Night photography is not easy, but it can be one way to create artistic shots. It is not only landscapes that can be effectively shot at night. Portrait photos taken in the moonlight look mysterious, unusual. Even ordinary, familiar things that do not arouse any interest during the day can become fascinating. To achieve a good result, you need a camera and a tripod.
It is often thought that high-quality night photos require an ultra-expensive SLR camera with a similar price. fast lens. Another misconception is that a DSLR should have an ISO of 1600 or higher. In fact, all that is required is a manual setting (M) or a shutter priority setting (TV). Enough to shoot 8 seconds exposure. The tripod will provide the necessary stability of the device. The sensitivity of the matrix, the aperture ratio of the lens are not so important during the night session. They are offset by slow shutter speeds. When photographing at night, mount the camera on a tripod. It requires stable, rigid, about twice as heavy as the camera. Then the device will not sway "as in the wind." If you don't have a tripod, place your camera on a hard, level surface. This position allows you to shoot at slow shutter speeds without raising the ISO, so that there is no loud noise that is inevitable when increasing it. Turn off the stabilizer. It works at a shutter speed of ¼ sec for handheld photos. Switch to Manual mode. Sometimes it is missing, then the program exposure mode (P) will do. Turn off the built-in flash. She can't handle the conditions. night shooting, will illuminate only one nearby object, everything else will remain in the dark. Autofocus and exposure metering will not help to make a good night photo.
Don't slow your shutter speed too much. "Overexposed" photos will not save even Photoshop. Take at least three shots - darker and lighter, then choose the best one. Photographing at night as an art form is described in the book Night and Evening Photography by Lee Frost.
“If you want to make money on a photo, go shoot at night,” photographers often say. It's hard to argue with this. Indeed, shooting a night city, multi-colored lights, unusual colors, glare
Bright reflections and a very special color and mood find their buyers faster than most other genres of photography. But this is only one, and by no means the most important reason to go at sunset with a camera for good shots. The most important thing, in my opinion, is the pleasure from the very process of night shooting and, of course, from the subsequent looking at beautiful photos.
But night shooting, like any other type of shooting, has its own specifics. In this article I will tell you how I take night shots.
What we need:
Necessarily:
1. Tripod.
2. Lens hood.
3. Camera (and how else).
You may need:
1. Remote remote control from the camera.
2. Cross filter.
3. Gradient filter.
4. Polarizing filter.
Tripod:
I highly recommend when shooting at night always use a tripod. It is not necessary to count on what can be removed from the hands without blurring at a slow shutter speed. Of course, you can rely on the fact that the camera will be able to put on a side, railing or some kind of curb. But practice shows that, firstly, the necessary point of support may not be found, and if there is, it will most likely be inconvenient - the camera on the railing will be unstable, and you will be very limited in choosing the angle.
Exposure selection:
I almost always shoot night shots in manual mode. First I choose aperture. The more the “hole” is clamped, the greater the depth of field, that is, the clearer the details in the distance become. In urban and architectural photography, I usually close the aperture to a value of 14-18.
The original source of the article: http://www.digicam.ru/
There are photographers who do not go out at night. Many are under the impression that, due to the lack of natural light, everything you shoot will come out blurry, noisy, or dark. In fact, in most urban centers there are many photographic opportunities just waiting to be exploited, all with just the light available.
Where to start?
First of all, you need to find a suitable location. I would recommend the bustling city center which has a huge variety of potential subjects to shoot and a choice of light sources such as transportation systems, architecture and details like fountains and statues.
Start in a familiar environment, somewhere where you feel safe and know where the best vantage points and views are. It might even be better to bring a friend with you, just to be on the safe side. You should probably plan your itinerary, stopping at various points of interest. This will give your walk a certain structure, and you will be able to work in a variety of conditions.
It's a question of time
So, when you have decided where you are going, you should think about the time at which you will visit the chosen place. Check online when the sun goes down and plan your outing around that time. My favorite time to shoot is twilight, so I arrive about half an hour before sunset. In this way you can work at the twilight hour before it gets dark and you start your work in the dark.
Shutter priority
I recommend that you start by putting your camera in shutter priority mode, which allows you to judge the amount of light needed for specific types of shots based on the availability of natural and artificial light.
Try starting with 1 or 2 seconds, depending on whether you are working with static or moving lights. Since you are letting enough light into the camera by using an adequate shutter speed, you can afford low ISO settings to get a sharp shot.
If you're comfortable working in full manual mode, then I suggest choosing a narrow aperture, around f/12 to f/16, which will allow you to get more depth of field for wide-angle shots.
What is the temperature?
You should shoot in RAW, not only because this format provides versatile editing options for photos taken in difficult lighting conditions, but also because it is extremely useful for changing the white balance. The light sources available in urban environments vary greatly and therefore the color temperature of the light also varies, so it's important to be able to control the white balance in post-production.
Gear Up
Given that you'll be working at slow shutter speeds, handheld shooting will be impossible, so you'll need a few pieces of equipment to get crisp, sharp shots. First of all, it is extremely important to have a stable tripod in combination with a remote control, which will allow you to shoot hands-free and avoid any accidental shake.
It's also good to work with a wide angle lens, mostly because in the city there are restrictions on vantage points and where you can sit, so something like 18mm or 24mm is ideal and will allow you to fit the whole view into the frame. entirely. It is also worth attaching a lens hood to the lens, which is usually used in very bright conditions, but in the city there is a huge variety of light sources, which can lead to unwanted flare.
What is the subject of the shoot?
In a nighttime urban space, anything that emits light can be considered as a potential subject. For starters, you can take a picture office buildings, hotels, shop windows and architecture in general. Don't forget to consider architectural details just because it's dark outside.
Through the use of slow shutter speeds, these subtleties may not necessarily be revealed in the way they are perceived in daylight. Street lights will also help you, providing additional lighting in any situation.
Catch the moving lights
In addition to stationary light sources, there are great amount moving, which can lead to extremely attractive images. Cars, trains, buses, trams and Ferris wheels can be used to capture long exposure light trails.
Use shutter priority mode to choose the right amount of time for a given light source to pass through the frame, resulting in a light trail in the image. One useful technique is to calculate required time even before shooting, to know what shutter speed to choose, bearing in mind that there may be certain variations depending on the speed of the light source.
With all the talk about shutter speed, it's easy to forget about other elements of the shot, like composition. Once you've got everything set up the way you want it, think about the placement of the elements in the frame, do the light trails lead into or through the frame? Think about the surrounding architecture surrounding your lights and how you can use the rule of thirds.
Playing with zoom
There are also a couple of fun techniques you can try out to enhance your city night shots. You need a standard zoom lens for this, just select your light source and make sure the lens is at its maximum zoom position.
Press the shutter button, and while the exposure continues, move the zoom one full turn, ending as close as possible to the moment the shutter closes. This should give you the effect of light rushing towards the viewer. Now try doing it in the opposite direction, starting as close as possible and gradually moving away.
Night city panoramas
Creating a great panorama depends on finding a good vantage point, so head a little further from the city center and look for a high point from which you can fully see the city skyline. It is definitely preferable to find a vantage point in daylight and wait until dark to avoid searching in the dark.
Look for a strong composition that includes differences in building heights and an element of interest throughout the frame. Experiment with exposure times to get the right exposure to ensure that all light sources are clearly visible, highlighting the outlines of buildings.
Now it's your turn!
So now it's your turn. There are a huge number of methods and options for working at night, especially given the variety of city views to choose from. Once you've photographed cities you're already familiar with, it's time to explore the vast selection of subjects in the new territory.
I find I have much more visual awareness when I'm working in terrain I don't yet know. I am attracted to details and features that I would otherwise ignore if I were just working on the familiar streets of my hometown.
Many thanks to Mike fromManchester photographicfor the inspiration for this article.
Have you ever wondered how to take pictures at night, how to get a beautiful shot in the dark? Even without a tripod? If so, then this article is for you! I hope that in it you will find answers - to all your questions!
Lights big city, the moon sky, the Milky Way... Surely you have seen them, and if you are passionate about photography, then you probably had a desire to photograph - all this night beauty!
But you don’t always have a tripod with you, and exposures at night are long ... using a flash is not always advisable ...
Of course, the most correct decision, if you are going to take pictures at night, is to shoot by placing the camera on a tripod. Let's take a look at this option for now. When photographing from a tripod, I recommend setting all the settings manually so that the camera's automation is not "deceived", for example, by the bright headlights of a car passing by. You can set, for example, a shutter speed of a whole second, or even half a minute + set the minimum possible sensitivity to the matrix - so that the photo turns out with a minimum of "noise" (it may not be the minimum ISO, any one that does not have strong "noise" will do) . The aperture size should also be reduced, for example, F9 or F22, then point light sources - for example, street lighting lamps - will turn into beautiful stars. An example is the following photo:
© Anton Karpin. Photographed with a DSLR, f/22, ISO - 100, shutter speed - 30s.
You can also use exposure bracketing. This is especially true if the scene is very contrasty, and the dynamic range of the camera's matrix is not enough. Then, upon completion of the shooting, it will be possible to combine the resulting frames and get a photograph - well exposed in all parts - both in light and in dark. This is called HDR - high dynamic range photography. Here is an example of a similar photograph taken by me on the slope of the Pulkovo Heights - on the horizon - St. Petersburg:
© Anton Karpin.
The added benefit of a tripod is that it's also much easier to photograph panoramas...and they can be pretty pretty at night too!
© Anton Karpin.
However, the situation changes somewhat if there are people in the frame, whose images should not be "smeared" over the frame in any way. In this case, you have to sacrifice the closed aperture - open it wider (for example - F5.6), and set the sensitivity of the matrix - higher. For example - ISO 800, or even 1600, or even more - it really depends on the capabilities of your camera, then noise reduction is inevitable, and a decrease in photo quality ... but this is better than nothing, right? However, everything in this case is aimed at - to reduce shutter speed to the minimum possible, at which people do not "smear" ...
When photographing people at night, a flash is also sometimes used, but when using a flash, the background is most often "lost", the background is underexposed. The background can be saved - again, by opening the aperture as much as possible and setting the sensitivity to high, so there is no universal recipe in this matter!
How to take pictures at night without a tripod?
If you are on a trip, and you can’t take a tripod, then most often you can do without it.
Our first assistants in photographing without a tripod will be stones, stumps, benches - everything that you can put the camera on. In the matter of fixing the camera in this case, a certain amount of ingenuity is required. By the way, some photographers recommend taking a bag of buckwheat or rice with you in such a case - on which you can always put your camera.
Here is a photo - which I took in Sochi, putting a handful of sea pebbles on my camera (I used a Canon 40D DSLR, but you can use the popular Canon 600D, 550D, Nikon D3100 or D5100 or any other camera):
How to take pictures at night without a tripod using improvised means and a SLR camera .
© Anton Karpin. ISO = 200.
The same result can be obtained when using a mirrorless camera, and any "soap box" (compact), in which you can set a sufficient shutter speed - except that there may be more noise.
But what to do - if such a support is not available, and the Sun has long gone beyond the horizon? In such a situation, it is recommended that the photographer himself lean on something reliable - for example, a lamppost or a tree, hold his breath and shoot ... In this case, it may be necessary to take a lot of shots - until one of them turns out to be really clear, and not blurry. Yes, night photography in this case, it requires concentration and patience from the photographer.
Recently I tried to take pictures at night from a pleasure boat moving along the Volga, and oddly enough, this also turned out ... quite acceptable in order to post photos, for example, on VKontakte. Here is an example of such a photo:
© Anton Karpin. F / 4.5, ISO -800, shutter speed - 1 / 40s.
If the options proposed in this article are not acceptable for you for some reason, I recommend finding the “Night” shooting mode on the camera - perhaps with its help you can also achieve good results!
And here's another ... One good video- also dedicated to how to photograph at night:
I'm waiting for your night photos in the comments;)
How to take pictures at night? After all, photography is light! And at night there is very little of it. Night photography is not an easy task. It can have many approaches depending on what kind of story we are going to shoot. Now we will look at an example of shooting a night cityscape.
NIKON D810 / 18.0-35.0 mm f/3.5-4.5 SETTINGS: ISO 64, F16, 20 sec, 35.0 mm equiv.
Shooting at night in the city is interesting for many reasons. Firstly, a variety of illumination will highlight seemingly familiar views in a very unusual way. Secondly, shooting in a night city is available to everyone: for this you don’t have to go somewhere very far, as is the case with shooting a natural landscape. It will be enough to drive up to the center of any large city: there are probably a lot of interesting places to shoot there. If you shoot in some ordinary lane of a sleeping area, the frame will most likely turn out to be not interesting.
I live in Moscow and chose to shoot a classic view of the Kremlin walls from the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge.
Choosing the right time to shoot is also important. Oddly enough, the best “night” shots are not obtained late at night, but at dusk, when the city lights are just turned on, and the colors of the evening still remain in the sky. Or vice versa in the morning, when the sun is about to rise. Otherwise, if we shoot late at night, we will have a completely black sky in the picture. It is the choice suitable place, angle and shooting time - the most difficult and most creative stage in creating a night landscape. After all, the key to the further success of shooting is only a matter of technology.
What equipment is needed to shoot a night cityscape?
To capture this shot, I needed the following equipment:
Tripod. I put it in first place, since it will be the key factor for obtaining a high-quality picture. Everyone knows what will happen if you shoot handheld in poor lighting: the frame will either be smeared or drowned in digital noise when using high sensitivity. Putting the device on a tripod, we can use the minimum ISO, getting frames of perfect quality. Instead of a tripod, you can use some supports found on the ground: parapets, curbs, and so on. However, such supports will not allow you to securely fix the device, and it will not be possible to accurately line up the frame.
A camera that allows you to take pictures manual modes. Of course, the best for our purposes is reflex camera. I used my favorite Nikon D810: it gives excellent picture quality and is easy to operate. I chose the Nikon 18-35mm f / 3.5-4.5G ED AF-S Nikkor lens for shooting. It has quite "wide" focal lengths, moreover, it has a surprisingly low weight (compensates for the heavy “carcass”) and excellent picture quality. However, you can use any device that allows you to adjust the exposure yourself. I usually use the M mode when shooting at night: in urban night conditions, automatic exposure metering will not always work accurately. But you can try shooting in semi-automatic modes, for example, in shutter priority mode - “S”. Why "S"? Why is endurance so important? I will talk about this below.
How to set up your camera for night photography?
When shooting at night in the city, it is important to pay attention to every shooting parameter. ISO should be minimal. Most cameras have a minimum ISO of 100.
The most interesting exposure parameter from a creative point of view is shutter speed. You can play with it while shooting. I set a shutter speed of 30 seconds so that cars passing under the bridge would blur in motion, leaving only headlight trails behind. Such long red and white lines look good in the picture, emphasize the dynamics. By the way, here again the minimum ISO is useful to us: it will allow us to properly lengthen the shutter speed.
Let's see more examples taken at different shutter speeds and ISO.
So, with photosensitivity and shutter speed sorted out. And what to do with the diaphragm? Likely to take enough long exposure, the diaphragm will have to be covered. In addition, it is useful to cover the aperture if there is some foreground close to the camera in the picture. Then a closed aperture will help increase the depth of field and sharpen both the front and background. Beginners can be advised to put the aperture under the control of automation, shooting in S mode. In order to simplify their task. Please note that in order to avoid shaking the camera on a tripod at the moment you press the shutter button, it is best to set the timer shutter. You can also use the remote control.
White balance when shooting at night should be adjusted based on which lights illuminate your landscape. Most likely, these will be lanterns with yellow light. Then you should use the preset “incandescent lamps”. However, "green" lights with fluorescent lamps may also come across. And even better - immediately shoot in RAW and bring the white balance to the ideal already during processing without any loss in image quality.
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