How to take a beautiful night photograph. How to take pictures at night? Night photography

Have you ever wondered how to take pictures at night, how to get a beautiful shot in dark time days? And even without a tripod? If so, then this article is for you! I hope that you will find answers to all your questions in it!

Lights big city, moonlit sky, Milky Way... Surely you have seen them, and if you are passionate about photography, then you probably had a desire to photograph all this night beauty!

But you don’t always have a tripod with you, and shutter speeds at night are long... using a flash is not always advisable...

Of course, the most correct solution, if you are planning to take photographs at night, shoot by placing the camera on a tripod. Let's look at this option for now. When photographing from a tripod, I recommend setting all the settings manually so that the camera’s automation is not “deceived,” for example, by the bright headlights of a passing car. You can set, for example, a shutter speed of a whole second, or even half a minute + set the minimum possible sensitivity of the matrix - so that the photo is obtained with a minimum of “noise” (you can not have the lowest ISO, any one that does not have strong “noise” will do). . The aperture size should also be reduced, for example F9 or F22, then point light sources - for example lamps street lighting- will turn into beautiful stars. An example is the following photo:

© Anton Karpin. Photographed with a DSLR, F/22, ISO - 100, shutter speed - 30s.

You can also use exposure bracketing. This is especially true if the scene is very contrasty and the dynamic range of the camera matrix is ​​not enough. Then, upon completion of the shooting, it will be possible to combine the resulting frames and get a photograph - well exposed in all parts - both light and dark. This is called HDR - high dynamic range photography. Here is an example of a similar photograph taken by me on the slope of the Pulkovo Heights - on the horizon - St. Petersburg:

© Anton Karpin.

An additional benefit of a tripod is that it also makes it much easier to photograph panoramas... and they can be really pretty at night too!

© Anton Karpin.

However, the situation changes somewhat if there are people in the frame whose images should not be “smeared” across the frame. In this case, you have to sacrifice a closed aperture - open it wider (for example, F5.6), and set the sensitivity of the matrix higher. For example - ISO 800, or even 1600, or even more - it really depends on the capabilities of your camera, then noise reduction is inevitable, and a decrease in the quality of the photo... but it’s better than nothing - isn’t it? However, everything in in this case is aimed at reducing the shutter speed to the minimum possible, at which people will not be “blurred”...

When photographing people at night, a flash is also sometimes used, but when using a flash, the background is most often “lost” and underexposed. The background can be saved - again by opening the aperture as much as possible and setting high sensitivity, so there is no universal recipe in this matter!

How to take photographs in the dark without a tripod?

If you are on a trip and cannot take a tripod, then most often you can do without it.

Our first assistants in photographing without a tripod will be stones, stumps, benches - anything you can put the camera on. In this case, a certain amount of ingenuity is required in the matter of fixing the camera. By the way, some photographers recommend taking a bag of buckwheat or rice with you in such cases - on which you can always put the camera.

Here is a photo I took in Sochi, putting a handful of sea pebbles on the camera (I used a Canon 40D DSLR, but you can use the popular Canon 600D, 550D, Nikon D3100 or D5100 or any other camera):

How to take photographs at night without a tripod, using available tools and a DSLR camera .
© Anton Karpin. ISO = 200.

The same result can be obtained when using a mirrorless camera or any point-and-shoot camera (compact) in which you can set a sufficient shutter speed - except that there may be more noise.

But what to do if such support is not available, and the Sun has long gone below the horizon? In such a situation, it is recommended that the photographer himself lean on something reliable - for example, a lamppost or a tree, hold his breath and shoot... In this case, you may need to take a lot of shots - until one of them turns out to be really clear and not blurry. Yes, night photography in this case, it requires composure and patience from the photographer.

Recently I tried to take photographs at night from a pleasure boat moving along the Volga, and strangely enough, it also worked out... quite acceptable for posting photos, for example, on VKontakte. Here is an example of such a photo:

© Anton Karpin. F/4.5, ISO -800, shutter speed - 1/40s.

If the options proposed in this article are for some reason not acceptable to you, I recommend finding the “Night” shooting mode on your camera - perhaps with its help you can also achieve good results!

And here's another... One good thing video- Also dedicated to how to photograph at night:

I'm waiting for your night photos in the comments;)

The specificity is that long exposures impose certain restrictions on a wide range of subjects. So, in the dark it is almost impossible to shoot dynamic scenes.

The exposition is long enough that the runner on the embankment does not have time to appear in the frame even as a ghost. Ask strangers long time standing still is also not always possible. Therefore, when shooting at night, choose scenes that do not involve rapid movement.

So, on the aforementioned embankment you can shoot a couple hugging, a monument or a parked motorcycle instead of runners or skateboarders.

What sensitivity should I set?

Don’t forget that canons exist to be broken in the name of art, and a talented photographer can turn even outright harm into benefit. For example, blurred movements can become part of your artistic intent. In reportage photography, it is the blurred contours that convey movement. As a result, technical defects that arise during night photography, turns into the “highlight” of the photo.

Photographer: Christopher Martin.

In practice professional photographers Such tasks are often posed. This could be a corporate photo shoot in nature, shooting on New Year's Eve, etc. Here it is important to show imagination and find a reasonable compromise. If quality is paramount to you, you cannot increase sensitivity. Shoot at the lowest possible setting.

If you can slightly compromise on quality (for example, you are going to print small photographs or process images with noise reduction), the sensitivity can be raised to 400-800. The maximum value is set when it is necessary to obtain a picture at any cost.

Accessories for night photography

Even the highest sensitivity in the dark is not enough for handheld shooting. So be sure to use a tripod. You can take with you a carbon fiber model that is lightweight. Of course, carrying such an accessory is more pleasant than, for example, a Manfrotto weighing 6 kg. But any tripod takes up some space in your luggage.

However, it is not recommended to abandon this accessory. After all, it is thanks to the tripod that the camera will remain motionless during long exposures. Just install the camera on it and set any shutter speed. Exposure time is limited only by the capabilities of a particular device and your common sense.

But a monopod will be practically useless for a night photo shoot. Yes, it expands the shutter speed range by 2-3 stops, eliminating blur and other defects in the photo. However, a monopod will not help radically solve the problem.

Choosing equipment for night shooting, you must clearly know what each device is intended for. So, if you are able to make the camera still by other means than a tripod, go for it.

Obviously, in many situations a tripod turns out to be the “third wheel”. For example, when walking with a girl in a park or square, it is inconvenient to carry it with you. But you can put the camera on the parapet and take good night panoramas.

There is little light in the forest even during the day, but there are a lot of stumps. Of course, you will have to place wood chips or twigs under the camera to fix it in place. in the right position. But you don't have to carry a bulky tripod with you. Thus, imagination can help the photographer out, even if he does not have the necessary accessories at hand.

Optical stabilization

The optical stabilization system is a good compromise between quality and laziness in implementation night shooting. Some camera manufacturers integrate stabilizers directly into the camera. Lenses of other models are equipped with “stubs”. This is how greedy manufacturers force consumers to pay for a convenient feature every time they change optics.

Many compact devices famous brands They also have a stabilizer. Action diagram of this element next. The optical block and/or photosensitive matrix moves in the desired direction at the required moment. In this way they compensate for the shaking of the camera body. However, there are also limitations. For example, with a ten-second exposure, no stabilizer will save the situation.

Most scenes can be shot in completely different ways using the available shutter speed settings alone. So, a minute exposure turns an average black night into almost a day. This is achieved by brightening the shadows.

However, when night photography the night must still remain itself. In photographs this can be achieved by incompletely elaborating the shadows. The latter refers to black areas where a minimum of detail is visible. Also, the transfer of bright areas around light sources will add naturalness to your photos.

The camera does not know the photographer's intentions. Therefore, it won’t hurt to master exposure compensation. This correction helps trick the exposure meter to achieve the result you want. Obviously, a night photo shoot should only be carried out in absolutely manual mode (I’m talking about it). In other words, the photographer independently sets arbitrary aperture and shutter speed values ​​independent of each other.

Photographer: Natalya.

Feel free to experiment, because it is much easier to do this with digital equipment than with film equipment. At any time you can look at the pictures you took on the camera screen, analyze errors, take them into account and retake unsuccessful shots. Don't be lazy to process images in a graphics editor. Sometimes it’s post-processing that turns an ordinary shot into a real masterpiece.

At night photography Shoot in RAW format. It is available in many amateur devices. And professional cameras all have this mode. The RAW format, also called the “raw format,” provides the opportunity to set some parameters “retroactively” after shooting. Thus, the photographer can correct mistakes in the editor made during the photo shoot.

• Before you go to a photo shoot, do some scouting. This event will save time and get the desired result faster. During reconnaissance, evaluate the night lighting, find a suitable shooting point. If you plan to photograph architecture, pay attention to the lighting of buildings. In other words, find a place in advance where the city at night will look optimal.
• When choosing an aperture, stick to the “golden mean”. These are values ​​in the f/8-f16 range. But there is no clear law here. Try to determine golden mean experimentally, selecting best parameters for a specific lens. Even night photography will be carried out using professional expensive models, this is not a guarantee of obtaining a beautiful picture at maximum and minimum aperture values. By setting the settings to medium, you'll play it safe and increase your chances of getting high-quality, sharp night shots.

Photographer: Dmitry Pyavkin.

• To improve depth of field, keep your aperture down to f/16. This will make the background and foreground clearer, turning street lights into beautiful “stars”. This way, night shots will have a special atmosphere.
• Before you take a photo, analyze the scene in detail: which areas are in the dark and which are too brightly lit. Ask yourself: “How will all this show up in the photograph?” Always be aware of lighting. At night photography It is essential to consider the significant contrast between dark and bright objects. Don’t be lazy, use your feet or zoom to find the point from which you can take the optimal shot. harmonious composition, where 3/4 of the frame will not be “knocked out” by bright lighting or fallen into complete darkness.
• In cold weather, batteries quickly discharge, especially when shooting at long exposures in winter. It doesn’t hurt to stock up on extra batteries so you don’t end up with dead equipment at an extremely inopportune moment. Keep them in a warm place.
• Often strangers interfere with the shooting. But during a night session, crowds, on the contrary, can add a certain charm and variety. If people are still, use them as “silhouettes.” Moving objects allow you to get a curious blur effect that emphasizes dynamics. Such frames are shot at shutter speeds of 1/2 s.
• Available at different times various effects. Moreover, deep night is not always the optimal period for a photo shoot. Often interesting shots are taken at dusk, when the skies are not yet completely dark, but the night lights are already burning. The combination of residual natural light and full electric lighting will help you capture unique images. If night photography performed too late, you are unlikely to capture beautiful clouds, as is possible in the evening.

Photographer: Yuri Gnatyuk.

• Headlights and traffic require approximately thirty seconds of exposure time.
• When shooting moving lights, the zoom effect looks very interesting. Start shooting at the "short" end of the lens. Without closing the shutter, zoom smoothly, moving towards the “long” end or in reverse order. Predict the result night shooting This mode is quite difficult, but it can be very interesting.
• Reflecting the lights in a body of water will double the number of lights in the frame. Even winter photographs can be much more beautiful if you use the reflection of light in frozen puddles or on wet asphalt.
• On moonless nights, when there is no lighting at all, and the shooting takes place outdoors, you can use backlighting. To get effects that are diverse in perception and color, use flashlights that differ in light temperature. If you use a flashlight, do not fix it at one point. Drive it smoothly - this will ensure better lighting and will create a stunning effect.

Photographer: Sergey Sharkov.

• Having opened your RAW frames in AdobeCameraRaw or Lightroom, first of all select the temperature (the so-called white balance). Then add saturation to your photos using Saturation and Vibrance, but be careful not to overdo it. To “resurrect” the exposed areas, use Recovery.

Night Shooting Ideas

Transport and its flows

The lights of moving vehicles always look beautiful. To get this effect, you need to set a long shutter speed. I note that long exposures when shooting at night are more a necessity than a photographer’s whim. But its creative use allows you to get interesting shots.

Everything here is determined by fantasy. If you can't get good pictures, don't think it's just because the equipment you're using is cheap. It is possible that an inexpensive set of filters or a regular tripod will help you.

Photo session in an amusement park

In such establishments there are always a lot of moving lights, be it a Ferris wheel or a carousel with horses. Using a long shutter speed and a tripod, you can get stunningly beautiful images.

The light will merge into one whole, as if the attraction was spun up to an unprecedented speed and photographed.

Heavenly bodies

And romantics, and scientists, and ordinary people have always been interested in the movement of stars. Dedicate yours to this topic night shooting. Photos like this look extremely impressive. They prompt thoughts about the infinity of our Universe, the existence of other lives. And they simply delight you with their beauty.

To capture a star trail, exposure can take half an hour or more. Here you can shoot in two ways. Either you take one shot at a very long shutter speed, or a series of shots at a short shutter speed, and then stitch the images together.

To shoot high-quality scenes, use very long (at least half an hour) shutter speeds. Obviously, it is better to conduct a photo shoot outdoors. In urban environments, the light of the stars will be drowned out by the abundance of electric lighting. The result is well worth spending a spring or summer night in a tent or country house.

Photographer: Chris Cook.

The only caveat is that you will need protective case, designed for the lens to protect it from dew.

Fill the background with reflections

A simple and quite obvious idea. But when competent implementation you will get fabulous photos. After all, the reflections of colored lights in the foreground look incomparable.

Fireworks

Despite the apparent banality, night photography fireworks, when properly organized (I repeat for the hundredth time: long exposure, tripod, filling the foreground) allows you to get unforgettable shots.

Paint with light

In general, the technique of painting with light is quite old and well studied, although it requires some practice. Once you master it, you can completely give free rein to your imagination. For example, you will get the opportunity to capture a cute ghost that traditionally appears at night. There are many other interesting topics that can be covered.

Photographer: Janne Parviainen.

This style is called "freezelight".

Embrace the beauty of nature

After sunset or before dawn, nature does not look the same as usual. Cloudy sky, Moon, thunderclouds, fog, lightning - ready-made scenes for shooting. Such objects can make even a banal landscape very colorful and non-trivial (about how to shoot a landscape). A night photography thunderstorms allows you to get one of beautiful pictures natural phenomena.

You can even use multiple exposures to add drama and movement to thunderstorm shots. This is a fairly well-known technique among professional photographers. When talking about natural objects, one cannot fail to mention the northern lights. If you live or intend to travel to regions where this phenomenon occurs, be sure to take the opportunity to capture it.

Photographer: Yuri Belegurski.

Having completed night shooting, carefully review the resulting frames, analyze errors, if necessary, consult with colleagues, send pictures for criticism to some public social network.

This approach will allow you to constantly expand your skills and knowledge, improve your skills, and perform more interesting, complex and important tasks.

That's all for me, friends. I hope you liked the article. If so, then leave comments and watch the video below - I will be glad! See you in the next articles.

Well, everyone can press the shutter button in the daytime, some do it better, some do it worse, but even the most inexperienced amateur can easily take photographs during the day. But I’m sure some of you have no idea what to do at night... Even 10 years ago it was quite difficult, you had to calculate the exposure using tables or use an exposure meter. Now everything is very simple and fast.

Nikon D40, 66mm, f/4.2, 4s, 0.00eV, ISO 200

To begin with, understand the most basic thing: the more versatile, multi-colored light you have in the frame, the better your results will be. better photo, so carefully select the shooting location, composition, and most importantly the light!

— You will need a tripod or a hard surface where you can place your camera. Personally, I very rarely take a tripod with me, mainly if I purposefully go to some place and I probably know that I will have nowhere to place the camera. By the way, here's some good advice for you, the camera can be placed anywhere: on the sidewalk, low flat structure, ledge... etc., but you will need some kind of small item under the camera to adjust the angle, in this case I use improvised means, often my favorite phone.

— Set the minimum. (if you have ISO auto, be sure to set it to the minimum value, otherwise the camera will try to raise it to the maximum value, you will get terrible ones)

— If you have a lens with a stabilizer, turn it off, it will only get in the way

— Turn on the timer for 2 seconds, or use the remote control, we need this so as not to accidentally snag the camera/tripod while pressing the shutter button.

— First of all, let’s look at it: if the frame is very light, we’ll compensate it to a minus, if it’s dark, then we’ll compensate it to a plus. If you are photographing at 30 seconds and the photo is dark, lower the f/ value until you get a well-lit frame.

— Well, lastly, let’s play with , start with the Auto mode, and then look at the photo, change it if necessary. I use automatic mode 95% of the time; modern cameras are so good that they almost always detect the correct one.

Nikon D40, 18mm, f/4.5, 2s, -1.00 eV, ISO 200

Nikon D40, 55mm, f/4, 2.5s, 0.00 eV, ISO 200

Well, some nuances that may be useful to you.

Sometimes we need to use flash, for example when we need to highlight something in the foreground. We do everything according to standard scheme, just turn on the flash and set the flash mode to slow or rear. In the first case, the flash will fire at the beginning, in the second, at the beginning and at the end of shooting.

— Set , set the shutter speed to bulb mode.

— We set it up (to begin with, we start with f/11, the longer we have a shutter speed, the more lightning we will catch, again, we are guided by the situation).

— We press the shutter button, wait, enjoy the flashes of lightning and fresh air, or get wet in the rain, depending on your luck;)

— We wait for the conditional time, for example about a minute, press the shutter button on the remote control again, look at the photo. If it’s very dark, it means you didn’t wait, if it’s very light, it means you enjoyed the air for a long time :). We do everything from the beginning, changing, we achieve the result we need.

Happy photography!

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Night is an attractive and mysterious time of day. The night world becomes intriguing and alluring. Photos taken in the evening and at night look unusual: the light of the moon and electric lamps transforms the landscape. The photographer can only capture it artistically and technically competently. This is what makes night photography so interesting. However, there are many technical nuances that you need to know in order to take acceptable photos. So, first things first.

Night shooting conditions

What makes night special for a photographer? First of all, an insufficient amount of light does not allow the camera to focus normally and distinguish objects. There is an exit. You can use cameras that do not make too much noise when the ISO is increased. These are mostly full-frame DSLR cameras. Such a camera is an expensive pleasure that not everyone can afford. In principle, you can use any camera, but cheaper models will have poorer quality pictures.

For night photography, the lens is also important. The larger the lens aperture, the brighter the image will be, and accordingly, it will be easier for the camera to focus. It is worth noting that budget lenses at the maximum open aperture (about f/3.5) begin to blur the image at the edges of the frame. In expensive optics, such a flaw is observed less frequently and is not so pronounced.

If you are the owner of a compact with fixed optics, do not despair. Of course, you won’t be able to take pictures of the starry sky, but almost any modern camera is suitable for photographing a city at night or landscapes.

Since the camera receives little information about light at night, better photos save in RAW format. This will allow you to extract much more detail from the images during processing.

Where can you take pictures at night?

What can you photograph at night? It depends on the imagination of the photographer and possible places where you can go. At night you can photograph the same things as during the day, only everything will look different. The city streets will consist of silhouettes of houses with rare detail in the light of lanterns. The park paths will become romantic and slightly scary.

Features of shooting at night

Night photography can be divided into two methods of photography: with a long shutter speed and a tripod, and with short shutter speed, but with the use of additional light sources.

In order to get as much detail as possible in the environment, you need to open the aperture. This will increase the luminous flux, and the light will hit the matrix with greater intensity. If the photographer's interest lies in conveying only lines and points of light, then the aperture should be closed. The shutter speed is selected experimentally.

If you only need to convey information about light sources, you shouldn’t raise the ISO. It's better to increase the shutter speed. In the event that you need to convey as much detail as possible in the picture, and the shutter speed is already at the limit or its further increase will lead to inevitable damage to the frame due to the movement of objects, then an increased ISO value will help. But we should not forget that ISO values ​​above 400 units lead to a serious deterioration in photo quality due to the appearance of noise. Here you have to choose what is more important. Sometimes you have to choose between taking a “noisy” photo or not taking a photo at all. Sometimes it's worth taking a photo. You can fight the noise later in Photoshop.

In the dark there is a problem with focusing. Clear pictures are obtained by focusing on contrasting and clear objects. This could be road markings or building windows. You should not focus on objects that have a uniform color and structure.

Preparing for shooting

Preparation is an important part of location shooting. In low light conditions it is difficult to take a sharp, blur-free shot. To avoid blurring (in the slang for “shaking”), among other things, you need to use a tripod. Let's talk about the tripod in more detail.

The tripod's tripod is responsible for stability, and the head is responsible for the orientation and mounting of the camera. The entire tripod or tripod in particular can be metal or plastic. Plastic is light and cheap, but does not hold the camera well, is fragile, unstable in the wind, and even a slight vibration does not fade for a long time. The metal structure is more expensive and heavier, but stronger and more stable. There are also tripods with carbon tripods: they, having a lightweight carbon frame and high strength metal parts, combine best characteristics plastic and metal models.

Professional tripods have interchangeable heads - universal and specialized (for example, for shooting horizontal and vertical panoramas, macro photography). They also differ in the way and ease of adjusting the camera position. For example, a ball head, where the base is a sphere enclosed in a vice, is convenient for shooting in which the camera is constantly moving in several planes. It ensures smooth and precise movement of the camera and is fixed at all angles.

The three-axis head has separate adjustment levers for each of the three planes. And the main difference between a panoramic head and others is the ability to rotate the camera with the center of rotation at the nodal point of the lens. That is, the rotation occurs around the point at which the light streams converge before hitting the photosensitive element of the camera. If you need to shoot a panorama consisting of several rows, use panoramic heads with the ability to tilt the camera up and down - up to the zenith (vertically up, +90° from the horizon) and nadir (vertically down, -90° from the horizon).

Remember that there are several positions in which a tripod is most stable. When installing, you need to spread the legs of the tripod widely in order to move the center of gravity lower and, if the shooting tasks allow it, do not raise its head high.

It should also be taken into account that when shooting at a long shutter speed, even pressing the shutter button can cause slight vibrations in the camera and ruin the shot. If possible, set the shutter delay mode to 2, 5, or 10 seconds, or use a remote control. If you'll be shooting in cold weather, fully charge the battery and take a spare. Remember that batteries discharge faster in cold weather.

One more tip. Do some research before you head out to photograph. This will save your time and allow you to get what you want faster. Find a good spot, evaluate the lighting at night, see how buildings are lit if you decide to shoot architecture, evaluate road traffic depending on time and place if you want to shoot “light trails” - traces of headlights from passing cars. In other words, find in advance a place where the city lights at night will look best. What is beautiful during the day will not always be good at night and vice versa.

And turn off Image Stabilization, whether it's in the lens or on the camera. The stabilizer is designed to help you when you shoot handheld. But it can have the exact opposite effect when you're shooting on a tripod with a long shutter speed. The stabilizer, depending on its internal logic and type, can, on the contrary, make completely unnecessary movements and ruin the frame. So turn it off and be calm.

Photography

Night photography refers not only to shooting at night, but also at sunset. The sunset lasts about an hour, so you need to plan your shooting location in advance and arrive at least half an hour before it starts. This time will be needed to select the angle and camera settings.

Setting an accurate white balance when shooting at night is quite difficult. When changing the composition, the number of light sources changes, the variety of which in a city can greatly change the color temperature. In our case, it is best to leave the white balance in automatic mode. Shooting in RAW format will allow you to get an original file that you can work with many times without changing the digital negative: correct the white balance, perform exposure compensation.

The final result depends on the exposure metering method you choose. Matrix metering determines exposure settings based on data collected from all areas of the frame. It is perfect for evenly lit shooting scenes. The center-weighted method measures the entire field of the frame, but the bulk of the measurement is concentrated in the center of the frame within a circle with a diameter of 8-10 mm, which is displayed in the viewfinder. This metering method is best used when a very bright light source enters the frame and you need to determine the exposure without its participation. The point method for determining exposure reads information from a point 1-2% of the frame area located in the center of the current focus area.

So, in uniform lighting, matrix exposure metering is used, and in difficult conditions, center-weighted or spot metering is used.

You should not raise the ISO value above 400. The higher the sensitivity, the more digital noise there will be in the image. The ISO 400 level on most SLR cameras gives acceptable quality for a monitor, and even more so for printing. Higher values ​​usually lead to a sharp drop in picture quality.

Focusing is often a problem in low light conditions. For clear shots, try to focus on a contrasting or well-lit subject. For example, on road markings or on bright windows of a building. The main thing is not to focus on a homogeneous object, be it a gray wall, sky or asphalt.

Working with endurance is the most important point night photography. Relatively short shutter speeds (1/30 - 2 seconds) emphasize the movement of objects, blurring them against a static, clear background. Shutter speeds longer than 2 seconds show movement differently: moving cars are not visible, headlights turn into streaks of light, fast-walking people are not shown in the photograph. If your main goal is to emphasize movement, it's best to shoot in shutter priority mode. If you're photographing a landscape, use aperture priority mode to be able to influence the depth of field.

Long exposure photography on a tripod

A long shutter speed will not allow you to get a sharp shot when shooting handheld, so using a tripod is a must. IN different conditions Camera lighting settings will vary. It all also depends on what you need to get in the end.

What kind of pictures can you take with long exposures at night?

1. Perhaps the most common photographs are photographs of traces from car headlights.

2. Landscape photography is no less common. This can be not only nature, but also industrial landscapes.

3. When photographing on open area One flash cannot illuminate the entire frame, but it does an excellent job of highlighting objects in the foreground. For example, if you set the flash to fire at the rear curtain of the lens and photograph a moving object, you will get a frame with a clear, sharp object, behind which the trail from its movement will be visible.

Very interesting pictures are obtained when painting with fire. In the next photo, the boy was drawing circles with a sparkler with the shutter open. Before closing the shutter, the flash went off, thereby freezing the image of the guy. Thus, both the light pattern and the model itself remained in the frame.

4. To get just a light pattern, you don't need to use a flash. This type of photography is called Freez (English: Freez - freezing, Light - light), this style is also known as Light graphic or Light painting - painting with light.

You need to create a light pattern on the street in a place where there is no lighting or in dark room. The shutter speed can be set to any length. It all depends on how long the drawing will take to draw with light. In complete darkness, the camera will not record anything other than lines from a moving light source. As you know, the aperture regulates the intensity with which light hits the matrix. This means that in freezelight, the diaphragm will regulate the intensity of the glow of the drawn lines of light. With a closed aperture they will be thin, and with an open aperture they will be wide and bright.

5. At night, with a flashlight you can not only draw figures in space, but also work with it like a brush, illuminating (outlining) objects, making them more noticeable among others. This method is called painting with a light brush.

To highlight an object, you need to set the camera to a long shutter speed and, while the exposure lasts, use a flashlight to evenly illuminate the object.

When working in this style, you should be attentive to detail, and good results You will get it only after training. When working with a flashlight, you should not hold it statically. Better move it. This will give more uniform lighting. In addition to a regular flashlight, you can use a wide variety of lighting devices.

6. Simply incredible pictures are obtained when shooting the starry sky. Photographing stars is not so easy. This can be done in two ways. You can convey the stars as we see them, in the form of points, or you can capture the movement of stars in the sky (star tracks).

Shooting static stars

To capture static stars you need to calculate the shutter speed. There is a rule of 600/FR (equivalent to 35 mm cameras). As many have already guessed, you need to divide 600 by the equivalent focal length of the lens. The result of the calculation will be the shutter speed at which you need to photograph so that the stars in the picture appear as dots and not dashes.

In this case, the aperture should be opened to the maximum level at which high-quality images are obtained. Light sensitivity will have to be selected experimentally.

Shooting star tracks

Star tracks are more difficult to photograph. The exposure time for such shooting can last from 10 minutes to several hours. This depends on the focal length of the lens and the desired length of the tracks. For each camera and lens you need to select the settings yourself.

There are two ways to photograph star tracks. The first is one-shot shooting with long exposure, and the second is taking a series of pictures with a not too long shutter speed and then stitching these pictures together in special software. The second method undoubtedly wins. The first has many disadvantages: the appearance of noise due to overheating of the matrix during long exposures, the appearance of movement, fogging of the lens glass, overexposure due to too long an exposure. Any of these nuances can ruin a picture that was created over a long period of time (from 10 minutes to several hours).

Shooting at fast shutter speeds without a tripod

1. The easiest way to photograph an object or person at night is to use a flash or other lighting fixtures. This could be street lights, light from car headlights, spotlights, or specially prepared studio equipment. With this type of photography, only the illuminated object will be visible. Everything else will hide in the shadows.

2. At night, photographs of bright objects, such as street lamps, light from windows, flames, or reflections of city lights in ponds and puddles, look very good.

By completely closing the aperture you can get an interesting result. The rays from the flashlights will be visible in the photo.

3. Quite unusual pictures are obtained when photographing the moon. Most likely, many tried to photograph the night star and, after unsuccessful attempts, wondered how to photograph the moon.

In fact, everything is very simple. Many people mistakenly believe that in order to photograph the moon you need to increase the shutter speed and aperture ratio. It is not right. The moon is a very bright object in a dark sky, so the shutter speed should be fast and the aperture should be stopped down. Nice pictures obtained on cameras whose optics have a long focal length. At its closest approach, the moon looks especially beautiful.

Conclusion

Night photography is a very exciting activity, but far from the easiest. Stunning pictures can be created by photographing at night, but you need to be prepared both technically and theoretically for such shooting.

Night photography: universal settings for any scene.

Do you only shoot during the day? It's great to shoot on a sunny day, but hiding your camera as soon as dusk sets in means missing out on some great opportunities. beautiful photos hours. In the future, night photography may become one of the most attractive genres for you.

In low light conditions, your DSLR camera can capture beautiful images. But he will need your help. If in such conditions you shoot as usual - “framed the frame and pressed the button” - then either you will get blurry pictures, or you will not convey the atmosphere of the night in the photographs.

Don't be afraid of the dark! We have answers to all your frequently asked questions about how to prepare your camera for night photography.

We'll show you how to set up your camera and what optional equipment deserves to be taken along. We'll spice it all up with a variety of tips to help you unlock your camera's nighttime potential.

Selecting the appropriate aperture value

Night photography: how to choose suitable value diaphragm​.

When preparing for night photography, it is important to ensure that you can securely mount the camera. In low light intensity it is difficult to achieve fast shutter speeds.

In some situations, such as when shooting sporting events in a well-lit stadium, the camera can be held in your hands. But to shoot most night scenes, the camera must be mounted on a fixed support.

The ideal option is a heavy, stable tripod, on which the digital SLR camera will definitely remain motionless even during an exposure of several minutes. In addition to the suggested option, you can mount the camera on a relatively stable support - the roof of a car or the edge of a window - and set the shutter release to be delayed to avoid unwanted camera shake when pressing the shutter button.

So, the camera is stationary - your hands are untied. Freely choose the shutter speed, aperture value and sensitivity (ISO) that can achieve the appropriate exposure for the scene, not just the combination of settings that will not affect camera shake. To estimate what settings you will need when shooting a particular scene, take a look at the table below.

With the camera resting on a tripod (find the best way to mount the tripod), set the ISO sensitivity to 100 (to reduce digital noise) and great importance aperture (f/16). In this case, the shutter speed can be as long as desired, which is not a problem as long as the camera is securely mounted. Read about some common problems that arise when shooting at different shutter speeds and the best ways to solve them.

Here is a short but convenient cheat sheet containing combinations of approximate settings for shooting some popular night scenes:

How long should the shutter speed be to blur motion beautifully?

Night photography: blurring the movement.

Cars and trucks can ruin the composition of the photo if you shoot during the day. At night, their movement turns into an advantage.

The moving headlights and taillights are depicted in the photograph with red and white ribbons running throughout the image. This effect suddenly turns high-speed highways into film sets. To achieve it, you need to set a moderately long shutter speed.

In this case, shutter speed depends on how fast the cars are going and how much of the space “fits” in the frame. In any case it works general rule: The longer the shutter speed, the better.

Then the ribbons appear wider and more continuous in the photographs. For an average city street, a shutter speed of 20 seconds is suitable (but don’t forget about a tripod!). If there is a traffic light on the road, its signals will help you understand at what point to start exposing the frame in order to cover the entire period of movement.

How do I set my shutter speed to be long enough?

The simplest way is to select the “Av” shooting mode. Then use the control wheel located behind the shutter button to set the aperture to the largest aperture your lens will allow (usually between f/22 and f/32).

Night photography: shooting with a long shutter speed - 1/8 second.

Night photography: long exposure photography - 15 seconds.

Night photography: long exposure photography - 30 seconds.

In this mode, the maximum available shutter speed for most DSLR cameras is 30 seconds. To be able to shoot at slower shutter speeds, switch the shooting mode to “M” (“Manual Mode”).

You can also use Bulb mode by holding the shutter open as long as you hold down the remote shutter button (article on that). You may need a neutral density (ND) filter to reduce the amount of light hitting the light sensor.

What sensitivity should you set when taking night photos?

Night photography: the right sensitivity.

When adjusting sensitivity, make a rule: sensitivity is 100 ISO. Change it if you know for sure that it should be different.

Increasing sensitivity increases the ability of the photosensitive sensor to “absorb” light. Therefore, you will have to reduce the amount of light hitting the sensor. For each frame you can set your own ISO value.

But be careful: increasing sensitivity increases the amplitude of the electrical signal generated by the sensor when converting light energy into electrical energy. This increases digital noise and makes it visible in the photo (see how to reduce digital noise when shooting at high ISOs). If you want high-quality photos, set the sensitivity as low as possible (translator's note - on those cameras that allow values ​​​​less than 100 ISO, to maintain the widest possible dynamic range, set the sensitivity to 100 ISO).

When shooting in low light intensity, you don't necessarily need to increase the sensitivity (for the camera to "see" in the dark). If you're using a tripod or flash, keep the sensitivity at ISO 100 in most cases.

When to increase sensitivity?

Increase sensitivity when you want to avoid directional blur. It's always better to have a little bit of digital noise in your photo than to have a blurry image due to camera shake during shooting. Therefore, only increase the sensitivity when you are unable to shoot on a tripod.

ISOin night photography - ISO 100.

Using Large ValuesISOin night photography - ISO100 + flash.

Using Large ValuesISOin night photography - ISO 1600.

A good alternative to increasing sensitivity is to use flash. Using flash, you can still shoot at ISO 100. But the light from the flash changes the chiaroscuro, which can ruin the atmosphere of the photo (look at the middle photo of the three above).

Long exposure

When the scene is dimly lit, set the sensitivity to ISO 100.

Correct valuesISOfor night photography - adjust ISO 100.

The photo above shows an indoor Polish market late at night. A tripod was used. This made it possible to lengthen the shutter speed so that the light required quantity hit the light sensor. This photo turned out to be moderately lit - normally exposed - without any changes in sensitivity.

What is digital noise?

All digital cameras They are mistaken - an image taken with any digital camera contains digital noise. It is similar to the grain of a photograph taken on film. It is enough to brighten the photo to see the noise. Fortunately, manufacturers digital cameras from model to model, they successfully cope with the problem of digital noise appearing in images.

What is digital noise -ISO 100.

The error increases with increasing sensor sensitivity - digital noise appears more strongly in the photo. It is especially noticeable in dark areas of the image. In addition to the fact that homogeneous dark areas acquire a rough texture, they are covered with colored dots.

What is digital noise -ISO 1600.

Digital noise can be reduced by turning on the camera's digital noise reduction function. Or in a photo editor at the processing stage.

Controlling white balance

Night Photography: How to Avoid Horrible Shades.

How can I avoid terrible color casts?

In most cases, your DSLR camera will reproduce the colors correctly in your photos, regardless of lighting conditions. The camera's internal white balance system strives to reproduce colors as we humans see with our eyes (check out the solution guide for more on this topic) common problems with white balance.

In standard mode (automatic white balance - “AWB”), the system better detects colors when daylight than under low light intensity conditions. For example, pictures of illuminated buildings or pictures taken in your living room may contain a subtle but unpleasant orange-yellow tint.

This is a sure sign that the white balance is not set correctly. This tint can be easily adjusted in Photoshop, especially if you're shooting in RAW format.

Correct white balance setting for night photography: wrong color cast. The photo will turn orange.

Correct white balance setting for night photography: Manual white balance adjustment.

Correct white balance setting for night photography: manual adjustments even out color rendition.

However, it is quite simple to adjust the white balance while shooting. All you need to do is set the mode to manual (“PRE”). This approach is especially effective if you're going to take multiple shots of the same building under the same lighting conditions. Standard reception- indicate as a reference a photograph with a gray or white object occupying a significant area of ​​the photograph.

Is there an easier way to avoid color shift?

Even if you adjust the white balance manually, the colors in some areas of the photo may still not match reality as seen by the human eye. The reason is that the building can be illuminated by different types of light sources.

You can adjust the white balance based on one type of light source, but balancing the color rendering across all sources at the same time is a non-trivial task. There is a simple solution. Convert color photos taken in difficult lighting to black and white.

White balance in night photography: converting to black and white.

Shoot in color, and at the processing stage, use a photo editor to convert the image into a monochrome image. This approach will allow you to adjust the contrast and tonal range of the photo as flexibly as possible. It also works great for party portraits.

How to adjust white balance manually?

All digital SLR cameras allow you to precisely adjust the white balance using a pre-photographed reference image. The following technique shows how to adjust white balance on DSLR cameras. Camera settings from other manufacturers may vary slightly.

1. A sign that white balance requires " manual control", is the tint of the entire image with an extraneous tint, for example, orange.
2. Take a photo of a white or gray object illuminated by the same light as the scene you are shooting. Select manual white balance (“Custom WB”) in the camera menu. Make sure the reference image is displayed on the screen and press “SET”.
3. Now change the white balance mode from Automatic (“AWB”) to “Manual” (“PRE” - indicated by a square with two triangles near the tops). Now subsequent images will display colors correctly. Remember, when you shoot a different scene under different lighting, you'll need to re-adjust the white balance.

An alternative way to manually adjust white balance

The traditional way is to photograph a sheet of white paper or a special card for a reference image. gray. But you can do it differently: choose an image of the object being photographed as a reference image.

Alternative way manual settings white balance - white balance is determined automatically

Photo of the castle in Krakow takes off orange. We used this photo as a reference when manually adjusting white balance.

An alternative way to manually adjust white balance is to set the white balance manually.

The application of this is not enough known method allowed us to obtain a more acceptable result.

Creative uses of flash for night photography

Night photography: universal settings for any scene

When to use flash?

Photos taken using flash can be frustrating. Flash light changes the lighting atmosphere, making the subject too light and the background too dark. For this reason, instead of using flash, sensitivity is increased.

However, increasing sensitivity is not enough to shorten the shutter speed or narrow the aperture to obtain a sharper image. The built-in flash is handy here.

Flash is necessary when taking portraits in low light intensity conditions. The subject can be “frozen” even after exposure for a few seconds.

The thing is that the need to use a flash in this case is less obvious. The flash fire is combined with a long shutter speed. This is a feature of the reception.

This technique is called “slow synchronization”. It is simply implemented on your digital SLR camera with built-in flash.

When to use bounce flash?

Reflection luminous flux produced by an external flash is another great technique for creating natural photographs in low light intensity conditions. It works especially well for portraits, illuminating the subject's face evenly and hiding the fact that flash is being used at all.

How to use bounce flash - direct light

The stream of light reflected from a nearby wall or low ceiling is wider and weaker than the original one and is limited by the size of the external flash head. But the thick shadows with clear edges disappear. They are a consequence of the light flux “released” directly onto the subject.

How to use bounce flash - reflected light

Unfortunately, you won't be able to use the built-in flash. You will also need to purchase a tilt-head flash that is compatible with your camera. It is installed in the “hot shoe” connector.

How to set up slow sync mode?

In slow sync mode, the camera sets the shutter speed to the desired length to properly expose the background and calculates the power of the flash pulse to sufficiently illuminate the subject in the foreground.

Flash disabled

Flash on

The flash fired in slow sync mode

The subject was not blurred thanks to the flash light, and the background was normally exposed (compare with the case when the flash fires in normal mode).

To enable , set the flash mode to “Slow Sync.” IN Canon cameras all you have to do is set the shooting mode dial to “Av” and raise the built-in flash. If you have a camera from another manufacturer, check the instructions.

When not using a tripod, set the aperture value, usually by rotating the control wheel under your thumb, so that the corresponding shutter speed is not too slow. Starting from a certain shutter speed, the background will appear blurry and the longer the shutter speed, the more “blurred” the background will be.