Post by Robin on Sept 24, 2008 13:25:48 GMT -5
Greetings Fellow Photographers!
We've all seen the beautiful photos of a city at night, with the shimmering skyscrapers full of activity, and the highways alive with beams of red and white light from blurred cars. But have you ever tried to take a shot like that? It can be tricky, especially without the right approach. But that's why I'm here! Read on for tips about shooting long exposure night shots...
Ready...
First thing's first: use a tripod! If you don't have a tripod, bring something you can use to secure the camera so it doesn't move. No matter how calm you are, you will not be able to hold your camera perfectly still long enough to capture the shot. Points of light are faint and dim at night; you need to use a long exposure to capture anything that is out of reach from the flash (about 10-20 feet). So turn the flash off. You can experiment but generally the flash does not help you with long exposure shots. Also, bring a flashlight to look at your camera settings in the dark.
Set...
Control your exposure with your shutter speed, which measures how long you expose the light sensor to the scene. It is better to use the shutter speed rather than the aperture setting because a wide aperture (such as f2.8) will shorten the depth of field. Lower your ISO to 200 to avoid background noise in the shot. Use a medium aperture like f8 or f5.6, and start with a 1 second shutter speed. Adjust only the shutter speed until you get the result you're after. Even the pros have to experiment when taking long exposure night shots, so you probably will too!
Shoot!
Use the self timer rather than pushing the button manually. This helps to avoid any shake caused by pushing the button, as the delay allows the camera to correct itself. Two seconds should be plenty of time on the self timer. Bracket the photos; once you find a setting that you think captures the shot perfectly, take a shot with the shutter speed slightly longer and then slightly shorter. The point is to shoot lots of different shots with different speeds to make sure you get the perfect one. Anything moving will be blurred, but the motion often adds to the shot, as is the case with moving cars on a highway.