Hong Kong skyline by night.

Certain some cruisers have enjoyed takng pictures of the HK skylne by nght.

Using the A6000, do I begin with the highest ISO and work from there, or start somewhere else? I am certain I will have to work with the setting, or will one of the auto settings work?

We will have a great view from our Kowloon hotel, so I plan on taking photos from our room unless you all discourrage this.

My reason for asking is, that "advanced" cameras are new to me.

Use a tripod (or brace the camera on something so it doesn't move) and start with the lowest iso. (Higher iso means more noise). and try different shutter speeds until you get the shot you want. This is why you want the camera stabilized so you don't get any movement with the slow shutter speeds. Once you get an image you like, make not of the settings and that will give you something to work with going forward. You can bump up the iso if you are hand holding and need a faster shutter speed but no need to start with high iso if you can brace camera. Night shots really are trail and error until you get a shot you like.

I would just add to try adjusting the Exposure Value. As I recall, I got great results with -1.3 EV or -1.7 EV.

Woody

I would just add to try adjusting the Exposure Value. As I recall, I got great results with -1.3 EV or -1.7 EV.

 

Woody

Wrong - Not -EV. This reduced exposure. Leave EV at 0. Set camera to manual or Aperture priority and on tripod. ISO 100 to no more then ISO 400, Do not use auto ISO. Aperture f/4 to f/8 let camera select shutter or in manual select 6s shutter then check result and increase as needed. Practice before the trip and make set up reminder cards. The reason for small aperture (big number) is to give you sharper image. Do not neglect on tripod by using cheap made rubbish.

Thanks everyone.

Will practice a lot.

I have to agree that adjusting the exposure compensation is a good idea. Your camera will try to average the exposure over the frame and if the skyline is significantly brighter than the sky and you include the sky (I guess it wouldn't be a skyline shot if it didn't :)), the camera will raise the overall exposure to compensate for the dark sky, blowing out the bright buildings. The image below was adjusted to -2EV to compensate for the large areas of dark space. the straight shot had the streetlights glowing like the fires of hell with no definition in the bright areas.

1/10s - ISO800 - f/2.8 - EV -2

1/10s - ISO800 - f/2.8 - EV -2

When the sky is light, you can skip the exposure adjustment and let the camera average the exposure like it wants to.

1/8s - ISO3200 - f/6.3 - Auto exposure

Enjoy your trip!

Dave

Learn to shoot manual. That way to can control the shot and not have to rely on the camera to "get it right".

Those shots are awesome!

Beautiful, I love taking landscape photos but I would never think that a cityscape would be so breath taking.