Night Photography Tutorial
Night photography is usually reserved for still objects rather than people. As night implies darkness, the key to night photography is a long exposure, which implies severe blur in the case of movement. As such, blur is usually used as an artistic element in night photography. There are a few guidelines to remember when first starting out in nighttime photography; however, the best tutorial is practice.
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Instructions
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Choose an appropriate location or subject. Night photography usually focuses around architecture such as buildings or bridges, well-lit public areas such as Times Square or the Vegas Strip or nature scenes lit by moonlight. Humans generally are not the subjects of night photography as the definition of night photography captures movement as blur. Humans can be present in the shot in order to create a blur effect, though they should not be present as the principle subject.
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Reduce camera movement by attaching the camera to a tripod or resting it on a flat surface. The pulse in your body is enough to turn your photo into a blurred mess. Night photography requires a long exposure; therefore, you must do everything possible to steady the camera in order to reduce movement. Using a tripod will significantly reduce blur, as will resting the camera on a hard surface out of your hands. Setting the camera on an automatic timer will also help to decrease the blur as the movement of your finger pressing the shutter release button is enough to vibrate the shot. Overall, in order to reduce blur, you must make sure that your body does not come in contact with any part of the camera from the first moment of exposure.
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Block out unwanted light with a lens hood. Lens hoods are either round or petal-shaped and attach directly to the front of the lens in order to block out side light. By using a lens hood, only the light directed from the image can enter the camera. Though lens hoods are generally used in daylight photography to reduce lens flare, they are crucial in nighttime photography as it is easier for stray light to enter the camera due to the long exposure time.
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Configure aperture and shutter speed. Night photography requires a long exposure, or in other words a slow shutter speed. Depending on how much light is being emitted from your subject, set your exposure to a length of time between 10 and 30 seconds. To balance the long exposure, you must therefore set a small (larger number) aperture such as f/16, f/22 or f/32 depending on your lens.
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Use flash as a fill light. If you are photographing an event at night where people are the subject, such as a wedding or party, then a slow shutter speed is not possible and therefore you must rely on an external light source such as a flash bulb. When using flash, do not use the direct bulb to illuminate your subjects as direct flash washes out the scene. Use a flash diffuser or flash shield to soften the light.
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References
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- Photo Credit church in honefoss, norway image by Andrei Merkulov from Fotolia.com
