How can I take good photos of night scenes?

Digital camera night scene shooting is an area that many DC Fans particularly like to pursue, because the convenience and intuitiveness of digital cameras have greatly improved the success rate of night scene shooting. However, before we delve into the subject of night scene shooting Before that, let’s take a look at the following questions, which will help us better grasp the core skills of night scene photography with digital cameras.

Exposure selection

Exposure is particularly important for night scene photography. For digital cameras that only have night scene mode but no manual exposure control, we will have other methods to adjust it.

For digital cameras with manual exposure control, we usually choose A mode (aperture priority) or M mode (manual mode) for night scene shooting. The instant shooting function of the digital camera allows players to capture the scene in the shortest possible time. It is also quite convenient to judge the effect of the exposure combination within a short period of time and adjust it.

When I shoot night scenes, I usually set the F value to the maximum, and then adjust the shutter. I can see the picture effect directly on the LCD screen. For the choice of exposure time, first Technically, it is limited by the parameters of the digital camera itself. Secondly, from a creative perspective, this is a problem that varies from person to person. A compromise is to use a variety of exposure combinations to shoot, and then filter them later.

The effect of long exposure is quite attractive, especially if you want to show the bustling night with brilliant lights, you need a long exposure to complete it. Of course, the assistance of a tripod is necessary. To obtain the light drag effect caused by traffic flow, the minimum exposure time cannot be less than 15 seconds. Of course, experienced players can also use the B door to manually control the exposure time, so that the photos captured in this way are fluid.

Using a simple night scene mode is far from meeting the needs of photography creation. Making full use of the existing functions of digital cameras to get more shooting fun is our next topic. In fact, it involves those terms we often encounter - focus. , exposure, ISO, flash, etc. Let’s first look at a common problem: When shooting portraits at night, the built-in flash is turned on to assist shooting. However, the portrait is clear, but the beautiful night scene behind is nowhere to be seen. How to solve it!

Explanation: After turning on the built-in flash to assist shooting, the digital camera will automatically adjust the shutter speed to a higher gear, resulting in insufficient exposure time and resulting in a weak background that cannot be captured in the photo. displayed. The joy of manual focus

Let’s first talk about the techniques of autofocus. Since it is difficult for ordinary digital cameras to focus accurately on low-contrast and low-brightness scenes, and night scenes are often photographed in such an environment, when shooting night scenes, try to focus on bright scenes first. After focusing, lock the focus and compose the shot, especially when creating portraits and night scenes, which can improve the shooting success rate.

Manual focus can play an effective role in shooting night scenes of portraits and improve the success rate of shooting

However, automatic focus often fails to do what it can when shooting night scenes, so Using a digital camera with manual focus is very beneficial for night scene photography. Common digital camera manual focus includes digital adjustment type and focus ring type. Digital manual focus achieves accurate focus by adjusting the distance value on the LCD screen, which is very effective for shooting night scenes.

Check the focus effect through the LCD screen, roughly estimate the distance between the scene and the camera, and then select the appropriate focal length through the numerical display on the screen. If you want to express a large scene or distant scenery, you can directly adjust the focal length to infinity, which can achieve your goal well.

For general night scene photography, clear focus is an important guarantee for a successful photo, but for special creations, the focus can evolve different effects and gain more fun. This article will not discuss the choice of exposure in depth

Breaking the directional thinking of white balance

White balance is a major feature of digital cameras, especially when doing night scene photography, choosing different The white balance will directly affect the color tone and artistic conception of the photo, because the light produced by the floodlights of buildings and scenery at night can appear more colorful on a digital camera than with the naked eye.

Therefore, when shooting night scenes, it is necessary to break the automatic white balance that you usually rely on. This will affect the inherent color of the light and cause it to lose its unique color temperature feeling. In order to highlight the more vivid colors of the lanterns, you can set the white balance to "Daylight" or "Outdoor" mode. Of course, try shooting with different white balances, and you will have unexpected effects.

The issue of sensitivity

The sensitivity (ISO) of digital cameras also plays a very important role in night scene photography, and is always accompanied by positive and negative results. Increasing the ISO value can increase the shutter speed, which is beneficial to the stability of shooting and reduces the difficulty of shooting. At the same time, the increase in noise caused by the increase in ISO is often obvious. For digital cameras that do not have manual exposure control, it is also a useful method to increase the ISO value to obtain stable imaging effects in night scene shooting.

High-end digital cameras often have a wider ISO selection range, and can even be used for shooting at settings of ISO800 and ISO1600. In order to reduce noise, in addition to turning on the "noise reduction" function of the digital camera itself, it can also be used in high-end digital cameras. Shooting at a lower photo resolution at ISO settings can also reduce noise interference to a certain extent.

There are now ways to solve the problem. The recommended solution is as follows: use a tripod to assist shooting, and set the shutter to 1s or 2s through manual exposure control. With a long enough exposure time, the night color of the character background will also be It is well displayed, but the characters should keep their posture unchanged during the shooting process. In addition, you can also use the Slowsync flash mode of the digital camera, that is, after the built-in flash has finished shooting, continue to expose for a while, so that the background scenery can also be photographed, so that the characters and the night background are fully exposed. Of course, it’s best to shoot with a tripod.

The above skills are the most basic content for night scene photography with digital cameras. After continuing to deepen and master these skills, players can also use their creativity to take more and better photos.