How to shoot Nighttime photos with Long Exposure

Shooting a Long Exposure photo at night can be one of the most challenging tasks especially if you are new to the technique and you kinda want to take photos like those moving vehicle light thingy that a lot of people do lol, and we’re here to help you create one obviously since you are reading this article i wholeheartedly write right now.

BRING THE ESSENTIALS

You wont need a lot of professional gears to start taking these kind photography. But the ones we mention on this list are kinda(?) essential to help you capture your shots effectively and get that so desired result.

• Fast lens You can use any type of lens when shooting Long Exposure shots at night. But it would really help you a lot if you choose a lens that has an aperture of at least f/1.2 or f/1.8. Any lens with these wide aperture settings is called a fast lens because they let more light in and create exposures quicker.
  

• Tripod You can’t shoot handheld at night if you want that crisp and pristine image results. Your camera’s aperture has to stay open for a long time to gather enough light for exposure. So any movement may cause motion blur and absolutely ruin your images. But placing your camera on a tripod will keep your camera stable and allow it to capture sharp photos.

• Remote Trigger Setting your camera on a tripod isn’t enough to ensure you eliminate motion blur. Something as simple as pressing the shutter can shake the camera and make your photos blurry. The best solution is to not hold the camera at all and use a remote to trigger the shutter, instead.

CHOOSE YOUR TIME WELL

Before you go out for the shoot, ask your inner self what type of image you’d like to have as a result because that will differentiate when you should get to your location. Do you want the setting sun in the background or do you prefer that pitch-black void-ish sky? If you want some of that juicy light leaking sunrise or sunset images, you’ll need to reach your location at least 45 minutes before the sun rises or sets that way you will have time to set up your equipment since you’ll be surprised how fast the sun actually moves when you need it. To make sure you don’t miss anything, check your local forecast or asks around to figure out what time you need to head out. If you want to shoot when the sky is pitch black, you’ll have more time to prepare your equipment and take as many shots as you want. As soon as the sun has completely set, you have at least 8 to 10 hours to take pictures. Of course, the sun sets at different times around the world, so make sure you check what time the sun usually sets in your area. To be safe, you can wait an hour or two after the sun has disappeared before you head out. Even when you think the sun has gone down, your camera might still capture faint leaky light from the horizon when you create long exposure shots.

Shoot With a High ISO ISO determines the sensitivity of your camera sensor to light. ISO 100 is often the lowest value and is perfect for daylight shooting because it lets in the least light. Most cameras these days have ISOs that can go up to ISO 51,000 or more for shooting in dim situations such as nighttime. But the problem with using a high ISO such as 51,000 is that it causes grainy photos. So you need to choose a value that’s between 800 to 3,200. Why? This is the range where most cameras perform well in low light situations without producing distracting image noise. In theory, you can also use ISO 100 if you want to keep the noise to a minimum. But in reality, such a low setting simply won’t let enough light in. As a result, you may end up with either pitch black images or blurry light trails caused by unnecessarily long exposures due to using a low ISO.

Use Live View to Focus Your Subject Achieving focus when shooting at night can be tricky. Since it’s so dark, your camera will have a difficult time finding a focusing point. To make things easier for you, turn on your Live View and pump up your ISO so you can see everything on the screen. Pick a bright light and zoom in on it (not the lens but the screen). Next, switch your lens to manual and adjust it manually until that light becomes sharp. Once you achieve focus, zoom out of your screen and switch your ISO to the level you want. Now all you have to do is press the shutter, and that’s it!

Try the 300/500 Rule when Using Manual Mode Don’t trust using any of your camera mode? you need a therapist for that trust issues but go fully manual and use the 300/500 Rule to nail your exposures is also a way to solve that issues. So what’s the 300/500 Rule? It’s easy. If you have a full-sensor camera, all you have to do is to divide 500 by your camera lens’ focal length. For instance, if you’re using a 24mm lens, divide it by 500, and you’ll get 20 seconds. If you have a crop sensor camera, then you’ll need to use 300 instead of 500. So if you have a 24mm lens, you’ll need to expose your image for only 12 seconds. So why is the time shorter? The reason is that your camera’s sensor has a smaller surface area than a full-frame sensor. Therefore, it takes less time to create a photo. To be clear, the time difference between a full-frame sensor and a crop sensor doesn’t change the quality of the image. It’s just a matter of physical difference between the sizes of the sensors.

Bracket Your Shots for Correct Exposure So, what if you can’t seem to get your exposure correctly no matter what mode you’re using? You’ll encounter this issue a LOT when you’re doing night photography. So how exactly do you tackle this problem? The simple answer is bracketing. This technique involves taking photos of one scene with different exposure levels. That way, you now have a choice of which exposure best matches what your eyes see. Every camera has a bracketing function. All you have to do is turn it on and set how many frames you’d like to shoot. In most situations, 3 to 5 frames are enough to help you nail the exposure you want. Once you activate bracketing, press the shutter, and your camera will do the bracketing automatically for you. If you did it correctly, you should see 3 to 5 frames that have different exposure levels. Expect some to be overexposed and some underexposed. But there should at least be one image that has the correct exposure.

A Little bit of HDR for More Detail Never Hurt Anyone Are the photos you took feeling too flat or blown out? You can bring out the details by using HDR (High Dynamic Range). This technique combines multiple images to create one photo that has the right amount of highlights and shadows. To create an HDR on Lightroom, you’ll need to load all of your bracket shots together. In Develop, select all the frames and right-click. Now go to Photo Merge and click HDR. Once you select it, the program will automatically merge the pictures to create an HDR photo. Once your HDR image is ready, feel free to edit it in Lightroom even more. Tweak the Exposure Settings as well as the Curves to bring out the details and the colors of your photos even more.

Conclusion Shooting at nighttime is challenging. Even with all these night photography tricks and tips, you’re bound to make mistakes during your first few photo-shoots at night. Keep practicing and learning from your mistakes. Once you polish those techniques, nothing will stop you from taking stunning night city and landscape shots.