00 A.M. Well, Vegas never sleeps.
A few things you need to know when shooting at night.
- You need a tripod or a device to keep the camera from moving. I used a Gitzo tripod.
- I often use the Pentax remote control F but when in an environment like this, I prefer using a cable switch like the Pentax CS-205. Similar results could also be achieved by using the built-in self-timer. Never press the shutter with your finger. It will generate blurring.
- Once you frame the scene, an aperture of f/8 is usually a good place to start. A wide aperture can introduce flares and a small aperture will take forever. My first test shot is always at 1 second. From there, I adjust accordingly. Using Digital SLRs is great as you can see the image instantly and make all of the adjustments until you like the results.
- Remember that it's always easier to fix an underexposed image that it is to fix an overexposed one. You can always fix shadow to a point but if a portion of the image is so overexposed that it's washed out, you can never bring that back.
- I use Adobe Lightroom on all my images. There is always something that can be fixed.
- I shoot exclusively in RAW and convert to JPEG after fine-tuning the while balance, the exposure, the colors, the clarity, and other parameters. Of course, it doesn't always need correction, but if it does, RAW is the only way to go.
Go out there and make some images.
Next week, I will be in Florida. I'm sure there is going to be a lot of opportunities.
Have a great week and I hope to have you all as visitors next Wednesday for the continuation of my travel series of images.
Thanks for reading,
Yvon Bourque
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