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Night Scenes of Tawau, Malaysia
 
 

Taking a good photograph at night with a digital camera
some ideas and techniques behind night photography

A tripod : One of the most important tools to take good night pictures is a way to stabilize your camera. The easiest way to do this is with a tripod. A basic tripod for about Rm100 from most cameras stores. If you do not carrying around a large tripod, a mini tripod can be found for under Rm100 that fit in your pocket or camera bag. If for some reason you really hate the idea of carrying a tripod at all, you can still take great night shots with a little creativity in handling the camera. For example, placing your camera on a low wall, on your car (turn off the engine to reduce vibrations), on the ground, etc. The most important thing is that the camera remain completely still during the exposure. But we highly recommend a tripod, though, just because it's easier to set up and keep stable.


White balance (WB) : Use different white balance settings to create different effects. Unlike daylight photography, choosing the wrong white balance setting may have a desirable effect. For example, many streetlamps use tungsten lights, which give off a strong yellowish glow. If you were to set your camera to tungsten WB to correct for this yellowish cast, the resulting image may not look quite right. However, setting the camera to Auto may yield a yellowish cast that captures the scene as you remember it. Different color casts can evoke different moods in images. For example, a yellowish cast has a warming effect while a bluish cast has a cooling effect. With fluorescent light, many Auto WB systems will record a greenish cast. While setting  the camera to correct for this, you might find that it adds a certain mood to leave the color cast there.

 


Exposure : Before taking a picture, the first thing  to consider is how long your exposure will be. There are several reasons to consider, but the most important one has to do with selecting your ISO setting. With all digital cameras, a higher ISO setting will result in more noise than a lower setting. However, the benefit of a high ISO is that it enables you to use a faster shutter speed. If you are planning on shooting a long exposure, there is no point in using a high ISO setting (unless you like the effect of a noisy image). If you really need a fast shutter speed, the chances are pretty high that you will have to increase the ISO to get an acceptable speed. Fortunately, there are some noise reduction techniques that you can use later to clean up the images. In addition, many digital cameras today have noise reduction processing built in. Check your digital camera's manual; it may appear as a menu item (Ex: NR On, Off) or as an automatic process when the shutter speed exceeds a specific length.

If your digicam offers manual exposure controls, such as aperture-priority, shutter-priority, and manual, you will find a greater degree of control over your pictures than those with Auto or "scene" modes. First, let's discuss aperture priority. In order to let in as much light as possible, you will want to set the aperture to the lowest possible setting. If you are in a bright area like a well-lit city and you want a long exposure, you may have to "stop" the aperture down (choose a higher f number) in order to achieve a slower shutter speed. However, most people prefer to use shutter-priority mode when shooting night images. With shutter-priority, you simply select the shutter speed that will give you the amount of motion (or lack thereof) that you want while the camera adjusts the aperture. Either way, you will want to make a decision about the ISO setting before shooting. Otherwise, you might be surprised to find a ton of noise ruining your otherwise beautiful night shot. If your camera does not offer manual exposure controls, you may be at the mercy of your camera's preset shooting modes such as "night scene" or "long exposure". If the images don't look good with those preset modes, try applying an E.C. (exposure compensation) to adjust the exposure. If your camera simply doesn't allow long exposures, it might be time to invest in a more advanced model. Otherwise, you will be restricted to brighter locations and shorter shutter speeds.

If your camera has a raw recording option, we highly recommend using it for night photography. By shooting raw files, you can adjust the white balance later without compromising image quality. Now, let's take a look at noise reduction.

 

 INDEX : Photo

 October 04, 2007 03:26:48 PM