Taking beautiful photos at night takes a little more skill and experience than taking photos during the day.
Steps
Step 1. Bring a tripod, or something that holds your camera very firmly
Step 2. Carry a small flashlight
It will help you move the camera in the case of total darkness. Moreover, all cameras have difficulty focusing objects in the dark if there is not enough light and / or if they have a lens with a low maximum aperture; a flashlight will allow you to illuminate objects close enough to focus on them.
Step 3. Try to be clear about what you want to photograph
Here are some suggestions:
- Road traffic
- The moon and / or the stars
- The trails of the stars
Step 4. Depending on the type of shot you want, experiment with your lens aperture and exposure time
Step 5. Try to keep your ISO values low whenever possible
Since you're almost certainly using a tripod (photographers with super sensitive lenses mounted on their ultra-high ISO capable professional SLRs are probably not reading these lines), you won't have to worry about the long exposure times that lower ISOs force you to. to use.
Obviously if you need higher values, use them; for example, if you are shooting in total darkness away from any artificial light source, or, if for artistic reasons, a very long exposure time is not desirable
Step 6. Bring a remote control with you
It can be a button for cable shooting, or remote. Even when using a tripod, the act of pressing the button will always cause some form of movement. If you have neither, start the self-timer and set it (if you can) to about 5 seconds; this will give all the vibrations time to subside.
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In case you have a digital SLR and remote control, it is worth browsing the manual to find an option called "mirror lock-up" (MLU). When an SLR's mirror flips over, it also causes vibrations inside the camera that can propagate for a moment before disappearing. The MLU option will allow you to press once to stare at the mirror, wait a moment, and then press again to take the photo.
Do Night Time Photography Step 6
Step 7. Find out about your camera's flash, and how to use it
Of course, if you're shooting a long distance photograph, it won't be that much use, but it can help you add some brightness for subjects closer to the lens (or to blind your friends with direct flash). If you don't plan on using it, don't bring it.
Step 8. If you already know what you need to do to take your photos, plan ahead
This will save you from groping once in the field.
Step 9. Unless you are taking photographs of a city or at night, try to find a place that has little light pollution
Step 10. Resort to bracketing
This will improve your chances of getting good shots. Furthermore, it will allow you to use the resulting photographs to process the images using HDR techniques.
