Some useful advice from Richard Schneider
on night photography. Richard suggests using your camera's
self-timer to avoid any camera shake. These days many digital
cameras, such as the Olympus Camedia series, are supplied
with handy little infrared remote controls.
Night Photography: Low Light
Tips and Techniques
Photography at night can be used to create mysterious
and amazing photos. When I say photography at night I
mean the hours from around sunset until when the stars
are clearly visible. The long exposures associated with
low light can create unique effects and unusually sharp
photos. And when I say long exposures I mean exposures
lasting from half a second up to even 30 seconds. An
exposure that long would seem impossible to prevent shaking,
so my technique that I use very often is to compose the
photo like I would normally and then to set the self-timer
so the camera takes the picture on its own and I don’t
even have to touch it.
Equipment Options
For low light photos, a tripod (or some kind of substitute)
is very necessary. I almost always keep a tripod in the
trunk of my car or carry a miniature tripod around on
trips. A miniature tripod can be very handy because it
is typically small enough to fit in a pants pocket so
it can be taken anywhere. Some photographers carry around
a bean bag or something like it so that can set their
camera down and tilt it in any way they like. Some of
my best pictures I have taken simply by setting my camera
down on a newspaper stand and setting the self-timer.
Many photographers are convinced that they need a cable
release to take long exposures but the self-timer release
option on just about all cameras works just as well.
All you have to do is set the camera up, configure the
self-timer, press the shutter button, and wait the specified
amount of time (usually 10 seconds) and the camera will
take the photo automatically. And you don’t have
to touch the camera so the photo won’t be blurred
from hand shaking.
Night Photo Opportunities
Landscape Photos - My favorite kind of night photo usually
includes a landscape with some kind of foreground element,
some sort of framing element, and lots of lights throughout
the scene. Adding some kind of foreground item to the
frame helps to create a greater depth of field, this
technique works for any kind of photo but I have found
that it makes night landscape photos much better. Another
tip you should keep in mind is that the main subject
of a night photo should probably be the most well lit.
Lots of light is good for a night exposure but there
should still be some focus applied to the major objects
in a scene.
Capturing Motion – A very popular kind of night
photography includes a steady camera with some sort of
fast moving object streaming through the frame. When
cars are photographed at night with a long shutter speed,
the headlights make a bright pathway of light and in
most cases the car can’t even be seen. Another
option would be to set up your camera next to a lighted
area with lots of people moving like a night club or
an illuminated street. Just about any kind of motion
captured with the camera steady produces a very interesting
photo.
Balancing Aperture and Shutter Speed
When taking photos at night you should keep aperture
in mind as well as shutter speed. It is without question
that you will need a long shutter speed, but the aperture
that you choose will provide the depth of field. When
I take night photos I usually have a very long shutter
speed (5-15 seconds) and a very narrow aperture (high
f-stop). This combination creates a huge depth of field
and makes everything very crisp and in focus. Of course
sometimes you will not desire a great depth of field
and in those situations you should widen the aperture
(small f-stop).
Calculating the Exposure
Figuring out what exact shutter speed and aperture you
should use can be very challenging in Manual Mode. I
would recommend that you just try many different combinations
for each scene and eventually you will refine the settings
that you prefer. Another technique I use is Bracketing,
if you bracket all your photos so the camera takes multiple
exposures at different settings, you are more likely
to end up with a photo that has a satisfactory brightness.
Conclusion
There is no exact science to night photography; I hope
some of these tips will guide you in the right direction.
But the best night photographers are usually the people
who experiment a lot when they are taking low light exposures
and eventually they figure out the best scenes and best
exposure settings to match. Just remember that you need
a very long shutter speed setting, and that you need
to keep the camera very steady.
Richard Schneider is a digital photography enthusiast
and founder of http://www.picturecorrect.com/ which offers tips and news about
digital photography, digital camera reviews, and photoshop
tutorials. Please also visit http://www.picturecorrect.com/freewallpaper.htm where you can
find many examples of the techniques described in this
article to use as your desktop wallpaper.
