I personally feel lighting is what makes or breaks a shot so it's a little ironic that night is one of my favorite times to shoot. You can create very dramatic lighting effects without being in a studio with expensive lighting gear. It is very easy to get a tranquil atmosphere in your shot that could be more difficult to get during the day. Whether you choose to light your scene or use what little ambient light may be available, there are so many possibilities for effects you can achieve. All you need is a little creativity. Well, creativity and a few other things. As we go through this tutorial, I will first lay out what kind of equipment you will want to use. Next, I will go over some basic tips that I have found that really help me followed by a real simple layout of the technique you can use. Finally, we will review a few examples with explanations of how I got the shot. To get on your way you will need a few necessities, but there are also some things you can acquire that will really help you on your journey. The Necessities: Camera: The most important is a camera that allows the shutter to remain open at your discretion. Tripod: The budget models won't likely give you great results, but you also don't need to spend a fortune. I use the Vanguard Tracker 4 *Edit: This Tripod is no longer manufactured, but Vanguard still has a great line of tripods that are available* which I picked up online for about $100 USD and am very happy with it. Stability is important here. Any movement whatsoever over a long exposure will lower the quality of your shot. Most cheap tripods move just from the action of your camera or even the slightest breezes, which will wreck your shot. Patience: You won't be rattling off shots like the paparazzi. Most of my exposures are somewhere between five and ten minutes. Often after waiting for that exposure you will find you overexposed or underexposed, you forgot to move the piece of trash that was in the shot, or you just want to recompose. You can expect to spend some time with these shots. That is all you really NEED for night photography. There are, however, some items that may make your life a lot easier. Helpful Items: A Good Remote: A wired remote will work, but wireless is better. If you can afford it, you may look into the radio remotes. They allow good distance from any direction, and you don't necessarily need a line of site for it to work unlike some wireless remotes. Not only does the remote get your hands off the camera, thus keeping it from moving, it gives you the freedom to walk around and play with lights or objects in the frame of the camera during the exposure. Make sure whatever remote you get has the option to lock the shutter open. This way you don't have to attempt hold the button for the entire exposure, only to accidentally let go of it half way through. Lights: Get creative with your lights. I have used everything from flashlights to my cell phone to fire to car headlights. Additionally, different colored light can give you neat effects. I like slightly weaker lights. It forces me into a longer exposure. You can get more creative and "paint" sections of exposure in, or light from different angles with a single light in one exposure. An interesting ambient light source, like a street lamp, can produce terrific results as well. A good powerful flashlight: It will help you see to set up your shot, you can shine it on your subject to get a good focus, and, although I don't have examples in this tutorial, you can run around pointing the flashlight at the camera for neat effects. Bug Spray: Bugs seem to like the night. I hate bugs.
Tips and Tricks: Light: I know you are shooting in the dark, but if you are going to catch anything, you will need at least a little light. The less there is, the longer the exposure you will use. This light can be from the stars and moon, lights on location such as street lights, or lights you chose and place for the shot.
Aperture: Using a small aperture (ex. f/22) can give you wide depth of field, but beware at night. The smaller your aperture, the less light is hitting your camera's sensor. This effect is compounded at night which means your exposure times will have to be much longer. I have had 30 minute exposures come out completely black because of this (again, bring your patience with you.) To save yourself time, use a larger aperture (ex. f/2.4) if possible. ISO: I recommend keeping this as low as possible. Remember the large ISO numbers increase noise and so do longer exposures so I recommend using ISO 100 or the lowest possible allowed by you camera.Exposure Times: I have always just used guess and check for this. The good news is, the longer your exposure, the less of a difference a few seconds makes to the shot. I am sure there are techniques using light meters and things, but I have had great results with guess and check. The On Camera LCD: This can be your worst enemy for night shots if you aren't careful. Set the brightness as low as it will go. This will make it easier to look through the viewfinder and require your eyes to do less adjusting between looking at the LCD and the subject. Also beware of trusting your LCD to make sure your shot is properly exposed. When it is dark outside, the LCD rendering of your shot can be very misleading, which brings us to the next tip: Use the histogram: If your camera has one, make sure you know how to use it. I don't know how many times I have forgotten to do this because a shot looks great on my LCD, only to open it and find out it is horribly underexposed. Depending on your subject, the histogram for any given shot should show data from all the way left (there are almost always blacks in night shots) to almost all the way to the right. Watch out for histograms that show a lack of data on one side or the other. A lack of data on the right side tends to be a sign of an underexposed shot. Example:
Focusing: Chances are your auto focus wont work without a little help. Use your flashlight to flood your subject with light. Focus on this, either manually or automatically. If you use auto focus, be sure to shut it off once you draw a focus. If you don't, when you go to shoot, you may trigger the auto focus again which will just lose the focus you previously set. Courtesy: Try to think of others here. People tend to get nervous when they see someone creeping around in the dark with a camera. Security guards for some reason seem to have a hard time believing you are actually shooting legit photos in the middle of the night. Respect others by trying not to freak them out. The 12 step program for successful night shots: 1: Use your flashlight or any other lights you may have to help you compose your shot. 2: Tighten every part of your tripod possible. You don't want any chance at movement. 3: Set your ISO to 100 and your aperture as low as you can to get the shot you want. Set your shutter speed to full manual and use BULB exposure setting.4: Set up any lights you plan to use, if any. 5: Take a moment to get a feel for how much light is in the scene and take your best guess at the exposure time. These guesses will get easier as time goes on. 6: Start the shot. If you have a remote that allows it, lock it open. If not, hold the button down and hope your tripod is sturdy enough to handle this. Use something to keep track of time so you know when to end your shot. Many cameras have a counter on their LCD to help with this. 7: Play with your lights if you want. Paint your subject with your light, move them to simulate multiple lights from different angles, or use it to create light trails through your shots. Have fun!8: When the time is up, close the shutter to end the shot. 9: Look at the shot in the LCD. How does it look? Did you get the lighting right? Is there anything unexpected that you should change? 10: Check your histogram. Make sure your image really is properly exposed. 11: Make any adjustments necessary and re-shoot the shot, if desired. 12: Rinse and repeat as many times as necessary to get the shot you want.
OK! Let's get to some examples! ~ My first night shot ever ~
I shot this in my front yard in the middle of the worst snowstorm we had last year (took me 6 hours to get home from work). This shot had some really fortunate things going for it. The real stormy sky let no light in from the stars, which makes it perfectly black. The flying snow blocks out a lot of the neighborhood lights, but also reflects just enough to add a slight fill light to the shadows. If you look closely you might be able to see the house off in the background. Snow and ice plastered to the lamp kept it dull enough to work well with a long exposure. I was able to brush snow off of an off camera light post to allow additional list in scene. If you have a light source visible in your shot, it needs to be balanced to match closely to any reflected light (the snow and tree in this case) or it will overpower it and you won't be able to properly expose both. I stuck my tripod firmly into the snow and pushed it down hard so it was on a solid base. I set my aperture to 3.5 for to allow the most light to hit the camera's sensor and set my exposure to BULB. I didn't have a remote yet, so I just held the shutter button down for whatever felt good. My first shot was a 30 second exposure. Way under exposed. The next shot was 3 minutes. The light post and snow closest to it were way blown out. It often takes several tries to get it right. Eventually I settled around 90 seconds. The great thing about this is it's not a perfect science. Note: The top of the tree is a little blurry. This isn't because it is out of focus, but because the wind was blowing the top of the tree slightly. Plant life, or anything else not solid, will be your biggest challenge with night photography. Even on the stillest of nights, you start to feel the tiniest of breezes and see just how much they move things around. Any movement is going to give you blur, or ghost effects. ~ Night angels don't need eyes ~
This shot was a little harder to get, but also more fun. Because the light wasn't already provided, I got to create my own. The lighting I used was just a cheap electric Coleman lantern placed a distance to camera left and slightly past the statue.
I only turned on one of the two bulbs, because like I said before, I like a weaker light to give me more flexibility and allow creativity with the shot. I set it quite a ways back, and just slightly above ground level. This allowed the light to filter through the foliage creating interesting shadows and a slightly more surreal tone to the image. Putting the light past the statue gives more dramatic shadows on it, but also lights the plants better. Light can filter through the plants rather than just reflecting off of it. The thicker parts of the plant filter out more light and the thinner parts filter out less. It really helps show the contours and texture of plants. The light at this point was really dim, so I had to turn on my trusty flashlight and point it right at the statues face to get a good focus. The shot took several takes. I had major issues with the plants blowing around, even though it felt perfectly calm out. Also I had people driving past in the background leaving funky orange and red streaks (I ended up cropping that area out anyway, but I didn't know I would when I was shooting). I locked the shutter open with my remote and waited. I got lucky and nailed the exposure first try on this one, at 5 minutes even. ~ Shot in Nevada, but not Area 51 ~
Sometimes night photography offers pleasant surprises. The sky looked mostly black to me, but I could tell it was brighter near the horizon. I hooked up my polarizer filter to a wide angle lens because I know that tends to create dramatic skies. What I didn't know is the small town over the hill would create a purple sky! I was having a lot of trouble with this shot. I was getting great star trails, but the fence wasn't exposing, even after 30 minutes! Then the moon came up and made the shot. If you have never seen a moonrise, it's an amazing sight. This was the first time I ever saw it. Anyway, it was about a 3/4 moon which was more than I would have liked. A smaller moon would have given less light which would have let me expose for longer to get longer star trails. Someone called security on me during this shot, which creates a bit of irony regarding the sign that is the focus of the shot. Their car's headlights ruined my first shot. After a few minutes of trying to explain how it is possible to shoot at night and no I am not drunk, they finally told me to be safe and were on their way. Then I was able to get the proper exposure. My shutter speed was about 6 minutes, f/3.5 and of course ISO100. So there you have some starters for night photography. Be patient and get creative. Create ghost effects in your shots by leaving them there for part of the exposure. Create fun trails of light by running around shining a flashlight at your camera. Use your hands in front of the lens to create a vignette in the shot. Move your light source around to "paint" in the areas of the shot that are to be exposed. Use the night sky as a background for a 15 minute exposure (or longer) to show the movement of the stars. There are a million possibilities. Be sure to share your favorite night shots, techniques, or tips.