Mirrorless Night Scene Portrait Photography Tips

Under the dark night, the colorful lights create a colorful picture, which makes the audience linger. Below are the tips for shooting night scene portraits on a mirrorless camera that I compiled. Let’s take a look.

It was late at night, and the mother and son had not yet returned to their warm home, but their hurried steps gave the street a beautiful scene. The street lights seemed to be helping them drive away the cold and lighting their way home. A child feels so safe holding his mother's hand. Maybe one day in the future he will leave his mother to create his own world, but at this time maybe he wants to hold her hand like this forever.

Are you ready to record the beauty of this moment? Let me share with you my experience in shooting urban night scenes.

1. Equipment and accessories

1. Camera and lens

Night scene shooting is more difficult than shooting during the day. First of all, it is best to use a high-end camera when choosing a camera. Cameras with better noise control, such as Canon's 6D or 5D3, have many mirrorless cameras that can control high-sensitivity noise very well. Because many cameras will have a lot of noise when the ISO is set to above 800, seriously affecting the image quality.

In fact, everyone has personal preferences when it comes to choosing a lens, but generally speaking, a lens with a large aperture is a must. However, lenses with a large aperture are generally more expensive. I personally use this one. 50 fixed focus head. Used for shooting night scenes, the performance is impeccable.

Sometimes shooting scenes cannot be separated from a zoom lens. I use the Canon 24-70 2.8, which is known as the king of lenses. This lens is a zoom lens, but its performance at night is not as good as that of a fixed focus lens with a large aperture. But I think it's still pretty good.

2. Auxiliary equipment

A tripod is a necessary equipment, because long bursts are often used when shooting night scenes, and handheld shooting must ensure that the clarity of the photo is at least 1/ 50 seconds. If you use a focal length exceeding 50, the time required will be shorter. It is generally proportional to your focal length, which means that the larger the focal length, the shorter the safe exposure time. But there is also a trick here. If you really forget to bring your tripod, you can also put it on the ground or steps.

The flash is actually not a necessary equipment, because many blockbusters can be produced using ambient light. However, if the characters occupy a lot of the frame or the characters need to be very clear, then the flash is very important. And a very big advantage of the flash is that its instantaneous flash can freeze the character, which will greatly reduce the ghosting or virtual appearance of the character during long bursts.

2. Photography skills

1. Use a large aperture to blur the background, making the night more mysterious and colorful

Using a large aperture to shoot night scenes can be done very well. The blurred background reflects the hazy and mysterious beauty of the night. I used two lights and a reflector for this photo. The main light on the front is to ensure the correct exposure of the character's face. The auxiliary light on the back is used to ensure that the contrast between light and dark is not too strong. It also has another function of preventing the dark parts of the character from blending into the background. The function of using the board is basically the same. The sensitivity I used is 100 because of the flash, so the sensitivity can be lower. The exposure time of 1/2s is to ensure that the background can be exposed correctly and not be too dark. However, night scene photography is generally inseparable from post-processing. For example, I lowered the color temperature of the light on the ground in the post-processing so that it would not affect the subject of the character due to excessive brightness. I added some blue on the left side of the photo. The light also reflects the mystery of the night.

2. Small aperture + slow shutter to create dynamic fashion

Taking this photo is relatively more complicated. First, let me talk about the idea of ??camera settings. Aperture 7.1 I didn’t use a wide aperture because I wanted to capture the building behind me more realistically. If the aperture is small, the exposure time will be much longer. However, because if the exposure time is too long for portrait shooting, the characters will have ghost images or even be out of focus, so I adjusted the sensitivity to 800.

The lighting is basically used One behind the two lights is used to outline the characters, making them more three-dimensional and prominent. For the front main light, I used a radome to prevent the light from being too scattered. However, the position of the main light is very important, because if the position is not good, there will be a yin and yang face, which will look very weird and eerie, which is inconsistent with the beautiful and dreamy style of the photo theme. As for the dynamic effect of light, there are actually many ways to achieve it, such as manual zooming during long bursts. It can also be achieved through post-processing.

3. Use high sensitivity and natural light to capture the beauty of fairy tales

Taking this photo reflects the benefits of the 5D3, which has a relatively powerful high-sensitivity noise reduction function. Because the candlelight inside the lantern is very weak and the surrounding light is also very dark, the blue light and shadow above the model is a street lamp far away, and the light source on the face is the candlelight in front of it. So this photo basically uses natural light. Because the light is very dark and the exposure is too long, the characters will be blurred and ghosts will appear. So I used ISO 8000 for this photo. This way, by controlling the exposure time to 1/40S, the characters will not be blurry. In the later stage of the photo, I added some green light spots to give the photo a more fairy tale feel.

4. Night scene portrait focusing skills

Of course, the most important thing in taking a good photo is not the equipment but a pair of eyes that discover beauty and a pair of hard-working legs. Standing on the Financial Street at night, standing on the other side of the hustle and bustle, the blooming neon lights weave the beauty of the night, but cannot erase the dark colors in the heart. The city listens to people's hearts in the wine glasses swaying in the hands of men and women. Deep down, I am used to seeing the blurry colors in front of my eyes, and those colors slowly flow in my memory.

This photo was basically taken with natural light, but because there was a bit of backlight, focusing was a problem when taking the photo. Therefore, it is best to use manual focus when shooting night scenes. You can also use your phone to illuminate the model's face first to help focus.

Finally, I would like to talk about the communication and cooperation between the photographer and the model. Because it is a portrait shooting in a night scene environment, the state and expressiveness of the model are very important, otherwise it will be in vain if all the efforts to set up all the models are not effective. , this is also the biggest difference and difficulty between portrait shooting and landscape shooting. Mutual trust and support between the model and the photographer is very important. Before shooting, communicate with the model about your shooting ideas, allow the model to rest and adjust appropriately during the shooting, and provide appropriate guidance and corrections to the model's posture. Play some relaxing music during the shoot. I also find that when you take a good photo, letting the model see it can also be a good way to motivate the model to take the photo. A good portrait photo is not only the work of the photographer but also the result of everyone's cooperation.

In short, you need to have enough patience when taking night scene portrait photography. Ideas are very important. First, you have to think clearly about what you want to photograph, and then use a small screen to simulate the exposure you want. Remember to adjust the value to M. . All that's left is to adjust the exposure value of the flash. This is very important because if it is too high, the subject will be overexposed, and if it is too low, the sharpness and clarity of the person will be insufficient. You need to keep trying more.

Nightscape portraits are an enduring theme. The intersection of lights and the colorful spots reflected in the picture add a lot of mystery to the works in the dark night.

However, if the control is not good, the messy light will destroy the picture. Let us experience this wonderful night scene portrait!