How to Photograph a Tent and the Night Sky

In this Adorama video tutorial host Corey Rich shows you how to photograph the iconic (as he puts it) glowing tent and starry sky photo. It’s easier than you think! Watch the video and scroll down for some added bonus tips below:

He also mentions a second episode of shooting around a campfire at night, you can watch that video below as well or check out my own article here on dPS: 5 Tips for Creating fun Campfire Photos

I tend to disagree with two things he mentioned: shooting with a tripod lessens your creativity and shoot in burst mode to make sure you have it in focus. For me just the opposite is what I tell my students. I find that using a tripod makes you slow down for sure – but that’s more often than not a good thing.

Shooting to quickly is the cause of many issues such as not checking your composition or exposure closely, and getting carried away with the shot and not thinking it all the way through. In a scenario like this you have time to do test shots as the light goes down so do those hand held and once you find your perfect spot, set up and shoot on a tripod to get the sharpest images.

As for shooting in burst mode, that’s a bit of a pet peeve of mine. I come from the days of film where every button press cost money in terms of film and processing so you shot a lot more deliberately. Shooting a whole bunch of shots on burst mode might get you a good shot but I personal find that slow and methodical will get better results and way less culling and editing later.

Where do you stand on these two issues?  Tripod or not? Burst mode or decisive moment? Discuss  it in the comments and share any tent or campfire photos you’ve taken as well.