How to take good-looking photos at night in the city?

This paper shows you how to transform the familiar urban landscape into amazing images, which can be harmoniously matched with the surrounding environment and urban lighting.

The combination of natural light and artificial light. Sony A7 III, 24-70mm, f/ 14, ISO 100, 49 seconds.

1, natural light

Because of the warm light, the urban landscape looks great in the "prime time" of sunrise and sunset. The same applies to "blue time": in the period before sunrise or after sunset, when the sun sinks low enough below the horizon, the sky gets a blue hue, becomes deeper, darker and richer, and the sun goes down further until the blue turns black.

Study and plan your shooting in blue time to make full use of the best lighting conditions. Canon EOS 5D Mark III, 16-35mm, 13s, f/ 16, ISO 100.

2. Artificial light source

Any artificial light will appear in blue time. From car headlights to office windows and street lamps, illuminating building structures makes them look more spectacular and photogenic than in the sun. Similarly, in any city around the water area, lights will spread to the water surface in the form of hazy reflected waves.

3. Writing skills

Determine the best composition angle, and deal with accessibility and any restrictions that may be encountered when shooting.

If you want to shoot city lights, you must quickly determine the best exposure, because the dynamic relationship between artificial light and natural light will change constantly. Then, the post-processing time will be less. Some people use bracketing exposure, while others don't want to combine shots with different exposures, but enhance a single photo in post-processing.

4. Exposure Triangle

Set the camera to manual mode, and then select the lowest standard ISO (generally ISO100); This will provide you with the clearest image. Next, adjust the aperture. According to the scene and the desired effect, if you want to shoot the city landscape and keep the focus of the scene from front to back, please try to set a narrow aperture between f/ 1 1 and f/ 16.

Under these settings, your ISO and aperture will not let too much light into the camera, and the shutter speed will depend entirely on the amount of light in the scene, so at first, this is the variable you need to use to get a variable lens.

In low light conditions, a slower shutter speed is usually needed to compensate for low ISO and small aperture. This means that it is very important to use a tripod to keep the camera completely still, and any slight change will affect and damage the image.

Using the same ISO and aperture settings and shutter speed as the main variables, each image was shot at an interval of about 10 minutes. A lens filter is needed to block the light to achieve a similar effect in water, but it is easy to find the changing lighting conditions. Please note that the natural light and color in the sky change with the setting of the sun, while the artificial light becomes stronger, thus producing more contrast in the dark sky.

When you shoot in the twilight, it may take more than 30 seconds to get enough shadow details. Just switch to bulb mode, or slightly increase ISO or increase aperture to reduce exposure.

Step 5 shoot through the glass

Have you ever enjoyed the charming city scenery in a hotel room? The skyscrapers, hotels or church towers in some cities have great advantages. But this usually means wearing thick glasses, which is a real challenge for long exposure in blue time or at night.

Reflection caused by indoor lighting is another problem. First, find the cleanest part of the window, which will open the component you are looking for. Please shoot as close to the glass as possible, even close to the glass (but avoid touching the lens and glass). Polarizing filters will help reduce some reflections, but this is usually not enough. If possible, please turn off any lighting equipment in the room or cover the light source with something to prevent light from entering the window. Use a hood, or use a suction cup to install the hood on the window.

6. Abstract urban landscape

When the sky gets dark, try different focal lengths. You don't need to include the whole scene or the sky in the composition: what you miss is as important as what you include. In post-production, please use a telephoto lens or clear the frame.

7. Combination of Portrait and Architecture

Sometimes the composition of urban scenes inevitably involves people, but it can provide both scale and background. By combining architectural photography with street photography, you can create amazing photos, which are more energetic or interesting than photography without people.

8. Bad weather

Shooting long exposure shots in bad weather is undoubtedly challenging, but if you can put the lens in the rain during the whole exposure time, you can get a really strong shot, because the dark sky or wet sidewalk adds drama to the scene.

9, scattered scenery

If the focus of the scene is not clear, so that the light presents a circular shooting effect, then it will produce interesting effects when shooting city lights. Make sure you are in manual focus mode when composing, and then adjust the focal length.