When it isn't possible to get the perspective as you like it, you can always shoot wider and use LR vertical distortion correction before cropping it back to what you saw.

Here's something else to think about; any time you are photographing any kind of a building, (especially with a WA lens, it's VERY important that the camera (and tripod) is on the same level as the house / building, whatever; if you get the lens axis the slightest bit "up", the perspective will be distorted, and the ends (or sides) of the house will be wider at the bottom, and sloping in at the top, all of which will ruin the shot, even if your exposure is "right on".

I recently ran into the same problem one night, and I had only taken my 12-24 F 4 WA with me; Needless to say, the resulting photos were terrible ! I returned the following night, mounted my 80-200 /f2.8, and re-shot the pictures from about 100 to 150 yards away, and this time everything was nice and straight, the image was composed much better, and the pictures were about 100 times better !

If I get a chance before the lights come down. I'm going to go back again and this time try it with my MF 35mm PC lens; ( I haven't used the thing since I quit shooting Fuji Velvia with my F 5 ); (should be "fun" experimenting with the D SLR !)

Bland--nice shot. Please keep posting results.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgLiKK3fumA

Thanks everyone for your help. I lowered the speed trying to get my autoiso to 100 but could get it to only 400 on most of the shots. For some reason this one fired off at 1100, didn't know it till now. I didn't try the bracket and ETTR but will this week, had too much stuff going on around me to concentrate. Thanks again everyone for your help.

Bland said:
Thanks everyone, looking forward to trying out ETTR this evening.

The point isn't taken - you won't have the chance to ETTR with this kind of photography. Forget being able to over expose without blowing the highlights in night photography including lights.

I have a feeling you will be blowing all highlights ( and they don't come back in post process ) for the sake of trying ETTR.

All you have to do is to NOT blow highlights as that is what the camera will try to do. Once you stay below the blowing level, you have the best possible exposure and believe me it will not need darkening !

If at all possible, bracket like crazy in BIG steps (not tiny 1/3 steps). Go manual exposure and experiment. The ETTR technique is nice; but as soon as you have extreme brightness variations as with bright little lights at night you have to find a way to deal with blown-out highlights. I usually shoot one exposure to lift the dark areas out of complete darkness (that's the overexposed image) and one image for the lights (underexposed to get rid of the blown-out spots), and then combine them with semi-HDR techniques in Photoshop.
What also works (and it has already been mentioned), is to avoid pitch black nights. Either shoot a little earlier or at an overcast night, or add a little fill light.

Thanks everyone, looking forward to trying out ETTR this evening.

One note about ETTR is that you have to post process. The image is intentionally too bright and you will want (need) to darken.

OK, I see the confusion. What I should have said is expose MORE to the right. In other words, if you set your camera to aperture priority and let it take the photo, you would get something which looked almost like daylight. If you add a couple of stops of -ve exposure compensation in you would get something still lighter than what you want, but when darkened down would be noise and banding free. If you take a dark picture and brighten it, you will get horrible noise and banding.

Hopefully you are not going straight out tonight to a shoot where you have to get good shots straight off the bat so set your LCD to show the histogram and shoot some pics to get the idea. The best stars are at the smaller apertures, but they are the longest exposures which your scenes may not be good for so it will all be a compromise, but that is the great thing about digital isn't it - instant learning! The first time I did fireworks I asked here and got enough info to realise that the aperture only really affects the sky colour and the shutter speed can be used on bulb to get just the right amount of action in each frame. That first fireworks shoot was a success and I sold all the shots I took - all 100 of 'em!

Sorry Bland, it is as Godless said. The idea is in this instance that boosting exposure up causes colour banding and bad noise problems whereas darkening doesn't so in other words, take a few shots with the histogram to the right on its axis.

Bland: this may help => http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposing_to_the_right

spraynpray said:
Don't forget what I said about ETTR and darken in post though. once you realise that the lights are always burnt out, it is just a case of playing with the exposure to get the effect you desire.

I am not sure if Exposing To The Right is a choice here as it is a technique you intentionally over expose all the way till just under highlights are blown. ( and then correct by darkening it ). Something one might try doing in low contrast/even light/over lit daytime scenes that does not require the full dynamic range of your DSLR.

In a case of Xmas lights at night, you have to reach for just below the blowing limit ANYWAYS as the rest of the scene will be totally dark and you would want to get as many details from it as possible ( dynamic range being not enough )... In other words, maximum exposure below blowing highlights is what you would do anyway.

Bland said:
Thanks, I'll take a tripod and besure to bracket. I'm not sure what ETTR is.

Exposure To The Right. I hate abbreviations just because of this kind of thing.

Thanks, I'll take a tripod and besure to bracket. I'm not sure what ETTR is.

Er, yes. I didn't realise you wanted to hand hold. My pad shot was an extreme example @ 30 sec but 1 sec isn't unusual. Don't forget what I said about ETTR and darken in post though. once you realise that the lights are always burnt out, it is just a case of playing with the exposure to get the effect you desire. Manual exposure means that once set you hardly have to think about it. I bracketed those bridge shots and used the shortest exposure for the PAD, the best shot to use was the longest (brightest) darkened in post.

I would definitely take and expect to use your tripod though.

Happy Christmas!

spraynpray......thanks! Will the shutter speed be too slow to hand hold shooting at dusk?

Night photography is night photography Bland. I keep my ISO down to 100 and use f11 or smaller for starbursts on the lights but if they are outside, try to shoot them just after sunset and set your shutter speed to give you a dark blue sky like in my PAD of the QE2 bridge. Oh, and very important - ETTR and darken in post to avoid banding and noise.

I forgot to ETTR on that shot and struggled with it as a result.

Anyone got tips on how to do this? Thanks