Photography After Dark

[Nicole]

Night Photography...

I like shooting at night. It's not necessarily as easy as shooting during the day and I probably wind up tossing more of my night shots than my day shots, but it's still fun. Wellington lights up the Botanic Gardens during the summer which makes for all sorts of great colours at night.

http://static.flickr.com/141/355645322_97850479b2_m.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicolesphotos/355645322/)

Some of my tips for getting good night pictures include:
-Use a tripod (I'm hopeless without one at low shutter speeds)
-Make sure your white balance is set correctly for the lighting
-Use your camera's timer or a remote shutter release so you don't knock the camera when you take the picture.

What are your favourite tips and techniques for shooting at night? :)

[sagelike31]

Nicole you gave some great tips, not much more to add, but I'll give it a try.

Some of mine are:

- Don't shoot at the dead of night, right after dusk or right before dawn is a good time. Basically when the sun is gone the gradient of the sky is almost gone but there is still somelight there. This works very well when you are including the horizon in your shot.

- And this is an easy one, wait for the moon to come out. That moonlight really adds to a shot.

[Nicole]

Sagelike, those are some really great tips. :) It's so easy to forget the little things that make all the difference.

Another tip:

-Use a low ISO when you're shooting long exposures (noise at high ISOs becomes even worse)

Come on, there must be more tips out there ;)

[Saralonde]

Bring a small flashlight to help you see your camera settings.
Remember that with a slower shutter speed things are still moving. Great if you want the ribbons of lights, but a long moon exposure can result in an oof moon as it keeps moving through the sky. The wind can also leave your shot less than sharp with a long exposure.
Bracketing may help with exposure.

[wulf]

Watch out for planes!

http://static.flickr.com/166/360369078_9a9d96b947.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/wulf/360369078/)

The picture above was from my first set of experiments at night photography. I was pleased with the subtle gradient of the background (city glow), dotted with a few stars. I was less than pleased to realise that a passing plane had left its mark (bottom right).

In this case, I was just experimenting for the overall settings and wanted to view the picture full size on my computer before making any decisions but I think I will try again with a similar setup and, this time, see if I can avoid any planes passing by.

Wulf

ps. ... and, yes, the horizon of the picture is wonky - that is a side effect of the slightly dodgy tripod I was using rather than a lesson in after-dark photography. :)

[Gromguitar4]

What about just shooting in completely low light situations where there will be movement and you do not want to use a flash? Any tips for let's say concerts or pageants or something?

[Nicole]

What about just shooting in completely low light situations where there will be movement and you do not want to use a flash? Any tips for let's say concerts or pageants or something?

There are a few threads that discuss this very topic:
Low-Light Action Shots (http://digital-photography-school.com/forum/showthread.php?t=114)
Low Light Lens (http://digital-photography-school.com/forum/showthread.php?t=33)
Construction Sites (http://digital-photography-school.com/forum/showthread.php?t=77) (more info on low lighting)

I've only shot at one event like what you're describing, which was a Diwali festival and I was taking some pictures of the people dancing. I used manual mode, and a very large aperture. I used a 50mm f/1.8 lens and shot at f/2.2 with shutter speeds between 1/40 and 1/60. Between that and panning (http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/mastering-panning-to-photograph-moving-subjects/) (depending on the amount of action), you should be able to get some good shots.
http://static.flickr.com/113/276587165_72f6d7a3ef_m.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicolesphotos/276587165/) http://static.flickr.com/90/276587359_f4a1356c40_m.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicolesphotos/276587359/)

There's more info on the threads talking about concerts as well :)

[Rommel]

Light is of prime importance. While it is true of all photographs, it is much more so of night pictures. But you can get creative in night pictures with light. Don't always try to capture what your eye sees, but aim for an effect - the effect may something you wouldn't normally do in the daytime. Also, if you have a remote flash or any light source that you can move, there are countless ways you can use it to change your composition (if your subject is relatively near you). You can create some amazing shadows too.

Light from a single source works with an inverse square relationship - so if object A is twice as far from the light source as object B, it will receive 1/4 the light. What this means is you can have very strong gradients, and can easily put the visual emphasis on what you desire. So get creative with how you see and use any light already there or that you bring.

Here's an example of a night shot I took today that breaks many of the rules (even has a lot of noise in it intentionally):

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/128/367770782_5e9a8d3762.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/44246591@N00/367770782/)

[Koets]

Did you think of using a higher ISSO-number? Most modern camera's can go up to a 1000. My camera (an Olympus E500) up till 1600. Gives you the opportunity to make rather steady shots in situations with very little light.

[RainPacket]

Higher-end cameras can go to ISO 3200, as well. The problem is, just like you get more grain in high-ISO films, you get more noise in high-ISO digital shots. And people tend to find digital noise less appealing than film grain, alas! Things like NoiseNinja can help with that, but they can also have drawbacks.

A lot of it comes down to what you want to do at night. For my part, I try to work the contrast of light/dark into all my nighttime shots. I love photographing lamps, streetlights, lights through windows, neon lights outside of bars and so on.

I also do at least three quarters of my nighttime shooting with my "nifty fifty" at a very high aperture; while shallow DoF doesn't work for everything, you can still work with it and the wider aperture -- and thus, higher available light -- can make a huge difference.

[Digidave]

I love photographing lamps, streetlights, lights through windows, neon lights outside of bars and so on.

So, Rainpacket, do you also go into those fine drinking establishments & maybe tip a few on occasion? I mean, well..... you're there anyways! You might as well, right?:D

[jb683]

The full moon before the storm. We are forcast to have snow, sleet, and freezing rain tomorrow.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jb_683/375972278/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/163/375972278_06aa13a8fb_o.jpg" width="646" height="558" alt="The Moon" /></a>


Olympus E500 50-200mm f2.8

[mikeboy]

Sagelike, those are some really great tips. :) It's so easy to forget the little things that make all the difference.

Another tip:

-Use a low ISO when you're shooting long exposures (noise at high ISOs becomes even worse)

Come on, there must be more tips out there ;)


sorry for the probably dumb question, but I am a little confused, higher ISO means higher ISO number, like ISO 800 or 1600, or do you mean sharpness, because ISO 100 is sharper than ISO 1600... which is the higher ISO?

[Saralonde]

sorry for the probably dumb question, but I am a little confused, higher ISO means higher ISO number, like ISO 800 or 1600, or do you mean sharpness, because ISO 100 is sharper than ISO 1600... which is the higher ISO?

High ISO is a higher number like 800 or 1600. You can use it in low light conditions but it can result in grainy or "noisey" shots.