Night photography like the pros
Deep blackish blue skies, buildings than seem to glow from within, red and white streaks of light from passing cars, pools of bright light and dark shadows. Night photographs have an almost magical look. The most common reaction to a well-executed night photograph is “Wow!”
A look through the portfolio or web site of any professional architectural photographer will almost always reveal several night or twilight photographs. The reason for this is very simple; night photographs can be spectacular!
A scene that may look just “OK” when shot during the day can produce a stunning photograph when shot at night.
With a couple of basic photography tools and a few “tricks of the trade”, you too can produce stunning nighttime photographs.
While night photographs can be done with either film or digital cameras, for this discussion we will focus on using a digital camera. A DSLR will be easier to work with but good results can be had using a point & shoot camera.
Besides a camera the second most important tool for night photography is a tripod. A good tripod that will hold your camera perfectly steady for several seconds (or longer) will allow you to capture those “Wow” images.
Here are a few tips that you can use to start your own portfolio of night photographs.
Set you camera to the lowest ISO setting. This will produce photos with less noise and better color. Since you’ll be using a tripod you don’t need high ISO and fast shutter speeds.
If you have an electronic or mechanical cable release, use it! If you do not have a cable release, use your cameras self-timer or time-delay feature. This will minimize vibration and result in much sharper photographs.
Set your camera to manual (M). Set the lens aperture (f-stop) to f5.6 or f8. Using the camera meter, adjust the shutter speed to produce a normal exposure. Lots of bright lights in the scene can fool your meter and may result in a photo that is too dark. Check the resulting image on the cameras LCD screen and adjust the exposure until you get an image that looks right to you.
If your camera does not have a manual setting, try the auto (A) setting or experiment with the settings for bright sand or snow.
If your photo includes large areas of the sky, try shooting at twilight before the sky is completely black. This will give you a sky with deep rich blues or sunset reds. If the sky is already completely black, you may want to look for camera angles that will show less sky.
Remember these key points. Minimize camera shake by using a tripod, cable release or self-timer. Use a low ISO setting to keep noise to a minimum. Since most lenses produce their best image quality when used at middle aperture settings, try to use an aperture of f5.6 or f8. It is surprising how poorly some expensive lenses perform when used at minimum or maximum aperture. Use long exposures and evaluate your results on the camera LCD. Shoot a lot and experiment! With a little practice you’ll soon be shooting night scenes that rival the pros!
A look through the portfolio or web site of any professional architectural photographer will almost always reveal several night or twilight photographs. The reason for this is very simple; night photographs can be spectacular!
A scene that may look just “OK” when shot during the day can produce a stunning photograph when shot at night.
With a couple of basic photography tools and a few “tricks of the trade”, you too can produce stunning nighttime photographs.
While night photographs can be done with either film or digital cameras, for this discussion we will focus on using a digital camera. A DSLR will be easier to work with but good results can be had using a point & shoot camera.
Besides a camera the second most important tool for night photography is a tripod. A good tripod that will hold your camera perfectly steady for several seconds (or longer) will allow you to capture those “Wow” images.
Here are a few tips that you can use to start your own portfolio of night photographs.
Set you camera to the lowest ISO setting. This will produce photos with less noise and better color. Since you’ll be using a tripod you don’t need high ISO and fast shutter speeds.
If you have an electronic or mechanical cable release, use it! If you do not have a cable release, use your cameras self-timer or time-delay feature. This will minimize vibration and result in much sharper photographs.
Set your camera to manual (M). Set the lens aperture (f-stop) to f5.6 or f8. Using the camera meter, adjust the shutter speed to produce a normal exposure. Lots of bright lights in the scene can fool your meter and may result in a photo that is too dark. Check the resulting image on the cameras LCD screen and adjust the exposure until you get an image that looks right to you.
If your camera does not have a manual setting, try the auto (A) setting or experiment with the settings for bright sand or snow.
If your photo includes large areas of the sky, try shooting at twilight before the sky is completely black. This will give you a sky with deep rich blues or sunset reds. If the sky is already completely black, you may want to look for camera angles that will show less sky.
Remember these key points. Minimize camera shake by using a tripod, cable release or self-timer. Use a low ISO setting to keep noise to a minimum. Since most lenses produce their best image quality when used at middle aperture settings, try to use an aperture of f5.6 or f8. It is surprising how poorly some expensive lenses perform when used at minimum or maximum aperture. Use long exposures and evaluate your results on the camera LCD. Shoot a lot and experiment! With a little practice you’ll soon be shooting night scenes that rival the pros!
Posted by Curt Clayton at 4/13/2009 6:35 PM 
Categories: Architectural photography, Digital Photography, Twilight photography
Tags: architectural photography night photography twilight photography digital photography
Categories: Architectural photography, Digital Photography, Twilight photography
Tags: architectural photography night photography twilight photography digital photography
You post very interesting content can't wait for more architectural photography posts!
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Awesome post, what cameras do you use for your work ?
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