How do you get great night shots with your camera?

[Vivi Cheng]

I’ve been struggling with night photography lately. My photos always come out too dark, blurry, or grainy.

What settings or tips do you guys use for better night shots? Let’s share!

 

[Pete Askew]

Hi Vivi, and welcome to RPF.

Are you using film or digital capture?

I suspect that the blurring is mostly due to the slow shutter speed that the low light conditions require and the only real solution there is to provide a more stable platform for the camera. This could be a tripod, but even holding the camera against a static object such as a lamp-post, the roof of a car or similar can make a huge difference.

The graininess can be exploited as a ‘feature’ of a low-light image and can add significantly to its aesthetic. However, there are ways to reduce it by choosing either a film with greater sensitivity (high ISO rating), using higher ISO setting on a digital camera or a camera with a larger sensor.

Taking a meter reading at night is often prone to error, either because of the poorer sensitivity / accuracy of many meters in low light and also because of the dominance that even small point sources can have on the reading you obtain. This will result in dark images. Avoiding such highlights and using a more-point source way of metering can help, especially if you meter off of areas that are providing ‘moderate’ levels of refection of the light available (eg road surfaces).

Does that help?

 

[Pete Askew]

For example, here the image was metered avoiding the highlights and the mid-tone was paving to the left of the subject.

Thread 'Late Night Taxi'

Jul 31, 2012

After the party and waiting for a taxi in downtown Göttingen.

Leica M9 + 35 mm Summilux M f1:1.4. ISO 1250, 1/15s at f1:4.0. PP in LR and SilverFX 2.

• Pete Askew
• Replies: 10
• Forum: People & Portraits

 

[Gary R. Smith]

As like Pete want to know: film or digital? Although my film cameras now far out number my digital ones I have never shot at night with any of the film bodies - mostly because digital is so much easier at night. Then, there is the question of street v. astro? Again, I have never been interested in just shooting at night while wandering but shooting the stars does get my interest. While you would think that simply bumping the ISO up would do the trick, it is really more about the length of exposure.

This was taken at the beach, mounted on a tripod. Exposure was just long enough so I didn't start catching the movement. You can see the silhouette of Haystack Rock in Cannon Beach in the lower left and the glow of beach camp fires lower center. The bright dot middle right is Venus and the reddish dot above and to the left is Mars. The digital camera used has a special "Starry Sky" focus mode that allows the camera to get a good focus on stars.

 

[Pete Askew]

A, “To infinity and beyond” button eh? Nice!

 

[Beth Anthony]

your shutter speed should be 1/focal length to prevent camera shake when handholding. choose a wider lens to give yourself more room with your shutter speed. if you're shooting street like pete is, then you'll probably want to go handheld.

if you're shooting landscapes, like gary and i do, then definitely use a tripod and you can go even slower on your shutter speed.

if you're shooting digital then lens is and ibis will help you. this shot was handheld (taken after the fair closed and all other lights were turned off) and i truly did not expect it to come out.

54mm, 1/20 sec, f/8, iso 1600