Secrets of night photography. Night Photography Basics - Tips and Examples

Diversity

At night there is always a huge variety of things happening, accompanied by different lighting. From bright bright lights to cold ones blue shades. Observe the difference in shades. You already know how important light in photography. Earlier photographers, even professionals, spent a lot of effort to overcome the difficulties associated with lighting and color. Setting up the device has always been difficult. But in today's digital world, new technologies are challenging new technologies.

Preparation

Take only a few essential items with you. You can use a tripod, but make sure that the load does not burden you and that you can easily move around. Don't waste your time thinking in vain about which lens use and how to arrange it correctly frame where to shine the flashlight. All this should happen unobtrusively. In addition, people have a wonderful organ of vision. Your eyes will begin to adapt to even the harshest low-light conditions. If you wait a little, you will be able to see a lot.

Object and composition

Whether it's day or night, choosing a subject to shoot is very important. The subject characterizes your photo. And what is included in the frame can contribute to a better presentation of your work, raising it to a higher level. Of course, difficulties arise here due to difficult night lighting conditions. But you need to be sure that whatever was photographed during the day can also be photographed at night. There are a huge number of lighting techniques you can use to make your subject even more interesting.

Focus and aperture

The most difficult task- define an object And correct composition. On your menu cameras there must be a luxury feature - autofocus with great capabilities to catch an object V in the right place, but it doesn’t help in these lighting conditions. You'll need to learn how to manually focus, and also try checking the frame in the viewfinder before deciding on the final shot. This is a tricky experiment because when an object is difficult to see with the naked eye, it must be even more difficult to detect with a viewfinder. Try a higher one International Organization According to Standardization, more portable exposure tests, ideal central placement and everything should work out.

Diaphragms

Not every time you can use it all the time aperture With highest value. Of course, everyone knows that the largest aperture gives more light, longer shutter speed, and therefore less blur and more opportunities to get a great shot. It is important to note that when planning a time or long exposure plan, your aperture settings will be adjusted accordingly. Some decline aperture V in this case may also be useful.

Dynamic range

Night filming features a wide variety of light sources from everywhere, as opposed to just natural light during the day. This makes the space look like a theater stage with various sources light and different lights. Dynamic range is the difference between the brightest white and the darkest black within your scene. Shooting only in moonlight cannot be very dynamic, it is weak compared to sunlight, and therefore at long shutter speeds, this produces subtle shadows, turning the range into a narrow dynamic range.

Conclusion

At the very beginning, most likely, you will find it difficult. You need to learn to adapt to unusual lighting conditions. It is also quite difficult to determine the subject of your photo and its framing. People are not relaxed because they are in a hurry to get home or are busy with their own business, uneven light from different directions, varied color balance with highs and lows in color palette. And yet you will begin to find correct solution. Little by little, challenges will turn into opportunities to make you a better photographer.

Tonight you can go outside and start mastering the technique night photography. Discover the unknown, improve yourself!

Observe the play of light, evening and night colors. We associate night with darkness and darkness, impenetrable emptiness. But in reality, even small settlements at night begin to glow with many shop windows, lanterns, and car headlights. Therefore, familiar things become unusual and mysterious even in natural night light.

First of all, night photography– this is the charm of sleeping streets, the play of lights on the surface of the lake, mountain landscapes at sunset. There are many stories. At this time, everything around is transformed. Acquaintances before the smallest details neighborhoods plunge into twilight, boulevards and squares wink with illumination - the main thing is to learn, how to take pictures at night to convey all this as effectively as possible.

Subtleties of night photography

This is a rather interesting area of ​​landscape photography. If during the day the camera “sees” the same picture as we do, then at night everything changes. It often turns out that where there is nothing to photograph during the day, after sunset you can get very spectacular pictures. At night, the surrounding reality transforms, and a special charm appears in the photographs.

Photographer: Jing Magsaysay.

Photography can be called the art of painting with light, since lighting is the determining factor here. The amount of light is the main problem. night photography, because it is sorely lacking (by the way, you can read more about natural light). Our brains and eyes adapt to light so we can see the world both on a sunny day and in the evening twilight. The picture may not be identical, but we can see something. And the decrease in color perception at night is perceived by us as a completely normal process.

As for how to take pictures at night, everything is more complicated here, because the capabilities of photographic equipment are much more modest. In order not to delve into the jungle of physics and photographic technology, I will briefly note that the camera matrix or film will be more receptive to light, the higher its ISO. A sensor with a sensitivity of 700 ISO will be 7 times more sensitive to lighting than an analogue with a sensitivity of 100 ISO. Consequently, the photographer can make the shutter speed shorter or close the aperture further.

Calculation of the amount of light entering the matrix or film, depending on the set aperture value, is carried out using a more intricate formula. However, for a general understanding of what happens when night photography, the above information will be sufficient. Eager photographers will ask what the problem is then. In modern cameras, sensitivity can be adjusted through the menu. Set it to maximum - and you can photograph night landscapes or take portraits!

Photo workshop "Big City".

There is still a problem. You have to pay for everything. If you want to know how to take pictures at night, then be prepared for the fact that at maximum sensitivity values ​​noise will appear in the pictures. Physically, any matrix has one sensitivity. Let it be called nominal and equal to 100 ISO. This parameter can be increased electronically.

In other words, the signals coming from the cells are simply amplified. This leads to an avalanche-like increase in the amount of noise and defects in the photo. They appear in photographs in the form of gray and colored dots that are randomly scattered throughout the image. And the photographer gets whole line problems - from reduced detail to reduced dynamic range. Moreover, the dependence will be direct, although not linear. Simply put, the higher the sensitivity of the matrix, the more noise there is in the images.

Let's look at the features of camera settings for night photography on specific advice:

• Be sure to use a tripod for a night session. As a last resort, use a stable surface. At short shutter speeds the lighting will not be enough. And the noise that is formed due to high ISO will be visible very clearly in the dark areas of the image (there are many of these in any night photography). If you are using a tripod, you must forcefully turn off the stabilizer, because when using it, the image will “walk” a little, and with a long shutter speed this will cause blurring.

• Practice using full manual photography mode. Neither autofocus, nor built-in flash, nor exposure metering in such extreme conditions will not be able to provide maximum quality. Before how to take pictures at night, set exposure metering for fragments with average illumination. Do not turn on the flash, since the built-in model is unlikely to illuminate the entire street or objects ten meters away. Most likely, it will simply illuminate a nearby object, leaving all the most interesting things in the dark. Set focus manually to main element frame.
• ISO, shutter speed and aperture settings. Keep the ISO minimal so that the pictures are not spoiled by a lot of noise. The sensitivity of the matrix and the aperture ratio of the optics are not critical. The lack of aperture can be compensated for by long exposure times. If the camera is on a tripod, the shutter speed doesn't matter.
• Night photography promises several problems. The biggest challenge when shooting at night is white balance. There are many colorful light sources on the street. The most optimal way is to shoot with auto white balance in RAW format. Then you can adjust this parameter during subsequent processing in editors.
• Use a cable, remote control or timer with a 2-second delay. If you do not have a cable or remote control, before how to take pictures at night be sure to enable the specified timer mode. The fact is that even pressing the start button can lead to movement in the images. And we also take long exposure photographs.



• Sometimes you have to make a shutter speed of more than 30 s. In such cases, we take photographs by turning on the BULB mode (this is a mode in which the shutter speed is not limited by time).
• Sometimes you can still use an external flash, for example, to deliberately illuminate objects that are located in the foreground. We do everything according to a familiar pattern. Turn on the flash and set its mode to rear or slow. In the first case, the flash fires at the end and beginning of shooting, in the second - only at the beginning.

Obviously, DSLRs perform better when photographing with long exposures. Then the dynamic range will be better and the noise level will be lower. But it’s also possible to achieve relatively good results with a soap dish. Now let's look at the tips above in more detail!

How to set up your camera for night photography

Before how to take pictures at night, put the device into manual mode (M), if present. Otherwise, set P - program mode (about creative modes I). We set ISO to minimum to reduce noise. If the camera supports RAW shooting format, enable it. This will allow you to adjust colors without losing picture quality.



Photographer: Dominique Palombieri.

If the specified format is not available, set the white balance to match the type of light sources. For shooting under the moon or just under the sky it will be a “cloudy day” (you can also experiment on your own), for street lights it will be “halogen”.

If you want to take high-quality photographs with night photography, you will also need maximum file quality, and this means shooting in RAW format. Then your pictures will contain a maximum of “information”, which expands the possibilities of subsequent processing and correction in the appropriate programs. RAW is important precisely because it allows you to preserve the maximum detail in highlights and shadows.

Before how to take pictures at night, set up the self-timer on the camera. This will eliminate the need to touch the device while the shutter is firing. When we press the start button, we move the camera, which is unacceptable. Many SLR cameras have a mirror lockup mode for such cases, in which the shutter is released after a few seconds.

Place the camera on a tripod. Obviously, holding the device motionless for a long exposure time will be unrealistic. The heavier and more stable the tripod, the better.



Photographer: Matt Molloy.

It would be great if at the very bottom of its central rod there is a hook on which you can hang a load to increase stability. You can even use a backpack or a bag from the device as a weight. It is not advisable to support the tripod with your hands while shooting.

At night photography On the street you should forget about autofocus - we don’t rely on it. If you are using a soap dish, before how to take pictures at night, set the focal length at the short end of the zoom from 2 to approximately 2.5 meters, and clamp the aperture to 4. In this case, you will get a depth of field from 1.5 meters to infinity.

If you use a DSLR, you will have to aim at some light object located at the desired distance. Having “hooked” autofocus, switch to manual focusing and do not touch the lens again.

Step-by-step algorithm for shooting at night

Frame your shot properly and secure the tripod head.

When working in M ​​mode, set the aperture and shutter speed. The latter is usually between one and ten seconds (depending on the amount of light available).



Photographer: Dmitry Bilichenko.

The aperture needs to be set in the range of 4-5.6. But don't go higher than f11, otherwise you'll lose image clarity.

Press the shutter

At correct execution the above advice on the topic of how to take pictures at night, the self-timer will fire first. Then the camera will stand for a few seconds with the shutter open. It is important to ensure complete immobility of the equipment.

If the wind is blowing, stand on the windward side as close to the camera as possible to protect it like a flower from vibrations. You should not stomp your feet near the device, since vibration is transmitted through the ground.

After shooting is completed, the camera will process the image for a while to suppress noise. The display will show “busy” at this time. It may even seem like the camera is frozen. The longer the exposure time, the longer the treatment will take. Wait for it to finish. Once you see the results on the screen, check the histogram to see if your exposure settings are correct. Unfortunately, in terms of contrast/brightness, the display may not display the image correctly.



Photographer: Sarah Vivienne.

It is important to understand that images night photography should remain in a dark tone. Before how to take pictures at night, you shouldn’t set shutter speeds that are too long, since even Photoshop can’t save overexposed photos. Try to take at least 3 frames of one scene, experimenting with the lighting level so that you have plenty to choose from.

Before a photo shoot, try to thoroughly study the camera's capabilities - do not shoot in scene modes. Knowing the capabilities of the lens and camera, you can predict the results of the photoset.

Shooting city nightscapes can be an excellent opportunity for self-expression. You will be able to look at your city in a new way, try to convey its gloomy beauty. At night, people look like ghosts and the streets turn out brilliantly black (with long exposures). Don't limit your imagination, experiment, create new stories. Using advice on how to how to take pictures at night, leave room for your own developments.

To night photography proved to be successful, be sure to keep the following in mind: When filming in busy areas, remain vigilant. After all, night is not only a time of transformation of the surrounding world, but also a period of activation of criminal elements who may well covet your photographic equipment worth at least $600. Therefore, take care of your safety first.



Photographer: Maxim Sudorgin.

That's all for me. In the next article I will try to offer some ideas and give some more tips for night photography. So don't miss out - subscribe to updates!

However, this method is not always suitable. A tripod is difficult to carry and may not be available at the right time. Shooting with a tripod takes time. Shooting with flash does not produce very beautiful, flat lighting. In addition, the flash can only illuminate the objects closest to us, so it is useless to shoot a landscape with a flash: distant objects will still remain dark. You can shoot in a city at night without a tripod and without a flash, making do with just a camera and available lighting. Let's figure out how best to do this and what to pay attention to.

NIKON D810 / 85.0 mm f/1.4 SETTINGS: ISO 640, F1.4, 1/200 s, 85.0 mm equiv.

1. Exposure is the most important thing

When we take photographs while holding the camera in our hands, it always shakes a little. This type of jitter can cause blurry images if you shoot at too slow a shutter speed. This technical defect is called “stirring” by photographers. Typically, such image blur appears when the shutter speed becomes longer than 1/60 s. However, it all depends on the shooting conditions, on the steady hand of the photographer (some photographers are able to hold the camera stably at longer shutter speeds), on the level of his skills (for example, an experienced photographer knows how to press the shutter smoothly, without creating vibrations in the camera). In addition, the maximum shutter speed for handheld shooting also depends on the focal length of the lens. The higher it is, the more noticeable the jitter will be and the shorter the shutter speed you need to use.

Carefully monitor the shutter speed when photographing: if it becomes longer than 1/60 s, then it’s time to take action. If you're shooting in A or P mode, you can increase the ISO or open the aperture down. If you shoot in S or M mode, you can directly adjust the shutter speed itself. Let's not forget that if our subject is moving, the shutter speed should be used fast enough so that the subject is not blurred in the frame by its own movement. For example, it is better to shoot a walking person at 1/125 s, and a running person at 1/250 s or shorter.

But at long shutter speeds, with beautifully blurred movement in the frame, you won’t be able to shoot without a tripod. You just have to come to terms with this: artisanal methods such as installing a camera on parapets and curbs will not give perfectly sharp pictures, and such shooting will take a lot of time. After all, you will have to shoot several times, achieving satisfactory photo quality through trial and error. The camera will fall, slide off the selected support, and the horizon in the photo will definitely be blocked. Instead of such torment, it is better to just take a tripod for shooting.

2. Monitor your ISO

At high ISO values, not only does noise appear, but color rendition and sharpness often deteriorate, and the dynamic range decreases. You don't want to get blurry footage the highest level digital noise? This means you shouldn’t increase your ISO too much. Make sure that the light sensitivity does not rise above ISO 1600-3200.

Typically, high ISO is a consequence of incorrectly set shutter speed and aperture. Light sensitivity increases (either automatically or by you, depending on the shooting mode) when not enough light falls on the matrix at the selected shutter speed and aperture. To increase the amount of light entering the matrix, open the aperture or lengthen the shutter speed (remember point 1).

3. Look for well-lit places to shoot

The more light you have at your disposal, the better the pictures will be and the easier it will be to photograph. Look for places in the city with good lighting: street lights, lanterns, illumination of shop windows and advertisements. All these are light sources. Use them! Let them illuminate your subject. If you are photographing a person, ask him to stand so that, for example, the light from a shop window falls on him. Usually the best lighting is in the city center, especially during the holidays. I was filming at the New Year's fair on Red Square. It was there that I found this cute carousel with horses, and there was quite enough lighting there.

4. Select a lens. There is no such thing as too much aperture!

Aperture is a characteristic of a lens, meaning how wide its aperture can be opened. The faster the aperture (and the wider the aperture), the more light passes through the lens. The more light that passes through the lens, the faster the shutter speed we can use and the lower the ISO we will need. For shooting without a tripod in low light conditions (and these are the conditions in a night city), it is best to use fast lenses. They provide excellent image quality, allow you to shoot even at night at a relatively low ISO, and can beautifully blur the background. Popular among fast Nikon lenses are Nikon AF-S 35mm f/1.8G DX Nikkor, Nikon AF-S 50mm f/1.8G Nikkor, Nikon AF-S 50mm f/1.4G Nikkor, Nikon AF-S 85mm f/1.8G Nikkor.

5. Optical stabilizer is almost as good as the aperture ratio

Many lenses are equipped with a special system that dampens camera vibration in the photographer's hands. Thus, holding the camera in our hands, we will be able to shoot at shutter speeds longer than 1/60 sec. “VR” (Vibration Reduction) - this is how Nikon lenses equipped with optical stabilization are marked. For example Nikon AF-S DX 18-140mm F3.5-5.6G ED VR Nikkor, Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-120MM F/4G ED VR. With such a lens we can get sharp pictures of static scenes at shutter speeds of 1/30-1/20 s. Optical stabilization is very convenient when shooting stationary objects. But we must remember that we often photograph moving objects, such as people. And if we try to shoot a person at a long shutter speed, he will most likely be blurred by his own movements: the person will not be able to petrify, even if you really ask him to. When shooting portraits, even with a lens with stabilization, I recommend not setting a shutter speed longer than 1/60 sec. So aperture is still more useful than stabilization: it allows you to shoot handheld at low ISO and fast shutter speed. Stabilization is for long shutter speeds and low ISO, but often when shooting you need a short shutter speed.

6. Modern cameras take better photos in low light.

Progress does not stand still. What previously seemed impossible is now becoming accessible to everyone. The situation is the same with cameras: with each next generation digital cameras produce increasingly less digital noise at high ISOs. This means they allow you to take higher-quality shots in any lighting. In addition, new cameras are equipped with much more advanced autofocus sensors that focus quickly and accurately. Among the new products from Nikon, which allow you to take high-quality pictures with low level digital noise, it is worth highlighting Nikon D3300, Nikon D5300, Nikon D7100, Nikon D750, Nikon D810, Nikon Df.

7. In what mode to shoot?

In point 1, we said that the most careful thing to watch when shooting at night without a tripod is the shutter speed. To directly control shutter speed and adjust it as you wish, you can shoot in S (shutter priority) mode. If you are not yet very versed in camera settings, you can simply turn on S mode and set the shutter speed to 1/125 s. The camera will then take over control of the remaining exposure parameters. The photosensitivity setting can also be controlled automatically. It is very convenient that you can limit the maximum ISO value that the automation can set: this way we will insure ourselves against pictures with strong digital noise. I recommend setting the maximum auto ISO value around 1600-3200.

NIKON D810 / 85.0 mm f/1.4 SETTINGS: ISO 900, F1.4, 1/100 s, 85.0 mm equiv.

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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 things you need to know to get 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 do 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 dark time days 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. Metal structure more expensive and heavier, but stronger and more stable. Tripods with carbon tripods are also available: having a lightweight carbon frame and high strength metal parts, they combine the best characteristics of 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, panoramic heads are used 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 the remote 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 the 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 method Metering 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 point.

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 fast 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. Depending on the lighting conditions, the camera 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 will only be obtained 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. Simple incredible pictures 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 shooting with one frame with a long shutter speed, and the second is shooting 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. It can 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. Good photographs are taken with 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.