Bus Photography - Tips & Techniques

last SG · 2009-04-22T21:54:44+00:00

settings?1/50 shutter speedaperture 4exposure -1ISO 80

sgbuses SG

As suggested by the Bus Photos thread, a dedicated thread for tips and techniques of bus photography. Photos go to the other monthly one.

TIB537B SG

yep, thanks :D really appreciate this. maybe mods wanna also make this sticky?

Can also include places where you feel is good places for bus photoshoots too. I'll start off - the area near Tanjong Pagar to Esplanade, near the office buildings area is a good place imo, alot of buses, good juncture points and not so much trees blocking the sunlight if needed. not so much traffic too on the left lanes.

service_238 SG

Stand at Elgin Bridge and snap Raffles Place. Its a perfect wallpaper if the sky is good.

Think this statement should go elsewhere.

TIB537B SG

Tip : Sunsets are pretty. And the yellow glow of the setting sun can give a nice effect on the bus, or anything else you wanna take. And a good way to mark a day and welcome the night.

I call this "Sunset Scania".

ZYX2005 SG

hmm whhy no one posting?

my rules. i follow these rules.

General rules

1) get the whole bus. not just the front. Dun slice the bus off in any way. Never take half a pic of bus. Only take certain small portion of bbus if u r making a point or taking parts of bus pics.

2) because i am a Canon PWS user. I need sunlight. Suunlight gives me fantastic pictures. Always take pictures in the right sunlight direction.

3) No lamps, trees, railings or shadows must block the bus.

4) Rules cna be eased if no sunlight or cloud weather. In fact cloudy weather i prefer as everything turns out well.

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1) Always take full view.

2) Must have sunlight falling on it.

3) No sunlight no point.

Locations

1) Bus stops referably. I am a bbus model by rego hunter so I am always at bus stops. In this case, most of my pics will be full frontal.

2) if a bus stop offers wider angles, use it.

3) I do however get around much and practically anywhere i can shoot. Junctions offer go nearside shots. offside shots cna be done on two lane two direction roads.

4) brdige down shots and bus climbing hill shots offer unque angles .

Night shots
1) Always get clear shots with minimum ISO. with high shutter.

2) never shoot at a moving target.

3) Find locations with lots of light to start with .

4) try your best to avoid desto glow out.

NEVER USE FLASH AT NIGHT

ZYX

HiAy3Captain SG

ZYX2005 SG

Getting perfect sunlight

Sunlight must fall in a 45 deg angle onto bbus in the direction you wish to shoot. it is not easy to get perfect sunlight if you roam a lot like me and have less tiem to shoot pics.

If i do spot favorable sunlight I make the full use of it.

Getting perfect EDS

COOLAIR
Only for those with mannual settings cameras.

Use shutter speed 1/50 for maximum satsisfaction. 1/60 may cause one or two lines of pixels to be lost.

Dawn or dusk lighting. Easily done with F/2.6 1/50 minimum ISO

full sunlight - this is where i wished i had a DSLR as my camera max is F/8.0

Most of the time F/8.0 1/50 with minimum ISo produces a rather over exposed pic. Best used during mild sunlight. bus must not be moving.

For those with DSLR the optimal F stop cna be as low as F10 and as high as F24 depeding on how bright the sunlight is. My older canon camera can stop up to F/11... whhich comes in sueful if only wish to shoot KUB for that day or if i happen to actually bring the old guy out.

- never shoot a Scania KUB EURO IV if bus is moving unless u only want the ad shot.

LAWO
I experimenting with 1/100

HANOVA
TIb1034 - I use 1/60.

SCANIA EURO EEV - any shutter speed will do but make sure the EDS can be seen brightly. If faint also no point.

Panning shot

I seldom do this but only if i am realy desperate in dark conditions.

ZYX2005 SG

Shooting from inside the bus to outside

Avoid glass reflection. Smart use of sunlight directiion here will assist. Generally if sunlight is against u u will confirm get reflections.

Make use of a openable window to shoot (overseas tours)

Shooting interior of bus
Similair to shooting inside a building.

DO NOT USE FLASh

use low shhutter when bus not moving.

Interiior angles
Standardised are (When baording a foreign/new bus)
Front to rear
rear to front

Dash area (Gives the viwers identify what the bus is)
PIW area at front

Mid aft shhots: Mid aft to rear
Mid aft to front

Roof shot (The air-con ducting and lighting designs are unique to a bus bodywork. concentrating on this shot gives the viewers what the bus bodywork is already)

Disclaimer - i follow these rules.

jayh272416 SG

- never shoot a Scania KUB EURO IV if bus is moving unless u only want the ad shot.

lol can do panning Euro IV shot right? Laughing

ZYX2005 SG

yep, thanks :D really appreciate this. maybe mods wanna also make this sticky?

Anywhere can be good. Except places where you cannot shoot. Bus Int army camps etc etc...

Traffic is not an excuse. In fact you still be able to shoot at buses 9with no obstructing traffic) in heavy traffic setting. but you must be skilled enough to react bus and get a shot when traffic clears. Sometimes its a window of a bus lnegth from where you are and just take the shot.

offside of course across 5 lanes of traffic. I have done this before and it is fun..hahah

there are no excuses not to shoot at a moving (non EDS) bus if u have a good camera that can set shutter up to 1/1200. i always shoot at moving buses and try to get clear shots.

ZYX

ZYX2005 SG

lol can do panning Euro IV shot right? Laughing

hahha thhis one i try ebfore. I pan and shoot 1/60. Ok EDS come out can. But the bus moving and the EDS is slanted to an angle. very weird. I stopped doing this after that weird shot..haha

jayh272416 SG

Anywhere can be good. Except places where you cannot shoot. Bus Int army camps etc etc...

offside of course across 5 lanes of traffic. I have done this before and it is fun..hahah

there are no excuses not to shoot at a moving (non EDS) bus if u have a good camera that can set shutter up to 1/1200. i always shoot at moving buses and try to get clear shots.

ZYX

lol i tried moving panning before. i remember got one 3648 i think the bus appeared clear and the background is very blur lol Laughing

jayh272416 SG

hahha thhis one i try ebfore. I pan and shoot 1/60. Ok EDS come out can. But the bus moving and the EDS is slanted to an angle. very weird. I stopped doing this after that weird shot..haha

lol u saw my 8033D shot? Laughing

ZYX2005 SG

the three basic camera settings (Night shooting tips below!)

Metering>
> of course setting up the camera by assist of the exposure meter (at side of your screen) is takes a few secs to do. if you really want a fast shot (NOW!) immediately dial to Program mode and chuck out a shot at exp +/-0

- Metering takes some time. even for me. clusmy fingers i have..lol

remmeber your camera lens is your camera's window to the world. take good care of it..and understand about it below

ISO

This is the Sensitivity of your lens. This is tied with the CCD (the digital sensor in your camera) the CCD is sort of like a ECU component of bus. only diff is it just sense light and converts it to digital pcitures within the camera. it is not a lens component

ISO is the sensitivity. the higher it is, the harder your camera works to get light in while picture conversion. but the harder it works, the more noise (interference) comes in.

noise is usually made non observable by bright lighting. So high ISO cna be used in bright lighting more more sensitivity. Eg: I use ISO 200 in bright sunlight sometimes.

When dark conditions and you use high ISo, noise appears. I seldom use high ISo at night unless i ndeed to. high ISo at night is sued to allow for a high shutter speed or ard 1/40 for interior pics. etc

ISO is used to make your pictures brighter. the higher the ISo, the brighter it is.

NEVER go beyond ISO 200 when using a Canon PWS

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Aperature

unit of measurement - F Stop. Eg (F stop 2.6 is expressed as F/2.6.

the aperature is a lens component. it controls how much sunlight gets into your lens. The bigger the aperature, the more sunlight comes in. the highest aperature value is my default setting F/2.6.

Aperature values are adjusted to compensate for bright sunlight. too bright close the lens a bit to allow less sunlight so as to not overexpose the pic.

Eg: is et F stop to F/4.0 with Shutter 1/800 when shoot in bright day.

Some others may use F/5.6 with 1/640 dpending on their style of use.

Shutter
Shutter is not the Tha Horror Movie which i like...hahah

Kidding

Shutter is how fast the lens snaps the pix. A click sound is heard when u snap the picture. how long you want the shutter to wait then move and capture the image, you please st. Fast shuttter or slow shutter? Of course the longer the wait (long shutter was set) , the more light is drawn into the CCD (not the film unless is film camera hahahah)

Fast shhutter
For moving objects or very bright sunlight day.

Eg: Shoot moving bus in cloudy conditiion

adjust shutter 1/800 F/2.6 ISO 80

Slow shutter
For dusk shot of non moving object or interiior shot or dark night shot

Night shooting tips

Eg: Dark night shot

Set shutter 1/4 or if you dare 1/3 ISO 80 F/Stop 2.6. stable hands n feet and shoot. This case your shutter is left open for 1/4 of a second. usually this translates to a 1 to 7 secs timed exposure. you will need to be stable for 7 secs. ouch. muscle ache.

Tripod useful now. as if stand too long in position msucle ache..hahaha kidding tripod stablises ur camera.

this form of photography at night is called Timed exporeusre

or timex

___
use your Image Stabilizer!

The canon PWS has a image stabilizer called IS. This is useful when shooting at night.

you can still shoot night pix with normal fast shutter response speeds. Find a place with some light and still set camera to 1/4, the click should be fast and pix caputred like u shoot datime pix. if not fast up the shutter to 1/6 lor..provided the pix dun get too dark. try to even out the shutter till u see the exposure meter read +/-0. . Take 3 pixs n quick sucession making sure the IS motors work each time u click. (Can feel the motor move one)

2nd or thrid shot will likely be clear

the key is three quuick succession shots. buses move fast so u yourself have to snap fast.

NEVER USE FLASH AT NIGHT.

settng all three settings:-
U need to play ard the 3 settings (ISO, Aperature, Shutter) in order to get a exp -/+0shot. Always remember to keep F stop High, ISO low as default. Only change those when need to.

ZYX2005 SG

Advanced- using the P, Av and Tv modes

How i use ,...hahah

P - program mode
program mode is what the camera chooses the ISO, aperature and shutter for you. You may not be happy with what the camera does but P is usually used if bus is stationary and you hve all the time in the world to shoot. You could let of a few shots in M mode (setting the three settings of ISO, Aperature and shutter) until you sianz and come back to P mode and shoot in P mode.

P mode is close to auto mode where you only set the exposure. The exporusre meter can be found in ALL cameras. So essenatilly those with a normal point and shoot are essentailly P mod-ing.

The P mode must never be use for moving targets as i reckon the camera is dumb and sets a low shutter speed for P mode.

Av mode - Aperature priority

In Av Mode, you set the F stop value and lets the camera choose the rest of the ISO and Shutter settings. ISO can be locked set to ISO 80 in some cameras with Av Mode. So leaves the shutter speed for camera to decide.. meaning camera locks the aperature value.

So that means i typcially use the Av mode when i need to shoot quick succession of pics but with different sunlight conditions. means u are standing there u shoot North then next shot u realise need to shoot West then next shot u realise must aim North again.

Eg: Taking buses coming along one direction of road (sunlight good) and other direction, sunlight not too bad.

Set a mean Aperature value like 3.5 and just let the camera decide the shutter speed. Again if your camera is dumb and the shutter speed choosen does not match the moving vehicle abondon Av.

However if it is clear on both directions, Av is the way to go without having to reset any other settings b4 taking a (really quick moving bsues) pix.

This si where u can see me dancing literally just keep snapping at the road..hahah

Tv - Shutter poririty

as its name suggest the camera locks the shutter speed and decides on Aperature and ISo values. I usually seldom use this one .

Only when i want to check whats the F stoop value for a 1/50 Scania shot then sometimes i dial to Tv mode.

Otherwise Tv mode cna be used like Av mode, set shutter to high speed for fast moving bus . But remember, the camera will always choose a high ISO if u setshutter high so i will seldom use Tv.

In Av and Tv mode, pixs can be blur so usually i revert back to Mannual mode if all failed.

ZYX2005 SG

Normal point and shoot camera

handphone

In the normal point and shoot camera just snap. u may e able to set your exposure and ISO.

- point and shoot in bright sunlight conditions with +/- 0 exposure setting. Never try a moving bus when not enough light conditions.

-You can set high exposure during cloudy or late evening conditions. I have used such camera to shoot Scania EDS get full EDS on a cloudy or evning timing when light is lesser in the day

- never use your HP to shoot moving buses, they appeared warped and blurry.

- HP still can shoot a good angle shot or two when bus is not moving.

sgbuses SG

Getting perfect EDS

COOLAIR
Only for those with mannual settings cameras.

Use shutter speed 1/50 for maximum satsisfaction. 1/60 may cause one or two lines of pixels to be lost.

Dawn or dusk lighting. Easily done with F/2.6 1/50 minimum ISO

full sunlight - this is where i wished i had a DSLR as my camera max is F/8.0

- never shoot a Scania KUB EURO IV if bus is moving unless u only want the ad shot.

A few exceptions where you find Coolair EDS is easier than usual to shoot :

- Night shots

- When it rains

- Or when it is about to rain, big time! (I got a perfect shot in sunny day, within minutes I was totally drenched)

- You are shooting an early-issue Batch I KUB. I don't know why, but I was able to get intact shots with high ISO.

If the cameo is a KUB Euro IV and you're DESPERATE to get that particular shot, and you don't care about courtesy :

- Stop it at a traffic light. Learn its timings and press the button controller when the cameo arrives to get a red light a few seconds before it reaches the white line. Don't press it too early or you'll find traffic blocking the side of the cameo.

jcqh SG

lol u saw my 8033D shot? Laughing

Never knew 8033 looked like this. Thot it was similar to the rest.

Looks like the MAN currently perm to 6

TIB958U SG

Info previously posted by ZYX on night spotting

http://www.sgforums.com/forums/1279/topics/331117?page=3

What is night bus spotting

In Singappore, like any other modern country,, there are bus services operated fter midnight to cater to the late crowds.

For exmaple in Australia a famous atttraction called Bondi beach evven has its own tourist night time bus service to cater to tourists or locals who like to go beach in the wee mornings or go beach late at night.

In Singapore two bus companies operate night services
SMRTbbuses operate Night riders or NR
SBS transit operate Nite owls.
(mainly for night events in town but not tourist demand services)

Normal spotting
u just see and snap 12m rigid NRs or sbs transit Niteowl buses. When spotting in the heartlands do watch out for above mentioned EB buses. these are rare to come by.

Festive seasons
eg: Christmas, new years Eve or F1. crowds stay up late in town. SMRTbuses will normally operate NRs with bendies. these are nice to snap. Also SBS transit will operate the EW NE and NS services. eg EW25 that runs in Clementi new town.

tips: if u do not wish to waste money on taking NR or niteowl, there are a few trunk services that bring u to heartlands even after 1am. This takes a few years of experince to understand and observe. Knowing this can save money...hahaha

Tips: best places to take photos are City Hall MRT (provided they dun close the bus stop like F1)
Soomerset MRT (mainly for NR)
Orchard turn (best for rigid NR)
Former John Little bus stop along Orchard Rd (can get night shot of Hippo tours)
Clarke Quay station (get some nite owls lor)

Tips: photography at night (compact camera only)

Tripods are normally necessary. However, i myself prefer to free ahnd at 1/4 slow shutter speeds. shots may be unpredictable but when u get a clear shot, great feeling using impormoptu surfaces to place ur camera n shoot the bus is also good to try. generally squatting n stabalising urself u tend to produce clear shots if u have a set of steady hands.

Do note that at 1/4 shutter SMRT destos may wash out. Also buses with glaring headlights u can give a mis as these will generally not come out well. (nearside shots

using the flash is bad. BCs or SLs get stunned. furtheremore ur pic will be washed out.

ZYX

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Some add-on tips on night phototaking at somerset stn over my past experience. At night, the backgroud of somerset stn bus stop is rather dark as it if full of trees as compared to the bright lighting effect on the bus. Therefore if you use your auto/prirority mode setting on your camera, the camera may tend to give an exposure value to expose the tress bright enough, thereby causing your bus & the bus's desto/EDS to be overexposed. This is the time where you need to use the full manual mode and then adjust values accordingly. There are also times when I get stuck with a choice of not blowing out the EDS but with a slightly darker picture ot blowing out the EDS with a bright picture. Some examples of slightly darker pics but EDS not blowed at all.

.SBS9888Y. SG

Thank you for your speech.