Night Photography

Photography at night can be used to create amazing pictures. For this kind of photography a tripod is almost a must. If you want to get a clear exposure with a great depth-of-field, then you will need a tripod. Usually when we take pictures of sunsets or bright lights we just center all the coloring and shoot the picture.
But something that you should think about doing is adding some foreground item to frame and then shooting which will create a greater depth to the picture, and most of the time make the results look even more brilliant. This picture above was framed with two overhanging trees and a railing. The aperture was very narrow (high f/stop), and the shutter speed was about 10 seconds. Even though a tripod was used, the self-timer was used also, to eliminate any shake.

When photographing sunsets you should not only include foreground items but use the rule of thirds, specifically the horizontal section of thirds so you get a good perspective on the scene. The sunset picture right here was split up into about 2/3's foreground and 1/3 horizon, but this same picture would probably still look good with 1/3 foreground and 2/3's horizon. Also, when you take the light reading with your camera make sure you don't point it directly at the sun, if you do your picture will be underexposed. Take the light reading from the coloring around the sun so you get an exposure that is ideal to accent all the colors.

When trying to photograph fireworks or lightning you will definitely need a tripod. There are different techniques to doing this but probably the easiest is just setting your camera up pointed at a good range of sky and setting the aperture narrow (high f/stop) and setting the shutter speed very long or just by using the "bulb" function of shutter speed (the "bulb" function allows you to open the shudder and close it manually, so its not on a set time). Many people try this in different ways so its just good to experiment and try different things.

(with thanks to Picturecorrect.com )

Use of Light in Photography

The use of light in a photograph can be the deciding factor of whether that picture will be spectacular or terrible. When you use your camera to automatically chose aperture and shutter speed, what your camera is actually doing is using the built in light meter and measuring how much light is being reflected to the camera.
But that doesn't mean that's all there is to it. You should also think about the angle of the light entering the frame, what kind of shadows you want, and whether you want to use fill-in-flash (using flash to light the subject if you have a really bright background). If you are shooting at night you can create all sorts of cool effects like lights in motion, pictures with moonlight, or silhouettes like the one shown here. The following are just some examples of all the possibilities.

The angle of light should be taken into careful consideration whenever you feel like you want to create a specific effect. Shadows can be very powerful when cast over half of someone's face. In this photo on the left the light is striking the statue's face from the rear right of the camera and this adds more depth to the picture. It also adds more coloring because if front-lighting was used his face would likely be over exposed, and if back-lighting was used his face would just be black like a silhouette.

The effect of rays of light indoors and outdoors. can be very spectacular. A brilliant part of some great photographs is the ability to see actual rays of light. Whether it be in the setting of a brilliant sunset, light pouring through a window or from artificial lights it can look very impressive. Usually the only way to obtain something like this is a narrow aperture (high f/stop) and a very slow shutter speed.

Silhouettes are another interesting example of using light. The way to create a silhouette is to have significantly brighter light coming from behind the subject. In doing this it is important to take your camera light reading off of the background instead of the subject in order for the camera to adjust for an exposure based on the backlight. If you do this the subject will be successfully underexposed like in the picture at the top of this post.

If you keep experimenting with different ways of using light you will find that you can get very interesting results. The longer the exposure, the more fascinating the results with light most of the time. In the picture on the right, this is a long single exposure and yes that is the same person in two places. If your wondering how this was possible, here's how.

The shutter speed was set for around 30 seconds, the camera was set on a tripod and someone stood next to the camera with a flashlight. The subject then stood in one place while the flashlight was pointed at him and moved in an up and down motion. After around 15 seconds the flashlight was turned off and the subject was told to move to his left. Then the flashlight was pointed at him again and moved up and down until the camera finished the exposure.

(with thanks to Picturecorrect.com )

Photography Exposure Basics

Exposure is the amount of light collected by the sensor in your camera during a single picture. If the shot is exposed too long the photograph will be washed out. If the shot is exposed for too short a time the photograph will appear too dark. Almost all cameras today have light meters which measure the light in the given shot and set an ideal exposure automatically. Most people depend on the light meter which is fine, but if you know how to control your exposures you can get some creative and sometimes better pictures. (The photo on the left is with low shutter speed and narrow aperture (high f/stop).

The two primary controls your camera uses for exposure are shutter speed (the amount of time the sensor is exposed to light) and aperture (the size of the lens opening that lets light into the camera). Shutter speeds are measured in seconds and more commonly fractions of a second. (1/2000 of a second is very fast and 8' seconds is extremely slow).

Apertures are measured in something called f/stops (a very wide aperture is f/2.8 and a very small aperture is f/19).

You might wonder why there is not just a constant shutter speed or a constant aperture so that you would only have to worry about one control. The reason is that even though they both control the amount of light getting to the sensor they also control other aspects of the picture.




Shutter speed for example can be used to freeze subjects in midair with a fast speed or it can be used to blur water with a slow speed. Aperture controls the depth-of-field which is what is in focus in the picture. Aperture can be used to draw attention to one subject (like the flower on the right) by blurring the background with a wide aperture (low f/stop). Aperture can also be used to focus everything in a picture with a narrow aperture (high f/stop).



On most digital SLR's (Single Lens Reflex) cameras today you can even change the sensitivity of the sensor when collecting light which is called the ISO speed. The common span of ISO speed is 100 to 800. The higher the ISO speed the faster the camera collects light but it also adds more noise to the photograph than the lower speeds. For example if your trying to take pictures in dim light without a tripod you might want to raise the ISO speed in order to get a picture that's not blurry. Most of the time you should keep it at a lower ISO speed if there is enough light, but it makes a big difference when there isn't.



The above picture has low shutter speed and slightly narrow aperture (pretty high f/stop).

The best way to learn how to use shutter speed and aperture is to just keep experimenting with them.
(with thanks to Picturecorrect.com )