Night scene shooting skills

Lead: Beginners should have no problem shooting in the big white world, but once they want to take good-looking night photos, there is no way to start. The photos they take are always not as good as others. So, is there any quick night shooting technique suitable for beginners? After reading this article, try it at once in the evening!

Miroslav Petrasko photography

The first point: the night scene must be a tripod.

Tripod can be said to be a very important equipment when shooting night scenes, and it must be stable enough to maximize efficiency, otherwise it will be more blurred than holding! Tripod can be widely used to place cameras, external flashlights and even personal items, but the most important thing is that you can achieve the following effects by slowing down the shutter: you can use a small aperture: a small aperture can deepen the depth of field and make the scenery clearer and sharper.

Reduce the ISO value: The higher the ISO value, the stronger the noise. If you can use low ISO, the photo quality will be improved immediately! Noise is obvious in dark light, so it is more important to use tripod to reduce ISO when shooting night scenes.

Shooting motion: With a slow shutter (such as 10 seconds, minutes, or even hours), we can record the track of light with photos, which is very useful when shooting car tracks, star tracks, clouds or graffiti.

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

With a tripod, street shooting at night can also be professional! The above picture has the skills of using HDR. Pictures taken by Marc

The second point: make good use of manual mode (M mode) to adjust the aperture shutter.

Automatic or semi-automatic modes (such as aperture priority, shutter priority, etc.) are not recommended. When shooting between scenes, because there is usually not much light at night, and the camera's metering system is easily deceived to improve the exposure, black objects turn gray after overexposure. Therefore, when shooting night scenes, we often use M-Mode to adjust the aperture, shutter and ISO value ourselves. So how should we start shooting? Try it according to the following simple formula!

First put the camera on the tripod;

Adjust the shooting mode of the camera to the aperture prerequisite mode (A mode /Av mode) ... Yes, it is the aperture prerequisite, because in this step, we have to do photometry first to get a reference value;

Turn off automatic ISO (if set);

Set the aperture to any one of f/8-f/ 1 1, and set ISO to the lowest value, such as ISO 100 or 200;

About composition, then find out the shutter value given to you by the camera. In this step, you will have a combination of aperture, shutter and ISO, such as: aperture f/8, shutter for 5 seconds, ISO100;

Adjust the shooting mode of the camera to manual mode (M mode), input the aperture, shutter and ISO value at hand, and shoot after composition;

Watch the pictures taken. If you want to make the photo brighter, you can slow down the shutter (or increase the aperture), and if you want to be darker, you can adjust the shutter (or decrease the aperture).

Using manual mode, you can master the brightness and trajectory effect of photos more effectively, which is a step further from professional photos!

Manual mode can fully grasp the exposure time and is often used when shooting night scenes. Photo by Raul Lieberwirth

Manual focusing allows you to take the neon lights on the street into scattered scenes, which is very special! Photo by Kevin Dooley

The third point: Black Card Dafa

When shooting at night, if a part of the picture is bright, such as the lights of buildings, the afterglow of the sky, or even the moon, the details will be lost when shooting directly because of the big difference in light, and usually the ground will be very dark. At this time, you can use a simple "shaking 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!

Black cards are very useful when shooting car tracks and light tracks. It is recommended that all students learn! Photo by Ian Thorne

Black cards are often used to shoot lightning! The photo was taken by John R. South.

Point 4: Photo Palette-White Balance Settings

Setting the white balance when shooting at night can make the photos bring completely different effects:

Changing the white balance will change the color of the photo. For example, if you want to make the night scene colder and weirder, you can adjust the white balance to low k or tungsten lamp.

Adjusting the white balance can make the photo produce warmer or colder tones. Photo by Eduardo amorim

The street at night is also a good subject for shooting night scenes! Photos of Justin Brown

Fifth point: shooting theme

The subject matter of shooting night scenes is very extensive. Here are some simple and interesting examples from which you can learn!

The reflection on the water is beautiful and easy to shoot. Be sure to try! Pictures taken by Marc

The slow shutter can also be used to photograph the flow of clouds and cars. The photo was taken by Spreng Ben.

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

You need some post-production skills to take good-looking photos of the starry sky, but beginners can also try! Photo by Louis Argerich

postscript

Shooting night scenes is a very interesting photography theme. It can not only make you shoot scenes invisible to the naked eye, but also improve your photography skills through different settings, composition and color changes. It is an important stage for beginners to become professionals, so you must practice well!

The photo was taken by Luz Adrijana Villa.