Night Shots

I currently own a Canon 5D Mark II and cannot seem to get sunset/night shot settings correct. My results come out either out of focus, grainy, or just not the way I hoped they would. I often have the opportunity to fly into and out of Manhattan in a twinstar helicopter and would appreciate any help I could get with getting the right shots


https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-j...rk%2520774.JPG

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-I...rk%2520749.JPG

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-a...rk%2520673.JPG

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-_...0/IMG_1678.JPG

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-F...0/IMG_1686.JPG

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-m...10%2520284.JPG

Did you shoot these from a helicopter in flight? I'd say they are quite impressive if so! Focus at night can be a challenge, as you typically have less contrast for the focus to lock. Often times, I'll focus manually at night. Also, most of the traditional night shots are taken from a stationary spot - on a tripod, using low ISO and a long shutter speed. If you are airborne, you probably have a fast shutter speed, and are using a high ISO to compensate - that will introduce grain.

Great stuff. Nights shots out of a moving helicopter, tough! You have a good camera, you need a good (expensive) lens.

AJ

These are very impressive. The 2nd with the line of traffic and the Chrysler (is it still called that?) building is fantastic.

Yes all shots were taken with a 24-105mm lens from a twinstar helicopter. I always have set a high shutter speed while flying around the city but the high iso at night seems to be my problem resulting in grainy shots. Here are a few more.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-l...0/IMG_0339.JPG

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-d...rk%2520589.JPG

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-g...10%2520143.JPG

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-J...0/IMG_1524.JPG

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-_...0/IMG_1418.JPG

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-J...10%2520078.JPG


More at [email protected]
Thank you to all you professional photographers for giving me something to look up to.

very nice work...are you using a gyro-stabilizer? if not, and you have some cash lying around, I seem to remember a couple people talking to me about those. Maybe Ron will chip in some noise-avoidance and removal techniques from his Boston work.

These pictures are so beautiful and I must want to say you have done a very good work.
Thanks for sharing this Pictures with us

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Originally Posted by MikeO

Thanks guys, has anyone else encountered a problem with their shots dissappearing like mine have above?

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Where are they hosted? If it is one of the free sites, you may have exceeded monthly bandwidth, and won't be able to see them in a link until it resets at the start of a new month (either by calendar, or your "anniversary" date of opening the account - say the 10th of the month).

It looks like Google, so I'm assuming something like Picasa. Usually means the photos are private, and outside requests are blocked.