Night photography is very interesting and unique. A building could appear normal and boring at day, yet look majestic during the night. Cityscape usually look best captured at night with all the lights from the building subtly brighten the sky above. Funnily, the first time i tried night photography was with MPC last year as a member. This year, its my turn to teach the workshop, my turn to return the favor. All right, lets get started.
What equipments?
There are couple of things that you will need for night photography. Those are the only two items you need to get a basic night shoot:
- Tools to hold your camera steady: Sturdy tripods, portable tripods, bean bags, gorilla pod. Without those, it is impossible to get a long exposure needed for night photographs
This is an example of gorilla pod on my Nikon D80. If you find a place to wrap them around, gorilla pod can be as good as tripod, but not as versatile. Photo by Candice Li.
- Camera with manual exposure setting – or at least have a night shoot setting. Because you would want to set your shutter speed to very long exposure, if your camera doesn’t allow that, get a new/better one. The good rule of thumb to check if you camera is capable of manual setting is to look for the letters “M, A, S, P” or “M, Av, Tv, P” on your camera mode dial.
What exposure settings?
The basic theory behind night photography is that we need the shutter to open longer because there are not enough light around to light the scene like day. Therefore we will be needing slow shutter speed, which in turn makes us more prone to blurring. That’s where the tripod come to rescue. Simple huh!
The principles of longer shutter works the same as opening the water tap longer if the water isn’t flowing fast enough to fill the glass
Slow shutter speed can be employed to capture shots like this one. Just go out and try! 1/2s f3.5 ISO 100
Somehow this street lamp reminds me of Batman movies. 30s f25 ISO 100
As you can see, the exposure triangle (shutter, aperture, ISO) works in all situation. The first image open the shutter faster, but wider aperture. The second image opens the shutter very slow, but with very narrow aperture to en compensate.
Check out the cloud movement as the shutter is reduced. 30s f10 ISO 100
My first reaction seeing this image is: "WOW! this looks like a 3D CGI" but indeed long shutter can create such effect. 30s f10 ISO 100
Enduring cold winter night waiting for the shutter to close can be very rewarding. 30s f20 ISO 100
In order to get that starry effect of street lamps (or any circular light source) we just need to open the aperture as narrow as possible, maybe f18 upwards. I’m not sure how this effect is made technically, but it works!
A very generic opera house shot! but still captivating nevertheless. 13s f8 ISO100
This is my first visit to sydney during the World Youth Day 2008, notice the difference of this one and the image following. This image is captured without using tripod. I used the steel bar to brace my camera. 1/2s f3.8
My fourth visit to Sydney, now using my friend's tripod. The very same shot, the very same spot. Notice the slower shutter speed blurs the water into dreamy colored form. 15s f10 ISO100
The second shot was processed with lightroom preset “300″. Awesome huh! I sense another tutorial coming…
Hey, night photography doesnt have to be cityscapes! This is during the new year festival in my hometown. I climb up the stage to take this awesome shot (of course you need permit from the promoter). Notice the high iso contributes to grainy appearance. 1/30s f3.8 ISO800
I liked how the composition of the place, so i borrowed a tripod and shot another long exposure. Again, a simple scenenery like this can also be taken with long exposure. 30s f7.1 ISO200
Conclusion
- If you didn’t bring a tripod when you see a nice night scene, look for something to brace your camera into. A desk, chair, your bag, or even lamp post can help to keep your camera steady.
- Open the shutter as long as possible with narrowest possible aperture to create an interesting effect. You probably will be surprised by your own shot.
- Keep compositions in mind. No shot can be good with just exposure. You have to compose the shot just like you shot a normal landscape.
- Keep trying, keep practicing, keep experimenting
- Good luck!
If you like this post, you might also like:
- Photos by Night Photography Workshop Students
- Tutorial: How-To Photograph Fireworks Without Tripod!
- Ryan and Marco at MCC Portrait Night
- How To: Basics of Photography in 15 Minutes
- 9 Zoo Photography Tips & Tutorial
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