Night Photography
Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed
Do you put your camera away when the sun goes down, thinking that there is nothing to take photos of? Well look again When light starts to fade it’s the perfect time to grab the camera and explore the magical scenery that the night brings forht.
Urban landscape can be a real bore to photograph during the day; the dull grey buildings are lifeless and can sometimes leave you feeling as stiff as the buildings themselves. But when light from the day starts to fade our cities and towns are turned into a magical vista of outstanding light jumping out to be photographed.
Here is how you can go about taking amazing night time photos.
There is no lens that will help to get better night time images. It is best to carry a variety. Make sure you have a telephoto lens. This will help to zoom in on buildings and get rid of any unwanted dark areas.
Use the same composition rules that you use when taking landscape pictures.
Look for lines: using lines that lead into the main part of the scene will draw your viewer’s attention into your image. These lines don’t have to be straight. Lines, such as streetlights, the light from moving traffic, or any fences that are brightly lit may work successfully.
Look for an object of interest in the foreground: Simple foreground objects will give your night-time image a greater sense of depth. This is the same as if you are photographing a landscape image during the day.
Natural frames: Frame your scene with the elements all around you. This will focus attention on the main part of the picture. Example: If you are taking an image of a building use the dark buildings around it to frame your image.
Remember, for night time photography it is necessary to always use a tripod. Your exposure time is going to be long - it’s impossible to get sharp images at night with a hand-held camera.
Exposure: This is probably the hardest part of taking night time images. How do we calculate the proper exposure? Colour temperature varies when working with artificial light, so different exposure times are necessary. It’s best to bracket your shots to get the perfect result. Taking many shots is a good idea to insure you get the perfect shot.
If you try to photograph the moon, shoot with a shutter speed 1/125 and use an aperture of f/11.
Many buildings are best photographed at night, if possible get shooting when there is some detail left in the sky. You don’t need the most expensive camera on the market to get great night images
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