A Shot in the Dark

Congratulations to Ben Portus for being chosen as our first Abstract Winter Photo Challenge winner with his entry ‘After the Thaw’. Well done also to the two runner’s up Mark H and Tristan Morphew for pushing it all the way. Don’t forget that this month’s Photo Challenge winner will be announced at the start of March, so submit your entry before the closing date of 28th February to be in with a chance of winning our next Challenge!

During these long winters nights, it’s time to get out your Lumix G and try shooting outdoors in the dark.

As you can see, I decided to try to capture the Christmas lights in London. I took them all on a G2 with the 7-14mm wide-angle zoom lens and the 45-200mm zoom lens, and kept the camera on the manual setting throughout as I took the raw files.

I kept the camera mostly mounted on a tripod as it’s better to use a tripod for a night shoot, if you can. The main reasons for this are:

1) You can shoot using long shutter speeds, with no camera shake.
2) You can select a lower ISO to correspond, which gives you reduced ‘noise’.
3) You can frame and compose your shots better.
4) You can shoot various exposures with exactly the same camera viewpoint, for comparison.
5) You can ‘wait for the moment’ with the camera in a fixed position.

If you don’t want to use a tripod or don’t have one with you, you’ll need to find a suitable point to rest your camera on, such as a wall or a post. Or failing that, you can just set the camera to the ‘Intelligent Auto’ setting – it’s amazing how the G2 will sort it all out on its own! Take a look at shot 6, which was taken using the ‘IA’ mode, and you’ll see what I mean.

Shot 1 Oxford Street

I waited an hour for the people and vehicles to be in the right place for this shot.
I had decided that I would use a long shutter speed, to deliberately blur the people and show the light trails.

• Exposure 6 seconds at f 22
• ISO 100
• Lens 7-14mm at 11.0mm
• White Balance custom set to 4000K

Shot 2 Trafalgar Square fountains

For this image, I got in as close as I could to the water and shot using a long shutter speed for the blur effect with the water. The problem I encountered was the camera and lens being sprayed constantly with a fine mist of water, blowing in the wind; the small pinpricks of colour are splashes of water on the lens.

• Exposure 8 seconds at f 22
• ISO 100
• Lens 7-14mm at 9.0mm
• White Balance custom set to 4150K

Shot 3 Eros, Piccadilly Circus

For this shot, I needed to set the shutter to a much faster speed in order to capture the quick-changing logos behind the statue Eros. Getting the timing right when all the panels are lit at the same time was paramount.

• Exposure 0.6 Seconds at f 22
• ISO 100
• Lens 7-14mm at 14.0mm
• White Balance custom set to 5550K

Shot 4 Horses

I used the zoom lens at its widest to get in really close here, to enhance the power and movement. I shot using a long exposure coupled with a small aperture, which has emphasised the spotlights above the horses. As with shot 2, of the fountains, the pinpricks of colour are water droplets on the lens.

• Exposure 2.5 seconds at f 22
• ISO 100
• Lens 7-14mm at 7.0mm
• White Balance custom set to 3250K

Shots 5 The London Eye

I decided to shoot across the river from the footbridge alongside the Hungerford Bridge. I was using the 45-200mm zoom lens and I wanted a long enough shutter speed to show the rotation of the wheel itself. So, I set the shutterspeed to 13 seconds. The problem I encountered was that the bridge is constantly moving, too, so there is a slight but noticeable blurring of this image due to the vibration.

• Exposure 13 seconds at f 22
• ISO 100
• Lens 45-200mm at 56.0mm
• White Balance custom set to 3150K

Shot 6 The London Eye

Because of the blur in shot 5, I thought this would be a good opportunity to try the camera out in its Intelligent Auto mode – letting the camera take care of all the settings. As you can see, the end result is a very good shot!

• Exposure 1/ 8 second at f 4.1
• ISO 800
• Lens 45-200mm at 56.0mm
• White balance IA set

Shots 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 Moving camera technique

Finally I thought I would show you how to create some interesting light trails at night, based on a pretty boring night-lit street view.

Shot 7 is this straight view.

Shots 8, 9 and 10 are the same view, but I was moving the camera during a long exposure. I simply shot hand-held, with shutter speeds between 0.4 seconds and 6 seconds at f 6.0, and swung the camera about in my hand.

So, now that you’ve seen what I’ve been up to and how I’ve been using my Lumix G, please do feel free to leave any comments in the box below.
Also don’t forget to enter next month’s Photo Challenge based on this article.

Thank you and good luck,

Phil Surbey