A question about photographing the Statue of Liberty at night from a ship

[Turtles06]

I'm somewhat embarrassed to ask about this here, but you all are the experts and I'd like to really understand how to do better on this, so here goes.  The question is about photographing the Statue of Liberty at night from a cruise ship.  I am mostly shooting with my Sony a6300 and Sony 18-135mm lens.  I've been very happy with that lens, including at night.   (I really do like the various options, including HDR, Multi Frame NR, even some of the night scene modes.) 

 

But nothing seemed to go right on a sail by the Statue of Liberty at night; in most of my shots of the SOL, the Statue was overexposed.  (Example below.) It was quite a dark sky (no moon), and of course the Statue was lit.  The 18-135 is not a fast lens, obviously, so I shoot using aperture priority and open the lens as wide as I can, and I play with the ISO settings, etc.  And I also experimented with HDR , and Multi Frame NR.  As the ship is sailing by, there's not a lot of time to do too many different things...   

 

I've very much appreciate any advice (settings, exposure bracketing, etc.) so that I can do better the next time, which may be soon!  Thanks so much.  (I'm feeling a bit dumb.)

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By way of example, this image (which I would not post otherwise) was shot at 135mm, f/5.6 (the widest the lens will open at 135mm), 1/25 sec, ISO 12,800 (I can't tell from the EXIF data, but I suspect, given the ISO, that this was using Multi Frame NR):

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 15, 2019 by Turtles06

[pierces]

The A6300 has a great Auto Exposure Lock feature. I set mine to AEL w/shutter on (Gear menu, Page 5) and use it to lock exposure and recompose on half-pressing the shutter (or use the AEL button on the back). In the picture above, you would have centered the statue, half-pressed to set the exposure for the subject and recomposed. It would have exposed for the brightly lit subject and not averaged the scene. A exposure adjustment of -2 stops or so would have done the same thing. -2 exposure with auto HDR might do a good job since it would be starting at a lower value and wouldn't lose the highlights.

 

I used the AEL extensively last year at a local lantern festival.

 

It did a great job of exposing the trees and background without AEL but the actual subjects showed almost no features.

 

Dave

[Photo Andy]

Turtles06

I tried on Queen Mary sailing into NY in October this year- utter failure. Just thinking about it I should have spot metered and focus locked on the S of L, as it is highlighted with lights, reduce exposure using exposure compensation (I shoot manual with auto iso, review highlights on histogram and dial in exposure compensation as needed by trial and looking at histogram). Shoot fast and review, maybe long winded but usually works for me but maybe just tired after a long cruise and very early am - my excuses. interesting to see what people say. Need lens longer than 200mm or crop in post production. Will need to practise on another statue to perfect my technique. 
Derek. 

[KYBOB]

Sorry this was not shot with the Sony but the concept should be the same with any camera.  I spot metered right on the statue. 

 

These three below where taken with a Nikon D850 with 500mm/f5.6 from our balcony on the Caribbean Princess this September. I set the ISO to 1600, F stop to F6.3. The camera was set to aperture preferred so the camera automatically set the shutter speed. the VR was set to active to adjust for the movement of the ship. All hand held. The light is fading fast along with the moving of the ship past everything so have to shoot fast. I then used the Exposure Compensation adjustment to quickly modify the exposure. I will admit we stayed in several days before in New York just down from One World Trade (Conrad great hotel) and practiced with exposures the night before to get the exposure right on the statue from land so I had a starting point, then on the ship checked my exposure quickly in the camera by zooming 100% on the statue to see if correctly exposed then adjusted the exposure compensation down. Hope this helps.  

 

1/80sec, EV-5/3

 

 1/125sec, EV-7/3 

 

1/30sec, EV-7/3

 

Here is another great sight you can see sailing out of New York. 

Nikon Z7 -24-70mm/5.6 set to 70mm, ISO 3200, F/8, 1/25sec., EV-4/3

 

EV-5/3

 

 

Edited December 16, 2019 by KYBOB
Wrong photo

[Turtles06]

Thank you all for the helpful comments above. Plenty for me to play around with! 

[Turtles06]

Thanks again to everyone for all the advice above.   Just back from a cruise out of NY.  Night time sailaway in the winter -- pretty cold hands and of course not too much time to play around as you sail past the statue.  But I  was able to make the Exposure Compensation adjustments on the back wheel quickly: 

 

Edited February 2, 2020 by Turtles06

[ski ww]

Great shots, love the night time pictures. Mine never turn out that good. Fire works is another one I have problems with.

[KYBOB]

Looks good!