Stadium lights...?

[cat]

I just want to get what I see! The trouble is that although the colour/etc of the sky and buildings there is close enough to how I saw it, I see big panels of bright lights and of course they get blown out by the camera. So it seems that I must adjust it to the point at which it starts to make the star effect. If I underexpose too much, everything else will become too dark.

Apart from what the others have suggested, I would advise you to use Spot Metering which is available in your camera and focus on the lights.

I don't know if that happens automatically or by default, with it set on Av, but I did see that the green dot thing was on one of the lights - I mean I did notice that and think ok, let that be on the lights. I know, I need to go back to the manual.

[Salil]

Originally Posted by cat

I just want to get what I see! The trouble is that although the colour/etc of the sky and buildings there is close enough to how I saw it, I see big panels of bright lights and of course they get blown out by the camera. So it seems that I must adjust it to the point at which it starts to make the star effect. If I underexpose too much, everything else will become too dark.


I don't know if that happens automatically or by default, with it set on Av, but I did see that the green dot thing was on one of the lights - I mean I did notice that and think ok, let that be on the lights. I know, I need to go back to the manual.

That won't be possible for a camera to capture!
As a rule of the thumb, light sources on long exposure shots tend to get overexposed. The longer the exposure, the longer would be the area of over exposure or glare around the light source. The presence of fog/mist/smoke etc would accentuate this glare effect. HDR could be useful in such conditions. Maybe you should try one in this situation. Check the HDR thread and see how HDR was used to capture cars with their headlights on.

[silentthoughts]

Originally Posted by Salil

That won't be possible for a camera to capture!

+1^.cameras don't have the kind of dynamic range human eye has..hdr can bring your results "closer" to what you see.I never had any luck with hdr up till now