Night Photography

Welcome once again to the monthly installment here at Photo Trek known as Tips and Tricks. It is here that I try and share some of what I have learned over the short time I have been a photographer. There are times that I focus on basics, and others where I focus on more advanced techniques. This will be one of those that sits somewhere in the middle of the road. In response to one of the last Monday Photo Shoots dealing with "night shots", I thought I might try to share some tricks in this genre of photography.

Now, there are several different ways to take pictures at night. The most common, and the easiest, deals with using a flash. Most cameras come equipped with a pop up or otherwise mounted flash. This makes for a very simple set up...for the most part it is point, and shoot. Here are some of the things to keep in mind with flash photography.

Flash Photography

Flash photography is the most used and least understood of all types of photography. Have you ever been to a sports game, concert, or other large gathering in a stadium where you see the flashes pop all around? I sure have, and every time I see it, I wonder why would they want to do that. You see, a typical attached flash has a usable range of about 10-15 feet, this being measured at wide open aperture, and the highest ISO setting...In other words, this is the best you are going to get, and will likely get worse results. So, those people in the audience using the flash, well all they are doing is lighting up the head in front of them. Ahh, you know of what I speak...don't worry, I have lots of those shots in my photo albums too.

In this situation, it is better to go off of existing light than try for the flash. With the limited range, the flash will do nothing for the picture, and will likely speed the shutter up to where what you are trying to photograph will come out very dark. The older gentleman with the gray hair, will, however, look like the sun in the lower corner. By turning off the flash (see your owner's manual), you will tell the camera to expose for the existing dark conditions, and will get a much better exposure. The trade off, however, is you might start suffering from stability issues as the shutter speed will be fairly long, even at high ISO (to be covered another time). You will start to see your pictures getting very blurry because of camera shake at these slow speeds.

Another option when dealing with flash photography is the use of an accessory flash, or professional strobes. As you can see in the above picture, an accessory flash is rather large, and cumbersome, but this size comes with increased power and output. The one seen here is good for around 35 feet, and comes with its own diffuser for wide angle shots. Another benefit to using this type of flash is the ability to bounce the flash. The head can be aimed up at varying degrees from directly forward, to straight up 90 degrees. This gives you the ability to bounce your flash off of ceilings, walls, deflectors, really anything you can come up with. This aids in how the shadows fall behind your subject.

Existing Light

As you have learned, camera flashes are very limited in what they can do in low light situations. For a subject that is far away (more than the flash range), you should be prepared to use existing light to capture your image. There is nothing terribly difficult about this technique, as it is just like daytime photography, only with significantly slowed shutter speeds.

If you are using a film camera you will need to use a "fast" film, and digital cameras will benefit from a higher ISO to keep the shutter speeds reasonable. However, there is a tradeoff with this method. With film, you will get grain, and with digital, you will get digital noise. For the most part this is seen as a negative in night photography. I will cover more about ISO and film speed at a later date.

The best way of dealing with existing light is with a tripod. With the aid of a tripod, you don't have to worry about shutter speeds because the camera is stationary. As long as your subject is still, things are great. Aperture should be adjusted for depth of field, and also for sensitivity to light. The wider the aperture, the more light is allowed in, but the smaller the depth of field.

Existing light can come from just about anything. In the case of the photograph above, the lighting came from the surrounding city lights. The parking deck lamps also illustrate another point about aperture. By using a narrow aperture, a strong light source will often develop rays. This effect can be duplicated with a special filter, but is free when done with your aperture settings.

Light Painting

This technique is probably the most difficult to use, but is also the most fun to play around with. In this type of night photography, you use a very long exposure (in the neighborhood of 30 seconds to several minutes). In this time, you will actually take a source of light and "paint" your subject(s). Don't worry if you have to get up close to do it, as long as you are moving and don't get yourself illuminated by light, you won't show up in the final picture. Hey, what can I say, its magic. You can actually take a nearly dark scene and highlight exactly what you want in the picture with a surgeon's precision. However, the effects are difficult to duplicate, so your results will be different each time.

Over the course of 30 seconds, I darted around the scene applying light to the areas that I wanted coverage on. The longer I shined the light on something the brighter it appeared. Notice you don't see me at all in the picture. This is not due to digital tricks, but simply wearing dark clothes and moving fast.

This technique can be used with different colored lights to give the scene a very eerie feeling. Buildings can also be lit from the inside under twilight skies for a surreal look. There is really no end to the possibilities that can be achieved with this technique. It can also be used in conjunction with other techniques to give a bit of an added touch.

Combining Techniques

So, we have learned that for close up pictures, flash photography is the way to go. The photographer must keep in mind the limitations of the flash. However, there are times when the subject is within the realm of the flash, but there is also detail in the background that the photographer wants to capture. This is commonly known as a night portrait. Many cameras will have a setting specifically for this. It will look like a mountain with two people in front of it.

What this setting does is simply combining the flash with a slower shutter speed. This is more aptly known as first or second curtain flash. In first curtain flash, the flash fires at the beginning of the exposure. In second curtain, you will see the flash at the end of the exposure. Both have their place in action photography as well. For instance, if you were photographing a car at night, you would use second curtain flash to show the light trails at the beginning of the exposure and then expose the car at the end of the exposure. This would make it appear that the car was speeding by.

More often than not, however, this method, either by manual setting or programmed setting will be used for a portrait where you want to keep a sense of place that comes from the background. Take for example this self portrait. The flash caused us to be exposed correctly, but you could also make out the surroundings that show we are at the beach.

When you have moved out of the range of the flash, and you have some existing light to work with, you might find that bringing out a flashlight might help you achieve your desired photograph. Light painting can be used very easily with existing lighting to highlight specific areas that aren't illuminated, but are important to the composition.

In this image, I had existing light from the campfire, as well as a propane lantern. However this was just not enough to get the story across. I turned on a fluorescent lamp inside the tent which helped to bring out some of its detail. However, I was missing the chairs, the fire wood, and some of the detail on the ground. Using a 30 second exposure at f/8, I was able to paint the chairs, logs, fireplace, and even out some of the lighting on the exterior of the tent. Only by using this combined technique could I achieve this sense of place, and show a story. The best part is that this is not your typical camping scene taken in the daytime, or with only existing light.

Night photography is limited only by your own creativity, and ingenuity. Having a camera with the capability of a long shutter speed is a great plus, as is the availability of a tripod. The main thing to keep in mind, is the limitations of those flashes. They are useful, but mainly as fill flash in the day, and for poorly lit scenes that are up close.

Written by Greg A. Kiser