Overcoming the Common Obstacles in Night Photography
[ratings]
It’s a bummer that most photographers will start packing up their gear and go home once they see the sun sets. But for most hobbiyst (has a full time job of 9-5) that lives a busy life, it’s harder for them to shoot during the daytime. This is true for all of us though, that daytime swallows our time with stressful work life, school, errands, etc. Then, by the time you’re done, you lose your excitement to take pictures because you believe photography is only best with more natural lighting. Right? Then you tell yourself, ah.. maybe on the weekend.. But knowingly your weekend time is devoured by your family and friends and perhaps more work…
My suggestion? Change it up, go out and shoot at night as there are so many more other elements to capture and stunning visuals you will appreciate. Reading this will open up your eyes on night photography and long exposure methods. Let’s proceed.
Night Photography Gear Checklist
- Warm clothing: Hoodie, sweatshirt, gloves, pants, etc. Anything that will keep you warm.
- Snacks, drinks, pack of cigarettes (optional), and gum.
- Sturdy tripod. A sturdy one is a must especially when it is very windy out there.
- Wide-angle, and fish-eye lenses: This would be great for landscapes and city lights.
- Buddy. It get’s lonely during those long-shutter exposures…
Necessary Settings In Your Camera
As you can see from our gear list, you will not be needing a flash on this one. Everything that we need to set to achieve the proper exposure will be in your camera.
So let’s fast forward. You found a neat place, you’ve set up your camera on your trusty sturdy tripod… Now what?
Set your camera in Manual Mode (M). Don’t get scared because you left the Creative Zone! Being in Manual Mode, we are able to control everything from Aperture, ISO level to Shutter Speed. Which by the way, are the three main factors we will be focusing on.
Aperture: Set your f-stop to about f22. This will ensure everything in your plane are in focused.
ISO: 100. The lower the better, this will ensure a noise-free picture especially during long exposures.
Shutter Speed: 15+ seconds or more.
Set for Timed Exposure: To prevent any additional shake to the camera, using your 2-second timer on your camera is a MUST.
RAW: ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS Shoot in RAW.
Take The Picture, Wait, and Evaluate
So when you have all those settings properly programmed, it’s time to take that picture. Since we are using a small aperture (F22), focus anywhere in the middle of your screen, press the shutter half-way to focus, and press it again.Your camera should beep letting you know about the 2-second timer. Then stand back.
30 seconds… Sometimes it’s longer than you think. This is a good time to bring out those snacks, smoke a cigarette, or have a chat with your buddy. On some cameras, it might be longer than 30 seconds since it might still need to write the buffered data to the storage card.
If you have people walking by your shot, don’t worry about it too much. As long as they are out of your shot by the end of your exposure, they should be completely erased out of the picture.
Common Obstacles You Will Encounter
Under-exposure: Certain situations, 30 seconds is probably not enough to get the right exposure level on your picture. Try using a smaller aperture (F16-11) and maybe bump your ISO to 200 – 400. Some cameras have built in noise reduction to combat noise levels at long exposures, so make sure you turned that on.
Flaring: The longer your exposure, the more prone you are to flaring (as shown on the street lamps on the above image). So always keep that in mind. Keep your lens hood on at all times.
Wind: Some winds will definitely give your camera a good shake, even with your sturdy tripod. Try to block the wind by moving to the direction where the wind is coming from. Use your buddy to block some of the wind, too! You did bring a buddy, right?
Weather: It might be hot during the daytime and can definitely fool anyone, especially living in Southern California. You want to be comfortable during these cold nights. Once you get uncomfortable, you’re going to want to go home after a few shots. So dress WARM.
Hunger: When hunger strikes, make sure you are prepared! Your night photography session might take longer than you think!
Final Thoughts On Night Photography
At my last night photography session, I really favored both my fisheye and my wide-angle lens. They’re both fun and creative lenses to begin with. When you partner it with some long exposure skills, the possibilities are just endless!
You’ve heard of the buddy system, right? Lurking the streets of Downtown LA at night isn’t really a good idea in the first place. So this is where your buddy comes in handy again. They can look out for anything suspicious, watch your back and equipment.
Another thing I learned from my previous session is that some places won’t allow you to use a tripod, so keep that in mind or bettery hurry with that shot! I must’ve gotten kicked out a few times for using my tripod. But hey, I got the shot though!
Added: 9/19/09. Shooting Without A Flash
Last night, we went to LA County Fair to eat some interesting off-the-wall foods and of course, get some awesome night shots. I decided not to use flash and just go with a fast zoom lens (f2.8) and high ISO. The high ISO will let me hand-hold my shots without sacrificing for lower shutter speeds. A good setting to keep in mind is to shoot with Aperture Priority (AV mode) with +1~2 stops above normal exposure, and keep ISO in Auto. The extra stop above normal exposure will brighten up your photos and the auto ISO will let your camera decide what shutter and ISO to use for the different lighting situations.
If possible, bring a tripod with you to capture some long-exposure shots of the spinning ferris wheels!
Here are some of my favorite shots from this event:
More Awesome Examples of Night Photography
Smashing Magazine: 60 Beautiful Examples Of Night Photography
Adcuz: Long Exposure Night Photography – Step By Step Guide
Right on, some good information here. I would argue that if you’re using an APS-C or 4/3s digital camera, f/22 is NOT a good idea. You’ll lose sharpness due to diffraction.
Agreed about f/22… plus it makes for really long exposures. I use the same rule I do for day photography – the lens’s sharpest aperture unless I need more or less depth of field (or as wide as the lens goes if I’m trying to shoot handheld). I hardly ever go smaller than f/16.
Also, the larger the f/ number the smaller the aperture. F/16 is a larger aperture than f/22, which lets in more light.
Thanks for the comments!
@burnblue, You’re right about using smaller aperture and in most cases will cause diffraction. Although, I haven’t had any diffraction issues with my Canon 17-40L glass nor my Tokina Fisheye @f22.
@Spiny, yes you will need more light when using smaller apertures. If there is a tripod available, then using a smaller aperture wouldn’t be such a bad idea after all (especially when shooting city lights and etc). When walking around town at night, I love to use my 35L f1.2 glass. Partner that lens with a higher ISO (1600), no flash, and you can get some really nice natural lighting effects on your photos.
great info!!! I will go try night time photography. thanks for the tips
Why always use RAW? I stopped as it quickly filled my hard drive (i know external drives wont break the bank) and I had trouble finding software to open them? – New to this stuff please help
Hi Jamie,
RAW preserves the most details of a photograph and is recommended due to no compression compared to JPEG images. I shoot with RAW for changing white balance on post process.
What camera do you shoot with? If you shoot with Canon, you can use the Digital Photo Professional software that came bundled with your DSLR.
If you shoot with a Nikon, you can use the Capture NX2 software as shown below:
http://nikonusa.com/Find-Your-Nikon/Product/Imaging-Software/25385/Capture-NX-2.html
You can also open RAW files with the latest versions of Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom. If your camera are the latest ones out in the market, make sure to always have the latest updates installed.
Adobe Lightroom keep tracks of history changes of a RAW image. It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve closed and re-opened the file. Having that capability just opened up a whole new meaning for undo levels!
Let me know if you have any other questions.
-Andre
Yo you got some real dope photos bro. Keep up your hard work!
Good stuff man. I’ll give some of this a try this weekend, maybe even tonight.