«

Hi folks,

I have a Nikon Coolpix 990, which I love. Even though it's a few years
old, it's still taking pictures better than most newer cameras in it's
category.

Anyway, I never have been able to master the art of night photography
with this puppy. The best I've been able to do is mount it on the
tripod, set it to automatic and hit the shutter release.

Perhaps it's my somewhat grey understanding of how to take a proper
picture, but I tried upping the ISO to it's highest setting, and even
then, the amount of light it lets in compared to a SLR (or even just a
lower ISO setting) isn't all that much.

Can someone point me in the right direction, or maybe even a web site
that can help me out?

"battlelance" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Anyway, I never have been able to master the art of night photography
> with this puppy. The best I've been able to do is mount it on the
> tripod, set it to automatic and hit the shutter release.
>
> Perhaps it's my somewhat grey understanding of how to take a proper
> picture, but I tried upping the ISO to it's highest setting, and even
> then, the amount of light it lets in compared to a SLR (or even just a
> lower ISO setting) isn't all that much.

All but the most basic P&S should be able to take reasonable streetlight lit
night shots. The problem is likely to be how your camera meters the
exposure. Street lights can fool the meter into underexposure.

Night scenes are easiest in manual mode, but exposure compensation might
work if the 990 doesn't have full manual. Many cameras will let you vary the
exposure by +/- 2 EV. It might also be that your longest exposure isn't long
enough in the darkness, but that seems unlikely with the ISO cranked high.
Spot metering the darkness between pools of light might help, if that's an
option. For typical streetlight scenes, 20" to 30", f/8 to f/11 at ISO 100
works pretty well for me. That translates to about 4", f/4 for ISO 800.
Almost any camera should be able to do it. Try looking for the EV
adjustment, or at the very least, a backlit scene setting.

battlelance wrote:

> Hi folks,
>
> I have a Nikon Coolpix 990, which I love. Even though it's a few years
> old, it's still taking pictures better than most newer cameras in it's
> category.
>
> Anyway, I never have been able to master the art of night photography
> with this puppy. The best I've been able to do is mount it on the
> tripod, set it to automatic and hit the shutter release.
>
> Perhaps it's my somewhat grey understanding of how to take a proper
> picture, but I tried upping the ISO to it's highest setting, and even
> then, the amount of light it lets in compared to a SLR (or even just a
> lower ISO setting) isn't all that much.
>
> Can someone point me in the right direction, or maybe even a web site
> that can help me out?

There's not a lot too it.. I looked up the specs for your 990.. It can do
bulb.. and it's a good camera, so there's no reason you can't get reasonable
night shots.

Before you put the camera in manual mode, take a shot in auto mode and note
what the exposure settings were. (Aperture & Shutter speed). Then use those as
a starting point in manual mode. Vary both and see what happens.

Take a picture.. If it's too dark, lengthen the time the shutter stays open...
So instead of 4 seconds, go for 8. If it's too light, shorten the time the
shutter stays open.

It's OK to use a low ISO.. It will keep the noise down. You'll just have to
keep the shutter open longer.

You don't say what the results of you taking night shots in auto mode were..
You should should have had some sort of result since the camera can hold the
shutter open for to 8 seconds.

Since it's a digital camera.. It doesn't cost anything to take test shots..
Take lots and lots of em

You can also search the web for 'night photography' using a search engine like
google.. Here's one site I found:

http://www.gorillasites.com/nightphotos/

On Fri, 14 Nov 2003 23:19:11 GMT, in rec.photo.digital battlelance
<> wrote:

>Hi folks,
>
>I have a Nikon Coolpix 990, which I love. Even though it's a few years
>old, it's still taking pictures better than most newer cameras in it's
>category.
>
>Anyway, I never have been able to master the art of night photography
>with this puppy. The best I've been able to do is mount it on the
>tripod, set it to automatic and hit the shutter release.
>
>Perhaps it's my somewhat grey understanding of how to take a proper
>picture, but I tried upping the ISO to it's highest setting, and even
>then, the amount of light it lets in compared to a SLR (or even just a
>lower ISO setting) isn't all that much.
>
>Can someone point me in the right direction, or maybe even a web site
>that can help me out?

Start using shutter priority mode. Hand held use BSS. If using a tripod,
then no need, you can use the self timer to minimize shake. The 990 is more
than capable of such shots.
__________________________________________________ ______
Ed Ruf Lifetime AMA# 344007 ()
http://members.cox.net/egruf
See images taken with my CP-990 and 5700 at
http://members.cox.net/egruf-digicam

battlelance <> writes:

> Hi folks,
>
> I have a Nikon Coolpix 990, which I love. Even though it's a few years
> old, it's still taking pictures better than most newer cameras in it's
> category.

Hi, Lance, I have one, too.

>
> Anyway, I never have been able to master the art of night photography
> with this puppy. The best I've been able to do is mount it on the
> tripod, set it to automatic and hit the shutter release.

I've tried that, too, and I agree with you that it doesn't work.

>SNIP<
> Can someone point me in the right direction, or maybe even a web site
> that can help me out?

My suggestion is to read the manual on, uh, manual operation and go manual
with it at night. I can never get it to focus automatically at night, so
I've switched to manual. You can set up three different sets of settings
(sorry) in manual mode, so I have one for daylight video, one for night
video, and one for night still. You can set the flash to off for dim light
or ambient so that the exposure is long enough to get something outside the
range of flash plus the flash. You can set the ISO and actually have an
effect. You can set the focus manually, although I can't do that in dim
light on the LCD. I set the focus to the mountain icon which disables flash
or to INF which doesn't disable flash for distant subjects.

I'm sorry to say you need to read the manual carefully and try stuff as you
read it to get a handle on what it's saying and how that works for you in
the field. Like you, I'm very happy with the camera, and I've learned that
it will do a _lot_ more if you know how to use it, but you have to get out
of automatic mode.

Have fun.

--
Philip Stripling | email to the replyto address is presumed
Legal Assistance on the Web | spam and read later. email to philip@
http://www.PhilipStripling.com/ | my domain is read daily.

Battlelance wrote:
>Anyway, I never have been able to master >the art of night photography
>with this puppy. The best I've been able to >do is mount it on the
>tripod, set it to automatic and hit the >shutter release.

What I do is prop the digicam - on ISO 400 and auto exposure - on the car
windowsill <I>with the flash on.</i> This gives good fill lighting for photos
of Christmas-decorated homes, etc.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<B>Dissident news - plus immigration, gun rights, nationwide weather
<I><A HREF="http://www.alamanceind.com">ALAMANCE INDEPENDENT:
official newspaper of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy</A></b></i>

On 14 Nov 2003 17:35:51 -0800, Phil Stripling
<> wrote:

>I'm sorry to say you need to read the manual carefully and try stuff as you
>read it to get a handle on what it's saying and how that works for you in
>the field. Like you, I'm very happy with the camera, and I've learned that
>it will do a _lot_ more if you know how to use it, but you have to get out
>of automatic mode.

First, thanks to everyone who replied. A big help!

I really like this camera too, it takes really great pictures. I
suppose I just need to learn a lot more about the manual settings -
they seem to have more profound impact on digital pictures than they
do on my SLR, which seems to be a tad more forgiving.

In any case, I've ordered a new manual off ebay since all I can find
is the german manual... In the mean time, since you have the same
camera, would you know if it's capable of TIFF (perhaps compressed
TIFF) or even RAW file formats, and if so, where would I set it? I've
looked through the menu and can't seem to find anything.

Thanks again!

On Sat, 15 Nov 2003 03:43:20 GMT, battlelance
<> wrote:

>... In the mean time, since you have the same
>camera, would you know if it's capable of TIFF (perhaps compressed
>TIFF) or even RAW file formats, and if so, where would I set it? I've
>looked through the menu and can't seem to find anything.

I should elaborate a little.. In manual mode, I can set the image
quality to HI which produces a TIFF, however it seems that under auto,
it only lets me pick FINE which produces a jpeg.

The fella who works at the local camera shop said that I'd get better
results (once I actually figure out how to take proper night shots!)
using a lossless file format for those star/moon shots as it would
produce less artifacts and help with overexposure. I'm not sure if
what he said was true or not, but I'm sure I'll find out

To all the other excellent replies, I'll add only this: Bracket like
crazy, and don't underestimate the value of negative exposure
compensation or manual underexposure (relative to the camera's meter)
when there are lights in the field of view, even small ones.

The meter tends to overexpose lights for the same reason it invariably
overexposes the moon--even in aggregate, these highlights are very
small compared the meter's field of view, even with spot metering. The
±2 stops of EC adjustment that most cameras provide are often not
enough. Try EC first, but don't hesitate to go to manual mode.

When there are a lot of lights, as in holiday scenes, you'll often
face a potentially ugly trade-off between blowing out the lights and
capturing shadow detail. The variation that yields the best balance
isn't all that easy to predict, and it isn't always apparent in the
LCD, either. Back to bracketing again!
--
Jeremy McCreary
Denver, CO
www.cliffshade.com/dpfwiw/
-------------------------------------------

"battlelance" <> wrote in message
news:...
| Hi folks,
|
| I have a Nikon Coolpix 990, which I love. Even though it's a few
years
| old, it's still taking pictures better than most newer cameras in
it's
| category.
|
| Anyway, I never have been able to master the art of night
photography
| with this puppy. The best I've been able to do is mount it on the
| tripod, set it to automatic and hit the shutter release.
|
| Perhaps it's my somewhat grey understanding of how to take a proper
| picture, but I tried upping the ISO to it's highest setting, and
even
| then, the amount of light it lets in compared to a SLR (or even just
a
| lower ISO setting) isn't all that much.
|
| Can someone point me in the right direction, or maybe even a web
site
| that can help me out?
|
|

battlelance <> writes:

> In any case, I've ordered a new manual off ebay since all I can find
> is the german manual... In the mean time, since you have the same

Please visit
http://www.nikonians.org/dcforum/DCForumID72/531.html
and follow the link to the 990 manual in .pdf format while yu
wait. English, French, Spanish, Italian, and Dutch as well as German.

> camera, would you know if it's capable of TIFF (perhaps compressed
> TIFF) or even RAW file formats, and if so, where would I set it? I've
> looked through the menu and can't seem to find anything.

It does JPGs only, although with varying compressions.

--
Philip Stripling | email to the replyto address is presumed
Legal Assistance on the Web | spam and read later. email to philip@
http://www.PhilipStripling.com/ | my domain is read daily.