Night Photography

Night Photography - Light Trails

Have you ever seen night photography? Those dark, artistic looking photos that seem to overlook a road or freeway but instead of cars, there are red and white streaks of light drawn across the frame that seem to disappear into the blackness? Have you ever wondered what these photos are of or how they are achieved?

Put simply, these photos with the trademark red and white streaks are long exposure photographs taken in low light or at night, often called night photography. The photographer will leave the shutter open for a long period to compensate for the lack of light and as the cars pass by the camera, the bright head and tail lights are burned into the sensor or film.

The technique

Shutter

To carry out night photography and obtain long exposure photos you’ll need to use a slow shutter speed. In fact, that’s exactly what the term “long exposure” is referring to. We’ll be aiming for very long shutter speeds, so set your DSLR to “bulb” mode. If you’re using a compact, set it to the “night landscape” mode if it’s available on your camera, or otherwise use the longest shutter speed available to you.

Tripod

With any other form of photography, in low light situations you need to use a tripod and with night photography there’s no exception. Slow shutter speeds mean that your camera will be super-sensitive to any movement while the shutter is open so use of a tripod is not optional. A tripod will provide a solid platform for you camera and will aid in preventing any unwanted movement while the shutter is open. And while we’re on the point of stability, I’d recommend the use of a remote shutter release (DSLR remote). If you don’t have one available to you, use the cameras self timer instead to ensure that you don’t move the camera during the shot. If you don’t have either of these pieces of hardware, I honestly recommend that you buy or borrow them as they are invaluable pieces of equipment for any photographer. If you’re interested, I have included a coupe of links below where you can buy them.

ISO

Set your cameras ISO setting to ISO 100 or lower if available. Our shots are going to be dark and the sensor is going to be active for a long period of time. By using the lowest possible ISO available to us, we will be minimising the amount of noise (speckles or blotches) apparent in the darkest areas of our photo.

Aperture

A small aperture of around f/8 will be ideal for night photography because it will give us a reasonable balance between depth of field and shutter speed. One of the biggest issues you’re going to face is trying to focus in the dark. Your auto-focus will be more or less useless so you’ll have to focus manually. A small aperture will help us out here too by ensuring that a reasonable amount of the frame will be within an acceptable range of focus.

Finally, compose your shot so that the road cuts through the frame in a favourable manner, and wait until you see some cars approaching…

Experiment

Now it’s time to let fly and take some photos! Depending on the amount of ambient light from nearby streetlights, I’d recommend starting with your shutter speed at around 60 seconds. After taking your first shot, check your results. If the photo is completely black it means that your shutter speed is not long enough. It’s time to try again, but this time double your shutter speed. If on the other hand, you find there’s a lot of ambient light and the photo is too bright for your liking, halve it. Keep experimenting with your shutter speeds and adjusting as necessary until you start getting results you’re happy with.

OK, now for the hardware I mentioned earlier in the post. Please note that the links below are affiliate links. If you choose to purchase from these links, I will be payed a small commission. You are under no obligation to do so.

• You can buy a new tripod from Amazon by clicking here.
• You can buy a remote shutter release for your camera, also from Amazon by clicking here.

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