How To Take Photos At Night
Intro
For many people night time or low light photography can seem daunting and I know that first hand, as I was there myself. It can seem like no matter what we do, our photos come out blurry, noisy, muddy and generally somewhat messy. Although we shouldn't compare, we are human and we do. So we compare our photos to those of photographers who are known for moody cinematic night shots and we end up somewhat deflated. Well in this video I want to share a few tips on how you can improve your night time photos so that not only do you walk away with better images, but also enjoy the process a little more.
Look for light
Light is by far the most important aspect of daytime photography and at night, it becomes even more important. You could even argue that finding good light at night can actually be a little easier than during the day. Effectively you want to pretend you're a moth and just gravitate towards any light source you see. Without light you don't have a photo and without good light, you have a crap photo. So seek out good strong light sources which would typically come from shop fronts, window displays, large street lamps and bright and vibrant neon lights. To do this you might need to change the location where you would typically shoot and find one that has more light. When you do find good light, you want to then position yourself so that you're either shooting into the light source or 90 degrees to the light. This will create the most dynamic image, add depth and increase natural all contrast as the light has to wrap around the subject before hitting the camera.
Slow down
When shooting at night we would typically be working with lower shutter speeds than those during a bright sunny day, therefore we no longer have the luxury of quickly pointing your camera while walking and getting the shot... at least not without getting a blurry photo. This is something I had to learn the hard way because if you've seen any of my POV videos, you would know that I rarely slow down for a shot. So next time you're out, just always be aware of slowing everything down. Slow down your walking pace, make sure you stop and compose yourself and the camera before taking the shot, make sure you keep the camera steady and generally do everything at like half the normal pace. Does this mean you can miss some shots? Sure. I’d rather miss a few shots than end up with a bunch of blurry images that would get deleted anyway.
Stabilise yourself and your camera
Part of slowing down also includes focusing on stabilising your camera and there are 4 ways which can help you. One of these is not better than the other and it entirely depends now how steady you are, what gear you have and what location you're in. I suggest trying each one and seeing which works best for you. The first method is simply using the viewfinder and not the screen. The only difference is this time you might want to press the camera a little harder to your face than usual. This creates a 3rd contact point and will remove a bunch of camera shake. Second method is to hold the lens from underneath with your left hand and allow it to take almost all the weight. The right hand is simply there to hold the camera and press the shutter. This splits the weight more evenly between two hands. Third method is to use a neck strap and then pull the camera away from your body until the neck strap is tight. This creates a 3rd contact point and will take most of the micro jitters that you would get from normal hand holding. Finally you can always lean on a hard surface like a wall if you're somewhere where you can do that. This again adds a third contact point and if you can couple this with either the neck strap or using the viewfinder, even better.
Reduce shutter shake
When we press the shutter button to take a photo, even if we are very careful we can introduce some camera movement from the act of pressing the shutter button. Of course with normal shutter speeds this is not an issue but the moment we start to go to lower shutter speeds of below 1/100, then we risk having unwanted motion blur. There are two ways to get around this. First option is to use burst mode, take 3 or 4 photos and just use the one in the middle. So only the first one or two might have been impacted by you pressing the shutter. Second option is to use a 2 second timer. This also gives you a little time to maybe hold your breath and keep extra still.
Underexpose
The final tip is one that many people can find counter intuitive. Underexpose the scene by anywhere from -1 to even -2 stops depending on how dark or bright the environment is. So perhaps blue hour will warrant -1 and middle of the night will edge closer to -2. If you're wondering why on earth would you do that... well next time you go out at night, put your camera in full auto, set exposure comp to 0 and then compare what you see on the back of the screen and real life. I am willing to bet that real life looks a tad darker than what your camera is showing. Then take your exposure dial and drop it to -1. You will not find that the exposure on the camera and the scene actually look somewhat similar. Not only will this method give you a more realistic exposure, but also in the process reduce your ISO or increase your shutter speed... or both. Same can be said for manual exposure... look at your exposure meter and make sure it is reading around -1 to -2 depending on the light. I will make a more in depth night time settings video but for now, this is enough for you to play around with.