Tips for low-light landscape and railway photography

[Ramsden]

Hello (formerly Twiddler here)

I should be getting a Hoya R72 tomorrow and just searching for a few tips. I do some landscape but at the moment I look for old  railway viaducts - I live in the North of England, so have plenty to choose from. I have an EOS 90D with the kit lens up to 135mm - but hopefully I’ll be getting the EF 70-300 f/4-5.6 IS II UŚM this weekend. 

The light is not very good this time of year, so are there any tried and tested formulas for adjusting exposure. I’ve got a tripod and remote. It seems to be trial and error from what I’ve read so far.

Thanks 

Ramsden

[atam1]

low light is a tricky thing to do, but doable because the camera could see more than our eyes can see. it just needs a little touch- human touch that is. tripod is your bestie here, a sturdy but dependable. a good sbutter release device- wireless or corded another helper for this project. and lastly some planning before it gets dark. 

ditch any lens filter and just clean the glass. set ur cam on a tripod, focus and meter your target, tape ur focus ring with gaffer’s tape, switch lens to manual, plug (or install) the remote shutter, make test shot and adjust if needed, then finally wait til dark and shoot away. 

[Ramsden]

Wow thats sounds pretty interesting, but I can follow the logic.  I've never heard of taping the lens - thats a  serious strategy!

Watch this space. Just need the rain to stop....

Ramsden

[atam1]

yep, tape prevents you from accidentally moving the focus ring

[Waddizzle]

“ The light is not very good this time of year, so are there any tried and tested formulas for adjusting exposure. I’ve got a tripod and remote. It seems to be trial and error from what I’ve read so far. “

You don’t need a lot of light to capture landscapes shots at night.  I used a quality tripod with the center column fully lowered to capture this panoramic image.  I think used a 70-200mm @70mm, f/5.6. 

I had very carefully leveled THE HEAD on the tripod earlier in the day in the daylight.  This meant all I had to do in the dark was level the tripod.

 The bridge is three miles away.  That means I can set focus on the lens to its hyperfocal distance.  That word salad means I set focus to infinity.

I set the camera to Av mode.  I set ISO to 100.  I used the 2-second shutter delay timer. I rolled the camera to portrait mode.  The successive shots over lapped by about 1/3. I gave the software something to chew on.

[Waddizzle]

The bridge photo is a decade old. The lens I used was a Rokinon 85mm T2.1 Cinema lens.  The shutter speed was 8 seconds.  I used Av mode, ISO 100, and let the camera figure out the shutter speed.

I tried to reduce the bit resolution, to reduce the file size, to upload a 40MP image to the forum.

[Ramsden]

Hi Waddizzle

Thanks for the advice and the great photo. I'm quite excited  now because I have a few days in London next week and the bridges on the Thames with the passing boats will be great shots.

I haven't done much at all with long exposure, so I'll be experimenting with that. And the tip about setting up the tripod earlier will certainly get used.

I'm planning a boat trip down the Thames, maybe at night, and or day. So I've got to factor in a moving vehicle and a busy scene. I've got a 10-18mm wide angle which is probably too small which I enjoy using, but I think my kit 18-135 will be a better option.

Thanks again for your help

Best

Ramsden

[Waddizzle]

“ Thanks for the advice and the great photo. I'm quite excited  now because I have a few days in London next week and the bridges on the Thames with the passing boats will be great shots. “

You’re welcome. One could use a wide angle lens and get similar results, but at a much lower resolution. A wider angle lens would also cause the bridge to seem dramatically smaller and farther away.

Unfortunately, the suggestions I just provided above are inappropriate for shooting from a moving boat, be it day or night.  Shooting during the day is a very different scenario than shooting at night.

[Ramsden]

Sorry, didn't mean to detract from my original question. I understand the limitations of my wide angle, but that's for another day! 

Boating down the Thames day and night will be next weeks theme.

It's stopped raining, so heading back to the viaduct today/evening to try out more ideas. The annoying thing is that this is an old branch line, with only 2 trains an hour.

Lots of  great ideas to try out.

Ramsden