Assignment #8 Night Photography
The world is a very different place at night, light, which normally falls from the sky to the earth, now radiates up. Pleases once illuminated are now in deep, deep shadow. The color of light is also an issue, mixed light sources record in a range of color.
What are our tools in night photography?
ISO experimentation, with excessive noise in mind, try a range of ISO's on your camera depending on conditions.
Tripod. While not always necessary (see further on for how to cheat on this), a tripod will give you the greatest flexibility to get the angles you need while keeping your camera steady for those long exposures. The department has some for limited check out.
Wide-angle lenses. This is a personal preference, but I love the way they work in night photography. If these are out of your price range – don’t worry! Try it out with whatever you’ve got as the only thing that will limit you is your imagination.
A lens hood. To minimize lens flares from light entering at angles outside of your frame.
A flashlight. Sometimes you’ll want to draw attention to or simply lighten up an important part of the foreground which is too dark.
Tools lie all around us in everyday objects to help us make our work better in this; I’ve used bicycle lamps, lampposts and newspaper boxes to get it done.
The same composition rules that apply to day apply to night, except with night we have our long exposures to take advantage of and more negative space to consider.
Stan Strembicki, Florence, Italy 2005
