Inspiration

30 incredible examples of night photography

Night photography is tricky. If you have tried it atleast once, you know what I am talking about. Even if you try to take photos at night using your mobile phones, point and shoot camera, or a dslr, you will, mostly, end up frustrated. In night photography, you are actually converging time with long exposures. That’s what makes night photography interesting, tricky, and beautiful.

As you might think, night photography is just taking pics at night. But it’s not. Then what is it? It is the art of seeing light — the quality of light. You cannot ‘see’ long exposures with your naked eyes. But you can record the light using your camera. That’s one of the reasons I made this post — to give you an idea about the incredible realm of night photography.

30 incredible examples of night photography

Here is an awesome collection of night photographs. Get inspired!

San Francisco in New Year's Eve 2012
Photo Credits: Darvin Atkeson via Flickr

 

Photo by: Neil Kremer

 

milky way over mountains
Photo Credits: Thunderbolt_TW/Flickr
 Siegessäule Berlin
Photo Credits: Sprengben/Flickr

 

boy and girl at a carnival
Photo Credits: Matthew Coughlin/Flickr

 

Train and light burst
Photo Credits: Leszek Bujnowski/1x

 

Nightcamp
Photo Credits: Ben Canales/500px

 

 

lunar eclipse and bridge
Photo Credits: Atomic Zen/500px

 

praying mantis at night
Photo Credits: Fabien BRAVIN/1x

 

mountain station in full moon
Photo Credits: Kai Bohm/500px

 

man with an umbrella walking
Photo Credits: Leszek Bujnowski/1x

 

busy traffic at night
Photo Credits: Sungjin Kim/500px

 

Cat sitting
Photo Credits: Crazy Ivory/500px

 

Night sky over a two shacks
Photo Credits: Laimonas Ciūnys/500px

 

Couple under an umbrella at night
Photo Credits: Ryan Brenizer/500px

 

photographer on a mountain
Photo Credits: Martin Zalba/500px

 

breathing fire
Photo Credits: Artem Fomichev/500px

 

jeep wrangler and milky way
Photo Credits:Ben Canales/500px

 

dad and two kids in forest
Photo Credits: Adrian Sommeling/500px

 

Man in suit waiting in railway station
Photo Credits: Cyrill Theodoroff/1x

 

star trails at night
Photo Credits: Mike Berenson/500px

 

man lying down in snow at night
Photo Credits: Ben Canales/500px

 

star trails above a bridge
Photo Credits:OaKy Isra/500px

 

A small house and milky way
Photo Credits: Atomic Zen/500px
wolf and full moon
Photo Credits:Cenzo Photography/500px

 

night view of busan
Photo Credits: Sungkyu Choi/500px

 

Aurora over a river
Photo Credits: Arild Heitmann/1x

 

rail way station in morning
Photo Credits: Michael Knudsen/1x

 

Chrismas night in venice
Photo Credits: Daniel Metz/500px

Some quick night photography tips

Well, these tips may not help you to take photographs like you just saw above. Mostly it won’t help you; because, as I said before, mastering night photography takes time and sincere effort. There are lots of books, video tutorials on night photography. You can learn them, but they are hard to implement. I am not saying that they are not useful. I am saying that you need to know how light ‘behaves’ , its character at night. And that comes only from experience, after several trial and error. Anyway, these tips will get you started.

Choose low ISO: Eventhough, high ISO rating lets you record more light, choosing the same would create noise in your photographs.

Use a Tripod: Use a tripod to prevent blur in your shots. In night photography, you need to use long exposures, especially when you choose a low ISO. In such cases, handheld shots ruin the image.

Use a lens hood: A lens hood prevents lens flare, which is typically occurs during long exposures.

Use a wide aperture: Use wide apertures like f2.8, f.18 or wider to let more light into the camera. If you don’t have a tripod, choosing a wide aperture will let you to select faster shutter speed.

Use live view mode: Using live view mode helps you to focus properly and set a proper exposure.

Use Night mode: Almost all cameras (from mobile phone camera to DSLRs) have an automatic mode called ‘Night mode’. If you are a beginner, you can use this mode to take some decent shots.

Use flash: Flash is inevitable in low light situations. But flash often makes the image flat.So, If you use flash, find a way to diffuse it.

We would love to see your night photographs. Share your work in our Flickr group : Shutterstoppers Flickr Group

 

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Vidhu Soman

Hi, I am Vidhu Soman, Editor of Shutterstoppers. I have been doing photography since 2010, and I co-founded shutterstoppers community in 2012. I love photography, writing, travelling, and reading. If you wish to contact me, send a mail using our contact form.

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7 Comments

  1. amazin photographs indeed…cant pick out a favourite coz all of them are just great!!…inspiring indeed!

  2. Pingback: 10 Personal Photography Project Ideas For This New Year - ShutterStoppers | Digital Photography Tips and Tutorials
  3. Pingback: 7 Creative Photography Project Ideas - Charlotte Wedding Photographers | Anchor & Veil Photography

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