It's all about the light!

San Diego Bay at sunset, Late September 2012.

People, cameras, computer monitors and televisions all see light differently.  People's eyes adjust to the light, as such a lot of times people think there is either too much or "still enough" light to get a photograph, and they're as often right as they are wrong.  Some time's it's a matter of needing different equipment for the situation you're in, other times it's how you're taking the photograph.  Simply stated if you're shooting on a DSLR (or Digital Single Lens Reflex) camera, switch to manual and control what you can of the exposure.

The corner over looking Henessey's and Golden West Hotel in downtown San Diego, February 2012 if I remember correctly, either way it was early 2012.

Using a tri-pod will allow you to use a "bulb exposure" which is essentially any exposure where you manually tell the camera when to start and stop the exposure.  The modern DSLR (and SLR for that matter) are designed to have built-in exposure times varying anywhere from 30 seconds to as fast as 1/8000th of a second, how fast the shutter can move is usually dictated by the quality of the camera, however few if any allow for a longer pre-determined shutter length than 30 seconds.  That's where the Bulb feature (usually indicated by either "Bulb" or "B".   All three of the images on this post were shot using a tri-pod while on the Bulb setting.  The exposures varied anywhere from 45 seconds to 3 minutes.

Early December overlooking Downtown San Diego from the Admiral Kidd (Event & Catering Center) located on FLEASWTRACEN in Point Loma.  

As you begin to venture in to long exposures there are a countless numbering of technicalities and sciences to remember.  For now let's keep to the basics.  Any exposure that is less than the length of your camera lens should be taken with support assistance from a bag, tri-pod or mono-pod as the situation dictates.  What I mean by that is if you're using a 28-105 lens and you're zoomed in to 105 then any shutter speed 1/100th of a second of LONGER (ie 1/80th, 1/60th, 1/30th, 1/20th, etc) should be taken while on a tri-pod.  Using a tri-pod in those instances will help reduce your chance of lens shake.

If you're shooting sports from the sidelines and you're using say a 200mm lens then you want to keep your shutter speed closer to 1/200th of a second, as you learn to properly pan with the motion that may change, but for starters 1/200th is a good starting point.  Because games can go long I'd also recommend using a Mono-pod, it's smaller than a tri-pod (and therefore you can move more easily with it and won't get in the say as much or get run over as easily) but it also provides a little bit of stability that helps you to focus your attentions to the horizon in the distance that might otherwise be thrown away in the moment.

If you're using long exposures (really anything longer than 1/20th of a second) you really want to consider using a remote shutter release, this is the critical component that allows for bulb exposures without the potential for "camera shake" from engaging and releasing the shutter, it also allows you to expose your image for seconds to minutes or hours as the scene dictates.  If your exposures are going to be within your cameras pre-programmed shutter speeds then you can get by using the "timer" option, using this remember that there's a delay from the time you tell the camera to start the timer to when the camera engages the shutter and subsequently completes the exposure.

Don't be afraid to make an exposure take longer.  Making your ISO go down to 100 can make the quality of the image that much greater, especially in low-light situations where you're equipped for long exposures.  f/22+ (ie f/22, f/32, f/64, etc) allow for greater depths of field.  Generally shooting at night it's hard to tell if what you really want to be in focus is in focus.  Having a greater depth of field by using one of these apertures can heighten the interest and end quality of your image.  Just remember apertures are fractions, f/22 is larger than f/32 and is substantially smaller than f/2.8.  That's because it's a mathematical equation specific to your lens/camera combination presently being used, but more on that in future posts.

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