Low Light and Night Photography

Art and Techniques

Neil Freeman

• Publisher: Crowood
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781785002342
• eBook ISBN: 9781785002359
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Photography

Understanding and using light is key to all photography. This book explains how to take and create stunning shots without much light but still retaining impact and depth. It shows you how to capture the drama and excitemant of a scene by using colours, shapes and shadows, and then how to reveal hidden details with digital manipulation. With over 125 photographs, it is full of ideas and inspiration, including shots of the night sky, cityscapes, traffic trails, light painting and much more. Contents include: Equipment - guide to the camera, functions and features; Composition - how to look at and understand light, notably its quantity, quality, colour and direction; Shooting for edit and using histrograms to maximum effect; Practical assignments with tips and tricks throughout. This practical guide to mastering the techniques of low light and night photography is aimed at all photographers - including landscape. wedding and portrait and is superbly illustrated with over 125 colour photographs including night sky, cityscapes and traffic trails shots.

Chapter 1

Low Light and Night Photography

Low light or night photography could be used to describe any images you take that occur at sunset, sunrise or about an hour or so surrounding these times of day. It could also be a room interior or even shooting in a forest with heavy tree-cover blocking out most of the light. Basically, any situation that has reduced light levels, be it natural or man-made light.

Taking photographs in low light is challenging as you have less light to work with. The less light you have to work with, the harder you and your camera have to work to obtain a correct exposure. The upside is that you are now usually shooting with the best light, so when you get it right, your images should be great.

As you can see from the images shown, all of these were taken at night or low light. Each is completely different, but each one shows a unique scene, with unique light. Shooting with low light levels or at night offers you the chance to catch the best light of the day, allowing a cityscape to be transformed into a spectacle of light and colours, and providing us with an almost infinite range of photos to take and images to create.

Fig. 1.1

Nikon D800 + 16–35mm F4.

Manual, 8sec, ƒ11, ISO 100, matrix metering, autofocus, auto white balance, tripod, 26mm focal length.

Shooting traffic trails can produce some interesting images. At the exposure used in this image, the bus is travelling too fast to be recorded by the available light. However, as camera sensors are sensitive to light, the lighting from the bus is recorded alongside the lights of the other traffic, making an interesting image.

Fig. 1.2

Nikon D810 + 16–35 F4.

Manual, 20sec, ƒ11, ISO 64, matrix metering, manual focus, auto white balance, tripod, 32mm focal length, Lee 0.9 ND filter.

Waterfalls are great low light subjects. The lack of light enables you to get long exposures with slow shutter speeds, which makes it easy to create blurred water effects.

Fig. 1.3

Nikon D800 + 70–200mm F4.

Aperture priority, 1/100th, ƒ8, ISO 100, matrix metering, manual focus, auto white balance, tripod, 200mm focal length.

Sunsets produce amazing colours in the sky. In this image, the sun has actually set and the colour in the sky is created by the last light of the day under-lighting the clouds. By shooting on a telephoto lens, I can isolate this part of the sky and create the silhouette on the rock in the foreground.

TAKING PHOTOS IN CHALLENGING LIGHT

Low light photography is a real test of your skills as a photographer and takes a little time to master consistently. It is also quite demanding on your camera equipment, so choosing the correct kit to use is key. The main challenge of low light photography is the reduced flexibility you have to balance the exposure settings and also the creative look of the image. It doesn’t matter what you are photographing – landscapes, concerts, portraits, cityscapes, sporting events or just your children playing at home – when the light levels drop, the fundamentals of photography do not change, but we need to be able to quickly recognize and adapt to the changing light.

To get the correct exposure and a creative look to our images, we need to balance the shutter speed, aperture and ISO settings within the camera. Depending on the type of digital camera you have, the amount of control and ease of access to these settings will vary. DSLRs offer the maximum flexibility in controlling light and ease of use, which is why professional photographers continue to shoot with them. Modern DSLRs allow us to shoot in low light and night-time situations that, even ten years ago, would have been impossible.

Fig. 1.4

Nikon D800 + 16–35mm F4.

Aperture priority, 4sec, ƒ8, ISO 100, exp comp +0.3, matrix metering, manual focus, auto white balance, tripod, 16mm focal length.

The combination of the night sky and the artificial light on the bridge provides enough light to illuminate the people crossing the bridge but, if you shoot with a slower shutter speed, anyone who is moving will be turned into a ghost.

Fig. 1.5

Nikon D800 + 16–35mm F4.

Manual, 2.5sec, ƒ10, ISO 100, matrix metering, manual focus, fluorescent white balance, tripod, 35mm focal length, Lee 0.9 ND filter.

Using a slow shutter speed will blur the waves as they crash against the shoreline. On an overcast grey day, this gives you a chance to create some different images and by also changing the white balance in-camera, the image takes on an other-worldly feel.

How you see and work with light has a major impact on your images. Light, whether natural or man-made, used correctly adds depth to your images. This is what makes low light and night photography so special. In a cityscape we have an almost unlimited source of artificial light that creates shadows and depth. If we are working with sunrise or sunset – the golden hours – we get lovely warm tones to our images, as the sun’s rays illuminate the land or seascape before us. At the beginning and end of the day we also have first and last light to work with. These present us with a range of tones that can be used to make our scene either relaxing or ominous and dark, depending on how we choose to use the light. Once we have learned to appreciate these different qualities of light, we can then start to get adventurous and mix combinations of them to great effect.

Photography is all about light – I can’t emphasize this enough. Before you get out your camera, you need to look at the light, as ultimately this is going to determine if you are going achieve the picture you want. Sometimes there just isn’t enough light around to take the picture you want with the camera or kit you have with you at the time. Depending on what you are trying to achieve, you may want a faster shutter speed to freeze motion or a large ƒ number for the aperture to get everything sharp from the foreground to the horizon. Other times you may choose a slow shutter to blur water or movement, or choose a small ƒ number to make your subject really stand out from the background.

Fig. 1.6

Nikon D5500 + 18–140mm F3.5–5.6.

Manual, 1/1,000th, ƒ6.3, ISO 1,600, spot metering, autofocus, auto white balance, handheld, 19mm focal length.

If you consider the direction that the available light is travelling before you shoot, it is possible to choose a location to shoot from that will give you the opportunity to work with both the light and the subject you are photographing.

USING AVAILABLE LIGHT VS. ADDING LIGHT

There are really only two types of light in photography: the light that is already in the scene, often called available, ambient or natural light; and the light you, as the photographer, choose to add to the scene. You can create great images with available light by adding light or by using a mix of both.

The available light in a scene can be very varied. It can be from a single light source or maybe from multiple coloured light sources. Many times, the key to getting great images can be as simple as just waiting until the light is in the right position, such as when shooting a concert by timing the movement of the spotlights or by leaving the shutter open for a long time to allow the light to illuminate your subject when photographing long-exposure landscapes. Throughout the following chapt...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• 1 Low Light and Night Photography
• 2 Equipment
• 3 Camera Modes and Settings
• 4 Image Composition
• 5 Looking at Light
• 6 Adding Light
• 7 Metering and Exposure
• 8 Techniques and Tips
• Glossary
• Index