Well, Humayun did it again this afternoon. He drove up from Canberra (already after dark) and as soon as he landed at my place we headed off for an additional 90km run to our favourite beach haunt up the coast for some night shots under an 89.3% moon.
Here are a couple from this evening. It's difficult to obtain accurate focus given that you're in relative darkness, but I think these turned out OK. It's amazing how the 5D-II behaves at ISO400 at f/13. Not too noisy in the RAWs, with only a smattering of hot pixels to fix. The camera turns night into day.
It's surreal light under a moon at the beach...
Photos 1 & 2)
Camera Model Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Firmware Firmware Version 2.0.8
Shooting Date/Time 05/14/11 22:37:25
Shooting Mode Bulb
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 902
Av( Aperture Value ) 13.0
Metering Mode Evaluative Metering
ISO Speed 400
Auto ISO Speed OFF
Lens EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM
Focal Length 24.0mm
Basic white point adjustment, sharpening and horizon rotation in Canon DPP - straight to you screen.
Photo 3: This was taken at 12:17am - yes - midnight. Looks like daytime and that wows me a little.
File Name IMG_2699.CR2
Camera Model Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Firmware Firmware Version 2.0.8
Shooting Date/Time 05/15/11 00:17:17
Shooting Mode Bulb
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 240
Av( Aperture Value ) 11.0
Metering Mode Evaluative Metering
ISO Speed 2500
Auto ISO Speed OFF
Lens EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM
Focal Length 60.0mm
Photo 4) Staring into Sagittarius and Scorpius
Camera Model Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Firmware Firmware Version 2.0.8
Shooting Date/Time 05/14/11 23:24:30
Shooting Mode Manual Exposure
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 30
Av( Aperture Value ) 4.5
Metering Mode Evaluative Metering
ISO Speed 640
Auto ISO Speed OFF
Lens EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM
Focal Length 40.0mm
Great shots Chris , love that foggy look the sea gets from the long exposure , you said that you have a few hot pixels , do you shoot with the auto dark on ?
Thanks Zane A "few" hot pixels meant maybe a dozen. Nothing more than noteworthy I think. Two seconds fixing them and the rest of the image is relatively clean. The second image blows me away with its lack of any real noise - given that it is a four minute exposure @ ISO2500.
Frank and Mike - I thank you!
Again - can't wait to see Humayun's effort. Some looked magnificent on-camera.
Thanks, too, for your kind comment Colin and Rob. In reference to the smoothness Colin, moonlight really gives a different result to that under sunlight. As Humayun would attest to, the sea this night was quite large and rough - there were large tubes being formed as the waves rolled in. Waves were hitting the outlying rocks, creating huge splashes that actually went as high as the cloud line at times. The much lower light intensity at night results in far less reflected light from these reaching the sensor in the time they are presenting to us. A large splash lasts for two seconds or so - not enough time under these conditions to register as they might otherwise under sunlight - so the sea actually ends up looking flatter.
#3 is just a weird image - knowing that to focus at all on that rock, I had to ask Humayun to illuminate a portion of it with a torch. It was way too dark for LiveView focusing. That kind of puts the rest in perspective.
Excellent balance between light and contrast. The way the stars trail across the sky resemble meteors falling to earth. And, that horizon line -- how about that horizon line.
Thanks Humayun Can't wait to see a couple more from yourself. What a great evening that was.
Marc - yes, that's the only way. Even at super-high ISO in LiveView - you see nothing, and all that happens is the autofocus motors go nuts hunting for a lock. Switch to manual focus, shine a bright light and manually focus in live view. Bonza sharpness.
These are all of magazine quality-really great work,I like one the most-the smoothness,and the 'falling stars'-I'd say you'd have to win some sort of gong for that one.Like the reflection in three,four is good with constellations.
I see these taken with a 24-105.I had a look on FM reviews about this lens,they give it a 9,but the comments on the first page about this lens
are not all that flash-some call it a 'Lowly L'-how do you find it Chris?
If these images are anything to go by,look darn good!
A "few" hot pixels meant maybe a dozen. Nothing more than noteworthy I think. Two seconds fixing them and the rest of the image is relatively clean. The second image blows me away with its lack of any real noise - given that it is a four minute exposure @ ISO2500.
