Welcome to this mini-blog, which was originally posted on Threads. I've been doing night photography now for 7 years, and have worked with the likes of Apple and Prada, and had my work up on Times Square. So here are 8 of my essential night photography tips & tricks.
1. Light is your friend
First of all ensure you are shooting around light sources, anything from street lights, shop windows and neons signs. The more light you have the cleaner your image will be.
2. Why you should shoot on rainy nights
There are many reasons to shoot on rainy nights, but a really important factor is that the rain is reflecting your light sources. This means more light is now available and your scenes appear brighter! (Also, it looks awesome!)
3. How I set up my camera
Switch your camera to manual mode and try and get in as much light as you can:
Aperture: f/2.8 (the widest for your lens)
Shutter speed: 1/125 sec (I try not to go slower than this to avoid motion blur but if your subject is stationary go for it)
ISO: It is my ISO I adjust throughout my shoot. Depending on the scene it can be anywhere from 400 to 1000+. The other settings I leave the same.
4. Light sources = Composition Tools
Use light sources to frame your subjects. This helps draw the eye to your subject and will ensure they are well illuminated. Find great light sources in your city and wait for interesting subjects to walk under them.
5. Shooting RAW is more important than ever
That’s because RAW files offer more dynamic range allowing you to retrieve more details in your shadowed and highlighted areas. This means during editing you can bump up shadows and reduce highlights and get much better results than a JPEG file.
However…..
6. GOLDEN RULE: always shoot for the highlights
This is the most important rule in night photography. You need to underexpose your images as retrieving information in your highlights is much more difficult than in darker areas of your shot. So ensure that your light sources look amazing in-camera before you take a shot.
7. Know your camera’s limits
Every camera handles ISO differently. My camera now (Sony Alpha A7R4) allows me to push over ISO 1000 easily whereas my original camera struggled with anything over 500. You’ll need to go on a few shoots to experiment.
However…..
8. You don’t need an expensive camera to get started
That photo that got on the New York Times Square billboard? That shot was taken with a $150 Canon 100D. And these days phones take amazing night photography images. So don’t feel like you need all the fancy equipment to get started in night photography
9. Bonus Tip: Manual White Balance White balance can be affected by fluorescent lights and if your white balance is set to automatic that means some images are going to appear warmer and others cooler. This can be really annoying when editing if you're hoping to use presets or want consistency. For night photography, I always set my white balance to cooler because it is more fitting for the night aesthetic.
So there we go photographers, I hope you found some useful information there. If you feel like it come over to my Instagram and say hi 👋
I’m looking for more night photographers to follow 📸🌒
If you need to edit your night photos quickly, check out my night photography preset pack:
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