It’s not often that I go out and shoot at night, but the arrival of a new lens and lack of evening light prompted me to try something a little different.
Actually, night photography can be quite interesting. To do it you will need a tripod and some way to trigger the shutter without shaking the camera. You can buy a fancy remote shutter release or simply use the built in timer like I do.
The trick is to get the shutter open for at least 10 or 15 seconds, maybe longer. Depending on the amount of available light that may mean you need to close down the aperture quite a bit. But that’s a good thing since it creates a nice star effect for stationary light sources. I start off in aperture priority mode and adjust the aperture until I start getting the results I want. Then I note the shutter speed and aperture values and dial them in in manual mode. That will insure consistency if there are moving light sources such as car headlights.
The cool thing about photography like this is that only stationary and brightly lit objects such as car headlights will be visible. The car itself will not even show up in the image. Pretty cool huh!
As with anything experiment! You never know what you will stumble on to. Like this image of Millie Hill from across town.
Happy shooting!
Mark
#1 by Roger Halls on November 12th, 2008
Mark,
I really enjoy your photos. I wish I had time (and camera) to take some of the shots that you get. Great photos.
Roger
#2 by Roger Halls on February 9th, 2009
Mark, after viewing pictures of snow at Lori’s house, I have one comment.
“I will never complain about how much snow we get in Minneapolis.”
I enjoy your pictures and you have inspired me to start taking pictures again.
Roger