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| A view from the tower of St Mary's Church, with the Ypres Tower in the centre and the River Rother in the background. The Rother used to reach the sea 10 miles up the coast at New Romney until a big storm changed its course in 1287. |
Now, though, we don't live in Cornwall, but in Gloucestershire And in our dotage we aim to discover those parts of the Kingdom that have been overlooked hitherto, not least because they're now some 150 miles nearer home than they used to be. Our first choice was the part of southern England that lies between Eastbourne and Dover, and an Internet search revealed that Rye might be a good spot.
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| Lucy demonstrates the direction from which rain falls. |
Incidentally, one of our local schools is offering evening classes in 'How to use your Bridge Camera' but I've chosen their Ukulele classes instead. Next time, maybe... or perhaps I'll just read the manual!
Over the week we returned to the streets of Rye many times and feasted twice at an Italian restaurant that, in my humble opinion, has no equal.
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| One of my nighttime shots that did work. I took this one as we chatted with a guy from Epsom, who told us that there wasn't much of interest in Rye. I don't think there's much in Epsom, but I'm glad he likes it. |
Actually, I'm sure I was demonstrating how to make a Shakespearean gesture, and not simply impersonating a rain-gauge. Useful, though, if readers are unsure how to judge where the rain is coming from!
ReplyDeleteYou can use any aperture/shutter speed combination you like for night photography, but you must keep the camera absolutely steady. A hand-held shot might be possible near a bright street lamp, but otherwise you'll have to jam the camera up against a wall, or rest it on something firm. Camera-shake ruins more shots at night than anything else.
Modern cameras let you increase the light-sensitivity of the sensor, but too much of that just ruins the picture by introducing a speckled effect.
I'd set the camera on P (for program), the light-sensitivity at 400 tops, and always reckon on at least a 1/4 second exposure, which means you must contrive a firm support, however improvised. Taking a shot with the camera resting atop of one of those black metal bollards in the Ypres Tower picture would have been one of those ways of getting a firm support. Pros carry a heavy tripod.
Lucy
I went on a course and I had a lot of fun experimenting. What I was taught was smallest aperture (for best depth of field), fastest ISO (to reduce graininess), bulb (or long long exposure), always use the camera's self timer to fire the shot (finger presses induce shakes) and a support or tripod is vital. If you don't want to use a tripod a gorilla grab is a light alternative.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't thought of using the self timer, so thanks for that one. I see that I can adjust the ISO, but don't really know the significance - ie. why/when would you use a low ISO setting? What I have discovered, though, is that I can set the camera to shutter speed priority, which should help. And I'm going to ask Father Christmas for a gorilla.
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