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Night Photography
Night photography has an attraction all its own. There's something about scintillating
lights from office windows hanging in the dark of the night -- a modern version
of the starry skies -- that appeal to us. Whether it's a city skyline, lamp
posts on a dark and deserted street, or the front of your house all decked out
with holiday lights, the challenge of capturing the mood of a night scene depends
on whether your digital camera is capable of night photography and on a couple
of simple techniques.
Can My Camera Do Night Photography?
For successful night photography you need a digital camera that allows you
to keep the shutter open for a long time, anywhere from 3 to 30 seconds. Check
your camera specifications in the User's Manual under Shutter Speed. The shutter
speeds available will be given as a range, e.g. 30 sec. - 1/2,000 sec.
If you are seriously into night photography, then you would want to ensure
you purchase a digital camera that allows the longest shutter speed possible,
and even Bulb (where the shutter remains open as long as you depress the shutter
release button).
But before you plunk down your money for that digital camera, there's two more
features to verify -- and one accessory to purchase, if you don't have it already.
Shooting Modes
For an image to be captured by a digital camera's image sensor, the latter
requires exposure to light. But at night, light is what we don't have enough
of.
Some of you may have noticed that, if you select a shooting mode of Auto (A)
or Program Auto (P), your night pictures always come out too dark. They are
simply underexposed. But, why is that -- if your camera's shutter speed ranges
from, say 10 sec. to 1/2,000 sec.?
Go back to your camera's User's Manual and look a bit more carefully. Are
all the shutter speeds available in Auto or P mode? Ah-ha, many digital cameras
(we're talking consumer models here) do not make the whole shutter speed range
available in A and P mode! Perhaps the slowest shutter speed available in A
and P mode is only as slow as 1/3 sec. That's usually not long enough for night
photography. To access the longer shutter speeds, you may need to select one
of the other shooting modes, e.g. Shutter-Priority, or even switch to full Manual
mode.
So ensure that your digital camera has full Manual mode and allows access to
the full range of slow shutter speeds in that mode.
Self-Timer & Remote Controller
Another feature that you want your digital camera to have is a self-timer or,
ideally, a remote controller. The purpose is to allow you to depress the shutter
release button without introducing camera shake. I particularly like the remote
controller, but not every camera comes with one or even has one available optionally.
But almost all, if not all, cameras has a self-timer. Usually the self-timer
counts down from 10 sec. I find that a bit long to wait, especially since you
would need to take more than one shot and it's minus 10 with the wind chill
outside. The cameras that additionally provide a 2 sec. self-timer have my nod
of approval here.
Tripod
A mandatory accessory that you need is a sturdy tripod. When you let the shutter
stay open for a long time, the camera needs to be kept rock steady, otherwise
you end up with blurred images.
Examples
OK, so we have our digital camera and tripod, and are ready to venture forth
into the night in search for interesting night shots. When we find one, we set
up camera and tripod, frame and... what do we do now?
Well, the images below show what happens when you take the same shot using
P mode, then in Manual mode with various different shutter speed/aperture combinations,
all in search of the correct exposure. The camera was on a tripod for all three
shots.
In the above example, the camera uses the slowest shutter speed and largest
aperture available in P mode and at the widest focal length. The picture is
underexposed.
Switching to Manual mode allows me to access the slowest shutter speed available
on this camera, 3 sec. while keeping the aperture at F2.8 (the largest aperture
available). The effect is immediately better, but it does seem a bit too bright,
giving almost a daylight effect. If this is the effect you're after, then you're
done. But if you wanted to capture the night mood, read on.
Now it is just a matter of adjusting the shutter speed and/or aperture to obtain
the desired exposure. I choose to close down the aperture so as to increase
the depth of field also.
Closing down the aperture to F4.0, a more pleasant image is obtained with enough
dark areas to indicate it is night time (dusk, really) and enough lighted areas
to reproduce what my eyes saw at the outdoors skating rink at the Mississauga
Civic Center.
ISO
For the three pictures above, I used ISO 80, the lowest ISO available for best
image quality. But what if at 3 sec. and F2.8 (i.e. at max. exposure possible
for this particular camera), the image still came out too dark? In this case,
I would need to increase the sensitivity of the image sensor to a higher ISO.
Do note that increasing the ISO also increases the amount of noise visible in
your images.
Technique
Take a number of shots at different shutter speed/aperture combinations.
Immediately review the shot as soon as you've taken it.
Ensure your LCD brightness is set to Normal, not Bright, for a truer representation
of your recorded image.
A good aperture to start with is F4.0 or F5.6 (for greatest depth of field),
and adjust shutter speed up or down until you're satisfied with the shot.
For good measure, take an extra shot past your optimum exposure setting. For
example, if you were progressively using longer shutter speeds, and you think
you've find the correct one, take an extra shot with the next longer shutter
speed. Conversely, if you were using progressively faster shutter speeds, take
an extra shot using the next faster shutter speed.
We hope you have
enjoyed this tutorial. If you have any questions, spot any errors, or have an
article idea, please give us your feedback
on this article.
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Page not found – Photoxels
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