Digital camera & digital photography resources
for professional & amateur photographers

Try experimenting with these night photography techniques to add some variety to your collection.

1. Shooting Methods
For low-light situations in which you want to capture a lot of detail by using a long exposure, it is best to use a tripod. If you don't have tripod handy, rest your camera on the ground or on a wall and use a piece of clothing underneath it to prop the lens up to the right angle for your shot. This will enable you to avoid camera shake and unattractive blurry pictures.

To be totally sure of a sharp exposure you can use a remote cable shutter release. An alternate method that may work best for those without a remote cable is to prepare you shot and them use your timer. This way, your hands won't be touching and potentially shaking the camera when you start your long exposure.

2. Backlight and EV Compensation
If you are shooting the stars or a cityscape, try the Backlight setting on your camera to expose the shot for longer than your automatic settings. You can also try using your EV (Exposure Value) Compensation settings to capture more detail in low-light situations. EV Compensation is usually set on a plus or minus two scale. Go straight to -2 for genuine low-light situations. How much detail you want to capture will vary from one low-light situation to the next, but if these techniques don't provide the results you want, try moving to your manual shutter speed settings.

3. Twilight and Night Portraits
For a twilight or nighttime portrait, experiment with using flash to capture your subject in the foreground and letting a long exposure fill in the details in the background. Remember, you're not trying to light up the whole scene using your flash, just your nearby subject, so don't assume you have to use a night flash setting; try various settings, but remember to use red-eye reduction as your subject's pupils will be wide open due to the low light.

Another thing to remember with this kind of portrait is that your subject will need to sit still. Using a long exposure with live subjects can lead to blur if the subject moves during the exposure. Just remind them that it won't be as bad as sitting for graduation photos, and certainly not as bad as the old days of photography where entire groups of people had to hold still for twenty seconds at a time.

4. Late Dusk or Early Dawn
Keep in mind that the best time for night photography is often not in the middle of the night, but rather at dusk. During the hour before and after sunrise you will still get the mood and effect of nighttime photography while being able to capture more detail in your subject and use a faster shutter speed.

5. Equipment Tips
There are no hard and fast rules for getting proper exposures at night. Light meters on cameras often meter improperly for long nighttime photographs, so many photographers consult an exposure chart to guess at what the appropriate exposure may be. Generally, you will be using a slow shutter speed and a wide aperture to gather as much light as possible.

Experimenting with different exposures and reviewing your camera metadata in ACDSee will help you judge what will be appropriate for a given situation. Bracketing is also a good way to find the right exposure. A digital camera, if it has the features needed, is great for this type of experimentation as it will save you a lot of film while you learn and practice these techniques.

One obstacle to nighttime photography with digital cameras is "thermal noise." This appears as specks on the image when the light sensors get hot during long exposures. It can be particularly noticeable in very dark nighttime photographs. One way to prevent this is to take your photos soon after you turn on the camera. It can also be fixed after the fact with noise reduction filter in your photo editing software.

Happy shooting!

__________________
Best Regards,
Gary Hendricks
[url=http://www.basic-digital-photography.com]Basic-Digital-Photography.com[/url]

Report this to a moderator | IP: Logged