Do Night Time Photography

Taking great photographs at night requires a little more skill and preparation than shooting during the day.

Steps

  1. Bring a tripod or something that will hold your camera very securely.
  2. Bring along a small flashlight. This will help you get around your camera if you're shooting in total darkness. Also, all cameras will have trouble focusing on objects in the dark if there is not enough light and/or it's fitted with a slow lens; a flashlight will allow you to illuminate close subjects enough to focus on them.
  3. Have a good idea of what you want to photograph. Some ideas are:
    • Traffic streams
    • The moon and/or stars
    • Star trails
  4. Depending on the type of shot that you want, experiment with your aperture and shutter speed.
  5. Keep your ISO rating low whenever you can. Since you're most likely sitting on a tripod (and people with super-fast lenses on high-end digital SLR's capable of insanely high ISO ratings probably aren't reading this), you don't need to worry about using the longer shutter speeds which lower ISO ratings force you to use.
    • If you need the higher ratings, of course, use them; for example, if you're shooting in total darkness far from any artificial light sources, or if for artistic reasons a very long shutter speed is undesirable.
  6. Have some type of remote release. Either a cable release or remote. Even when on a tripod, the act of pressing the shutter will cause some type of movement. If you don't have either, turn on your self-timer and (if you can) set it to about 5 seconds; this will give any vibration a chance to dampen out.
    • If you have a digital SLR and a remote, it's worth checking your manual to find a feature called mirror lock-up. When the mirror in an SLR flips up that, too, causes vibration in your camera body that can take a moment to dampen. Mirror lock-up will allow you to press once to lock up the mirror, wait a moment, then press again to take your shot.
  7. Learn about your camera's flash and what you can do with it. Obviously, if you are shooting a long distance shot, it won't be much help, but it can help for adding a little illumination to closer subjects (or for nuking your friends with direct flash). If you don't expect to use it, don't bring it.
  8. If you know what you need to do to get your shots, set it ahead of time. This will save fumbling around in the field.
  9. Unless you are taking photos of a city or at night, try to find an area with less Learn About Light Pollution.
  10. Bracket your photos. This will improve your chances of getting good shots. Also, you could possibly use those bracketed photos to do some HDR work with your images.



Tips

  • For safety's sake, have a cell phone with you. If you get hurt, it may be your only lifeline.

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Sources and Citations

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