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Taking photos during the day will usually produce images that you feel are great to average, shooting at night is a little more harsh, the photos will inadvertently be either rubbish or great – unless you know how to adapt to the conditions!

The trick is using what little light IS available, even when you think that there is no light, there usually is.  Take a moment to simply let your vision become accustomed to your environment, once you have you will probably notice that there is, in fact light available.  Whether this be from distant street lights, the moon or just light pollution from a nearby town, there IS light….

Knowing your camera settings and how they compliment each other is a VERY important part of night time/low light photography.  ISO, Shutter speed and aperture all play an important part in the process.  Having a tripod to hand is also a must as you will inevitably be using slow shutter speeds.

Shooting at night is often a case of starting with a high ISO and a long shutter speed and then adjusting these settings until they are balanced.  Remember that a high ISO will also usually cause noise in the image.  You can reduce the ISO by using slower shutter speeds however be careful not to increase the shutter speed too much or you may wash out the photo.

There is also the aperture (FStop), the higher the FStop, the less light that will allowed through the lens to the sensor and the greater the depth of field i.e. F2 would allow loads of light through but produce an image with a very shallow depth of field, F22 would not allow much light through and would produce an image with a greater depth of field.

As a general rule, the longer the shutter speed, the higher the FStop.

Manual focus will also need to be utilised as the automatic focus will probably not work in low light conditions, get to grips with manual focus during the day if you do not normally use it, it’s all about practise!

If you can, shoot in RAW as this captures greater detail than JPEG and is better to work with in post processing.  The downside is the size of the photo files, if you have a memory card with enough capacity then this wont be an issue.

With the advances in photo manipulation software such as Photoshop, Noiseware,Noise Ninja etc, even if you do have to use a really high ISO and as a result do get noise in the image, you can always reduce this in post porcessing (just don’ rely on post porcessing to solve all of your photography probelms! ;0))

Remember that you dont have to produce an image with crystal clear detail and perfect definition.  Using the fact that you will get blur as a result of slow shutter speeds or shallow depth of field as a result of a low FStop is a Technique which should be embraced and utilised!

Remember

• Tripod
• ISO
• Shutter Speed
• Aperture
• Patience
• Practice
• Awareness
• Creativity

Related posts:

1. Aperture Explained
2. Shutter Speed ‘How To’ Guide
3. Nightclub/Low Light Photography Round 2
4. Twelve Essential Photographic Rules
5. Guide To Creating Stunning Landscape Photographs