NIGHT TIME PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS

Use Night Time Photography Tips
in the World of Light & Silhouette

When looking to improve areas of photography, the last area anyone thinks of needing help with is during the night time. "After all, you need light to take photographs, right?"

Probably the most popular subject for night time photography is fireworks, although in fact most night time photographs are NOT of fireworks.

If you are like most people, you have either never tried photographing night scenes, tried it once with disastrous results, or you had no idea how tricky it was.

However, we'll use some night time photography tips to reduce the learning curve.

Let's begin with how to take night time pictures of everyday subjects, like structures and scenery, and then we'll move over to fireworks.

Night time photography tips are valid for "low-light" photography conditions.

This one area of photography is considered by many as truly special and a "cut above" any normal daytime photographs.

Why would this be? Here is my theory...

1. There's something inherently beautiful about a picture containing numerous points of light

2. The general public believes that night time shots are much more difficult to take, thus making them more prone to receive the occasional "ooohs" and "ahhs." (In my humble opinion, this alone is reason to learn night time photography tips.)

Show us your best nighttime photographs

If you've ever heard the expression "till the cows come home," you will never think about it the same after today.

Why? Because I'm going to use a farm analogy to describe the relationship between shutter speed, aperture, and proper exposure.

During the day, with 1,000 cows in the field, you only have to leave the barn door (aperture) open a short time before 50 cows wander in and fill up the feeding station (equivalent of enough light to take a picture). Stay with me, here.

At night time, with only 85 cows remaining scattered about in the field, you need to leave the barn door open a much longer time before 50 cows wander in and fill up the feeding station.

Photography works the same way. During the day, since there is so much light available, the aperture (barn door) only needs to be open say, 1/500th of a second to accumulate all the light your camera needs to produce a high quality photograph.

However, at night time, with much less light available, the aperture needs to remain open a much longer time period (from 1/2 to 30 seconds) to accumulate the amount of light needed for a good photograph. The night time photography tip summary is:

Slow shutter speed =
Aperture remaining open longer =
Long Exposure

OK, that's really not all of "it," but having a tripod is a significant step. As an alternative, you could try sitting the camera on a sturdy support (if you can find one), but it would have to be free from all vibrations.

As a personal note, I prefer making the following types of adjustments myself rather than use the "Night time" setting on my camera. The reason being: the "night time" settings are locked in by the manufacturer and may not be ideal for each situation.

Therefore, if you have a unique situation, using the "automatically programmed" night setting may not generate the best photograph. Some night time photography tip, huh? On the other hand, you can always make Photoshop adjustments the next day to produce the perfect photo.

OK, end of my personal note and back to the non-cow night time photography tips. Without a night time scene mode, you need to get involved with a few settings. Let's first cover the...

Ideal Night Time Scenario

• The sky is clear with at least a 3/4 moon

• Temperature is between 45 - 80 degrees, and the weather is calm

• You can position the camera the perfect distance from your subject

• Your camera is on the tripod and ready for the shot

• With the small flashlight you always have in your camera bag, switch the camera mode to the equivalent of "Night Scene" mode

• Set the focus to "Manual," and set it to infinity.

• You trip the shutter with a remote shutter release or self-timer

• The only thing you did differently than for a typical daytime photograph was securing the camera to the tripod.

• Here's a "sort-of" night time photography tip: If your camera can use an external shutter release, consider getting one, especially if you plan on taking long-exposure shots.

  Since camera shake is the greatest cause of ruined night time photographs, not touching your camera when you press the shutter is your best strategy.

• To avoid camera shake if you don't have an external shutter release, use the self-timer. Pressing the shutter button will usually cause small vibrations, but by the time the the self-timer runs down and the picture gets taken, all vibrations should have passed.

  Technically, that doesn't fall under "night time photography tips" because it applies whenever you want to insure against camera shake, not just at night.

1. Set the ISO between 100 and 400

2. Set the F-stop to around F/5.6

3. Press the shutter

If you have always wanted to take Incredible Nighttime Pictures, but didn't know how, this eBook could be your answer...

We've created 2 QuickTips® eBooks that provide tons of night time photography tips:

• A 32 page Handbook that provides answers to these basic questions:"What do I need?" "What do I do?" and "How do I do it?"

• A one-page "What to Do" Summary Sheet (to carry with as your "To Do" list when photographing at night)

These particular times offer up to a 90 minute window for some truly spectacular photo opportunities.

During these times, we need to be aware of the following night time photography tips.

• For best results, still use your tripod and remote shutter release

• There might be a chance that you can take this photo hand held, if you increase the ISO setting to at least 400 (assuming no excess digital noise will result) and your shutter speed is no slower than one divided by the focal length of your lens

• Decide what type of photograph you want to end up with (this night time photography tip is covered in the next few points)

• Here's where the night time photography tips are going to sound like they are getting very complex, but it's not as difficult as it sounds. If your camera has different metering modes, this is the point we're going to use them

• If you want to end up with a photograph similar to the one above where the direct and reflected sky are properly exposed while the land and trees are in silhouette, use evaluative or matrix metering and include everything you see in the sample photo, within your viewfinder.

• If you want the trees and ground to be properly exposed, use either Partial (a.k.a. "spot") or Center Weighted Average as your metering mode.

  Focus only on the trees and ground, use your "exposure lock" setting to tell the camera that "this is what should be properly exposed," and then recompose your photograph by including everything you see in the sample photo to be in your viewfinder. Then take the picture.

You will then be able to create artistic silhouette photos like this as well as other stunning effects.

Before we move on to night time photography tips for FIREWORKS, did I happen to mention that...

Of all the night time photography tips...
the most important one is this...
USE A TRIPOD!

July's Winning Night Time Picture Michael of MA shows us how to do it with "Foggy Charlevoix Canal" We're now looking for August's Night Time Photo to be featured on this page. So, find your best night shots and get ready to submit them below.

Share this month's winner with the world and we can all help make them famous!

Find your best night time picture, and get ready to submit it to this site. Why? Because after it's approved, it will be featured on YOUR OWN WEB PAGE.

Over the years, I've come to believe in these two photographic truisms:

1. Most photographers are way too critical of their own pictures

2. One of the very best sources for getting photographic ideas is by seeing what other photographers have done

So, here's your chance to do both; PLUS supply helpful critiques for others. For EACH AND EVERY approved submission, you will get your own web page. In addition, every month...

Why? Because I'm convinced our visitors have considerably more talent than they have the opportunity to showcase, and doing it this way helps everyone. So, what are you waiting for? Get ready to...

Submitting your Night Time Pictures is free and easy. Just fill in the form below, upload your picture, and hit the submit button.

After your photograph is accepted, your picture will become a "live" page on this site. You may upload as many pictures as you want, using a new submission page for each one.

And don't forget to tell us the story BEHIND THE PICTURE.

The best Night Time Photo every month (judged by our staff) will be featured on this page, along with your name.

Discover new ideas, perspectives, and tips from other visitors. Simply click on the links below.

Church in a Heavenly Light 
While vacationing in Washington DC, I decided to take my camera with me just in case I ran across a good night time photo. Luckily, I also took my tripod....

Erasmus Bridge 
Canon PS S45
Exposure 3.2 sec
F 2.8
Auto WB
No zoom
Mode M

Location, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
When I still lived in The Netherlands back in ...

Foggy Charlevoix canal 
The camera was a Olympus E-volt E500 digital SLR with a 40-140mm zoom lens. I did not record the aperture or shutter speed, but I was experimenting with ...

Night Time Photo - Moon over water 
I'm sorry but i don't know the settings i used on my Canon Powershot S70. I was on a cruise and this picture was taken from the balcony of my stateroom....

Night Time View Of Orange Moon  Not rated yet
Around 12:30 am on my Balcony using my Nikon Coolpix L3

I guess not holding still? Thats why I got the blue image?

But the close up shot is really ...

lightning  Not rated yet
This was taken in Destin, Florida on our summer vacation! I used my new Nikon D40 and set the shutter speed on 10 seconds with the ISA set pretty high!...

Hong Kong skyline  Not rated yet
I just got a new camera, Canon PowerShot S5 IS, so I thought I'd try it out. I was just using the lens that was built into the camera for this picture ...

Westminster Abby at Night  Not rated yet
Taken on a Canon Rebel XT with the kit 18-55mm lens

4 sec shutter
Aperture of F/3.5
ISO 100

Was on holidays in London, and took a few night time ...

Thorny subject  Not rated yet
Taken whilst walking the dog in Suffolk England April 2008,playing with my new Canon 400D (67th birthday present)Shutter 1/400 f/16.0 ISO 400 focal length ...

Night time view of Pertisau in Austria  Not rated yet
This is the beautiful town of Pertisau at Lake Achensee in Austria, taken during my holiday/Vacation last year.
Aperture F:11
Shutter Speed 5 seconds
...

Galata Bridge in Istanbul  Not rated yet
Again the exif data is still there, same vacation, same camera. Enjoy.

Blue Mosque in Istanbul  Not rated yet
I think the exif data is still in there. The camera is a poor Sony DSC W50. No zoom, just put it on the tripod. The location is Istanbul Turkey. The Blue ...

Sunset Date  Not rated yet
One of our sweet dates when me and my wife, Arlene, were in Japan. We spent 2 months there and the view from the Aso mountain is breathtaking. I used a ...

Kumamoto Christmas rush  Not rated yet
taken last dec 23, 2007 in kumamoto city, japan..i never thought christmas will be this busy in japan..i felt i'm in new york that time...i have used a ...

The Wall  Not rated yet
Working with another photography friend who was from the West Coast, and had never been to Washington DC, we walked around from monument to monument for ...

Tour Eiffel Carousel  Not rated yet
This photo was taken from underneath the Tour Eiffel, about 11pm. I had already shot it from so many angles that I was getting a bit tired of it, and I ...

FIREWORKS

Although individual fireworks only last for seconds, we can make them last for years. Learn the night time photography tips specifically geared for capturing fireworks.

Taking good fireworks photos is more challenging than the other types we have covered. Remember, I said "challenging," not "impossible."

By adhering to the following fireworks night time photography tips, you will take years off the learning curve. And, by your fourth excursion, you will be very pleasantly surprised with your results.

Step #1:  Choosing your Set-Up Location

Step #2:  Setting Up Your Fireworks Base Camp

Step #3:  Taking the Best Fireworks Photographs

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