As it was really warm out today (although windy - had a hard time keeping the tripod steady at the plaza), I went out and did some night time shots. The results (I’m no KBB/CFD :lol).
A picture of the night time sky taken with my Canon 7D, 17-55 f/2.8 lens. 30 second exposure, ISO-1000. This picture was edited (for lighting) to a great deal with Lightroom (the original picture had a lot of orange/red in it - you can see a little bit of it still).
I really like the one of the towers and there’s a couple others that came out pretty good.
Like rtrac mentioned all you need to stabilize the tripod is some weight hanging. Gear bag works but I usually carry a few 2.5lb weights on a rope so I can still access all my gear and pack up and move to the next windy spot easily.
Just curious while we’re talking stability… Are you firing the shutter remotely and using mirror lock up as well?
Never thought of that. My bag is huge so couldn’t really use that, but I’ll have to try the weights on a string thing.
As for the shutter…no, send on 2 seconds so I can hit the button and stabilize the camera as much as possible. I’m pretty steady handed normally, so I’m sure I prevented a lot of the camera shake.
And no, I’m not specifically using mirror lockup…although I do believe that when you use live view mode (the screen), it does basically lock it up…so I guess I was using it lol.
Considering the tripod wasnt stable not bad at all
Few tips that work for me in keep a tripod more stable.
Obviously this will change depending on the situation and if it hinders you from getting the shot you want.
If the legs have multiple extension points, always use the upper fatter ones first.
Extend the legs out wide if you can, some tripods allow the legs to be spread out quite wide.
The neck of the tripod I guess youd call it where your camera sits on, try and keep that as low as possible.
Also if its windy and you hhave a neck strap on your camera, take it off… the slightest catch on that with a longer exposure is going to fuck everything up
Also, if you dont have one already get a remote shutter release, or use the countdown timer.
That’s what I was doing…I use the countdown timer when shooting at night pretty much always. To minimize shake. And I found out about the strap last night :lol. I eventually started holding the strap in such a way that the wind couldn’t use it as a sail so to speak.
Thanks for the tips guys. Downtown is almost always windy to an extent…yesterday was crazy windy. I felt like I was walking in a wind tunnel…I literally had to lean forward and ‘push’ through the wind.
Wow for a shit hole harboring a majority of life forms ranked lower than pond scum on the evolutionary scale Albany can clean up quite well when its dark and you can’t see shit