{"id":145,"date":"2013-11-08T18:12:02","date_gmt":"2013-11-08T18:12:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.pixgaga.com\/?p=145"},"modified":"2013-11-08T18:12:02","modified_gmt":"2013-11-08T18:12:02","slug":"five-techniques-for-night-photography","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.pixgaga.com\/?p=145","title":{"rendered":"Five Techniques for Night Photography"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This post is meant to help beginners get started with night photography.\u00a0 Five different techniques are described and examples presented.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li value=\"1\">Aperture Priority Long Exposure with Tripod.\u00a0 This method works when you want to get your shot in one single exposure.\u00a0 This is also the simplest technique of all the possibilities and therefore the easiest for absolute beginners.\u00a0 The result can be much better if you use one of the other techniques described in this post, but this is the simplest way to begin.\n<ul>\n<li value=\"1\">ISO\u00a0 = Native.\u00a0 My Nikon D300 has a native ISO of 200 and my Nikon D5100 has a native ISO of 100.\u00a0 This gives the best noise performance (least noise).<\/li>\n<li>Aperture = as necessary for required depth of field.\u00a0 For images with extensive depth of field, an aperture of f22 is appropriate.\u00a0 If the subject is relatively flat with not much depth, you can get away with f5.6 or similar wide open aperture.<\/li>\n<li>Metering = Matrix or Evaluative.\u00a0 Matrix or evaluative metering works best if the image does not have disproportionate extreme tonalities.\u00a0 The assumption is a night subject or landscape with average tonality.\u00a0 If your image has half of it very bright and half of it dark, the matrix metering will work well most of the time.<\/li>\n<li>Shutter speed = auto.\u00a0 Let the camera determine the shutter speed automatically in the aperture priority mode.<\/li>\n<li>Post process in Lightroom or similar software to reach desired look.\u00a0 In today&#8217;s environment, it is a given that people are touching up their images in the computer.\u00a0 I use Lightroom, Photoshop and Nik Software for my post processing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/medias.photodeck.com\/9b0a82ac-4e9a-11e1-839c-cbaaa47d3c05\/20101026-_20101026_050436_large.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Shanghai Night Skyline\" src=\"http:\/\/medias.photodeck.com\/9b0a82ac-4e9a-11e1-839c-cbaaa47d3c05\/20101026-_20101026_050436_large.jpg\" width=\"600\" height=\"399\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shanghai Night Skyline, shot from the Bund.\u00a0 Nikon D300, Nikkor 17-35mm f2.8 lens, f16, 8s, ISO 200.\u00a0 Gitzo 1340 Tripod, Kirk BH-1 Ball-head, Shutter release self-timer 10s.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ol>\n<li value=\"2\">Auto-ISO Hand-held Exposure.\u00a0 This is the method to adopt if you are walking around in a tourist destination with just your camera\/lens, without a tripod or other accessories.\n<ul>\n<li value=\"1\">ISO = auto.\u00a0 Granted, this will result in noisy images with consumer or prosumer cameras.\u00a0 There are professional cameras these days, that can produce virtually noise-free images at ISO 6400 or even ISO 12800.\u00a0 However, for those of us, that do not have professional cameras, resort to noise reduction in post production.<\/li>\n<li>Aperture = as necessary for required depth of field.\u00a0 For extensive depth of field, use f16 or f22.\u00a0 For shallow depth of field, use f4 or f5.6.\u00a0 Even in situations where an extensive depth of field is required, I find it hard to shoot hand-held at night, with any aperture narrower than f5.6, due to unacceptable shutter speeds.<\/li>\n<li>Metering = Matrix or Evaluative.<\/li>\n<li>Shutter speed = 1\/50s or 1\/100s or 1\/200s, depending on the whether the subject is stationary or moving and how steady your own hands are.\u00a0 In addition to considerations related to moving or stationary objects, you must consider your own hand-shake to determine what works for you.\u00a0 Run a test to determine acceptable hand-holding shutter speeds for you.<\/li>\n<li>Post process in Lightroom or similar software to reach desired look.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><div style=\"width: 409px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/medias.photodeck.com\/ecdc7950-4e9a-11e1-9365-7523e1f64dba\/20101024-_20101024_043948_xlarge.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Buses and Clock Tower at the Bund, Shanghai.\" src=\"http:\/\/medias.photodeck.com\/ecdc7950-4e9a-11e1-9365-7523e1f64dba\/20101024-_20101024_043948_xlarge.jpg\" width=\"399\" height=\"600\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Buses and Clock Tower at the Bund, Shanghai. Nikon D300, Nikkor 17-35mm f2.8 lens, ISO 1600, f2.8, 1\/160s, Hand-held.<\/p><\/div><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ol>\n<li value=\"3\">Manual Long Single Exposure with Tripod\n<ul>\n<li value=\"1\">ISO = Native<\/li>\n<li>Aperture = as necessary for required depth of field<\/li>\n<li>Metering = don\u2019t care<\/li>\n<li>Shutter speed = 1s, 2s, 4s, 8s, 15s, 30s, 1m, 2m, 4m<\/li>\n<li>Review the results from the various shutter speeds in Lightroom or similar software and pick the exposure that is exposed most to the right, without losing highlight detail.\u00a0 Then process that exposure to reach desired look.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><div style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/medias.photodeck.com\/b370d254-1737-11e2-8dff-59400257af4c\/20121002-_DSC0492-Edit_xlarge.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Austin Downtown and reflection in Colorado River.\" src=\"http:\/\/medias.photodeck.com\/b370d254-1737-11e2-8dff-59400257af4c\/20121002-_DSC0492-Edit_xlarge.jpg\" width=\"600\" height=\"600\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Austin Downtown and reflection in Colorado River. Nikon D300, Nikkor 17-35mm lens, ISO 200, f16, 60s. Gitzo 1340 Tripod, Kirk BH-1 Ball-head, Nikon Electronic Shutter Release.<\/p><\/div><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ol>\n<li value=\"4\">Manual Long Composite Exposure with Tripod\n<ol>\n<li value=\"1\">ISO = Native<\/li>\n<li>Aperture = as necessary for required depth of field<\/li>\n<li>Metering = don&#8217;t care<\/li>\n<li>Shutter speed = 1s, 2s, 4s, 8s, 15s, 30s, 1m, 2m, 4m<\/li>\n<li>By reviewing the previews and histograms on the LCD screen, determine the shutter speed resulting in the exposure, that is exposed most to the right, without losing highlight detail.<\/li>\n<li>Using shutter speed determined in previous step, keep clicking several exposures of the exact same scene to capture different nuances of moving subjects (for example, fireworks, traffic trails etc)<\/li>\n<li>Using Lightroom and Photoshop or similar software, make a composite that overlays the various exposures made in previous step.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><div style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/medias.photodeck.com\/4900929a-76bb-11e2-aa7f-b13697a6aaa5\/20121225-_DSC6473_77-2_large.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Las Vegas at Night.\" src=\"http:\/\/medias.photodeck.com\/4900929a-76bb-11e2-aa7f-b13697a6aaa5\/20121225-_DSC6473_77-2_large.jpg\" width=\"600\" height=\"399\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Las Vegas at Night. Nikon D300, ISO 200, f22, Several shutter speeds and composited using the method described here.<\/p><\/div><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ol>\n<li value=\"5\">Manual Long HDR Exposure with Tripod\n<ul>\n<li value=\"1\">ISO = Native<\/li>\n<li>Aperture = as necessary for required depth of field<\/li>\n<li>Metering = don&#8217;t care<\/li>\n<li>Shutter speed = 1s, 2s, 4s, 8s, 15s, 30s, 1m, 2m, 4m<\/li>\n<li>In post production, review the fast exposures that still have highlight detail as well as the slow exposures that still some lowlight details.\u00a0 Using these two exposures as extremes and including some additional exposures in between, export them to HDR Efex Pro 2 or similar HDR software and generate an HDR image.\u00a0 Thumb through the various presets in the program and pick the one that most matches your vision.\u00a0 Furthermore, fine-tune the HDR image in your software, until you are totally satisfied.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/medias.photodeck.com\/de79f28c-1737-11e2-a13a-5988031d4304\/20121002-_DSC0516_HDR_large.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Austin Capilol Building at Night.\" src=\"http:\/\/medias.photodeck.com\/de79f28c-1737-11e2-a13a-5988031d4304\/20121002-_DSC0516_HDR_large.jpg\" width=\"600\" height=\"398\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Austin Capitol Building at Night. Nikon D300, Nikkor 17-35mm f2.8 lens, ISO 200. Gitzo 1340 Tripod, Kirk BH-1 Ball-head, Nikon Electronic Shutter Release. HDR procedure described in this section.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Feel free to leave a comment.\u00a0 If you like this post and benefited by it, please forward it to a friend who may benefit from it as well.\u00a0 Thank you and I shall see you again soon.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This post is meant to help beginners get started with night photography.\u00a0 Five different techniques are described and examples presented. Aperture Priority Long Exposure with Tripod.\u00a0 This method works when you want to get your shot in one single exposure.\u00a0 This is also the simplest technique of all the possibilities and therefore the easiest for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[93,94,92,95,96,97,57,77],"class_list":["post-145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-night","tag-composite-imaging","tag-composite-photograph","tag-digital-photography","tag-hdr","tag-hdr-imaging","tag-night-imaging","tag-night-photography","tag-photographic-exposure"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.pixgaga.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.pixgaga.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.pixgaga.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.pixgaga.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.pixgaga.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=145"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.pixgaga.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":147,"href":"https:\/\/blog.pixgaga.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145\/revisions\/147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.pixgaga.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.pixgaga.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.pixgaga.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}