Stopped down to F/16, Shutter speed 4 seconds, ISO 800, in manual mode.

Was expecting a Nissan.

Very nice pictures though.

nice shots and angles to take em from

what makes em look grainy/distorted though?

i like the pictures, think the 2nd is gonna be my new desktop...cant use the others with the whole cubs thing

Actually thought about PhotoShopping the Cubs out of the last one and using it. Love the picture but no way I could deal with the reminder.

Can you go back and take that shot again plz?

ISO800

The "grain" as we sometimes call it in this day and age, is also known as "digital noise" or Jpeg artifacts. It happens when you step up the ISO also called "sensitivity."

At ISO 100, we see very little noise or grain, whereas the higher you go, generally the more grain/artifact/noise we see.

Get a book focker!

Edit: You can use software to help eliminate this artifact, one being Photochop, the other Noise Ninja, and other ones too...

Next time I'm going to try and shoot at ISO 400, with all the light I think they'll turn out ok. Those shots settings were taken per recommendation for night photography out of a book I have. I did a bunch of bracket shots but didn't think to play with the ISO. Those we ISO 800 with Nikons Noise Reduction turned on. I'm probably going to go back down there tomorrow night and I'm going to experiment more. Hopefully that cub crap will be gone too

To further elaborate on Mort's post, the higher the ISO setting you use the higher your cameras sensitivity is to light. So when you're shooting in the dark raising your ISO setting helps. With as much light as there is downtown I think I could have got away with ISO 400. Also if you make the images smaller they don't look anywhere near as grainy. I'm trying to get some nice night sky line shots so I can have some 11x14s made

You got photochop?

and which camera?

Yes, Nikon D40x. Photoshop CS but I suck at it. Post-processing for those photos was level adjustment, and some very minor saturation adjustment.

Not too familiar with the D40x, but when it first came out I was under the ASSumptions that it shares a similar, if not same exact, sensor as the D80 which is what I shoot with.

You have the right idea about turning the ISO down if ya want to bring the noise level to a minimum. Writing down what you did in the sequence of shots used to be the way to go, but now-a-days, you can just peek at the metadata, very handy so you know what you did...

So try shooting with the NR in the camera on at 800 for a few shots, then turn the NR off while still at 800. I don't like the NR in my camera... but that's me. Then do the same at 400. I don't know how long you can hold the shutter open or if there is Bulb on that thing, but if you have patience, a steady tripod, and a couple minutes, try going even lower ISO which will result more shutter time.

F16 is pretty small, try opening up the aperture to f11 or so, most objects will still be in focus up to a certain focal point and since it's a wide ladnscape, I'm ASSuming you used something below 35mm. Hell, even drop it down to f5.6, you might like the results. One of my better night shots was at f5.6 with just the moon light...

Now, in "pp" (Post processing? Never understood that since you are still processing the image) go to filters > noise > and something or other to adjust those levels, at work, off the top of my head... I tried to adjust your jpeg file here at work with Capture NX, but nothing changed...

Thanks I'm going to work on that tomorrow night. Shooting in bulb is kinda hard. I need to get a remote.

Looks like you need to clean your sensor as well judging from the repeating dark spots.

He lives!!!! I filled in for ya while you were out.

How do I do this? The camera is brand new, I think I've taken the lense off twice for a matter of seconds with the body facing down.

Go get that remote, it's so much nicer shooting the D40 in bulb on a tripod with that handy remote.

Is it advisable for a newb to touch his sensor. I was told not too

Couldnt that be something on his lens as well?

Yeah, I highly doubt the sensor has anything on it, especially if he was carefult switching lenses. I've had large spots (water from the lake maybe?) show up like that before.

Don't go touching that sensor

You definitely DON'T ever touch the sensor. What you can do is lock the mirror and blow air on it with a brush bulb but you don't ever want to touch it. My lens is a bit dirty so I cleaned that up, we'll see if it makes a difference. I took some test shots in the house with the aperture stepped way down and I didn't see any spots so I doubt it's dirt on the sensor.

I'm going to stop by ritz to see if they have the remote in stock before I go tomorrow night. Every time I got to the camera shop I forget to pick it up

nice shots

Check the lens for possible dirt, dust, lint, water spots....

You can't actually touch the sensor. It's got a UV, IR, and low pass filter covering the sensor. That's not to say you still can't damage it if you push hard enough.

As for dust on the sensor...You ever notice how your lens extends and contracts in length when you zoom near and far? That's known as a dust pump to the old timers. As the lens extends it pulls in air, as the lens compresses it pushes that air into your camera body.

Some lenses are really bad about it, most modern ones aren't too bad.

Just food for thought.

Also, *never* use canned air on your sensor. If you get just a hint of the liquid shot out onto your sensor, it will etch the filter at least, and possibly freeze and crack stuff at most.

You might consider a Giottos Rocket Air Blower. It's what most Pro's use in the field.

Meh, what do I know though.

I would never spray compressed canned air into the camera lol. I had a few smudge marks on my lens as I didn't have a UV filter (until last night). So I cleaned it up with a drop of lens solution and some lens cleaning tissue. I understand the lens is a dust pump (maybe one day I'll pick up an internal zoom lens) but I have only shot about 150 photos all in locations that really aren't dusty. We'll see how they turn out tonight If there's still dark marks can you recommend a local camera shop that is familiar with cleaning sensors on DSLRs?

The 3rd one would be awesome if someone could eliminate the go cubs from the picture.

Aren't you a cubs fan? LOL (southside for life!!)

Nope.