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Taking City Shots Night & Day

A

AppleSimon

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 14, 2010
114
0
In the next 6 weeks I am travelling to New York and I am wanting to take thousands of pics as I think it will be a while before I go again!

I will be taking...

Nikon D200
55-200mm
70-300mm
50mm f/1.8

I just want to know what's going to be the best lens to use for city shots of buildings and bridges and the typical sorts of things tourists photograph in New York!

Cheers for any help...
 
You need a wider lens if you're going to shoot anything from the ground, something around 18mm is going to be good, but you don't appear to have anything that's remotely wide.

EDIT: For any shots taken up high (up top of Empire State, Rockafella Centre etc) your 55-200 will be great, honestly the 300 (unless on a very VERY clear day) will be pretty useless zoomed all the way in. The 50mm would be great for anything you could get a decent bokeh with, perhaps a street shot in Time Square?
 
Schtumple said:
You need a wider lens if you're going to shoot anything from the ground, something around 18mm is going to be good, but you don't appear to have anything that's remotely wide.

EDIT: For any shots taken up high (up top of Empire State, Rockafella Centre etc) your 55-200 will be great, honestly the 300 (unless on a very VERY clear day) will be pretty useless zoomed all the way in. The 50mm would be great for anything you could get a decent bokeh with, perhaps a street shot in Time Square?
Click to expand...

My hotel is situated in Time Square I believe so alot of stuff will be shot there, and yeah doing the Empire State and Rockafella. Thanks for the advice.

I have the 18-55 that came with the D70 but Im not to keen on that lens? Or would that be better to use?
 
It only really applies if you're shooting a skyscraper from the street. If you're shooting anything else you'll be fine. Yeah kit lenses do suck, but they do offer that really wide range that you don't currently have in what you were bringing, perhaps take it, but only use it if you need to.

Silly question but are you taking a tripod? You'll get bumped about by people on the street at Time Square (especially at night), so shooting there will be a bit difficult.
 
I am not 100% sure but I'm pretty positive that you cannot use tripods in NYC unless you have a photographers permit (which they only really give out for commercial shoots). Certainly not allowed on the sidewalks of times square at least. I'd double check the city refulaions regarding photographybefore you go because I know it has some special rules due to 9/11.

Ruahrc
 
I wasn't intending to take a tripod no.

I know night shots will be extremely hard without one but I guess I will have to rely on a steady hand!

I need to double check with one of my lenses because I have a feelings its 18-200 but not 100% on that. If it is, I will probably just use that most of the time and occasionally the 50mm.
 
AppleSimon said:
I wasn't intending to take a tripod no.

I know night shots will be extremely hard without one but I guess I will have to rely on a steady hand!

I need to double check with one of my lenses because I have a feelings its 18-200 but not 100% on that. If it is, I will probably just use that most of the time and occasionally the 50mm.
Click to expand...

? How about a monopod for steadying those night shots?? A lot of times you can get away with a monopod and not need to worry about tripod clearance. Just a thought. I am not trying to get you to buy mroe equipment if you don't have one. Your 55-200 will probably get the most use, but has already been mentioned a wider lens would be helpful for a lot of what you may want to photograph. Good luck and have fun!
 
I shot NY with a D40 and 50 1.4 in Feb 09 and it was a perfect combo. Everything I wanted.
 
I just checked and the lens isn't 55-200mm its actually 18-200mm so I guess this should be my preferred weapon of choice?

Interested in the Gorilla Pod, just interested as to what you attached it to when taking night shots in NYC?
 
I just got back from New York.

There aren't many shots yet, I'm doing a few and then working or sleeping, but they were taken with either the 18-70 kit lens (with it pretty wide) and a 50mm 1.7 lens that I bought in Adorama - which is wonderful.

I could've done with taking a tripod out in the city with me, but forgot and my first Brooklyn Bridge Park photo was victim to that and me being a fool shooting in the wrong mode! I'm just glad that I took the camera and both lenses out with me...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/steviem182/sets/72157624782433365/
 
18-200 and the 50 would be the best combination if you want to carry more than 1 lens, but if it's just the 1 lens, then 18-200 will be the one to take.
 
steviem said:
18-200 and the 50 would be the best combination id you want to carry more than 1 lens, but if it's just the 1 lens, then 18-200 will be the one to take.
Click to expand...

Totally agree. the 18-200 is a perfect "walk around" lens that will give you the versatility you need if you only have one lens to use. The 50 is icing on the cake. Now, to solve the night shots issue!:)
 
Take a tripod. If you get asked to not use it (unlikely in my experience), just pack it up. As bright as they keep the city at night, handheld is still not the best way to go.
 
AppleSimon said:
Interested in the Gorilla Pod, just interested as to what you attached it to when taking night shots in NYC?
Click to expand...

Street lights, mailboxes, parking meters, railings, etc. The only limit is the limit of your imagination.

Of course, a proper tripod is more flexible (not literally, of course...), insofar as it's difficult to use the GorillaPod in the middle of the street. But I found that for most shots, I can generally find somewhere to put it that still allows me to frame the shot appropriately.
 
AppleSimon said:
I just checked and the lens isn't 55-200mm its actually 18-200mm so I guess this should be my preferred weapon of choice?

Interested in the Gorilla Pod, just interested as to what you attached it to when taking night shots in NYC?
Click to expand...

I'd say bring 18-200 and your 50mm (just incase you need the extra wide aperture), then you'll be sorted, I can't see why you'd need the 300mm

Also, whoever it was that mentioned the gorrila pod, really good shout, those things are awesome.

Also, this might be quite useful too:

http://photojojo.com/store/awesomeness/monsterpod-mini-tripod/

I'm sure you could find it for cheaper although photojojo is a really awesome site, and supporting them would be pretty nice.
 
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