How to take good night photos?

What are the skills of night photography? For a novice photographer, one of the difficulties in shooting at night is lighting. You can try to use camera settings and try new photo ideas. In this article, we have summarized some night photography skills, which can help you cope with all kinds of difficulties that may occur during shooting.

First, choose a place in advance.

You may think this step is the simplest and least important step, but it can help you not to waste time when shooting.

It is very difficult to take pictures at night because of the lack of light. In order to get good shooting results, it is necessary to walk in the selected position and analyze the light that must be used. What objects will turn black? Is this place occupied at night? Is there a street lamp?

Based on this information, you will decide the equipment and composition, make plans in advance, and save time.

Second, what can I shoot at night?

Scenery and seascape; Urban landscape; Lighting building; Fountain; Starry sky; Roads and highways; Fireworks and performances. Second, switch to manual mode.

Of course, when you are looking for night scenes, you need beautiful high-quality images.

Night photography is an independent field. Automatic mode works well during the day and is almost useless in the dark. Your camera will automatically focus on the glowing object or it will not focus at all. The only way out is to switch to manual mode and change all settings, including ISO, shutter speed and aperture.

Third, use a tripod and a timer.

Don't underestimate the importance of tripod and timer. They will help you get a clear image.

When everything is set to automatic mode, you can shoot without using a tripod. At night, when you switch to manual mode, the camera should be at rest. Any movement of the camera or touch of the hand, even the slightest movement, may change the exposure. So tripods and timers are essential for night shooting.

If you don't have them, try fixing the camera to a stationary object, which can minimize any movement that may blur the photo frame when pressing the button. However, nothing can avoid this problem more than a tripod.

Fourth, shoot with a low-speed shutter.

Another challenge that photographers face when shooting at night is exposure. When shooting in manual mode, the ISO, shutter speed and aperture must be adjusted. The most problematic thing about night exposure triangles is that they all have to work together, which will enable you to capture enough light and avoid underexposure and overexposure of photos.

It is very important to test the camera setting for night photography. If this is your first night shooting, our suggestion is to start shooting with a slow shutter.

It takes time to find the best setting for different lighting conditions, and shooting scenery is essentially different from street shooting at night. It is difficult to present an ideal environment here. This is a general guide to night photography:

Universal mode

It seems logical to shoot at a higher ISO, but you must sacrifice the image quality. You may want to improve ISO to capture more light: you need to adjust the exposure, especially in night photography.

Considering the light and weather, try to use camera settings and shoot with the lowest ISO possible. If you find the ideal value of a specific ingredient, you will get impressive results and make improvements in the processing stage.

hole

A common skill in night photography is to open the aperture wider to let in as much light as possible, so low F value is the best choice in low light conditions.

Shutter speed

After determining the ISO and aperture settings, you can solve the shutter speed. In this case, in night photography, the shutter can be opened for up to 30 seconds.

Bridges and roads have been photographed for a long time and look impressive. But remember, you can't take a good picture without a stable tripod.

Fifth, the original shooting.

One of the best night photography skills is RAW photography. Switch to it from the beginning, and the processing will become easier. Darkness is not the best condition for photography, so you definitely need to edit the picture.

If you shoot with RAW, you will eventually get uncompressed files. This allows you to change the contrast, reduce noise, and make other adjustments to the image that JPEG does not allow.

Six, night photography processing

Although photo processing is a controversial issue, it is necessary for night photography. Anything that the camera can't handle can be repaired at this stage.

Start with simple processing tools. Trim the image slightly to fix the composition. Then deal with saturation, brightness and contrast. If the exposure effect is not ideal, you can also adjust the sharpening.

Night photography is tricky and can be frustrating, but every photographer should be prepared for the experiment. The mysterious and vivid images taken in low light look amazing, and you can see things that are invisible to the naked eye. Once you know how to work in the most challenging lighting conditions, night photography becomes another expression.