Photo Credits:Cenzo Photography/500px
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!
Photo by: Neil Kremer
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
This post was last modified on July 3, 2019 11:08 AM
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