Re: Night Photos
 

Sharon <sharonf@uneedspeed.net> wrote in message
news:3F0E29EC.6080201@uneedspeed.net...
> I have a Sony DSC S85 digital camera. I am not an experienced night
> photographer and have been having a hard time trying to take night or
> twilight photos. Can someone give me some pointers or point me towards a
> tutorial? We just had some new landscaping put in and some decorative
> lighting. In the evening it really looks pretty with the lighted palm
> trees reflecting off the pool surface and I have been trying to capture
> it on film. However the results have been very disappointing so far.
>
The night-time mode takes a bit of getting used to. After a series of
failures on my S-70 I'm getting used to the limitations of a P&S camera
after years of lugging round a Canon AE1 and all the accompanying lenses.
Unfortunately 'mood' lighting is much more subdued than lighting to 'show'.
Try increasing the ambient light evenly - it may look pretty lurid, but not
to the camera. Having too much light and reducing it slowly and checking the
effects is much simpler than trying to boost the light bit by bit. The dodge
and burn tool will help 'almost there's'.

Having a small house with no garden in Japan, I appreciate tasteful
floodlighting in nearby Nara (and slightly further, Kyoto) and have been
quite pleased with the extra sensitivity of digital over 35mm.