Sat Nov 08, 2014 12:43 am 
Back to Basics Informal Meet-up
Repeat after me: “I will not be a lazy photographer.”
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As photography requires light to work, Night Photography can present some special opportunities, otherwise known as challenges. Less light coming in means wider aperture, slower shutter speeds and higher ISO.
Very Basic Tips for Night photography
1: Switch your camera to Manual mode.
2: Choose the smallest f-number available and a relatively long shutter speed to record the lights. One second is a good starting point.
3: Keep your camera very steady. Preferably use a tripod or lean on something (the human tripod)
4. Use the self-timer to avoid wobbling the camera as you press the button.
5: After taking your photo, remember to reset the camera’s settings so you don’t shoot over exposed pictures tomorrow! LOL.
Always temporarily switch off any anti-shake or image stabilisation systems when using a tripod. If the camera is perfectly steady these systems can actually introduce wobbling as they attempt to counteract something which isn’t there.
Some cameras will also have difficulty focusing in dark conditions, so if yours is having problems, switch the lens to manual and focus on the lights. If they are distant, focus the lens to infinity.
Another way to maximise available light is to increase your camera’s sensitivity by using a bigger ISO number. Increasing the sensitivity will however reduce your picture quality and may still not give you a quick enough exposure to handhold. So it’s best to stick to using a tripod and a low ISO number for the best quality.
White Balance Tip
In the past, photographing at night with film often meant unwanted color casts in the image since film is balanced for the color temperature of daylight, which is approximately 5500° Kelvin. The color temperature of night scenes can vary greatly depending on the types of illumination in the scene. Moonlight and starlight tend to produce cool lighting, whereas artificial lighting can result in color temperatures that are red, yellow, and green, or a combination of different color casts.
With digital photography, dealing with the white balance issue is easier than with film. When Auto White Balance (AWB) is used, the white balance can change on a per shot basis. For artificial light sources such as street lamps or illuminated signs, you could also try one of the White Balance presets such as Tungsten or Fluorescent. Many cameras also offer a custom White Balance feature that can be used to measure the illumination at the scene and adjust the white balance accordingly. If you shoot RAW (which is highly recommended for night photography), white balance is not as much of an issue since you can adjust the White Balance setting in Lightroom, Adobe Camera Raw, or in the RAW conversion software of your choice. This allows you to use White Balance as a creative setting to modify the look and feel of the image.
See this Digicam Guide for Experiments with White Balance. http://www.digicamguides.com/learn/white-balance.html
Your assignment:
Take and post one or two night/dark photos (or more if you get some good ones!).
If you would like to discuss your experience, please do. We can learn from it.
Our goal is to get our best shot through the camera and not the computer, so please limit the amount of processing. For this challenge, you may rotate your image on the computer. If you shoot in raw, of course you may adjust your photos as necessary.
Commenting - lets try to give support to one another and point out what we like about the resulting photo(s).
If you have criticism, keep it constructive and hide the comment.
Deadline to post for this assignment is Saturday, November 22nd.
