Picture taking?

[Korb]

I recently posted a bunch of pictures that I took in rush and wanted to see if you guys had any advice on taking pictures in the dark places that we so frequently vist. Any hints tips or advice would be greatly accepted!

[White Rabbit]

If you have a camera that can do long exposures, bring a tripod and a kerosene (or propane) lantern. A flashlight or spotlight won't give you enough all-over light, but a lantern will. Then, you just do like a ten second exposure, and it'll look bright as day. The only downside is that it tends to give your pictures kind of orange tint, but you can usually fix that with a photo editor.

I know I've seen some people take some awesome cave pictures with like secondary flashes, but I don't know how to do any of that stuff. I wish I did, though.

But my camera's gotta pretty bright flash as-is. Usually, I can take a flash picture even in a REALLY large dark space and brighten it up to acceptable levels in a photo editor. In fact, a lot of the pictures in the gallery look indiscernible in their original form.

[whipping_post]

I've got a secondary flash for an Olymus E10 that takes some hellacious pictures, but I've never done deep dark exposures with it. Since it's digital it takes good pictures, but sometimes the old cameras work better for longer exposures.

I typed something stupid and retracted it because it was really dumb. I was thinking heavy duty lights but who wants to carry a damn car battery around with them? Oh wait, my laptop weighs that much....

[White Rabbit]

Well, even my 10 million CP spotlight doesn't give enough all-over light to do a good long exposure shot. It's just too focused in one area.

But, yeah, digitals that can do long exposures are pretty pricey compared to standard film ones. I have a really ridiculously expensive digital, but it takes long exposures as good as a film camera.

[Redknight]

Well like WR said, tripods are definatly a must. Also something to look to if shooting on a 35mm SLR or a dSLR would be a decent cable shutter release. Most outdoor shots at night in town will have enough ambient light from streetlights, the moon, or even the illuminated sky to get a decent shot out of a well timed long exposure.

As for buildings or drains, the lantern idea is a pretty good one. Alot of people use their electric lanterns and 10mil+ CP spotlights to light caves or drains. Most of the time, you cannot just point the light and get a good shot out of it. Using the light to 'paint' each area of the shot with light is needed in most situations.

Drain photography can get quite complex and extensive. Many beautiful shots can come out of drains, but require hours of time walking up and down the drain and painting it without getting yourself in the photo.