City Lights

The first technique I wanted to get right was to capture the city lights. The kids went on holiday and I was allowed to house-sit their flat. Their flat is on the Oriental Parade in Wellington, with the most amazing view over the city - the perfect place for city lights.

Camera:  Olympus e-500 with the 70-300mm lens

I googled and found this information (I am disappointed to say I cannot remember the URL of the site, and can therefore not acknowledge the photographer who shared this on the Internet), but it is excellent:

                                                                                          ISO100                              ISO400

• Neon lights filling frame                                        1/8 sec; f8                          1/15 sec; f11
• Brightly lit theatre district with neon lights           1/4 sec; f8                          1/8 sec; f11
• Bright street scenes                                                1/2 sec; f8                          1/4 sec; f11
• Floodlit buildings and monuments                        2 sec; f5.6                          1/2 sec; f5.6
• Distant skyline of offices, streets, etc                    4 sec; f2.8                          4 sec; f5.6

I set the camera up quite early, on the tripod and took the first test shot at f/8; 2 sec

 Second shot at f/4; 1/125

Shot a lovely sunset with f/4.5 and 1/125

And then it became darker and the lights turned on!

F/3.6; 4 sec

f/8; 2 sec

f/5.6; 4 sec

f/5.6; 4 sec