What I mean is I use a light meter and all, but only as a guide as I rarely shoot what the meter says.
The problem is the light is all over the place and you have to take the whole composition into consideration.
I find that if I lay off going out at night, it takes a bit to get back into the swing o'things.
I'd say it's more of an art form than science, but for me it's more like a guessing game:
Well okay, there's really only one thing I'm guessing at and that's the shutter speed.
The lens is wide open 99.999% of the time.
The shutter is the game breaker for me.
I shoot so slow that's sometimes it's doubtful whether or not the shot will come out.
Thankfully I don't drink coffee.
Can't have any camera shake don't you know.
How do I do it?
I started thinking about that the other night, how I do it I mean, and it occurred to me that maybe high school riflery has something to do about it.
I mean the whole breathing thing and squeezing the shot off:
Back in the olden days they let us shoot for real, .22 longs, nowadays they shoot air rifle.
I only shot for a year, but I think I use same technique.
Luck.
Okay not really, but you get the drift.
Well okay, sort of.
About the luck part.
If you've been following along at home you, the reader, know that it's all about the light baby.
That's the luck part.
Do I over expose or under expose?
Do I read the light here or there?
Can I get this shot off at a 1/4 second?
My night shots are getting better so I'd say that I'm a pretty lucky dude.
Of course a tripod helps:
3 comments:
I imagine a cable release would help as well.
If I recall correctly, the technique you mentioned requires a breath in, then half a breath out and holding it for the duration of the shot? Sometimes I use the 1 sec. timer just to avoid the extra movement of depressing the shutter release.
Steve A, I hardly the cable though I do carry one around. Mostly if I'm on the tripod and below 1/2 second.
Jake Dean, I started to realize that I exhale, hold, then take the shot. I'll use the timer when I'm too lazy to take the cable out, which is often but mostly I like to know and control when the shutter fires. All my film cameras have a soft release which does help.
I think the reason I like rangefinders is that you can see and hear the shutter fire and you don't get blinded by a mirror.
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