Photographing night lights
If your like most people, your first photo's of night lights turned out as a series of colored circles or worse, as an empty black image.
A black screen is due to your shutter speed (check manual) being set too fast. This can happen if you have your SLR camera set on automatic. Shutter priority is more effective for night photography. Even though I had mine set on shutter priority, the colored circles were caused from it being set to only 1 second. In short, what this means is that I didnt' give my camera enough time to let the light in.
I find the trick to taking good clear night shots, is to set your shutter speed to around 15 seconds. Meaning, your SLR camera is going to actually take 15 seconds to deliver the photograph. As it takes 15 seconds, it's also a good idea to have a sturdy tripod. The smallest camera shake can result in a blurry photograph. With this in mind, a calm night helps in taking a good night shot compared to a windy one. A remote is also effective for stopping camera shake as you press the shutter button.
If your using an SLR camera, you've most likely worked out by now that certain settings will change your shutter speed depending on the shot. For example, if you have all your camera settings in Automatic mode, it will try and calculate the required shutter speed. This doesn't necessarily turn out the best result for night lights, so you may need to change your settings to fully manual.
You might also be interested in reading about how to take sharp photographs or outdoor photography tips.
UPDATE: Our tutorials for photographers are now being continued over at SLR Photography Guide.
 | Want to learn more about designing a website or improving an existing one? Subscribe to Website Design Tips today for free. |
Comments (3)
Hi Hypergurl.
I try to take night shots with my digital camera and they always turn out streaky and fuzzy. Can you give me some tips to take better night shots with my point and click kodak.
I do get more than those colored circles on the first pic but they always are blurry.
Wish I could afford a SLR.
Thanks.
----------------------------------
Hello Jenny,
It will always be harder with a point and click camera compared to an SLR. Although one thing you can try is to use a tripod to take away any camera shake. Usually shake is what causes streaky or fuzzy night shots.
Hope this helps.
Tanya.
Posted by Jenny | April 12, 2007 1:02 AM
Posted on April 12, 2007 01:02
Hi hypergurl, thought i'd add a little tip for people that dont have remote's, if they have a tripod set their camera to timer delay so when it actually takes the shot there's no press of the shutter button.
great site btw!!
Posted by Tim | October 4, 2007 2:46 AM
Posted on October 4, 2007 02:46
I am trying to shoot night shots of ski sloeps on a full moon (no clouds). I have the moon behind me to provide ambient lighting reflecting off of the snow. Using tripod, cable release, ISO 400 film, F/8 setting. Any ideas on exposure time? I took a lot of photos to hopefully get one good shot, so heopfeully something will work out. Any thoughts.
Hi Nathan,
Keep your camera's aperture to F.8 and try a shutter speed of around 145 seconds. Then again if it's actual skiiers you are trying to capture, then you need a faster shutter speed. In this case put your aperture to around F4 and your ISO to 800, then try a shutter speed of 1/60th of a second.
Hope this helps.
Have fun!
Posted by Nathan Torres | January 24, 2008 3:32 PM
Posted on January 24, 2008 15:32