Night street photography skills

Light is usually not a problem when shooting in the daytime or in the sun, but it is not enough to shoot by street lamps or home lights at night, but there are some ways to solve the problem of insufficient light at night. Here are some tips for street shooting at night. Welcome to reading.

1. Improve sensitivity

When you meet the opportunity of street shooting at night, the camera settings will generally turn up the aperture, try to absorb the light and adjust the sensitivity to the highest. When it comes to high sensitivity, photographers usually worry about noise. It is true that increasing the sensitivity can increase the sensitivity, but it is replaced by the decrease of color contrast and the inevitable noise problem.

But please look at the photos of Daido Moriyama:

Many of his works are full of a lot of noise, perhaps intentionally. The noise produced by high sensitivity will be controversial if the photos are good enough from the perspective of "photography textbooks", but if they are added to the photos from the perspective of "narrative techniques", they will make the photos more human and enhance the feeling of recording facts. Personally, I don't know why noisy photos make me feel "alive" and "more real". High sensitivity noise is not terrible, sometimes it will give you better results, so don't be afraid when shooting at night, try to adjust the sensitivity to the highest!

Shoot moving objects

Just now, it was mentioned that increasing the sensitivity to produce noise can provide the tension of the photo story, which is the view of turning the original photographic defects into advantages. The second point is the same. When shooting in the street at night, the shutter often slows down due to lack of light, and it is easy to take shaky photos. The shaking picture will give many photographers a headache, but it can add dramatic effects to your photos, such as mystery. Therefore, in addition to increasing the sensitivity to condense the picture, you can also try to slow down the shutter to shoot a slightly dynamic picture to increase the story.

3. Use a fixed-focus wide-angle lens

If you are seriously considering focusing on shooting street shots at night, I suggest you use a wide-angle fixed-focus lens. Usually, the fixed-focus lens provides a larger aperture and can receive more light at night, such as from the maximum f/ 1.4, f/ 1.8 to f/2.8. If you want to use a zoom lens, either refer to the second point and strengthen your story as much as possible, so you may shoot a lot of Tik Tok, otherwise please see the fourth point.

tripod

I believe all the friends who have taken photos know that putting the camera on a tripod can definitely make you take stable photos. But street photography emphasizes speed and instant judgment. It usually takes a second or two to decide. Press the shutter and passers-by won't stop there for you to shoot. So, unless you are not afraid of weight, and you are sure to set up a tripod, adjust your camera, aim at the target and take a good photo, and press the shutter without being found. Finally, before doing these things well, make sure that the time to complete this series of continuous actions is controlled within two seconds ... so personally, it is not recommended to shoot street shots with tripods at night.

Manual focus

I remember the first time I met the opportunity to take pictures at night, I felt that my lens was bad and my focus was not good. I can't focus because the lens keeps pulling the bellows. Later, I learned that it was because autofocus failed when the light source was insufficient. Auto focus is very convenient to use in an environment with sufficient light sources, but it is not easy to use in the case of insufficient light at night. It is recommended to use manual focus.

6. Look for any light source that can be used

The city never lacks light at night. Neon lights, street lamps, store lights, lights in buses and subways are all light sources for shooting at night. A photographer once said, "As long as there is light, even a little, I can take pictures." So don't be afraid of insufficient light when shooting at night, either slow down the shutter speed or use high sensitivity. In fact, the artificial light sources provided by many cities can make you take unexpected pictures.

7. Continue to explore

Night photography has many limitations, such as insufficient light. If you want to explore in alleys or shoot in more complicated places, such as the Taiwan-Japan compound in Seoul or Ximending in Taipei, there will be security problems. But I encourage you to explore as much as possible under the condition of "ensuring your own safety".