Night scenes |
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 Hints and tips by Philip Grosset If you'd like to submit photos for criticism, click here. |
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Another page added after a request in my guest book! Effective night shots are often a matter of trial and error. If there are lights (such as illuminations) in the picture and you are using 200 ASA film, either use an automatic camera that allows exposures of up to about 2 seconds, or open up to maximum aperture and experiment with an exposure of 2 or 3 seconds.You'll need a tripod or some other equally firm support. Or, to ensure correct exposure for the illuminations, you could, if necessary, take a close-up reading of them, then, if your camera allows you to retain this setting, move back to include the whole view. |
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| For illuminations, you'll probably need something to rest the camera on or against. Here it was a lamp post. The ordinary automatic setting has worked quite well. For technical reasons, the background in night shots often comes out darker than expected. |
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| But don't use flash, as here. The buildings are too far away to be lit by the flash, and the reduced exposure automatically set for flash means that even the lights don't show up properly. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| You could still use flash, though, if you wanted to light somebody in the immediate foreground, although the background will probably come out black, unless you have a camera with a special "night" setting that offers longer exposures for flash portraits of people that allow a bit more of the background to show up. |
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| Mike Sirott (Chicago, IL) sent me this photo taken by moonlight at about 10pm with an exposure of 20 minutes. It has come out very well, but compare it with my two versions below. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| On the left, I've darkened the sky as this increases the moonlight effect and makes it look more of a real night scene. The best time to take night shots is often when there's still enough light in the sky to show up the outlines of buildings. On the right, I've tried darkening it further, but this is too dark as the house and trees no longer stand out from the sky. Not recommended, unless you are doing a series of photos about haunted houses! |
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A long time exposure can be used to produce a dramatic streaked light effect from any car headlights (or other moving lights) that are going past. For fireworks, use a tripod and the bulb setting on a manual camera to leave the shutter open for several seconds, then wait until several fireworks have gone off, before you close the shutter. Then one part of the display will be superimposed on another, and the result will look more impressive.
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| I've already used this as an example of an against-the-light shot. It was taken with an automatic camera in late afternoon. The bright light from the sun caused the lens to close down so that the end result looks much darker than it did at the time, so adding to the effect. With sunsets, look for an effective foreground, such as water or a silhouetted object - or both! Allow some space between the setting sun and the horizon so that there is room for red sky, which can be made more dramatic by including clouds. If a long exposure is needed, find some support for the camera. Don't be afraid to experiment! There's a whole page of sunset photos sent to me for review - but it may take a little while to load. |
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Go on to WEDDINGS or ANIMALS. |
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NEXT PAGE PICKING THE BEST VIEWPOINT |
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