Beginners must learn quick tips on night scene photography techniques

Introduction: Students who are new to photography should not have much problem shooting in broad daylight, but once they want to take beautiful night scene photos, they will have no way to start. The photos taken are always not as beautiful as those taken by others, so Are there any quick night scene photography techniques for novices? After reading this article, try it immediately at night! Beginners must learn quick tips for night scene photography

Photo by Miroslav Petrasko

The first point: A must-have for night scenes - a tripod

A tripod is a very important piece of equipment when taking night scene photos, and it must be stable enough to achieve maximum performance, otherwise there is a chance that the photos will be worse than hand-held photos. It’s even blurrier! The use of a tripod can be said to be very wide. It can be used to place cameras, external flashes, and even personal belongings, but the most important thing is that it allows you to slow down the shutter to achieve the following effects:

< p> Ability to use small apertures: Small apertures can deepen the depth of field and make the scenery clearer and sharper.

Lower the ISO value: The higher the ISO value, the stronger the signal noise. If we can use a low ISO, the photo quality can be improved immediately! And the signal noise is very obvious in dark locations. Therefore, using a tripod to lower the ISO is more important when shooting night scenes.

Capture motion: At slow shutter speeds (such as 10 seconds, minutes, or even hours), we can use photos to record the trajectory of light, so that when shooting car tracks, star trails, and clouds Useful for flow or light and shadow graffiti.

Make the reflection on the water surface more prominent: Sometimes when shooting near a lake or in an environment with water surface, we can use a slow shutter speed to remove the waves on the water surface to make the reflection more prominent.

With a tripod, you can take professional photos of the streets at night! The above picture shows the technique of using HDR. Photo by Marc

Second point: Make good use of manual mode (M-mode) to adjust aperture and shutter

When shooting between scenes, it is not recommended to use automatic or semi-automatic modes (such as aperture priority). , shutter priority, etc.), because there is usually not much light in night scenes, the camera's metering system can easily be tricked into increasing the exposure, causing black objects to be overexposed and turn gray. Therefore, when we shoot night scenes, we often use manual mode (M-Mode) to adjust the aperture, shutter and ISO value by ourselves. So how should we start shooting? Try the following simple methods!

First set the camera on a tripod;

Adjust the camera's shooting mode to aperture priority mode (A-mode/Av-mode)... Yes, it is aperture priority, because in this step we You need to meter the light first to get a reference value;

Turn off automatic ISO (if set);

Set the aperture to any one of f/8-f/11, ISO Set to the lowest value, such as ISO100 or 200;

Approximately compose the shot, and then find out the shutter value the camera gives you. At this step, you will have a combination of aperture, shutter, and ISO, for example: aperture f/8, shutter speed 5 seconds, ISO100;

Adjust the camera's shooting mode to manual mode (M-mode ), enter the aperture, shutter and ISO value you have on hand, compose the picture and shoot;

Watch the captured picture. If you want the photo to be brighter, slow down the shutter (or increase the aperture). If you want it to be darker, slow down the shutter (or increase the aperture). Just adjust the shutter faster (or adjust the aperture smaller).

Using manual mode, you can more effectively control the brightness and trajectory effects of photos, taking you one step closer to professional photos!

Using manual mode, you can fully control the exposure time. Often used when taking night scene photos.

Photo by Raul Lieberwirth

Manual focus allows you to take photos of neon tubes on the street as bokeh, which is very special! Photo by Kevin Dooley

Point 3: Black card method

When shooting night scenes, if part of the picture is bright, such as the lights of a building, the afterglow in the sky, or even the moon, details will be lost due to too much light difference when shooting directly. Usually, the ground It will be very dark. At this time, we can use the simple "shake the black card" technique to balance the light difference. This easy-to-learn but difficult-to-master technique can make your photos look much more professional!

The black card is in the shooting car It is very useful when using rails and light rails. It is recommended that all students learn it! Photo by Ian Sane

The black card technique is often used when shooting lightning! Photo by John R. Southern

Point 4: Photo Color Palette - White Balance Settings

Setting the white balance when shooting night scenes can bring completely different effects to the photos:

Changing the white balance will change the photos. For example, if you want to make the night scene look cooler and weirder, you can adjust the white balance to a low K number or tungsten light.

Adjusting the white balance can give your photos a warmer or cooler tone. Photo by Eduardo Amorim

The streets at night are also a good subject for shooting night scenes! Photo by Justin Brown

The fifth point: shooting themes

The shooting themes of night scenes are very Widely, here are some simple and interesting examples, you can start from these!

The reflection on the water surface is beautiful and easy to take, you must try it! Photo by Marc

Using a slow shutter speed can also You can take pictures of the movement of clouds and cars.

Photo by Spreng Ben

Have you ever tried to use black and white tones to bring out the story of the night streets? Photo by i k o

To take beautiful starry sky photos, you need certain post-production skills. But beginners can also give it a try! Photo by Luis Argerich

Postscript

Photographing night scenes is a very interesting photography subject. It not only allows you to take pictures of scenes that are invisible to the naked eye, You can also improve your photography skills through different settings, composition, color changes, etc. It is an important stage for novices to become professionals, so you must practice hard!